At least two women were killed inside the Olney home at the center of a sprawling missing persons investigation, police say, neither of whom had been previously linked to the case.
Philadelphia Police Inspector Raymond Evers said one of the women believed to have been killed was Maribel Fresses, 27, who was last seen in February 2018. Evers identified the other woman as Gabriella Amarando, born in 1990 and missing since September 2012.
The announcement marked a stunning breakthrough in a case that has drawn national attention since June, when police began investigation two other women who were connected to the Chew Avenue home of Eugene Albert Horsch, 44.
Evers said the two-month search of Horsch’s home involved over 95 search warrants property and surfaced an “astonishing” array of evidence — including five urns full of ashes, more than 20 containers full of unknown chemicals, and over 50 hard drives and other electronic devices. Police reviewed over 600,000 images, 70,000 videos, and over 10,000 pages of written material recovered from the home, he said.
While searching the first hard drive, police found images and videos of two dead women — Fressis and Amarando — who were killed in the house. No bodies have been found.
“Usually when we have a homicide investigation, we have body parts,” Evers said. “This time we do not.”
The news comes nearly two months after police began searching Horsch’s home in connection to at least two missing persons, following a car stop near Independence Mall.
On June 19th, a federal park police officer stopped Eugene Horsch after he was observed arguing with a woman inside his parked BMW, near Independence Mall. After a search, the officer found the car was filled with drugs, guns, and various other weapons, along with a counterfeit U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration badge in the name of “Eugene Frederick Steiner.”
Horsch’s female companion was also found to be in possession of a fake ID and bank card made out in the name of Blair Tonzelli, a woman struggling with addiction who was reported missing in 2023.
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An ensuing search of Horsch’s home also renewed suspicions about his father, Raymond “R.C.” Horsch, a fugitive and erotic artist who died in May 2025. Raymond Horsch’s ex-wife, Amy McHale, was reported missing in 2016 and last heard from at the Olney house.
The woman later told police Tonzelli was a home healthcare aide who had worked for Horsch’s father, and that she believed Tonzelli and Eugene Horsch had a disagreement over money.
She also said the younger Horsch had bragged that he knew of chemicals needed to melt human remains so that they “could be flushed down a toilet.”
Since the June arrest, Horsch has remained in federal custody on charges related to the illegal weapons as law enforcement conducted searches of the Olney property on suspicion that both Tonzelli and McHale were killed at the property.
Last month, police secured a warrant to excavate the property in search for more evidence, ultimately removing a buried pipe. FBI agents, meanwhile, continued examining hundreds of pages of text messages, handwritten and typed documents, CDs, and videos – including many of Raymond Horsch’s artistic works.
An attorney for Eugene Horsch did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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