At least five women have been linked to a Pennsylvania home that once belonged to an adult film producer, where police say they obtained over a million disturbing images and videos depicting sexual violence toward women.
“They’re possibly — they could be deceased,” Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore told reporters at a press conference Wednesday.
Vanore emphasized that investigators do not know for sure whether the women, who appeared “lifeless” in images found in the home, are deceased, as police have yet to find physical evidence, DNA or any bodies.
The commissioner named Maribel Fresses, 26, and Gabrielle Amarando, 27, both missing women whose images appeared on a computer’s hard drive dated 2017. Two other women who appeared unconscious in the evidence have been identified, but are not being named at the request of their families. A fifth woman has not been identified, he said.
The investigation began in June; federal park rangers approached Eugene Horsch, 44, inside an illegally parked BMW at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. According to an affidavit reviewed by JS, the officer heard a woman’s voice say something to the effect of, “You’re going to hurt me!”
The woman in the car had an ID card with the name Blair Tonzelli, a woman who went missing in 2023, local news station 6ABC reported.
Authorities who searched the vehicle found two guns, a cattle prod device, a collapsible baton, substances believed to be narcotics, as well as a fake Drug Enforcement Administration card with a photo of Horsch, who has never worked for the DEA, the affidavit stated.
Horsch was taken into custody and authorities searched his home, where they discovered a homemade laboratory in the basement, urns filled with human ashes, and “digital evidence” that included videos believed to have been linked to his father, the late adult film producer Raymond “R.C.” Horsch, Vanore said Wednesday.
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Raymond Horsch’s adult material depicted sexual violence towards women who were suffering from addiction, though he was never charged with any violent offenses before his death last year, per an investigation by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Images found in the home showed “women posed in different positions,” Vanore told reporters. One video showed the elder Horsch putting a zip tie around a woman’s neck; she appeared to become unconscious.
Vanore said the trove of digital evidence identified at least 58 people. He noted 10 of the people identified are known to have overdosed and were later found “somewhere else in a different residence, in a different place in Philadelphia.”
Investigators tracked down 16 people seen in the material who now “don’t really want to talk about what occurred in that house,” Vanore told reporters. He added that police have scheduled more interviews with 25 other identified people.
Eugene Horsch has not been charged with any violent crimes, but has been charged in federal court with felony possession of a firearm and possession of an unlawfully produced document and authentication feature. He is also facing local drug and weapons charges.
Jerry Brown, who represents Horsch, did not immediately respond to JS for comment, but previously told CNN he planned to enter a not guilty plea.
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.