Philadelphia Police Review 5 Missing Women Images as 2 More Women Remain Unaccounted For
Updated
Updated · WPVI-TV · Sep 18
Philadelphia Police Review 5 Missing Women Images as 2 More Women Remain Unaccounted For
3 articles · Updated · WPVI-TV · Sep 18
Summary
Several new public tips have reached Philadelphia police after investigators disclosed that photos and videos from an Olney home identified five missing women, some appearing injured, lifeless or possibly dead.
Detectives are now combing through terabytes of digital evidence seized from the W. Chew Avenue property, where Eugene Horsch and his late father Raymond "R.C." Horsch lived.
The search widened because two additional women tied to the home do not appear in the recovered material, while no remains have yet been found and forensic testing is still underway.
Evidence taken from the house includes chemicals, drugs, firearms, ballistic material, a 55-gallon drum and plumbing pipes sent to a federal lab in Chicago for testing.
The case began after Eugene Horsch's June arrest on federal weapons charges triggered the property search, and police plan a community meeting in the coming weeks as the lengthy investigation continues.
What dark secrets are hidden inside the mysterious urns and altered plumbing pipes recovered from the West Chew Avenue house?
Can investigators secure a murder conviction using a million violent digital files if the victims' physical bodies are never found?
How did a man with fake federal credentials conceal a house of horrors and hidden compartments in plain sight?
1 Million Files, 58 Victims: The Chew Avenue Case and the Digital Forensic Race to Uncover Philadelphia’s Hidden Crimes
Overview
The investigation into the Chew Avenue house began when Eugene Horsch was arrested after a routine traffic stop led to the discovery of drugs, weapons, and fake federal credentials. This arrest triggered a search of the Olney residence, where police found a chemical lab, urns with human ashes, and a massive digital archive containing over a million files. With no physical bodies recovered, authorities partnered with the FBI to analyze the digital evidence and search for microscopic DNA traces. The case is complicated by the Horsch family's history of exploiting vulnerable women and the challenge of proving murder without physical remains, leaving families in painful uncertainty.