Seven women who disappeared over more than a decade have been linked to a Philadelphia house where investigators recovered more than 1 million images and videos, including footage that police say appears to show women unconscious, injured or dead.
Five of the seven women are believed to be dead, although no bodies have been recovered, Philadelphia police said Wednesday. The expanding investigation centers on Raymond “R.C.” Horsch, a photographer of sexually explicit material who died in 2025 at 82, and the home he shared with his son.
Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said investigators have identified 58 people depicted in material recovered from the house. Four appeared lifeless or unconscious, while 10 others later died of suspected drug overdoses at locations away from the property, he said.
Police have located 41 other people seen in the material. Sixteen declined or were reluctant to be interviewed, while detectives were working to interview another 25, according to Vanore.
Investigators have reviewed only about 30% of the digital evidence, leaving hundreds of thousands of images and videos to be examined. Authorities have not announced homicide charges in connection with any of the missing women.
The case began with an apparently unrelated encounter in June, when a federal park ranger approached an illegally parked BMW near Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. Inside were Horsch’s 44-year-old son, Eugene Horsch, and a woman carrying identification belonging to Blair Tonzelli, who had been missing since 2023, police said.
The ranger also found two handguns, approximately $8,000 worth of illegal drugs and credentials identifying Eugene Horsch as a federal law enforcement officer, authorities said. The credentials, including one purporting to be from the Drug Enforcement Administration, were fraudulent, investigators said.
The encounter led authorities to the Horsch home on West Chew Avenue in Philadelphia’s Olney neighborhood where searches uncovered firearms, fraudulent federal law enforcement credentials, drugs, computer equipment, containers of unidentified substances and five urns holding cremated remains, investigators said.
The city’s homicide detectives, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and a bomb squad returned with another search warrant June 25. That search uncovered what appeared to be a home laboratory containing vessels filled with an unidentified oily substance, investigators said.
Digital devices recovered from the property contained more than 1 million images and videos, many depicting women inside the house, police said.
Who are the women tied to this property?
Investigators have connected seven missing women to the house or the people who lived there, police said. Five are believed to be dead. Officials have not recovered the bodies of any of the women.
- Blair Tonzelli was 35 when she disappeared in 2023. Her identification was presented by the woman found with Eugene Horsch.
- Amy McHale disappeared in June 2016. She had previously been married to Raymond Horsch, and her family has said she was last seen at the house.
- Nicole Fusaro disappeared in 2018 at age 27. Investigators said footage recovered from the house appears to show her unconscious and injured.
- Maribel Fresses was 27 when she disappeared in 2018. Investigators said footage recovered from the house appears to show her unconscious and injured.
- Gabrielle Amarando was 22 when she disappeared in 2012. Police said she also appears unconscious and injured in the recovered footage.
Authorities have not publicly identified the other two missing women or explained how each is connected to the property.
Police said images and videos of Fresses and Amarando led detectives to conclude that the women were likely dead. Investigators have not found their remains or DNA inside the house, however.
Video appears to show woman being strangled
In another set of videos dated from 2017, Raymond Horsch appears nude with a woman inside the house, Vanore said. Horsch appeared to be operating the camera while another person recorded from a fixed position.
During the videos, Vanore said that the woman appears to use narcotics before Horsch hands her money and then ties her to the bed using handcuffs and puts a zip tie around her neck.
The woman appears to lose consciousness. Investigators have not determined whether she died or whether she is among the missing women connected to the property.
