On June 19, 2026, a federal park ranger stopped a BMW on the 600 block of Market Street in Philadelphia's Old City. The driver, Eugene Horsch, forty-four, was carrying credentials identifying him as a federal law enforcement officer and a DEA agent. A woman in the car, whom police have not named, gave the ranger identification belonging to a woman who had been missing since 2023. The stop led to searches of Eugene Horsch's home at 417 West Chew Avenue in the Olney section of the city, and the house led back to his father.
Raymond Horsch, known as R.C., had owned the Chew Avenue property until he transferred it to his son in 2006, and he lived there. He described himself as a pornographer. He was an erotic photographer and filmmaker whose work included violent themes and staged depictions of women and death, among them a book titled Eroto: To The Prurient Interest. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that he recruited women struggling with addiction, offering them money and drugs in exchange for sex and appearances in his films and photographs, and that some stayed in the house. A cousin of one missing woman said he placed ads on Craigslist and preyed on women working as prostitutes. He had a criminal history involving counterfeiting, drug manufacturing, false identities and firearms. He died in May 2025, at eighty-two; published biographical information gives the cause as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Three days later a fire in a second-floor bedroom of the house led police to firearms and a marijuana-growing operation, and Eugene was jailed.
The searches in 2026 turned up drugs, chemicals, guns, fake FBI and DEA credentials, and five urns believed to contain human remains. By August 12 police had recovered about 600,000 images and 70,000 videos from hard drives, and the FBI was working through more than a million files from father and son. In August police said the material appeared to show two missing women, Maribel Fresses and Gabrielle Amarando, alive and later dead; their remains had not been found and no cause or manner of death could be determined. Fresses, twenty-eight, had been reported missing in Philadelphia in 2018. Blair Tonzelli was reported missing in 2023. Amy McHale, forty-four, who had been married to R.C. Horsch, was last seen at the house; her daughter, Amanda Stofer, said McHale left her a voicemail the day she disappeared. "She left me a voicemail, and she said she was at Ray's, and that's where Ray lives," she said.
On August 28 the Inquirer reported that police believed a recovered video showed Raymond Horsch killing a woman on camera. At a news conference in September police said it appeared to show him strangling a woman with a zip tie, and her family identified her as Nicole Fusaro, who disappeared in 2018 at twenty-seven. Some of the recovered material shows women who appear unconscious or lifeless, but police have not confirmed that anyone died inside the house, and no body has been found. Police have said they believe five women connected to R.C. Horsch are dead, and that close to sixty people had been identified in the files.
Eugene Horsch was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of possessing a firearm as a felon and possessing an unlawfully produced document and authentication feature, and Pennsylvania withdrew its five state charges on August 6 as federal prosecutors took over. He has not been charged with any offense related to the missing women or any death, and police have declined to say whether they believe he or his father was involved in the presumed deaths. His lawyer, Jerome Brown, said he knew nothing of what was in the basement and that writings found in the house referring to Ted Bundy belonged to his father. His federal trial was postponed to at least March 2027.
Raymond Horsch was never charged with any crime involving these women and cannot be tried. What is known about him comes from the material police have described and the investigation that was still under way in September 2026.