Man charged with stealing more than 100 human skulls | US News

A man has been charged with theft after more than 100 human skulls and other remains were discovered in Pennsylvania.

Officers also uncovered numerous other long bones, mummified hands and feet, decomposing torsos and skeletal items at the home of Jonathan Gerlach, 34, and a storage unit he owned.

“They were in various states. Some of them were hanging, as it were. Some of them were pieced together, some were just skulls on a shelf,” Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said.

It follows an investigation into break-ins at Mount Moriah Cemetery, Yeadon, in a suburb of Philadelphia.

Police allege that Gerlach targeted mausoleums and underground vaults at the 160-acre site, which is home to an estimated 150,000 graves.

Authorities said they also recovered jewellery believed to be linked to the graves. In one case, a pacemaker was still attached.

It is unclear what Gerlach is alleged to have been doing with the remains, Mr Rouse added, noting that some of them were hundreds of years old.

Read more from Sky News:
Federal agents shoot two in Oregon
Minneapolis on edge after shooting

Police said the break-ins centred on sealed vaults and mausoleums containing older burials, which had been smashed open or had stonework damaged to reach the remains inside.

Gerlach was arrested on Tuesday as he walked back toward his car with a crowbar, according to court documents, which also said he was carrying a bag containing the mummified remains of two small children, three skulls and other bones.

Gerlach was charged with 300 counts of theft, receiving stolen property and abuse of a corpse, court records show.

He was also charged with dozens more counts of desecrating a public monument, desecrating a venerated object and desecrating a historic burial place.

Court documents said Gerlach admitted stealing roughly 30 sets of human remains from Mount Moriah.

Authorities learned of the alleged crimes after board members with a nonprofit group that works to preserve the cemetery notified police that grave sites had been desecrated, Yeadon Mayor Rohan Hepkins said at a news conference.