Skulls, mummified body parts in grisly police find as Jonathan Christ Gerlach charged over grave robberies

Skulls in the back of a car led police to a grisly discovery near an abandoned cemetery.

Following the trail to a basement on the outskirts of Philadelphia in the US, officers found it filled with body parts, hoarded by a man accused of stealing 100 human remains.

Police arrested Jonathan Christ Gerlach last week after 26 mausoleums and vaults were broken into at Mount Moriah Cemetery, starting in November.

A search of the 34-year-old’s home and storage unit allegedly found more remains including 100 skulls, bones, mummified hands and feet, and two decomposing torsos.

Jewellery believed belonging to the bodies, and a pacemaker, were also uncovered.

“They were in various states,” Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said.

“Some of them were hanging, as it were. Some of them were pieced together, some were just skulls on a shelf.”

Mount Moriah Cemetery is the biggest abandoned burial ground in America with about 150,000 grave sites.

Police allege that Mr Gerlach targeted sealed vaults and mausoleums containing older burials, smashing them open to get to the remains.

He was arrested as he walked back toward his car with a crowbar and a burlap bag in which officers allegedly found the mummified remains of two small children, three skulls and other bones.

“Given the enormity of what we are looking at and the sheer, utter lack of reasonable explanation, it’s difficult to say right now, at this juncture, exactly what took place. We’re trying to figure it out,” Mr Rouse said.

Mr Gerlach has been charged with 100 counts each of abuse of a corpse and receiving stolen property, multiple counts of desecrating a public monument, desecrating a venerated object, desecrating a historic burial place, burglary, trespassing and theft.

He is in custody on a $1.49 million bond.