Credit: Lower Moreland Police Department.
The Lower Moreland Police Department announced that Michael V. Evangelist Jr., 37, was turned over to their custody to face multiple charges, including theft, burglary, and institutional vandalism, according to police.
Evangelist is accused of stealing mausoleum doors from cemeteries across Cheltenham, Abington, Lower Moreland, and Springfield following a months-long investigation. He was initially arrested in September.
According to police, the investigation began on Feb. 3 when officers responded to Forest Hills Cemetery in Huntingdon Valley for a report of two bronze mausoleum doors stolen from a crypt. The doors, valued at roughly $31,500, had been removed by unscrewing the hinges. Investigators also found a broken section of glass and window frame nearby, indicating the doors had likely been cut into smaller pieces at the scene.
Police later identified Evangelist as a suspect and discovered he had sold several pieces of cut bronze mausoleum doors to a metal recycling company. Detectives determined that Evangelist had visited scrap yards during the same periods that similar thefts were reported in Montgomery, Bucks, and Delaware counties, as well as Philadelphia.
Surveillance footage from Feb. 2 shows Evangelist at a Philadelphia scrapyard unloading large metal pieces that matched the stolen Forest Hills Cemetery doors, police said. An arrest warrant was subsequently issued.
Evangelist was transferred from Bucks County to Lower Moreland Police to be charged with: (4) counts of Theft by Unlawful Taking – Movable Property, (3) counts of Criminal Trespass – Break Into Structure, (5) counts of Institutional Vandalism (Cemetery), (3) counts of Burglary – Building Without Overnight Accommodation, and (3) counts of Possessing Instruments of Crime.
Police also noted that Evangelist was previously arrested in 2023 in connection with a multimillion-dollar organized criminal enterprise.
