{"id":87043,"date":"2026-01-15T00:59:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T00:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/87043\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T00:59:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T00:59:38","slug":"accused-pennsylvania-grave-robber-admits-to-selling-remains-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/87043\/","title":{"rendered":"Accused Pennsylvania grave robber admits to selling remains online"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Pennsylvania man accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from cemeteries<\/a> allegedly admitted to selling some of the remains online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Gerlach, 34, was arrested last week<\/a> and is facing nearly 500 charges, including 26 counts of burglary and 100 counts of abuse of a corpse, for a series of grave robberies between Nov. 7 and Jan. 6.<\/p>\n

Authorities said the thefts primarily occurred at the Mount Moriah Cemetery<\/a> in the Philadelphia area, though remains were also removed from a cemetery in Plains Township, Luzerne County.<\/p>\n

Throughout the two-month stretch, authorities responded to Mount Moriah multiple times in regards to a string of burglarized graves and mausoleums. Police arrested Gerlach on Jan. 6 after detectives conducting surveillance of the property witnessed him \u201cexiting the cemetery holding a burlap bag, crow bar and other assorted items,\u201d according to the Delaware County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Numerous bones and skulls were found in the back of his vehicle, and a subsequent search also turned up \u201cover 100 full or partial sets of human and skeletal remains\u201d from his home in Ephrata and a storage unit in the city, prosecutors said. Some of those included mummified hands and feet and decomposing torsos.<\/p>\n

\u201cDetectives walked into a horror movie come to life in that home. It is truly, in the most literal sense of the word, horrific,\u201d DA Tanner Rouse said at a press conference last Thursday. \u201cUnderstand, some of these are 200 years old<\/a>. Some obviously much newer; there\u2019s one with a pacemaker still attached to the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe remains were in various states,\u201d Rouse added. \u201cSome were hanging \u2026 some were pieced together, some were skulls on a shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with detectives, Gerlach allegedly admitted that he sold some of the remains online<\/a> but that most were in his basement, according to a search warrant obtained by CBS affiliate WHP. A tipster later told police that Gerlach \u201cdisappeared for a few days in November,\u201d and said he\u2019d been \u201cin Chicago selling a human skull.\u201d<\/p>\n

While investigating Gerlach\u2019s online activity, detectives found he was a member of a \u201cHuman Bones and Skull Selling Group\u201d on Facebook, where he was reportedly pictured holding a skull. On Instagram, he followed accounts related to\u00a0taxidermy, skeleton collecting and the sale of bones and other \u201coddities,\u201d authorities said.<\/p>\n

Gerlach is being held at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility after failing to post $1 million bail. He\u2019s scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 20.<\/p>\n

The Mount Moriah Cemetery is planning significant security upgrades<\/a> in response to Gerlach\u2019s crimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Pennsylvania man accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from cemeteries allegedly admitted to selling some of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[202,241,6744,139,28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-87043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-national-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","14":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}