Every now and then, a news story emerges that makes your jaw drop and question your faith in humanity. The case of Jonathan Gerlach is one of those stories. Gerlach, a resident of Pennsylvania, is reportedly being charged with the theft of over 100 skeletal remains.
Videos by Wide Open Country
Gerlach was allegedly stealing his victims from gravesites, storing them inside his home, and abusing them in a non-sexual manner. He is being charged with criminal mischief, criminal trespass, intentional desecration of a public monument, and abuse of a corpse.
"The abuse of corpse charge does not refer to necrophilia (sex with a dead body)," Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse told TMZ. "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 remains were found in Gerlach's home when police executed a search warrant on his property. Officers at the scene discovered over 100 sets of "full or partial" human remains in the basement.
The ages of the corpses ranged in age. Some of the remains found belonged to people who passed away more than 100 years ago. However, TMZ also noted that one of the more recent corpses still had a pacemaker.
Jonathan Gerlach Was Tracked Through His Cellphone
The police were first alerted to the thefts of some corpses in November, after the Mount Moriah Cemetery had reported multiple burglaries. Detectives working the case have said they tracked Gerlach due to his phone pinging from the location on multiple occasions.
However, it's believed that Gerlach hit multiple cemeteries on his crime spree.
Gerlach isn't thought to have killed any of the people whose corpses he stole. However, the remains were likely found in worse condition than when he originally dug them up.
Unfortunately, the police will now have the difficult task of identifying each corpse and contacting the necessary families. It could take months for the deceased to be laid back to rest, and even then, that's an optimistic timeline.
There is currently no date set for Gerlach's court appearance, but one would hope it's an open-and-shut case.
