Feds will take over gun case of Olney man at center of missing women investigation, as Philly DA withdraws charges
Philadelphia prosecutors withdrew charges against Eugene Horsch, 44, whose home in Olney is at the center of an investigation into the whereabouts of two missing women.
Federal prosecutors will takeover the criminal case against the Olney man whose house is at the center of a sprawling investigation into the fate of two missing women, officials said Thursday.
Assistant District Attorney Alyssa Amoroso withdrew the charges the Philadelphia DA’s Office had filed against Eugene Albert Horsch for illegal gun and drug possession Thursday morning, telling a city judge that the U.S. Attorney’s Office would instead handle the case.
Horsch, 44, has been in federal custody since June after a U.S. Park Ranger encountered him and another woman inside a black BMW near Independence Hall, acting suspiciously. Police said they searched Horsch — who was not allowed to possess guns because of felony convictions — and found a switchblade and glass pipe in his pants, as well as two illegal guns, drugs, and a phony federal drug enforcement badge in his car.
» READ MORE: How a pornographer’s violent art complicates Philly’s missing women mystery
And then, in an unsettling twist, the woman with Horsch presented a fake ID bearing the name of a woman, Blair Tonzelli, who had been reported missing in 2023.
Horsch was charged with illegal gun and drug possession after his June 19 arrest, and was held on $500,000 bail.
About a week later, he was charged with a federal firearms charge, allowing him to be held in federal custody until trial.
In the days after Horsch was arrested with the weapons in Center City, local and federal investigators searched his decrepit rowhouse on Chew Avenue and found another gun, as well as materials to grow marijuana.
They also discovered a trove of more concerning materials — barrels of chemicals in the basement, several urns holding cremated remains, supplies to make counterfeit IDs, documents tied to at least two women who have been missing for years, and a handwritten letter that described hurting people and mentioned the serial killer Ted Bundy.
A woman also told investigators Horsch had told her he knew how to use chemicals to melt bodies in the basement.
As officials investigated the whereabouts of Tonzelli, the woman whose name appeared on the ID handed to park rangers, they learned that she was reportedly last seen at the Chew Avenue house in late 2022.
They also found that another woman who has been missing in 2016 was last seen at the address. Amy McHale, the ex-wife of Horsch’s deceased father, Raymond “R.C.” Horsch, disappeared in June 2016 and hasn’t been seen since.
In the months since the investigation began, police have repeatedly searched Horsch’s home, excavating its yard to recover pipes to test for DNA, and poring over hundreds of pieces of documents and Horsch’s devices in hopes of learning the fate of the missing women.
Law enforcement sources said none of the items recovered from inside the home — including what initially appeared to be significant amounts of blood — tested positive for blood or either woman’s DNA. It was not immediately clear if the tests of the excavated pipes have been completed.
The strange, complex backstory of Eugene Horsch and his father has also clouded portions of the investigation.
Raymond Horsch was a porn actor and director who produced films and self-published novels that often featured women in addiction in violent fantasies— including some that depicted various ways to kill women. He cast himself in some of the stories as an “empathetic” serial killer who preyed on addicted women to end their suffering, and billed the books as stories that combined real details from his life story with his fantasies.
Investigators have since found themselves working to sort fact from fiction in discerning whether anything more sinister happened inside the home, or if it was just a den for troubled drug users.
Eugene Horsch’s lawyer, Jerome Brown, has said his client did nothing wrong. Brown did not attend Thursday’s hearing.
Horsch, too, did not appear in court. He remains in federal custody as Philadelphia homicide detectives and federal officials continue to investigate.
