LEOLA - A mother, who identifies on a social media website that she is from Belleville, and her daughter were found dead as the result of an apparent double-homicide in a Lancaster County home Saturday, East Lampeter Township Police Department reports.
Police said Gary Charles Gerlach, 22, was arrested in Wildwood, N.J., on Sunday and charged with two counts of criminal homicide. Police said he will remain jailed in New Jersey, pending his extradition to Lancaster County.
Police said officers entered a residence at 224 Lemon Lane in Leola after receiving a call for a "deceased individual" at around 1:25 p.m. Saturday. When officers arrived, two females, identified as Mona Jean Hess, 56, and her daughter, Makenzie Lauren Hess, 22, were found dead, apparently the result of homicides, according to police.
The Lancaster County coroner said that autopsies will be performed Monday.
Mona Hess had posted on her Facebook page that she was from Belleville, studied business at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., and worked as a paralegal at Dell Law Firm in Lancaster County.
Police said the investigation is ongoing, but at this time no additional suspects are being sought.
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Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
