Police, FBI Recover 1 Million Digital Evidence Items From Olney Property as 5 Women Are Linked
Updated
Updated · FOX 29 Philadelphia · Sep 16
Police, FBI Recover 1 Million Digital Evidence Items From Olney Property as 5 Women Are Linked
3 articles · Updated · FOX 29 Philadelphia · Sep 16
Summary
More than 1 million digital evidence items from the Chew Avenue property are now in hand, including over 600,000 images, 70,000 videos and 10,000 pages of writings; the FBI says about 30% has been reviewed.
That review has identified 58 people in the material, with five women linked to the case and two additional women appearing unconscious and injured in images, while police still say they have not determined the missing women's fates.
Investigators also seized guns, gun parts, drugs and chemicals, and earlier excavation uncovered urns with cremated remains; final testing on the urns and chemicals is still pending.
The case began after Eugene Horsch's June traffic stop turned up fake federal badges and a missing woman's ID, leading police to the Olney house and later federal firearms and ID-document charges against him.
Late September is the next key step: police and the FBI plan another targeted search of the property, while a separate federal hearing for Eugene Horsch is scheduled for January.
With no bodies recovered, could the mysterious basement vats hold the dark truth behind the missing women?
How did a man flagged as a potential serial predator in 1985 manage to hide his crimes for decades?
If only a fraction of the archive has been reviewed, what horrors still lie hidden in the remaining files?
1 Million Files, 5 Missing Women: The Horsch Family and the Chew Avenue Digital Evidence Crisis in Philadelphia (2026)
Overview
In September 2026, Philadelphia investigators faced a massive challenge after recovering over 1 million digital images and videos of abuse from 417 West Chew Avenue. The FBI increased its team to help authenticate this digital archive, but a huge backlog remains. Despite the disturbing evidence, no human remains have been found at the property, so no homicide charges have been filed and the Medical Examiner cannot declare the missing women dead. The case centers on Raymond and Eugene Horsch, who targeted vulnerable women struggling with addiction. Authorities are now testing chemicals found in a home laboratory to see if they were used to destroy human remains, while public pressure has led to even more FBI involvement.