Catching the Man Selling Dead People on Instagram

Catching the Man Selling Dead People on Instagram

Back in November, people began noticing a strange Instagram account that almost exclusively featured artistic photographs of human remains. If you know, you know. Skulls and bones available. DM to inquire. It seemed whoever was behind this account wasn’t just photographing skulls. They were selling them.

 But what was the meaning behind the cryptic line, “If you know, you know.” Months later, the world would find out. A leaked video of unknown origin started to appear on social media feeds. It showed the inside of a house filled with dead bodies. And then all of a sudden, the Instagram account and leaked video disappeared from the internet.

 But thankfully, we had documented everything before it was lost forever. On November 7th, 2025, at 11:29 a.m., officers from the Yeden Police Department were dispatched to the Mount Mariah Cemetery in Pennsylvania. As soon as they arrived, the scene immediately drew concern. The Hunter family mausoleum, previously sealed with cinder block and cement, had been forcibly opened.

 Inside, the marble floor had been broken apart, exposing the crypts nearly 10 ft below ground level. Among the debris, investigators found a screwdriver engraved multiple times with the name Brian. Also inside the mausoleum was a rope that suggested it had been used to descend into the exposed crypts. One of those crypts belonged to Martha Hunter, a pre-teen who died in 1869.

 The marble stone sealing her resting place had been forcibly breached. Her remains along with her clothing were missing. Before police could determine who Brian was or why someone would steal the remains of a child buried more than a century earlier, they were called back to the cemetery. On November 29th, 2025, police were directed to Jonathan Pritchard family mausoleum.

 Five of the nine crypts inside had been robbed. However, this time the perpetrator had left an empty can of Monster Energy, and the police were able to recover two partial fingerprints from it. Swabs were also taken from the can, as well as the Brian screwdriver for DNA samples. Whoever was doing this was expanding their grave robbing.

 It seemed like the age of the deceased didn’t matter at all, only the remains themselves. It seemed the grave robber was getting sloppy already, though, leaving more and more clues for investigators. But would it be enough to catch them? However, the police were called again. This time about a robbery that had occurred weeks earlier.

 On November 6th, 2025 at a cemetery on 1500 block of Westminster Road, Lazern County, more than 100 miles from Mount Mariah. Two sets of remains were stolen. The victims were Mary Kapalina Paga, an 83-year-old woman who died in 1981, and Leo Terren, a 53-year-old man who also died that same year. Two cigarette butts and two energy drink cans were collected and sent for DNA analysis.

 Police were called on at least three more occasions in December where they discovered that 49 sets of remains were taken from nine different families resting places in Mount Mariah Cemetery. The cemetery is split by the border of Yeden and Philadelphia and police eventually became aware of 10 additional family plots being burglarized in the Philadelphia section in the same manner as the robberies in the Yeden section in the cemetery in Lazern County.

 By the end of December, the total confirmed stolen bodies had reached 61. This number, however, does not include the 10 additional family plots that were burglarized since the exact number of corpses taken from those sites remains unknown. Investigators noticed the same details repeated. Cigarette butts, empty energy drink cans, and in at least two mausoleiums, police found broken wooden pallets propped upright, presumably used as makeshift ladders to climb in and out of underground vaults.

 The scale of the crimes raised a troubling concern. What would drive someone to go through the extremely difficult, dishonorable, and frankly disgusting work to exume so many dead bodies? And what on earth could they possibly be doing with them all? Barbara Kil Martin, who had family members buried at Mount Mariah, later said, “It’s the last thing we can do for people is to honor their wishes and to not disturb them.

 I just can’t understand why somebody would do that.” Well, she was not alone in her confusion. But another question lingered. Why Mount Mariah? Established in 1855, the cemetery had long served as a final resting place for a wide range of Philadelphia’s population. After the cemetery was abandoned by its owners, a volunteer group, Friends of Mount Mariah, was formed in 2011 to restore the grounds and preserve the site as a place of quiet remembrance.

 However, despite the volunteers efforts, the cemetery is still quite rundown. This could be why the grave robber was targeting Mount Mariah in particular. Due to its size, overground vegetation, and lack of consistent maintenance or monitoring, it’s not hard to imagine why a person and their illicit actions would go unnoticed.

 That changed on November 7th when members of the Friends of Mount Mariah contacted police after first noticing signs of disturbance at one of the mausoleiums. As authorities continue to investigate, they received a tip. Look into Jonathan Gerlock for the Lazern County mausoleum robbery. I know someone who’s friends with his family and they mentioned that they recently discovered a partially decomposed corpse hanging in his basement, but were afraid to tell the police.

 Well, talk about a first lead. Police took it seriously and immediately started digging. Records showed that Jonathan Gerlock was charged on November 6th, 2025 with shoplifting tools from a hardware store in East Earl Township, Lancaster County. Search warrants stated that the stolen items included a headlamp, a rechargeable LED glow stick, a hammer drill bit, medium-sized work gloves, and a metal cutting wheel with a combined value of $16743.

Investigators noted that during the same visit to the hardware store, Gerlock paid for more than $250 worth of other merchandise. Court documents emphasized that the items he did not pay for were tools commonly associated with burglaries. He may have believed that stealing the tools would help him avoid detection, but instead it backfired and only drew further attention to his actions and raised suspicion.

 The tipster also directed investigators to Gerlock’s Instagram account. What they found raised further concern. Of the 147 posts on the account, only two showed Gerlock himself. The rest depicted human and animal remains. In his most recent post dated January 5th, 2026, he wrote, “If you know, you know.

 Skulls/bones available. DM to inquire, followed by a pointer finger emoji and quote, “From my personal gallery.” An earlier post from October 1st, 2024 contained just one word, sold. As police reviewed the account more closely, some of the most disturbing posts appeared to involve the remains of a child.

 In one post, Gerlac wrote, “This precious little one, just 3 or four years old, has recently come under my guardianship to be honored and preserved. She will find a place in my private collection where she will be housed with the utmost respect. Nothing further was said about who the child was or where the remains came from.

 Was this skull from one of the multiple children’s corpses stolen from Mount Mariah? If so, does supposedly restoring and handling them with care justify removing them from their resting place? Is it even possible for this child’s remains to be honored and housed with the utmost respect if her caretaker is the same person who took her from her home in the first place? While Gerlock claimed to keep some remains for his personal collection, others were allegedly sold, like the remains of a six-month-old infant, as well as those

of a three or four-year-old child whose skull was modified into an exploding head. Dozens of other posts featured remains identified only as young adults or older individuals. The account also displayed animal remains. Kittens, leopards, and other wild cats appeared throughout the feed. Some were listed as sold.

 One example, a Bengal Tiger posted on March 20th, 2024 was marked as sold for $2,000. In the caption, Gerlac described the item as ethically sourced/acquired. That same phrasing appears repeatedly in the earlier days of his account, applied not only to animal remains, but to human ones as well, such as in one post dated March 18th, 2024, where he shows a skull of a woman he claims was middle-aged, and ends with the statement, as always, ethically sourced/acquired, not for sale.

 However, in his later posts, specifically from the period when the grave robbing was taking place, his assurances of the remains being ethically sourced are notably missing. He also appears to be showcasing less remains that he’s keeping for his personal gallery and is more focused on selling them. But okay, what does ethically sourced even mean? And is there really a legal market for the sale of human remains? Well, surprisingly, yes.

 In recent years, human bones and modified remains have become increasingly visible on social media. The market includes a range of buyers from collectors of curiosities to ritual practitioners. A smaller number of contemporary artists and designers incorporate human remains into sculptures or installations. Medical and dental students have also historically sought real skulls for study.

 There are, however, strict differences between legal anatomical preparation and elicit removal. In 2016, National Geographic reported that Skulls Unlimited was the only company in the United States legally processing donor skulls obtained directly through body donation programs. That company only sells donor skulls to verified professionals, including doctors, dentists, anthropologists, and others with legitimate scientific or medical needs.

 Skulls from the 18th, 19th, or early 20th century, which qualify as antique skulls, may be sold to the general public. At the federal level, there is no single US law prohibiting the sale of human remains with the exception of certain states and strict protections for Native American remains. As a result, collectors do not generally need credentials to buy or sell human skulls already on the market.

So, the owning and trade of human remains is not illegal. What matters is how they were originally acquired from the deceased. Grave robbing itself is not new. For centuries, graves were disturbed to steal valuables buried with the dead. Body snatching, however, emerged as a more specific practice tied to the rise of modern medicine.

 By the late 18th century, advances in medical training and the growth of medical schools had created a shortage of legally available bodies for dissection. This led to the rise of resurrectionists, individuals who exumed the recently dead and sold the bodies to medical institutions. At the time, British law did not recognize buried bodies as property, allowing the practice to continue until legislation in 1832 reduced widespread grave robbing. However, the demand persisted.

Over time, India became a major supplier of human bones for Western medical study, driven by economic hardship and limited burial options. That trade ended in 1985 when the sale of more than 1500 child skeletons was uncovered, prompting India to ban the export of human remains. While many remains in circulation today originated as donated anatomical specimens, the renewed demand for human bones has coincided with a renewal in grave robbing.

 Because anybody can sell human remains, it is difficult to determine what has been ethically sourced. But still, there is a way. Donated anatomical specimens often show signs of preparation, such as drilled holes, varnish, or metal fittings. Remains taken directly from graves, by contrast, may exhibit soil staining, root etching, microfarracts from long-term burial, or fragments of coffin wood, nails, or fabric still attached.

 Individually, these indicators are not definitive. Taken together, they help distinguish between remains prepared for study and those removed illegally from the ground. For example, Jonathan Gerlac’s post from July 22nd, 2025 shows a human skull in which he draws particular attention to remaining nasal hair, neck hair, facial hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and fine vellis hair.

 Another post from August 22nd, 2025 shows a skull with remnants of the eyes still present in the orbital sockets, visible hair on the skull itself, and signs of decomposition consistent with being buried in the ground. By contrast, legally obtained skulls from Skulls Unlimited typically show clear medical preparation with clean surfaces and an overall consistent standardized look.

 However, even if we ethically source the remains, what is the morality of having a skull in your living room as decoration? As Jonathan Gerlak’s story gained traction, so did his Instagram. And in one post dated November 6th, 2023, a user wrote, “Not going to lie, these pictures are beautiful. thing is these are remains of humans who have likely been dead for hundreds of years.

 Not saying it makes it right, but if I had been dead for so long that the world and any potential living relatives had long since gone themselves, I wouldn’t be offended if some dude dug me up and took a few cool photos before dispersing my remains all over the place to people who love and appreciate that sort of thing.

 People might be grossed out, but there are others online who sell human bones. This comment brings up an argument certainly, but if we’re to take this comment seriously, the user here is describing a personal belief, one in which they would consent to being exumed, artistically photographed, and sold for profit after death.

 But here’s the thing, not everyone would. Across cultures and even within the same culture, death is viewed differently. People have different beliefs on the sanctity of remains, as well as different wishes for what should and shouldn’t be done to the remains after they die. Just because there are living people who do not believe remains are sacred and don’t care what happens to their body after they die doesn’t mean that those people should be able to decide what happens to the dead bodies of people who do care.

 What people choose to do with their bodies after death is their choice. And so far as it is possible, these wishes should be honored. Even when they can’t, we should be mindful of a certain glorification of death and show respect for the life that came before. None of which can be said about Jonathan’s alleged actions.

Breaking into crypts and stealing bodies is not what would qualify as being respectful of people’s wishes, even when there aren’t any living relatives of that person. If they were laid to rest in a cemetery, then we can assume that they didn’t consent to being harvested for bones to be sold on Instagram.

 Now, you might be wondering, Bru, why are you spending so much time discussing the morality of Jonathan’s grave robbing? It’s obviously bad. But you’d be surprised to see how many have defended him online, saying that what he did isn’t that bad. So, we thought we should try to lay out the reasons why what he did is in fact that bad.

 But at this point in the investigation, Jonathan Gerlac was still at large, free to desecrate the dead as he pleased. As police continued digging into his activities, another detail began to stand out. Among the followers on his Instagram account was a man named Brian, spelled the same way as the name repeatedly etched into the screwdriver recovered at one of the ransacked mausoleiums.

 According to search warrants, the person who had originally contacted them about Jonathan also told police that Brian had disappeared for several days in November and later mentioned he had been in Chicago selling a human skull. Did this mean Jonathan Gerlac hadn’t been acting alone? The same day they received the tip, investigators began tracking Gerlac’s movements.

 On December 23rd, Yeden police conducted a license plate reader search on Gerlac’s Toyota RAV 4. Records showed the vehicle had traveled into or near the areas where bodies were stolen on at least five occasions between November 2nd and December 17th, the same window of time when the thefts occurred. Court documents also stated that cell phone records placed him in those same areas at the same times.

 On December 23rd, a Yetan officer on patrol at Mount Mariah noticed a Toyota RAV 4 parked between two fallen tree limbs inside the cemetery. Police believe the positioning was intentional, meant to conceal the vehicle. No one was inside, but multiple energy drink cans were visible on the front passenger seat.

 Later that evening, officers went to Gerlock’s residence in Epherta and saw the same vehicle parked outside. On January 6th, detectives patrolling Mount Mariah again found Gerlac’s Toyota parked near the cemetery. This time, police reported seeing human skulls and bones in the back seat. Gerlac was arrested shortly afterward when they observed him walking back toward the vehicle carrying a crowbar and a burlap sack containing a child’s mummified remains.

 That same day, police executed a search warrant at Gerlac’s home. Inside, they reported finding over a 100 human skulls, numerous human long bones, mummified human feet and hands, two decomposing human torsos, and other assorted skeletal items. Not long after, an alleged leaked video from inside his house surfaced. It’s like my grandmother’s dentures.

>> This it is. It’s gross. Look at the one hanging. Oh my god. At least there’s a couple. Look at these ones. All the ones behind you. God damn. Oh, that one’s still alive. That’s a lost all five. Hold. I want to get the hand. Wow. Look at this. Sorry. Oh my god. What the is that? A pacemaker.

 While we couldn’t confirm the origin of the video, several details suggested it may be authentic. At the 21cond mark, one of the people visible in the footage appears to be wearing a firearm in a holster, indicating they were likely police. Earlier in the clip, between 9 seconds and 11 seconds, a couch is visible that closely resembles the fabric and design seen in the background of Gerlac skull photographs.

 It is possible the couch or a similar piece of furniture was used as backdrop for those images. Another detail drew particular attention online. A Reddit user known as Cardiote pointed out a visible pacemaker in the footage, writing, “The pacemaker detail makes me think it’s real. That is definitely a real pacemaker design.

Looks like a Medronic or a Boston Scientific.” That specific set of remains will be able to be identified at least. A second user, Livid Moose 553, noted that the video was edited. According to their observation, the opening seconds show a storage unit, while the remainder of the footage appears to be filmed inside a basement.

Whatever the origin of the video, it offered a disturbing glimpse of what Jonathan Gerlak’s basement may have contained. According to authorities, Gerlac later admitted to stealing approximately 30 sets of human remains from Mount Mariah and described how he accessed the burial sites. On January 7th, 2026, District Attorney Tanner Rouse spoke at a press conference regarding the case.

 It is truly in the most literal sense of the word horrific. I grieve for those who are upset by this, who are going through it, who are trying to figure out if it is in fact their loved one or their child because we found remains that we believe to be months old infants among the those that he had collected. When Chief of Edinburgh Police Henry Jarco was asked if he had ever seen something similar, he replied, “No. No.” after 30 years.

 No, I can say this is probably the most horrific thing that I’ve seen. And um again, uh to the families, as the district attorney pointed out, we all have loved ones that have passed. Like rest in peace is rest in peace. And this is definitely something that um tears your heartstring, especially when you see, as he pointed out, an infant um having children and grandchildren.

 Yeah, it’s it it was definitely an event. Jonathan Gerlac was ultimately charged with 489 criminal counts, including 100 counts of corpse abuse. Additional charges include theft, burglary, intentional desecration of venerated objects, trespassing, criminal mischief, receiving stolen property, and desecration of historic burial sites.

 He was held in custody in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on a $1 million bail and was scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing on January 20th. While there were no further developments regarding Brian, whose name was etched into a screwdriver found at one of the sites, district attorney Tanner Rouse addressed the matter at a press conference.

 As of January 2026, Rouse stated that authorities did not believe Gerlac was working with anyone else and that no additional arrest warrants have been issued. Beyond the charges and court dates, this case leaves behind a deeper question. Death is an unavoidable part of life, but where is the line between embracing it and romanticizing it? Behind every set of remains was once a person who lived, made choices, and entrusted their body to the earth, their loved ones, or in some case to science.

 Regardless of the circumstances, human remains laid to rest are not meant to be collected for decor or profit. Because it is not only the dead who are wronged, but the living who trust that their final wishes will be respected. If you’d like to help us get the algorithm to notice this video, then hit the like button and subscribe to our channel.

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