A man in the United States has been charged with large-scale grave robbing after investigators uncovered more than 100 skulls and a significant number of human remains hidden inside his basement.
Officials in Pennsylvania confirmed on January 8 that Jonathan Gerlach had been arrested following a months-long investigation into repeated break-ins at the historic Mount Moriah Cemetery, which is believed to contain roughly 150,000 graves.
Investigators have not yet determined what Gerlach was allegedly doing with the remains, some of which are believed to date back hundreds of years.
“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life the other night. This is an unbelievable scene,” Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said of the investigation.
Gerlach is now facing more than 500 criminal charges connected to the desecration of graves and the removal of human remains, including roughly 300 counts related to theft, receiving stolen property, and abuse of a corpse.
Authorities also revealed that some of the remains belonged to infants who were only months old at the time of their deaths, while another recovered body was found to have had a pacemaker implanted.
“I grieve for those who are upset by this, who are going through it, who are trying to figure out if it is, in fact, their loved one or their child — because we found remains that we believe to be months-old infants — among those that he had collected.”
Court documents state that Gerlach was taken into custody on January 6 while at the cemetery, where officers allegedly saw him returning to his vehicle carrying a crowbar.
He has since admitted to stealing approximately 30 sets of human remains from the cemetery over time.
While his exact intentions remain unclear, ABC News reported that Gerlach was a member of a Facebook group called ‘Human Bones and Skull Selling Group,’ where he was allegedly photographed holding a skull.
