Woman Raymond Horsch killed on video identified as Nicole Fusaro, missing since 2018
Nicole Fusaro was last seen in Kensington in 2018. Police told her surviving relatives that they now believe Raymond Horsch killed her.
The woman who police believe was killed by pornographer Raymond Horsch on camera has been identified by family members and law enforcement sources as Nicole Amanda Fusaro, who has been missing since July 2018.
Fusaro was 27 when she was last seen in Kensington, and after she disappeared, her mother, Diane, combed the streets of the Philadelphia neighborhood looking for her only child. Diane died in January 2020 without answers, and Fusaro’s father, Thomas, had died in 2009. That left Fusaro’s friends and her cousin, Jonathan Halloran-Koren, to continue searching and hoping that one day she might turn up.
Last month, investigators recovered a video on one of numerous hard drives recovered from Horsch’s decrepit Olney home while in search of clues for other missing persons linked to the property. Law enforcement sources said they believe the video shows Horsch strangling Fusaro to death.
Police met with a member of Fusaro’s extended family several weeks ago to alert them of the discovery. Those relatives asked police not to publicly release her name. They declined to speak with a reporter this week.
Halloran-Koren, in an interview, said those relatives told him Thursday that police had visited their home in recent weeks with the news of his cousin’s death.
He said he wants her name to be known so that she is not forgotten.
“Hopefully more attention will be made to missing persons so this doesn’t happen again,” he said.
The police department is legally required to release the names of homicide victims, as they consistently do in a typical case. But because Fusaro’s body has not been found, the Office of the Medical Examiner has not ruled her death a homicide, and the police department has determined it is not required to release her name, according to people familiar with the matter who were not permitted to discuss it publicly.
Police also have no suspect to charge: Horsch died last year, at the age of 82, of a lung condition.
Halloran-Koren said he is still seeking additional information from law enforcement.
Sgt. Eric Gripp, a spokesperson for the police department, said the investigation into 417 Chew Ave. remains extensive and ongoing, and said officials expect to provide an update to the public next week.
“As part of that investigation, detectives have spoken with numerous family members, witnesses, and other individuals, and continue to review evidence gathered during the investigative process,” he said in a statement. “Because this is an active investigation, we are not confirming the identities of any individuals who may be connected to specific evidence or discussing information that has been shared privately with families.”
Last month, police officials announced that they recovered photo evidence that showed two other missing women — Maribel Fresses and Gabrielle Amarando — dead inside the home.
Fresses and Amarando’s bodies have also not been recovered, and the medical examiner has similarly not ruled a cause or manner of death. Their families gave the department permission to release their names.
Fusaro is the fifth dead or missing woman to be tied to the decrepit home on Chew Avenue where Horsch lived with his son, Eugene, for decades, luring women in addiction with drugs and cash to star in violent and necrophilic pornographic videos and photos.
Halloren-Koren said he had come to terms with the reality that his cousin likely died several years ago after so much time had passed without a sighting.
“I came to grips with that,” he said, of her death. “How it happened is something that is going to take me a little while.”
Fusaro, who was raised in Northeast Philadelphia, attended George Washington High School, according to her Facebook page. She had dark brown hair and striking, light eyes, and was known as an outgoing young woman who enjoyed being around friends and family.
Halloren-Koren said she was light-hearted and loved animals. As kids, he said, she enjoyed watching Vampire Diaries and listening to all types of music, from Green Day to the Notorious B.I.G.
After Halloren-Koren moved overseas for work in 2003, he said he only saw her at sporadic family reunions. His family, he said, was splintered and scattered across the region, and Fusaro’s parents both struggled with addiction. His cousin started using drugs in her late teens, he said, and she fell deeper into addiction in her 20s before drifting the streets of Kensington.
When Halloran-Koren sought to reconnect with family in 2020, he learned his cousin was missing and tried to help his aunt’s friends find her, he said. He spoke to women across Kensington who knew her and heard various theories, including that she was last seen getting into a car near Kensington and Allegheny Avenues.
He asked the women, he said, whether there were any strange men in the neighborhood, and they scoffed — this was Kensington, and there were men like that everywhere.
But there were a few he said they mentioned: a guy who drove a van without a license plate, and a “creepy” man with the last name Horsch who picked up women on the Avenue.
Horsch was known to trawl the streets of Kensington in search of sex workers, photographing some from the shadows. He’d offer to pay them in drugs and cash to be featured in his films or photos, often using drugs and in fantasies of being beaten, strangled, or killed.
He had a lengthy criminal record for manufacturing drugs and other non-violent crimes. And while his ex-wife, Amy McHale, was last seen at his home in 2016 before she went missing, he was never charged with any crimes connected to her disappearance before he died last year.
The investigation into his connection to the missing women began June 19, after his 44-year-old son, Eugene, was arrested near Independence Mall.
A federal park ranger found a fake ID in the car in the name of Blair Tonzelli, another woman who was reported missing in 2023, and was last seen at Horsch’s home. Police then interviewed women who said Eugene Horsch had bragged about knowing how to use chemicals to melt bodies in his basement.
Eugene Horsch has only been charged with illegal drug and weapons violations and has not been linked to any of the disappearances. He is currently in a federal detention center awaiting trial.
After arresting Eugene Horsch, local and federal law enforcement searched the Horsch home, at 417 W. Chew Ave., even excavating the yard for clues to the disappearance of Tonzelli and McHale. They found drugs, guns, a 55-gallon drum and vats of liquid, as well as a mysterious letter referencing putting drug-addicted women out of their misery.
Police also recovered dozens of hard drives that they said contained hundreds of thousands of images and videos — including some that showed several women presumably dead at the home. Investigators continue to pore over those materials to determine how far Horsch’s crimes extended and who was involved.
The Inquirer is breaking new ground on the sprawling missing persons investigation centered around the late pornographer Raymond “R.C.” Horsch and his son, Eugene. Read more of our coverage:
- How a pornographer's violent art complicates Philly missing women mystery
- ‘Consumed by anger’: Inside the 1985 psych profile of Raymond Horsch
- A troubling photo of a missing woman appeared on Raymond Horsch’s erotic website, years before police investigated
- Police grapple with a lack of bodies in disturbing Olney investigation — and for families, a lack of closure
- Two women appear dead in “graphic and dark” videos recovered from Olney house, police say
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