Police believe a new video shows violent pornographer Raymond ‘R.C.’ Horsch killing a woman on camera, sources say
The developments have led investigators to confront the possibility that Raymond Horsch's Chew Avenue home may hold evidence of killings that went undetected for years.
Philadelphia police have recovered video footage that they believe shows the late pornographer Raymond “R.C.” Horsch killing a woman on camera, law enforcement sources said.
The footage, discovered on a hard drive inside Horsch’s house in Olney, appeared to show him strangling the woman at his home, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Police have not disclosed the woman’s identity, but have notified a relative, the sources said. It was not immediately clear when the footage was taken, and the sources said police have not found her body.
Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore declined to comment Friday. The department has said it is working with forensic experts to discern the authenticity of the materials on the 50 hard drives found in the house, a process that could take months.
» READ MORE: How a pornographer’s violent art complicates Philly’s missing women mystery
The discovery is the most significant breakthrough yet in the sprawling investigation, and means that at least five missing women are now linked to the Chew Avenue property where Horsch lived for decades with his son, Eugene.
Police have digital evidence that they believe indicates at least three of those women are dead, according to the sources. Earlier this month, police said they recovered images that showed two women who had been reported missing were inside the home and were later photographed dead there. The new footage adds a third victim.
Sources said police expect the number of missing women connected to the home to grow as investigators sort through the hundreds of thousands of videos, photos, and pages of writings recovered on the hard drives at Horsch’s house.
The development also means police may have to confront the possibility that the property and hard drives hold evidence of killings that went undetected for years — and at the hands of a man who spoke and wrote publicly about his fantasies of killing women for decades with little scrutiny.
Police have not found any human remains in the house.
Horsch died in May 2025, at the age of 82, from lung issues.
» READ MORE: Police grapple with a lack of bodies in disturbing Olney investigation — and for families, a lack of closure
Horsch built a career luring women in addiction in Kensington to his home with drugs and cash. He photographed and featured them in pornographic films that often depicted graphic violence — including hangings, stranglings, and drownings. He adopted the persona of an “empathetic” serial killer who murdered addicts to end their pain, and he claimed his writings were autobiographical, yet laced with threads of fiction that often left his audience wondering what was real.
Two weeks ago, police said they had recovered “dark and graphic” images on the hard drives that indicated Maribel Fresses, missing since 2018 at the age of 27, and Gabrielle Amarando, who was 22 when she was reported missing in 2012, were dead.
Police said they had not recovered footage of the women being killed, but instead had images of both women alive inside the house — and then dead. Officials have not determined what happened to their bodies.
But sources say police have since discovered additional footage that is far more disturbing.
The investigation began this summer after a chance encounter near Independence Hall.
On June 19, police said, a U.S. park ranger came upon Eugene Horsch near Sixth and Market Streets acting suspiciously inside his black BMW. When officers searched the car, they found drugs, two illegal guns, a cattle prod, and a fake drug enforcement badge. What’s more, the woman who was with him presented a license in the name of Blair Tonzelli, who had been reported missing in 2023.
Documents show that police interviewed people connected to Eugene Horsch who said he had bragged about knowing how to mix chemicals that could melt human remains and make a body so small “it could be flushed down a toilet.”
Records show that Tonzelli was reportedly last seen at the Horsch house in 2022, and Raymond Horsch posted at least one nude photograph of her — with a black eye and bloody lip — on his website. Her friends reported her missing in February 2023.
Raymond Horsch’s ex-wife, Amy McHale, who went missing in 2016, was also last seen at the Chew Avenue house. Investigators have since renewed the inquiry into her disappearance.
Local and federal law enforcement searched the Horsch home in the weeks that followed the car stop and said they found an “astonishing” amount of evidence: five urns of cremated remains, more than 20 containers full of unknown chemicals and oily substances, and 50 hard drives and other electronic devices holding more than 600,000 images, 70,000 videos, and 10,000 pages of writings and drawings.
Police also found additional guns and drugs. And in the weeks that followed, investigators excavated the yard of the Chew Avenue home and recovered a piece of a pipe for additional forensic testing.
Police continue to investigate the whereabouts of Tonzelli and McHale.
Eugene Horsch, 44, remains in federal custody, charged with illegal gun possession. Police have declined to say whether they believe he played a role in his father’s business. He has not been charged with any crimes connected to the women’s deaths or disappearances.
His attorney has declined to comment.
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