356: 100+ Skeletons Found in Man’s Home, Alabama House of Horrors & Nick Reiner Updates

An arrest has finally been made in the murders of dentist Spencer Tepe and his wife, Monique. Nick Reiner’s arraignment has been pushed to February after his defense attorney, Alan Jackson, stepped down from the case. A shocking child neglect case unfolds after a 14-year-old girl was abandoned by her parents and left to live alone in a mobile home for over a year in horrific conditions. And investigators uncover more than 100 skeletal remains inside the home of Jonathan Gerlach, following a disturbing series of grave robberies.. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow the show for weekly deep dives into the darkest true crime cases! To watch the video version of this episode, head over to youtube.com/@annieelise. .🔎Join Our True Crime Club & Get Exclusive Content & Perks..🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to both of my weekly true crime series 10 to Life & Serialously with Annie Elise wherever you get your podcasts on the Annie Elise Channel!🍎 Apple Podcasts | Where you can also unlock access to 100+ and growing extra exclusive deep dives.💚 Spotify🔴 YouTube🎙️ All Other Platforms.📸 Follow Annie on Socials Instagram: @_annieeliseTikTok: @_annieeliseSubstack: @annieeliseFacebook: @10toLife.👗 Shop Annie’s Must-Haves! ShopMY: bit.ly/AnnieElise_ShopMy Amazon: bit.ly/AnnieElise_Amazon.🫵🏻 Get Involved or Recommend a CaseAbout Annie: www.annieelise.comFor Business Inquiries: [email protected].📚 Episode Sources 10TV | 6ABC | ABC News | ABC3340 | AP News | CNN | Delaware County DA | Facebook | Fox 10 TV | Fox News | Inquirer | KBTX | LA Times | Law & Crime | NewsNation | New York Post | People | The Independent | TMZ | WKRG••••••••••••••••••🚨Disclaimers1️⃣ Some links may be affiliate links, they do not cost you anything, but I make a small percentage from the sale. Thank you so much for watching and supporting me. 2️⃣ Sources used to collect this information include various public news sites, interviews, court documents, FB groups dedicated to the case, and various news channel segments. When quoting statements made by others, they are strictly alleged until confirmed otherwise. Please remember my videos are my independent opinion and to always do your own research. 3️⃣ The views and opinions expressed in this video are personal and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the creator(s). These views are subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time and are not to be held in perpetuity. We make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this video and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. It is the reader’s responsibility to verify their own facts.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hey Richmond, Mark Smith, Midas Richmond, 2026. We have been doing what we do for 29 years. Total car care, total community care. In 2026, we are donating $365,000. A thousand dollars a day to the nonprofits we've historically supported. Gooch and Care, Shalom Farms, St. Joseph's Villa, Ask, the Colonial Heights Food Pantry, everybody we've helped over the years. These are important things making a big impact in our society right now. Total car care, total community care, that is Midas of Richmond.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  Time for a quick break to talk about McDonald's. It's the tangiest time of the year. For a limited time, head to McDonald's and get a McRib sandwich. Make it a meal by adding a medium fries and a soft drink like an ice cold Diet Dr. Pepper. So grab a McRib sandwich and embrace the tang. Save time by ordering ahead on the app. Participate at McDonald's for a limited time. Dr. Pepper is a registered trademark of Dr. Pepper, 7-Up, Inc.

• 0:56Speaker 02

  Good news for your toolbox. Black Friday is already here at Lowe's. Get up to three free select power tools with the purchase of a select DeWalt, Craftsman, or Cobalt battery kit. Plus, save up to $120 on select power tools. You got here at a good time. Black Friday deals are on now at Lowe's, in-store and online. Valid through 11/4 while supplies last. Free tools vary based on battery kit purchased and location.

• 1:27Annie Elise?

  Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serial Asleep.

• 1:49Annie Elise?

  Really quickly, before we get started, guys, we noticed in the editing process that something was wrong with the cables on Amy's mic. So you will notice a little bit different audio level than usual. We have fixed it for episodes going forward, but... If your ears are hating you in this episode, I am very, very sorry. Hopefully it's not so bad, but wanted to let you know what was going on. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serialist Lee with me, your host, Annie Elise. I've also got co-host in the building, Amy Colette. Hello.

• 2:23Speaker 04

  Hello.

• 2:24Annie Elise?

  Hello. I feel like the last two weeks, yeah, the last two weeks you haven't been on because last week I was sick and I was doing it literally from my toilet with norovirus off camera. Don't worry guys, TMI. And then the week before that, we took like a little break because of the holidays. So I did the re-release of the Candy Montgomery episode because now that Netflix has bought, what is it HBO Go, HBO Max, whatever the hell they're going by, it's now on Netflix and it was like trending. So I re-released that case. So now you're back.

• 2:55Speaker 04

  I haven't been here since our duet.

• 2:57Annie Elise?

  The duet, the Christmas duet. God.

• 3:02Speaker 04

  I feel like we actually got a lot more positive response than I was expecting to get dragged.

• 3:08Annie Elise?

  No, honestly, I know. You guys harmonize so well together. I'm all, okay, first of all, we ain't singers.

• 3:14Speaker 04

  I'd like to tell you that we have an album coming.

• 3:17Annie Elise?

  No, oh God, could you imagine? No, actually, sorry, guys. I know some of you hate when we just like banter and talk to each other, but I haven't even talked to you about this yet. I know I sent you the TikTok. Speaking of podcasters who are singing, The Toast.

• 3:31Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 3:31Annie Elise?

  And The Masked Singer. So I have never watched the show The Masked Singer ever, but I've heard about it. But when Jenny McCarthy was on The Toast a few weeks ago, before there was rumors that Claudia was on, I remember listening and being like, that could be a fun, just like show to have on the TV and like, see if you could guess who it is. I don't know much about it. But now it totally makes sense why she had Jenny McCarthy on because it hasn't been confirmed. She is on The Masked Singer, singing. I know that voice anywhere.

• 3:58Speaker 04

  I did. Yeah, I saw a clip that she was actually on it, but I've heard her in the past on her podcast say, that's like her dream. She would love to be on it. And she's been posting more of her singing. So maybe, yeah.

• 4:10Annie Elise?

  So basically, guys, consider three weeks ago, my formal audition for The Masked Singer. No, I'm just kidding. No, but also I'm trying so hard to weasel my way into traitors. Like, you have no idea. I need to call Derek and be like, I think I've even told Derek already because he was on it. And I think I need to be like, look.

• 4:29Speaker 04

  And you'd like.

• 4:30Annie Elise?

  Make the call. And I'd be serving looks. Yeah. Yeah, it'd be great. It'd be great. Um, okay, anyway, no, too much, too much. I, you can tell it's a wild morning. Literally, you've Been on one with your Celsius. I know. Okay. Why? Here's the thing. You guys know I'm a Diet Coke girly through and through. I tried Celsius for the very first time back in October, when Jeremiah did the hundred mile marathon in Big Bear. One of the doctor friends who were with us had one and they're like, oh, do you want to try this? But like, be Need energy to like be on the side. Yeah, just to, just to groom my husband during the marathon. I needed a boost of energy. Cause that's what a low life sack of shit I am. Um, no, so they gave me one and it was like the Coke flavor one and, but they said they're like,

• 5:16Annie Elise?

  be warned, you're going to be super jittery. It's like crack in a can. And I was like, well, I've heard about Celsius for a long time. Like, let me just try it. First of all, it tasted just like Diet Coke, not just like, but pretty close. So I was like, oh, okay. Like, it's not like Red Bull. I could get on board with this. I didn't feel jittery. I didn't feel wired, but that's probably because I take like three cans of Diet Coke to my face a day and like my caffeine levels are already through the roof. However, here's my rationale. Okay. This more, I don't drink coffee. Not, sometimes I will, but not very often. I usually am a tea drinker, but the tea I like is chai, a chai tea latte from Starbucks has like tons of calories in it, isn't great for you. I'm not going to just crack open a Diet Coke at seven in the morning, even though I've You're on vacation.

• 6:00Annie Elise?

  Been there, done that, wrote the book, seen the movie, have done that. But like, I'm not going to make that a daily habit. Um, where I was like going into seven 11 and getting a big gulp of Diet Coke. It's honestly, it sounds really good. Like, pause recording, let's go. Um, but I was like, the other day when we were on vacation, I was like, let me get a Celsius. It'll wake me up. I, in my mind, I think it's clear liquid, so it won't stain my teeth like Diet Coke or coffee, but it'll give me the same like boost of energy with caffeine that Diet Coke does. So I bought one, it must've been in Utah or I ordered one or whatever. So then Jeremiah goes grocery shopping yesterday and gets like 12 of them because he thinks now it's so Jeremiah. He thinks like, oh, because my wife has had Celsius

• 6:44Annie Elise?

  once in her life. She loves them now. Let me, which bless his heart, but he also got all of the like not flavors that I told him I liked. Um, so this morning, when I was like getting up and getting the house ready and getting the kids ready for school, I was like, I'm not going to order a tea because I've already gained a lot of weight since vacation and like I'm trying to filter things out. I'm not going to crack open a Diet Coke. Let me crack open a Celsius. So now, here I am, at 9 a.m., cracking open the Celsius. We've already talked for about six minutes of pre-episode banter that has nothing to do with true crime, because I guess I am wired.

• 7:19Speaker 04

  You're chatty Cathy.

• 7:20Annie Elise?

  Moral of the story, it is cracking a can. So, here I am.

• 7:25Speaker 04

  You've seen it written in a Tumblr.

• 7:28Annie Elise?

  That's a good idea, but I don't know if it would still hit the same with like a straw, because you know how when you have a straw, it goes faster, like the intake is more aggressive, which is what I love for a fountain Diet Coke, but like,

• 7:38Speaker 04

  Too much.

• 7:38Annie Elise?

  It might be too much. So let me take a sip of my Kiwi Strawberry Celsius. Not sponsored, but Celsius, hit up your girl.

• 7:47Annie Elise?

  I know, I do need a code. It's not that good.

• 7:51Speaker 04

  It doesn't sound good, if I'm being really honest.

• 7:53Annie Elise?

  It's not that good. So, I don't know. We'll see where, we'll see where today takes us. I like end up recording like 12 episodes today. I'm just like, my eyes aren't even blinking. I'm just going, um,

• 8:04Speaker 04

  For us.

• 8:05Annie Elise?

  Okay, okay. Or let's get serious, guys. Um, no, okay, so today is obviously Headline Highlights, where we are going through all the different cases that are happening right now in the true crime world. And, well, I was kind of surprised in a happy way that there weren't a ton of cases to cover this week. I was like, oh, maybe we're like getting our shit together as, you know, the humankind. The, um, there are a lot of cases that have the same kind of thread weaved throughout them, which is very disturbing. But, before we get into those new cases, let's do a couple updates really quick. So a lot of you guys have been requesting that I talk about this case, and we did talk a little bit about it last week on Headline Highlights, but it's the case that is breaking out of Ohio, and

• 8:49Annie Elise?

  it is the Tepe case, with the dentist and his wife who were found brutally murdered inside their home. So let me give you a quick little recap on this before I get into the updates. So right after Christmas, police responded to a home, and they found Spencer and Monique Tepe shot and killed inside. But then, they realized even something more disturbing. Their two young kids were inside the house as they found their parents, but the kids luckily were alive. They had not been hurt. But at this point, everything pretty much shifted in the investigation because now you're not just talking about a double homicide, you're also talking about children who were there inside this family home and their parents just kind of killed and wiped out in a single

• 9:33Annie Elise?

  night with a ton of unanswered questions left. So, pretty quickly, the investigator started looking at Monique's ex-husband, Michael McKee. He and Monique had been married from 2015 to 2017. So although not super recent, they were trying to see if there were any connections anywhere because this looked very deliberate, it looked very targeted. So they, of course, were going to look into people who were close with the couple, right? So, from everything that had been reported, their divorce was not messy at all. It was also a very short-lived marriage, two years, right? Two years, almost 10 years ago now. There were no big, public blowups, nothing that would, on the surface, immediately make you think that things could

• 10:15Annie Elise?

  ever end up this way. But sure enough, they did make an arrest, and that is who they arrested. They say that Michael shot both Monique and her current husband Spencer, and then fled the state. So, he ended up being arrested in Illinois, where he was living at the time, and this was after investigators say that they had tracked him using a mix of surveillance footage, vehicle information, and digital data that placed him at the family's home, and also showed his movements afterwards. But, like I said, prosecutors are calling it a very targeted, very intentional act. Not random, not a break-in gone wrong, something that was methodical, thought out, and planned, which, it makes you wonder, not only what

• 10:57Annie Elise?

  was the underlying motive that made him do this, but how long had that hatred and resentment been brewing? If they had been divorced for almost, you know, just shy of a decade, this is something that must have been in motion for a while, I would imagine. And there, we have been doing a lot of research in this. We have pulled so many documents, so much information. So, yes, a deep dive is coming very, very soon.

• 11:24Annie Elise?

  And some of those questions will be answered, but he is now facing two counts of murder and he's also in the process of being extradited back to Ohio, which I just saw that the other day he waived his right to extradition or whatever. So that's kind of where we're at with everything. But like I said, through our research, there is a lot below the line here regarding 911 calls that were made and accusations made well before the murders, some things from the past. So it's too much to lay out in a headline highlights episode. So the deep dive is coming. It will be here sooner than you think, probably within the next couple of days. So make sure if you are watching the video version of this, take a quick second, press the red subscribe button so that you don't miss when that comes out.

• 12:08Annie Elise?

  And if you are listening to the audio version of this episode, make sure wherever the little three dots in the corner are or whatever is going on, that you are following the podcast so that you don't miss that because it has become clear that there is so much more going on here. I mean, details, timelines, context, so much that we haven't even touched on or have started to unpack yet. So that is coming very soon. In another case update, I want to talk about the Nick Reiner case because this case took a pretty unexpected turn last week. Or was it, was it last week? Yeah, I guess it was end of last week. So as you know, Nick Reiner is charged in the death of his parents and literally right before he was supposed to be back in court, his defense attorney, Alan Jackson, suddenly

• 12:53Annie Elise?

  just stepped away from the case, which Alan Jackson, as a reminder, isn't just any attorney. It's the same guy who notoriously represented Karen Reed, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey. He used to be, I believe he used to be an LA prosecutor and then he changed over to a defense attorney. I'm pretty positive that that's his, you know. I guess you call it resume. I don't even know, whatever. But Alan released a statement saying, quote, "That there were circumstances beyond our control and that he just could not continue representing Nick." However, he didn't explain what that actually means, what those circumstances are. But what made it even stranger is that even after dropping him as a client, Alan still went out of his way to say that Nick is not guilty,

• 13:38Annie Elise?

  specifically that he is not guilty under California law. But then he stopped short of giving any more detail. So this obviously raised a lot of eyebrows, right? First and foremost, why is he no longer representing him? Which my gut tells me it's the money. I'm sure the siblings aren't on board with paying for this high-priced fancy attorney. Obviously, we know Nick doesn't have a ton of money to his name either. So that's why the public defender is now representing him. But also, Alan Jackson's very carefully curated choice of words of him not being guilty under California law, when we also saw outside of the courthouse a couple of weeks ago, when he said, "Don't jump to conclusions. There's a lot more to this." We don't know where this is going to go.

• 14:21Annie Elise?

  We have heard of the rumors that Nick had suffered from schizophrenia and different mental health disorders and things like that. I think that they are going to say that he was clinically and legally insane at the time of these murders. That's just my guess. I'm not an attorney. I'm not a doctor. But I think that that's what they are going to say and what they're going to try to prove, that he wasn't in his right mind at the time of these murders, so that, under California law, he cannot be held responsible and that he is not guilty of murder. So again, very carefully chosen words. And I could be completely freaking wrong here, but that's where I'm going with this. That's what I am thinking. So like I said, there's been a lot of speculation that this whole thing just came down to money and that that's why Alan Jackson is no longer representing him.

• 15:05Annie Elise?

  They think that maybe the family has cut any sort of financial support from Nick and, you know, that there's other things at play behind the scenes. But We also know that Alan Jackson is definitely not, you know, what you would call budget friendly in terms of his cost. He is a very high-priced attorney, so I think that all of that really does align. So because of the last-minute switch, as I mentioned, Nick is now being represented by the LA County Public Defender's Office, and his arraignment has been pushed back to February to give his new defense team time to get up to speed, gather all the discovery, the evidence, and, you know, figure out their strategy. So we'll see what happens. We will see what the family says, if it ends up being confirmed that this all does come down to,

• 15:47Annie Elise?

  you know, financial support and what the defense, the new defense, is going to now argue for Nick. But speaking of Alan Jackson, I don't know if any of you listening have watched yet, and I don't know, Amy, if you have watched, over the weekend, a new Lifetime movie came out about Karen Reed, and it has my girl Katie Cassidy in it. She stars as Karen Reed.

• 16:08Speaker 04

  Other homework, too. There's so many docs.

• 16:10Annie Elise?

  Oh, my God. Well, his and hers isn't, yeah, is fiction, but it's very good. I just finished it last night. Yeah, so the new Lifetime movie, I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but I have seen reaction clips out there, and we're like Aiden Turtle Boy, the, you know, the guy who like really took the story and gave it a lot of legs. He's even featured in it, not him himself, but somebody like an actor portrays him, like, because he had such a big role in all this. So I'm interested to watch it and see what kind of perspective they give. And I love Katie Cassidy. I think she's great. I never would have thought of her as being somebody to play Karen.

• 16:48Speaker 04

  No, but now I can kind of see it now that you said.

• 16:50Annie Elise?

  And they did great with like the makeup and the wig and all of that. She, so I don't know. I'm a sucker for Lifetime. I love Lifetime movies. Honestly, I've been a sucker since I was like too young to be watched, like 20 years old, and I would just watch LMN, the Lifetime Movie Network on repeat, and I saw every Lifetime movie that had ever aired. So maybe I need to get back to my roots and like watch more Lifetime.

• 17:13Speaker 04

  No, I mean, I'm down to watch it.

• 17:14Annie Elise?

  Maybe that is, we should have an office watch party at lunch. Elizabeth, no, I'm just kidding. Um, okay. So yeah, we'll see what goes on with that, but those are the updates. Now, as I had said, the cases, the new cases that Amy and I are going to be sharing with you today, it's interesting because while there weren't as many to choose from, which is very, you know, happy, you know, like that makes me feel good that, okay, great. There's not so much true crime out there right now. Maybe we're getting our shit together finally as like a nation, which we're obviously not. But, um, they all have like the same undercurrent. And it's like, we like all true crime usually does, but like

• 17:52Speaker 04

  Family, mother, stepfather.

• 17:54Annie Elise?

  House of horrors, skeletons, like weird stuff. So I know you found this first one. So why don't, and I don't even know much about it. So why don't you break it down for us?

• 18:03Speaker 04

  Okay. Yeah. And today's, I know we often say we have more questions than answers after researching some of these. And this one is similar only because I could kind of put myself at the age of this young girl and I have some questions. So I'm interested to hear what you guys think. So this next one comes out of Mobile, Alabama, and it's just really heartbreaking to hear because it involves a 14 year old girl who was left behind by her mother and stepfather and forced to survive on her own for almost a year inside of a home that was filled with filth and animals and just super poor living conditions. And the whole time she was left alone, her mother and stepfather were actually working in a completely different state.

• 18:47Speaker 04

  According to investigators, this came to light when the teenager was seen stumbling down the road outside of a Dollar General store in Mobile County. Players noticed she appeared disoriented and unwell, and then they ended up contacting the authorities. And when the deputies arrived, the girl was reportedly complaining of dizziness and had a lot of stomach pain. And so eventually she was taken to the hospital for evaluation. The welfare check would ultimately expose what law enforcement says was a year long abandonment. When deputies followed up at the home where the girl said she had lived, what they found was very disturbing. Authorities say the mobile home was in extremely unsanitary condition and you can see in the photos that the floors were covered in dog feces, urine, trash was piled throughout the entire residence.

• 19:34Speaker 04

  And there was even an infestation of roaches and bugs. And inside the home, there were seven dogs. And not just seven dogs, but one that was found dead inside a closet. And animal control ended up removing all of the dogs that were found still alive inside the home. The girl had told investigators that she had been living completely alone since February 2024, shortly after she turned 14. According to police, her mother and stepfather had moved out of the state, leaving her behind with the dogs, and she had absolutely no adult supervision.

• 20:08Speaker 05

  Worker says she's dialed for help after seeing the girl stumbling outside, and it quickly turned into a child abuse investigation. Mobile County deputies responded to the Dollar General on Jarrett Road, January 4th, after worker Jessica Smitherman called saying a young girl was staggering, her stomach hurt, and she kept passing out. Looked like she had not had a bath in months. She had dog hair all over her clothes. She smelled very bad, so I knew she needed some kind of help. The 14-year-old was taken to the hospital, where investigators learned she had been living alone in a mobile home since around her birthday last February.

• 20:46Speaker 06

  The condition of the mobile home was just deplorable and not something that any human or even any animal should be living in.

• 20:59Speaker 05

  Sheriff Paul Birch says deputies found urine, feces, trash, and seven dogs on the property, one dead inside a closet.

• 21:08Speaker 04

  And that's where the timeline becomes a little more alarming, because investigators say the girl reported that her last in-person contact with her mother and stepfather was around Halloween 2025, so months ago. Since then, she's only communicated with them through Snapchat messages. The girl said her mother would occasionally arrange food deliveries, such as Walmart or DoorDash, but otherwise she was left to fend for herself, including caring for all of those animals inside that disgusting, filthy home. And inside the home, deputies also reportedly found a handwritten note, which this is absolutely heartbreaking, that painted a painful picture of what life looked like for this poor child.

• 21:49Speaker 04

  The note was titled, quote, "How many times Mom tells me that she can't pick me up?" exclamation mark. And it had a total of eighty-seven tally marks, which investigators believe showed repeated promises from the mother that were just never kept. The girl's mother has been identified as Michelle Lynn Portilla and her stepfather as Eugene Medrano. According to the Mobile County Sheriff's Office, the couple had been living and working in Pensacola, Florida, roughly about an hour away while the girl was left alone in Alabama. When questioned, the mother claimed she left her daughter behind because the girl didn't want to move without her animals, which she had referred to as service animals. However, authorities said that it was unclear whether the dogs were legitimate service animals.

• 22:33Speaker 04

  Regardless, they emphasized that a minor can't legally be left alone in those conditions. Both adults were arrested and charged with child abuse and multiple counts of animal cruelty. They were booked into the county metro jail and as of most recent reports, the investigation still remains active and additional charges have not been ruled out. Authorities have said what ultimately saved this girl's life was that the concerned employee chose not to turn a blind eye and actually made the call to authorities. And otherwise, this poor girl may have continued living in these awful living conditions. And so that really saved her and we always say, if you see something, say something. As with most cases involving minors, many details have not yet been released.

• 23:15Speaker 04

  What we know right now is just based on law enforcement and the court filings, even at this early stage, the facts laid out by investigators raise serious questions about how a child could be left alone for this long and how so many of these warning signs left unnoticed. And that's kind of where my questions came in because I was thinking back to being fourteen and a lot of my friends were left alone, you know, while their parents are at work or sometimes like you've been on a vacation if they had an older sibling and While I certainly couldn't have like sustained caring for myself or possibly all these animals. I think I would have been able to like keep things a little more sanitary or at least known to call for help.

• 24:01Annie Elise?

  Unless she was raised in those conditions.

• 24:03Speaker 04

  That's kind of what I was.

• 24:04Annie Elise?

  And maybe she didn't, yeah, maybe she didn't know any better. And I know they were only an hour away, even though technically it's a different state, but. I wonder where the, I know they, they had said that they were sending food deliveries here and there. Were they also giving her money? Because how was she paying for the surviving dogs' food? I would imagine they probably never were groomed and maybe that was also part of the bugs and the. Fleas and things like that. But was she not in school? Was she going to school? Was she going to school dirty? Why did nobody call? If she didn't go to school, why weren't those phone calls made like?

• 24:35Speaker 04

  Why communication primarily through social media?

• 24:37Annie Elise?

  Right.

• 24:38Speaker 04

  The parents were doing something for work that. Like, did they not want to be tracked because they knew they shouldn't have left their daughter alone or because? What they were doing.

• 24:48Annie Elise?

  Yeah. Why, yeah. Why communicate through Snapchat? And like, I'm sorry.

• 24:54Speaker 04

  So why the long period of time without any communication at all?

• 24:59Annie Elise?

  Right. It seems like they were kind of just, I mean, in my opinion, over being parents. Like. They were like fend for yourself and then for them to, for the mom to say, well, she didn't want to leave behind her animals. I don't care. You are the parent. Like, you reel it in.

• 25:12Speaker 04

  But I was wondering, is that also motivation and maybe why the girl didn't call? Because maybe she really did have an attachment to the animals and knew if.

• 25:20Annie Elise?

  Maybe.

• 25:21Speaker 04

  She had to go that she would be leaving them. And so I feel like there is a lot more questions. That's why I was asking. I'm curious to know what everyone thinks because. I feel like there's a lot.

• 25:30Annie Elise?

  There's, yeah. And because you're right, because she's a minor, it's not all going to be released right now. It'll come out and like, I hate this expression, in drips and drabs. But I know I hate that expression, but like, it'll slowly start coming out, but. It seems to me like, I don't know, I don't want to jump to conclusions, but it seems like deadbeat parents, they left her to go do their own thing, work far away, which if it's an hour away, also commute. Why do you need to live in another state? Like, why do you leave your daughter? Make the hour drive every day if you're working there. Yeah, a lot of questions. Was she in school? I don't know. It's, it's interesting. I know.

• 26:07Speaker 04

  I feel like oftentimes you see people, I mean, I'm sure her being a minor was.

• 26:12Annie Elise?

  And you know, I like, I'm thinking there's a case, what is her name? Lacey Fletcher? I might be getting it confused with another case, but there was a similar house of horrors a couple of years ago. I think it was Lacey Fletcher. I'm not entirely sure. I know everybody's probably screaming right now in their car, it's this, Annie, it's this. But where their child was special needs and that's why they left her because they didn't want to take care of her. Not saying that this child was, however, if there were feces, urine, things like that, either she grew up in those conditions and didn't know any better, or maybe there was some sort of element there and that's why she also needed service animals or things like that. And maybe that's why things got so out of control or unruly. I don't know.

• 26:55Speaker 04

  I don't know, but when you look at those photos and you, it's just unbelievable that someone would know that their child was living in that condition because you know as a parent what your kids are capable of doing.

• 27:05Annie Elise?

  Absolutely.

• 27:06Speaker 04

  For themselves and regardless, that's far, far, far too long.

• 27:10Annie Elise?

  I feel bad denying Emmy Lou her third pack of chocolate muffins. Like.

• 27:15Speaker 04

  You know what happens.

• 27:17Annie Elise?

  True. I know. She's so scary. Um, oh my gosh. Awful.

• 27:27Annie Elise?

  This episode is sponsored by Chime. Get more of your money with Chime. With the Chime card, you get 5% cash back in a category of your choice with qualifying direct deposits. From gas to travel to dining, choose the category that fits where you're spending most that month, then try switching it up next month. If you're spending a thousand dollars a month on groceries, you could get up to 600 a year back. Plus, you get travel perks like airport lounge access and 24/7 travel concierge. Included with your Chime card. There are no annual fees, no interest, and no credit check to apply. Join the millions who already are banking fee-free with America's number one choice for banking. Head to chime.com/serialistically. That is chime.com/serialistically. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes.

• 28:12Annie Elise?

  Chime is a fintech, not bank. Banking services and Chime card provided by Chime's bank partners. Qualifying direct deposits required. Terms and limits apply. Go to chime.com/disclosures for details.

• 28:31Annie Elise?

  Okay, so this next case, kind of a common thread, but I have been getting so many DMs, comments, story forwards, tags, like you name it, about this case. And honestly, it's one of those stories where the more you learn about it, the harder it is to like, wrap your head around how this even not only happened, but how it went on for so long. So this involves a man named Jonathan Gurlach, 34 years old, from Pennsylvania. And he is now accused of carrying out what authorities are calling one of the most disturbing and extensive grave-robbing operations that they have ever seen. And what's wild is this case didn't just start with some like, big dramatic moment. It actually started very quietly,

• 29:16Annie Elise?

  almost invisibly. So, police had been looking into repeated grave burglaries at Mount Moriah Cemetery, which is a massive historic cemetery just outside of Philadelphia. Vaults were being forced open, mausoleums were damaged, and in some cases, it even appeared that human remains were going missing. And at first, it wasn't clear at all who was responsible here. But after more than two dozen break-ins, the investigators decided to step up surveillance to figure out what the hell was really going on here. They wanted to start watching who was coming and going from this cemetery. And that is when everything changed. During that surveillance, police noted a vehicle that had been parked nearby. And when they went to go take a closer

• 29:59Annie Elise?

  look, they saw something in the backseat that immediately made it clear that this wasn't just- vandalism, or someone, you know, being in the cemetery after hours. There were human remains inside this car. According to prosecutors, that single moment tied the entire string of grave burglaries to one single person, 34-year-old Jonathan. So on January 6th, 2026, police stopped Jonathan as he was walking back toward that same vehicle. This time, he was carrying a crowbar and this burlap bag. And inside that bag, authorities say that there were mummified remains of two small children, along with multiple skulls and other bones.

• 30:41Annie Elise?

  So, once he was taken into custody, the investigators then executed search warrants on his home and also a nearby storage unit that was in his name. And what they found there is what law enforcement has described as one of the most disturbing scenes they have ever encountered. In Jonathan's basement and his storage unit, authorities say that they uncovered more than 100 sets of human remains. I'm talking skulls, long bones, mummified hands and feet, decomposing torsos, some still even wearing jewelry on their body. And in at least one case, a pacemaker was still embedded inside the body.

• 31:19Speaker 07

  John Paul, 680 C. Can you tell us a little bit more about when you found these skeletons in the house? Where were they? What condition were they in? What was he doing with them?

• 31:31Speaker 08

  So, John, a lot remains to be determined. At this point, they were in the basement predominantly, although, as you can imagine, with 100 remains, it was not as though they were in an isolated area. We don't know exactly what he was doing with them. Time will tell. They were in various states. Understand, some of these are 200 years old.

• 31:51Annie Elise?

  The district attorney later said that walking into that home felt like stepping into a horror movie, except this was obviously real life. It reminds me of that movie too, House of a Thousand Corpses. I think it's a Rob Zombie movie. It's also who does... What's the other one? I know you guys are screaming it. I'm gonna need to Google it after this, but they are like two of my favorite movies. It's like Rob Zombie, his wife and like the parents. It's so creepy and gross, but like, yeah, this is real life. So at this point, investigators realized they weren't dealing with just some one-off crime. They were dealing with something very systematic, something planned, ongoing. Police believe that many of these remains came from the Mount Moriah Cemetery, which also dates back all of the way to 1855.

• 32:35Annie Elise?

  And this cemetery contains more than 150,000 burials. The cemetery has struggled with neglect and security issues for years, which makes it, of course, very vulnerable. And this is something that investigators believe Jonathan really took advantage of. So you would think that, okay, this is disturbing enough, right? What a freak. Why on earth was he doing this? Like, is he some just like weird perv? Some weird like skeleton obsessor? What's going on? But as they kept digging into this, things then got even darker. Because court documents suggest that Jonathan may not have been keeping all of these remains for himself. Investigators actually uncovered digital evidence that indicated that some of these bones may have been sold or traded online.

• 33:20Annie Elise?

  Because as we know, there is a huge market for weird-ass shit on the internet. And not only people trading, you know, organs or this or that, but people who want to buy actual human remains or trade them. And people online have since pointed to different posts in like oddity collector groups and images allegedly shared on social media that are images believed to show human remains taken from disturbed graves. And like I said, prosecutors have confirmed that some of the remains that were recovered are believed to belong to children. Which kind of adds this whole other sick and twisted layer, right? Even if there is a market for people who want to buy human remains because they, you know, are fascinated or they're just freaks of nature,

• 34:05Annie Elise?

  they want children's remains? That is so sick and twisted. Jonathan has admitted to breaking into dozens of graves, but authorities say that the sheer volume of remains- that were found points to one of the most extensive grave robbing cases that they have ever seen. So he is now facing hundreds of criminal charges, including more than 100 counts related to abuse of a corpse, along with theft, burglary, desecration, and even more. He's being held on a $1 million bail and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for later this month.

• 34:36Speaker 08

  Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Tanner Rouse. I'm the District Attorney of Delaware County, and we are here today because of the arrest of 34-year-old Jonathan Gerlock of Ephraim, Pennsylvania. Over the course of the last several weeks, detectives from Yaden Borough, as well as Delaware County CID, became aware that from November of 2025 up until two days ago, January 2026, Mount Moriah Cemetery had been burglarized by, at that point, an unknown individual. 26 separate mausoleums and/or underground burial sites had been torn into and, for lack of a better word, desecrated. Investigation

• 35:18Speaker 08

  took place. Yaden deserves a hell of a lot of credit on this for doing real-fashioned police work, going through LPRs, tracking physical evidence, piecing together a suspect, cooperating with CID. We developed that suspect, we laid in wait, and we eventually watched and caught Mr. Gerlock as he desecrated yet another monument as recently as two days ago. He's taken into custody, search warrants were executed at his home in Ephraim, where over 100 human skeletons were recovered. And that's in part, at this point, we are still trying to figure out how many of those are complete and what exactly we are looking at. A separate storage locker was found to be in Mr. Gerlock's possession. That also

• 36:01Speaker 08

  was in Ephraim. We found there eight more human remains. Very simply, detectives have recovered an awful lot of bones at this point, and we are still trying to piece together who they are, where they are from, and how many we are looking at. And it's going to be quite some time before we have a final answer. He is now arrested. Bail has been set at $1 million cash by Judge Williams. He is in on 26 counts of burglary, criminal trespass, and a host of other offenses. Kelly Wilson, who's handling our media affairs, is going to pass out a complaint, so you guys have the complete list of charges at your disposal.

• 36:40Speaker 08

  Very simply detectives walked into a horror movie come to life the other night, I guess. This is an unbelievable scene that no one involved, from myself to the detectives, to the medical examiners that are now trying to piece together what they are looking at, quite literally. None of them have ever seen anything like this before.

• 36:59Annie Elise?

  But what makes this case so beyond unsettling isn't just the number of charges or how graphic the details are, but it's the questions that it raises. Because how many families would go and visit their loved ones without knowing that these graves have already been violated and that their loved one wasn't even in there anymore? How long had this been happening before anybody noticed? And why would somebody collect and possibly sell human remains in the first place? I know there's a market for everything, as I said, but like, come on. So we're still uncovering a lot of new details as this case develops. And there is so much going on here that has not been reported so far. So let me know if you want the deep dive, because I will do the legwork and get the answers.

• 37:44Speaker 04

  I have a couple of questions.

• 37:45Annie Elise?

  Oh, great. Hit me.

• 37:46Speaker 04

  Okay, number one, when you say there's a market, which I'm obviously not surprised there's a market for everything, for bones and things like that. Is that a black market or can you legally buy bones? Obviously not that we're dug up illegally, but like, if you had possession of bones, are you able to sell them?

• 38:06Annie Elise?

  Maybe for like a paleontologist, I don't know.

• 38:08Speaker 04

  For educational purposes or research or whatever?

• 38:11Annie Elise?

  Probably.

• 38:11Speaker 04

  Just have like, people are fascinated with taxidermy, like, could you? My first question. Secondly, if someone passes away in your family or whatever, and you are the person who decides what happens with, are you allowed to keep a body? Like, could you preserve the bones yourself? I'm just thinking.

• 38:29Annie Elise?

  You probably could, but like...

• 38:31Speaker 04

  Not that you'd ever want to, just curious. There's a market, so I'm just thinking.

• 38:34Annie Elise?

  I'm taking you off my estate planning right now.

• 38:37Speaker 04

  I'm just thinking, this guy is selling bones. Obviously, he's got some fetish thing probably going.

• 38:43Annie Elise?

  Well, yeah, it's the money, I'm sure. He's probably making money selling it.

• 38:46Speaker 04

  But if there's this market, where do people normally get these bones? My question.

• 38:50Annie Elise?

  Probably like the black market, is my guess.

• 38:52Speaker 04

  Illegally sourced, or do people sometimes not bury or cremate someone and they just have possession?

• 38:59Annie Elise?

  I hope nobody listening has the answer, okay? Because I don't like any of that.

• 39:06Speaker 04

  It's crazy because I mean, you donate things to science and I don't know.

• 39:11Annie Elise?

  Okay, I, the DMV, you put the donor sticker of like, I'll donate my organs. And I know that there's been rumors forever that like, if you have that sticker, they won't save your life. Yeah, which I don't know, I don't either, but like, there's no sticker saying, "Take my bones and sell them on the black market." But there is.

• 39:29Speaker 04

  The executor of your.

• 39:32Annie Elise?

  I want my, I want to be cremated. No bones for you. Yeah, no, but there is a weird market for stuff like this. I did a case, I covered a case, maybe six months ago, and I don't know if you remember this, where there is a market where people were, um, like, not circumcising. What's the word I'm looking for? What's the word where you?

• 39:53Speaker 04

  Castration?

• 39:53Annie Elise?

  Yes, thank you. I was having, where they ca, like, self-castration.

• 39:58Speaker 04

  Self-castration?

• 39:59Annie Elise?

  Yes, and also where you would hire somebody to come and castrate you. Like, weird fetishes and weird groups on the internet. Yeah. Or you keep it as a trophy.

• 40:10Speaker 04

  You sell it legally?

• 40:12Annie Elise?

  I don't know, I don't want to talk about this anymore. Okay, like, I'm tapping out, the Celsius isn't hitting enough for this conversation right now. Um, gosh, okay. So that's what we've got for headline highlights today. What a heavy one, but like I said, don't forget, subscribe, follow if you haven't already, because the deep dive into the Tepe family is coming. And I want to make sure you don't miss that, because so many of you guys have been messaging me about it. And look, if you want the deep dive into the House of a Hundred Corpses, I'll call it, I will do it for you because I love you. But I really hope you guys don't request it secretly. So that's what we've got for today.

• 40:54Annie Elise?

  What else? I was gonna say, oh, on Tuesday, we put out the episode of Erin Caffey. If you're not familiar with that episode or that case, she is a teen who orchestrated her entire family's murder. It's pretty unbelievable. So that's on the 10 to Life feed. It's all housed on the same YouTube channel, but for my podcast listeners, just a friendly reminder, we have two podcasts, Serialistically and 10 to Life. So go check out that, new episodes every Tuesday. And then, yeah, I'll be back with you guys Monday with an all new case. Or I think maybe actually tomorrow with a bonus episode. If you are, if you listen on Apple, if you sign up for Annie Elyse Plus, you get access to about

• 41:35Annie Elise?

  100 bonus episodes right now, bonus cases, and we do a new one every other Friday. So they're exclusive on Apple and on Patreon. So you can do that either on Apple Podcast app or patreon.com/AnnieElyse. Anything else? I think that you covered it. That was a mouthful. Okay. Until the next one, be nice, don't kill people, don't sell any bones, don't rob any graves, and If you see something, say something. If you see something, say something. That's a great one. And just don't be a freak. Should that be a new motto? Like, don't be a freak. That's it. Okay. Bye.

• 42:25Speaker 09

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