DELAWARE COUNTY, Pa. – The investigation continues as police try to identify remains stolen from Mount Moriah Cemetery in Delaware County, and for some, it’s personal.

“My family has been buried in Mount Moriah cemetery for over 100 years,” said Drew Techner, a man with family buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery.

Last week, 34-year-old Jonathan Gerlach of Lancaster was arrested with a bag full of human remains at the cemetery. At his home and storage unit, over a hundred more human remains were found.

“When I first found out about those body parts being taken out of the vaults, I was just absolutely horrified, and the first thing I thought was, ‘Is this my family?’” Techner said.

Techner, also a former Philadelphia police captain, said among those in his family buried at the historic cemetery is someone in a vault.

“The last that I heard from the Yeadon police department is that they didn’t actually gain entrance into the vault, but they tried,” Techner said.

Inside that vault are a young man’s remains.

“This is my family, and it becomes personal,” Techner said. “These are people; they had lives.”

And even though those who are buried are gone, they are always remembered and loved.

“We, as the families, think that when they’re interred in the cemetery, that they’re going to have perpetual peace,” Techner said.

That’s until the unimaginable happens.

“It’s very disturbing that they’re not resting at peace. That somebody is doing absolute horrible, disgusting things and preventing that from happening,” Techner said.

In 27 years serving in Philadelphia, Techner said he never saw anything like this. Usually, he says, people go into vaults to find valuables, not remains.

“It’s something out of a movie — a bad movie,” he said.

He asks that families whose loved one’s remains were violated come together.

“Prosecution needs to be heavy to send a signal to anybody else that has an idea to do something as heinous as this, that they’re going to have to pay a heavy price for violating these people’s peace,” Techner said.

He also shed light on the need for additional help and maintenance at Mount Moriah Cemetery.