Detectives in Pennsylvania say they walked into what looked like a set from a low-budget slasher, only it was real life. Inside a modest home in Ephrata, investigators say they uncovered more than 100 skulls, mummified limbs and the remains of infants and children, all allegedly pulled from historic graves and mausoleums. The man at the center of the case, 34-year-old Jonathan Christ Gerlach, is now accused of turning human bodies into inventory.
What started as a quiet investigation into cemetery burglaries has spiraled into a sprawling case that touches grieving families, a crumbling burial ground and an underground market for bones. The details are graphic, but they also raise a blunt question: how did a “house of horrors” like this sit in the middle of a neighborhood without anyone realizing what was stacked in the basement?
The “house of horrors” and the man accused of filling it
Investigators say the trail to Ephrata began with a string of break-ins at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Delaware County, a sprawling burial ground that advocates with Friends of Mount describe as the country’s largest abandoned gravesite. Police say mausoleums were forced open and coffins disturbed, with thieves targeting skulls and other easily carried bones. As detectives dug into the burglaries, they checked a vehicle plate tied to the scene and, according to one account, that search led them to a home in Ephrata and to a man they identified as Gerlach, whose name later surfaced in court records.
Inside, Detectives say they found shelves lined with skulls, loose bones in containers and what one prosecutor described as “a horror movie come to life.” Authorities estimate there were Over 100 skulls in the house and in a storage unit, along with full skeletons and preserved tissue. In one traffic stop, They say they pulled a burlap bag from his vehicle that held the mummified remains of two small children, three skulls and other bones, details later laid out in a charging document. A separate search of his basement turned up 100 skulls and mummified body parts, a haul that investigators linked back to the same historic cemetery through evidence from the.
From graveyard burglaries to an alleged bone market
Police say the man at the center of this is not some shadowy figure out of folklore but Jonathan Christ Gerlach, a 34-year-old Pennsylvania resident whose name and age, 34-year-old, appear in multiple social posts. One clip shared on Jan shows a caption noting that Police say 34-year-old Gerlach is facing a long list of charges, a detail echoed in a reel that picked up 85 likes and framed the case as something viewers had never seen the LIKE THIS BEFORE in the COLD early days of the year. Another post spells out that a 34-year-old Pennsylvania man, identified as Jonathan Gerlach of Ephrata, is accused of breaking into mausoleums and hauling away remains, a description that matches what investigators later laid out in charging paperwork…