Pennsylvania Ghoul
Stole Over 100 Corpses, Abused Them …
But Not Sexually, DA Says
Published
January 9, 2026
5:29 AM PST
A Pennsylvania man took his ghoulish activities to the extreme, stealing more than 100 skeletal remains from gravesites and squirreling away most of them inside his home, according to prosecutors.
Jonathan Gerlach was arrested Tuesday after cops say they executed a search warrant at his home in Ephrata, PA, and discovered 100 sets of full or partial human remains in his basement.
Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse slapped Gerlach with a slew of charges, including criminal mischief, criminal trespass, intentional desecration of public monument and abuse of corpse.
Play video content
TMZ.com
Rouse told TMZ … the abuse of corpse charge does not refer to necrophilia (sex with a dead body). Instead, Rouse said, the skeletal remains were considered abused because they were in tatters along with more than 100 skulls found inside Gerlach’s house and a separate storage facility.
The DA said those skulls and other remains were not in such bad condition when Gerlach first dug them up at various cemeteries. Rouse also believes Gerlach did not kill any of the people whose skeletons were found.
Police say they connected the dots after Mount Moriah Cemetery reported several burglaries that began in November 2025. During their investigation, detectives say they tracked Gerlach to the cemetery multiple times by pinging his phone.
Turns out … 25 of the corpses found at Gerlach’s home were stolen from Mount Moriah, according to police. Some of the remains were over 100 years old, while others were more recent — and one corpse allegedly still had a pacemaker attached.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings