The Olney man being investigated for his connections to missing women will be held in federal custody

The Olney man at the center of a sprawling investigation into the disappearance of at least two women in recent years was taken into federal custody Tuesday and will be detained until trial.

Eugene Albert Horsch, 44, was arraigned Tuesday on a federal firearms charge — a case that relates to his alleged actions on June 19, when U.S. Park Police officers say they found him carrying several guns in a black BMW he’d parked illegally near Independence National Historical Park.

Horsch — who was not allowed to possess guns because of felony convictions — had been charged for that same conduct last week by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and he was being held in a city jail on $500,000 bail. City prosecutors also charged him with having cocaine, heroin, and marijuana in his car.

But the federal gun charge — and the decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Pamela A. Carlos to detain him until trial — effectively ensures that Horsch will not be able to post bail or secure his release as his case proceeds. And that will give authorities time to continue investigating him in connection with matters potentially far more serious than possessing illegal guns.

In the days after Horsch was arrested with the firearms in Center City, investigators who searched his decrepit rowhouse in Olney found another gun and materials to grow marijuana.

But more concerning, they also discovered a variety of more unusual materials — including barrels of chemicals in the basement, urns holding the cremated remains of at least one of his relatives, 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.

Officials have said police have not discovered any human remains in the house. But investigators did find a significant amount of blood inside, sources told The Inquirer this week, although it was not clear if it was human blood. And authorities have been testing a variety of materials they’ve recovered from the house, such as the chemicals in vats stored in his basement.

The probe is also seeking to learn more about potential connections between Horsch and at least two missing women with ties to his home.

One is Blair Tonzelli, who may have worked there as a home health aide, and who was reported missing in Kensington in 2023. Some of Tonzelli’s friends told police after she disappeared that they worried something bad had happened to her, and that they’d told police Horsch was a “sociopath,” according to police documents obtained by The Inquirer.

In addition, when Horsch was arrested in Center City earlier this month, a woman who was with him falsely identified herself as Tonzelli, and later told police she did so because Horsch had given her a fake identification with Tonzelli’s name.

The other missing woman is Amy McHale, the ex-wife of Horsch’s father, who was last heard from at the Olney property in 2016. Horsch’s father, Raymond “R.C.” Horsch — now deceased — was an erotic photographer and drug manufacturer who had published several works of fiction, including one described as an “autobiographical memoir of a caring, empathetic serial killer.”

Eugene Horsch, during his brief appearance in federal court Tuesday, said little beyond responding to routine legal questions. He will likely be held at Philadelphia’s Federal Detention Center as his case proceeds toward trial.

His attorney, Jerome Brown, said afterward that he didn’t believe Horsch had harmed any of the women at the center of the investigation.

“As far as I know, I’d be shocked if [police] found any harm related to those missing persons at that location,” Brown said.