Philadelphia investigators have discovered images of seven missing women among more than 1 million files seized from a home where authorities also found five urns believed to hold human ashes. Two of the women appear to be unconscious and suffering from injuries, police said Wednesday.
A preliminary review identified two of the missing women as 27-year-old Gabrielle Armando and 26-year-old Maribel Fresses. Both appear to be unconscious inside the Chew Avenue residence, with visible injuries, Philadelphia Police Department Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said at a news conference.
The images’ metadata indicates they were recorded in 2017.
“Both women remain missing and have not been seen,” Vanore said. “To date, neither their bodies nor any DNA evidence have been recovered.”
The property was formerly owned by the late pornographer Raymond “R.C.” Horsch and was occupied by his son, Eugene Horsch. The younger Horsch’s arrest in June led authorities to begin searching the residence.
R.C. Horsch in a 1999 mugshot. (S. E. Stokowski/Wikimedia Creative Commons)
Vanore said a Federal Park Ranger arrested 44-year-old Eugene Horsch on June 19 after approaching him and a woman who were seated in a BMW near Philadelphia’s Independence Mall.
Police allegedly found two guns, narcotics and identification falsely representing Horsch as a federal law enforcement officer during the investigation. He was charged, and DEA task force officers obtained probable cause that same day to execute a search warrant at his home, Vanore said.
The woman in the vehicle showed officers fraudulent identification bearing the name Blair Tonzelli, a woman who has been missing since 2023, a Philadelphia police spokesperson confirmed to News Outlet.
A photo of Blair Tonzelli, who went missing in February 2023. (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System)
Authorities have not disclosed the woman’s actual identity, and Tonzelli’s whereabouts are still unknown.
The search uncovered what Vanore described as “a homemade laboratory of some kind” in the basement, along with five urns believed to contain human ashes. Investigators also seized a vast collection of digital material, including computers, hard drives, flash drives, DVRs, cameras and cellphones.
Police have so far identified 58 people appearing in the photographs and videos recovered from the property. Vanore said four of those individuals appear to be lifeless, and one video may show what happened to one of them.
Eugene Horsch’s mugshot (FOX 29 Philadelphia)
According to FOX 29 Philadelphia, one recording shows R.C. Horsch handcuffing a woman to a bed and tying a zip tie around her neck until she lost consciousness. Police identified the woman as Nicole Fusaro.
R.C. Horsch’s former wife, Amy McHale, is another woman linked to the residence. She has been missing since 2016, FOX 29 reported.
Two additional missing women have been connected to the property. Police have identified one as a 25-year-old woman whose name has not been released, while the other has not yet been identified, according to FOX 29.
Maribel Fresses, who went missing in 2018. (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System)
Vanore emphasized that the review remains in its early stages, with only a small portion of the seized media examined so far. Thousands of videos still need to be analyzed, while investigators and the FBI work to verify the material and collect physical evidence supporting their conclusions, he said Wednesday.
