Police in Hungary have arrested a 30-year-old man who investigators allege collected human body parts that he’d gathered from abandoned cemeteries and from his workplace at a hospital.
Hungary’s National Bureau of Investigation announced that the 30-year-old man from Budapest was arrested on suspicion of illegal use of human bodies.
“During the search, the prepared human face, facial skin, bones stored in a suitcase, a complete lower leg, brain, hand, head, skulls and a heart were found from a jar,” Hungary’s National Bureau of Investigation wrote. “The last part of the body is still investigated whether it is human or animal origin, but beyond that, every seized remains will be examined by a forensic expert.”
The National Bureau of Investigation said that during the man’s interrogation, he said he was “particularly attracted to human body parts, from which he had prepared food for himself and consumed them in various ways.”
In their statement, police said the man is “passionate about anatomy and pathology, and likes to dissect animals.” They suspect he obtained the body parts through his work at a hospital and by digging up bodies “in abandoned cemeteries in Slovakia and Hungary,” according to The Associated Press.
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Police also seized the man’s computer, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, SIM and data cards.
The man is currently being held on suspicion of illegal use of human bodies.
This isn’t the first time a situation like this has taken place.
In January, a Pennsylvania man was arrested and is facing more than 500 charges after he was accused of stealing human skulls and “numerous” skeletal remains from an abandoned cemetery on Philadelphia’s outskirts, according to police.
Bones and skulls visible in the back seat of a car near the cemetery led police to the home and storage unit of Jonathan Gerlach, 34, after police were looking into a string of burglaries.
Investigators checked Gerlach’s licence plates and found that he had been near the cemetery repeatedly during the period when the burglaries occurred.
Officers said the Jan. 6 arrest culminated a months-long investigation into break-ins at Mount Moriah Cemetery, where at least 26 mausoleums and vaults had been forced open since early November 2025.
After searching Gerlach’s home and storage unit, investigators reported finding more than 100 human skulls, long bones, mummified hands and feet, two decomposing torsos and other skeletal items.
“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life in that home. 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 this, who are trying to figure out if it is, in fact, one of their loved ones,” Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said.
Police say Gerlach targeted mausoleums and underground vaults at the cemetery, which was established in 1855. Gerlach was arrested as he walked back toward his car with a crowbar, police said.
He was charged with 100 counts each of abuse of a corpse and receiving stolen property, along with multiple counts of desecrating a public monument, desecrating a venerated object, desecrating a historic burial place, burglary, trespassing and theft.
— with files from The Associated Press
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