{"id":504956,"date":"2026-01-10T00:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T00:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/504956\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T00:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T00:50:14","slug":"how-would-he-feel-if-i-dug-up-his-mother-pennsylvania-families-targeted-in-grave-robbery-speak-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/504956\/","title":{"rendered":"‘How would he feel if I dug up his mother?’: Pennsylvania families targeted in grave robbery speak out"},"content":{"rendered":"

SWARTHMORE, Pa. (WPVI) — Authorities are investigating a series of grave robberies at Mt. Moriah Cemetery<\/a> after skeletal remains were discovered in the basement of a man’s home in Ephrata.<\/p>\n

Police say 26 mausoleums at the historic cemetery were broken into, including one erected in 1912 bearing the name Jonathan Prichard. Investigators believe the Prichard mausoleum was among the targets.<\/p>\n

RELATED | Court docs reveal accused grave robber’s months-long plot to steal human remains<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Court docs reveal accused grave robber’s plot to steal human remains<\/p>\n

Jonathan Prichard IV, who still lives on one of the family’s original homesteads in Swarthmore, said he was shocked to learn his great-great-grandfather’s remains may have been stolen.<\/p>\n

“I thought to myself, ‘I wonder if that’s the same cemetery,'” Prichard said. “I’m not real happy about it. That’s twisted. How would he feel if I went and dug his mother up or something?”<\/p>\n

Prichard admitted he knows little about his ancestor, who was born in 1827.<\/p>\n

“I’m embarrassed, I don’t know that much. I know he built a church in the city of Philadelphia,” he said. “We could have gone to college on his dime if we became ministers.”<\/p>\n

\"Grave<\/a><\/p>\n

Grave markers at the Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia, on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026.<\/p>\n

(AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)<\/p>\n

Police say five of nine damaged crypts were missing remains, which may be among more than 100 sets of skeletal remains found in the home of Jonathan Gerlach<\/a>. Investigators returned to Gerlach’s property on Thursday to remove additional bodies.<\/p>\n

Authorities believe Gerlach was attempting to sell the skeletons. Posts on his social media accounts allegedly showed skulls and bones with captions offering them for sale and inviting direct messages.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO | ‘Horror movie come to life’: Cops find more than 100 skeletal remains in Pa. man’s home<\/a><\/strong>
Gerlach was arrested Jan. 6 at Mt. Moriah Cemetery while police conducted surveillance in response to the break-ins.<\/p>\n

Several notable Philadelphians are buried at the Yeadon cemetery, including John McCullough, a Shakespearean actor who rose to fame in the mid-1800s and performed at the Walnut Street Theatre. His family’s burial vault also shows signs of damage.<\/p>\n

“He obviously spent a lot of money on that mausoleum and put his bones in there and wanted to be left alone, and he’s not,” Prichard said.<\/p>\n

Prichard’s son, Jonathan Prichard V, has been donating to Friends of Mt. Moriah Cemetery, a group that helps maintain the site.<\/p>\n

Yeadon police are asking anyone with family interred in the affected mausoleums to contact them.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SWARTHMORE, Pa. (WPVI) — Authorities are investigating a series of grave robberies at Mt. Moriah Cemetery after skeletal…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":504957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[226236,5229,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-504956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-226236","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}