Overview
- Jonathan Gerlach, 34, was arrested Jan. 6 after detectives surveilling Mount Moriah Cemetery saw him leave with a burlap bag and crowbar and found bones and skulls visible in his SUV.
- Searches on Jan. 7 uncovered more than 100 sets of human remains at his Ephrata home and additional sets in a storage unit, including skulls, mummified hands and feet, decomposing torsos, jewelry and a skeleton with a pacemaker.
- Prosecutors filed hundreds of counts including abuse of a corpse, burglary and theft, and Gerlach is being held on $1 million bail ahead of a preliminary hearing scheduled for Jan. 20.
- Investigators tied the suspect to the cemetery break-ins using license-plate reader hits, cellphone location data and on-site surveillance after at least 26 mausoleums and vaults were forced open since November.
- Forensic teams are working to identify the remains and notify families as detectives investigate whether other cemeteries were targeted and whether remains were offered for sale on Instagram or in a Facebook group.