Skulls, songs, and solitude: Who is Jonathan Gerlach? What we know — and what we don’t

Jonathan Gerlach, whom authorities have accused of breaking into dozens of graves and removing human remains from Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia and Yeadon Borough, has become the subject of intense public scrutiny.

Prosecutors say Gerlach, 34, of Ephrata, carried out the crimes over several weeks, removing skulls, bones, and other body parts from mausoleums and underground vaults before his arrest earlier this month. The case has drawn widespread attention, generating national and international news coverage and spurring online speculation, with true-crime content creators, Reddit commentators, and social media sleuths poring over court filings and searching for clues about who Gerlach is — and what might have led him there.

Yet relatively little is publicly known about Gerlach himself. Here is what The Inquirer has learned.

Authorities say Gerlach broke into at least 26 mausoleums and underground vaults at Mount Moriah Cemetery to steal human remains.

The alleged crimes, said Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse, spanned several weeks and ended Jan. 6, when Gerlach was arrested just outside the cemetery with a burlap sack containing human remains. Inside his SUV, investigators said, they found additional remains.

According to an affidavit for probable cause for his arrest, Gerlach confessed to stealing the remains from the cemetery and told investigators that more were stored in the basement of his home.

When authorities later executed a search warrant at his residence — a duplex in Ephrata in Lancaster County — they recovered more than 100 human remains, the affidavit said. Investigators also found additional remains in a nearby storage unit rented in Gerlach’s name.

Gerlach has been charged with more than 500 criminal counts, including burglary, criminal trespassing, abuse of a corpse, and theft. Like all defendants, he is presumed innocent. His defense attorney previously declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.

According to court records, a tipster identified Gerlach as a possible suspect in recent burial site robberies. The tipster told authorities that members of Gerlach’s family had said they had seen a “partially decomposed corpse” hanging in his basement but were afraid to report it. The tipster also said Gerlach followed online groups focused on oddities and skeleton collecting.

The Inquirer left messages for the family members mentioned in the tip, but none were returned.

Investigators were able to link Gerlach to the cemetery break-ins using license plate reader data, cell phone location records, and items recovered at the grave sites, including tools and materials that prosecutors said had been stolen from a hardware store.

After executing the search warrant at Gerlach’s home, detectives also interviewed a woman who lived there with him. She directed investigators to the storage unit, according to the affidavit.

Investigators have been cautious about characterizing how Gerlach handled the remains he is accused of stealing, including whether he sold them.

But detectives wrote in the affidavit that Gerlach “stated that he sold some remains online,” though he also told investigators the majority were kept in his basement.

Gerlach’s online activity appears to support that account. Since 2023, he appeared to operate an Instagram account where he shared photographs of skulls, skeletons, and other remains. Several posts included language suggesting the account was used for commissioned or paid work.

In one photo posted in June, the account owner wrote: “Too many commission pieces, not enough time to make quality content. Shameless shot for the algorithm.” Many posts were marked “SOLD.”

On Jan. 6 — the day Gerlach was arrested — the account shared an image of a partial skull with the caption: “if you know, you know. skulls/bones available. dm to inquire.”

More than a decade ago, Gerlach was active on Twitter, now X. His posts reflect a young man with ordinary interests: he wrote about Harry Potter, his job operating a forklift, and his belief in God.

But the account also included darker reflections. In 2013, he wrote about self-hatred and posted a message saying: “I wonder what it’d be like to have hooks shoved through the skin above your knees and be suspended 10 feet in the air. Today’s weird thought.”

Gerlach stopped posting on Twitter in 2015.

He also maintained personal Facebook and Instagram accounts, separate from the page where he shared photos of human remains. Some of those accounts have been deactivated in recent weeks, and few posts remain publicly visible.

In a Facebook post last summer, Gerlach wrote that he was “living alone in the mountains, riding [a] Harley and slinging skulls.” The post drew comments from people who said it had been years since they had seen or heard from him.

Scott Bennardi, 28, of Williamsport, said he knew Gerlach more than a decade ago through the local music scene in central Pennsylvania. They have not spoken since.

At the time, Bennardi said, Gerlach was outgoing and widely liked. He described him as a “social butterfly” with a large circle of friends — something that surprised Bennardi when he later learned Gerlach had been homeschooled, he said. “Talking to people came so easily to him,” Bennardi said.

The two attended metalcore shows together, and Gerlach played guitar, at one time offering pointers to Bennardi when he was learning to play, he said.

For several years, Gerlach recorded music under the name Bird/Blind, and later served as a lead singer for the metalcore band the Road to Milestone.

Blake McClimon, 31, of Philadelphia, met Gerlach through the same music scene. McClimon said Gerlach was “incredibly personable” and quick to help others — buying drinks and helping load equipment. Later, after McClimon became a member of the Road to Milestone, the band asked Gerlach to join as a vocalist, he said.

When the group toured Pennsylvania, the East Coast and parts of the South, McClimon said, Gerlach was the first to reach out to other bands on tour to break the ice. Gerlach often worked double shifts at a warehouse job to help pay for music videos, hotel rooms, and travel expenses, he said.

“He was always kind and respectful,” McClimon said. “He was great at bringing people together.”

Gerlach wrote original lyrics for the band, which McClimon described as emotional and romantic. “He was like a poet,” he said.

At times, McClimon said, Gerlach would disappear for weeks, then resurface. He chalked that up to adulthood and work, he said.

“Being in a metal band, you have dark humor, the lyrics are dark, and you write about some heavy themes,” McClimon said. “But I just attributed it to music and trying to craft this band image and vibe for the songs — nothing where I would reach out and say, ‘Hey, man, do you need to talk? Are you OK?’”

McClimon eventually moved to Philadelphia, and the two lost touch during the pandemic, aside from occasional birthday messages, he said.

There is no public record explaining how Gerlach’s life unfolded in the years between his involvement in the music scene and the actions prosecutors now allege.

On Washington Avenue in Ephrata, where Gerlach lived said and where authorities said he stored stolen remains, neighbors knew little about him.

Josh Ruhl, 31, who has lived on the block for five years, described the neighborhood as close-knit and said residents were surprised by the news. Camron Barton, 18, whose family moved to the street last year, said Gerlach kept to himself. The two spoke once, Barton said, about how quiet the block was. “I remember him saying that’s why he loved it,” Barton said.

Another neighbor, Charles Rothermel, 35, recalled driving his son to school past the garage behind Gerlach’s home. The blinds were always drawn, he said. One morning, he noticed flies clustered at the windows. “I didn’t think anything of it then,” he said.

In January, investigators backed black cargo vans up to the garage and hung white sheets to shield the scene as they removed human remains from the property.

A public statement by Jeremy Pauley, a Pennsylvania man serving federal prison time for trafficking stolen human remains, has drawn attention to a possible connection.

Days before reporting to prison in January, Pauley posted a video in which he said Gerlach helped his wife, Sarah Pauley, sell property in the months after his arrest. In an interview with The Inquirer, Sarah Pauley described her interaction with Gerlach as a brief, informal exchange on social media that ended with Gerlach brokering a sale of what she described as “tribal artifacts” from a collection she shared with her husband.

Gerlach, she said, told her that he knew a potential buyer and later brought that person to her home, where several items were sold. As thanks, she said, the buyer gave Gerlach a handful of items from the purchase. The exchange occurred in late 2022 or early 2023, she said, but declined to offer additional details.

“I haven’t spoken with him since,” she said.

Sarah Pauley is also charged with perjury in Cumberland County, after authorities say she failed to provide a complete inventory of items she had sold after Jeremy Pauley’s arrest during a deposition in the couple’s divorce proceedings.

Rouse confirmed that authorities are aware of Gerlach’s connection to Pauley but declined to comment further. Spokespeople for the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania declined to comment, citing policy.

Gerlach is scheduled to appear in court in March. He is being held in Delaware County’s jail on $1 million bail. Prosecutors said they will continue to review evidence as the case moves forward. This week, Rouse said no additional details about the investigation were available.