Horsch case: Phase 2 in extensive search of home tied to missing Philadelphia women begins
PHILADELPHIA -- Investigators have, once again, descended on the home at the center of a sprawling investigation into missing women in Philadelphia to begin a new phase in the probe on Monday.
People were seen walking around wearing white hazmat suits. There was also a new green tent set up on the property.
The Chew Avenue house is where violent pornographer Raymond "R.C." Horsch and his son Eugene lived.
Police posted additional "no parking" signs along the street Sunday ahead of the latest extensive search of the now-infamous Horsch home.
Last week, Philadelphia police and FBI began executing a fresh search warrant at the property, where investigators removed items of potential interest from the home to be cataloged as evidence.
Over the next few weeks, the FBI and Philadelphia police plan to bring in heavy equipment and actually take apart sections of the property, as they look for new evidence.
They will be guided in part by what they saw in hundreds of thousands of photos and videos collected from a prior search.
Investigators cleared the first floor Monday and are expected to continue their work Tuesday.
Drone 6 footage showed investigators wearing white protective suits moving in and out of the home. Blue tents and several barrels were visible behind the property.
Sources also say investigators plan to spray luminol, which can reveal traces of blood not visible to the naked eye. That work is expected to take place at night, after the home has been cleared.
So far, seven missing women have been connected with the home through the recovered videos and images. However, no bodies have been found.
"I think of it like - it's not like you're trying to connect a puzzle, where you know what the picture is and you have these large pieces that you have to apply; instead, it's like - you don't know what the picture is, and you don't have large pieces, you have tiny little dots. And every single tiny little dot needs to be connected perfectly so that you can get this picture of what actually happened in that home," said former prosecutor Michael Noone.
R.C. Horsch died last year. He created movies that often depicted sexualized violence against women.
Now, investigators have to figure out what was staged and what was real.
His son, Eugene, was arrested back in June on firearms and drugs charges.
A subsequent search at his home revealed a more troubling mystery and prompted this massive investigation.
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"Number one, you don't have the body. Number two, you have this gap in time. Number three, you don't have the actual cause of death. Did they die as a result of someone else killing them or did they die as a result of some other circumstance?" Noone said.
The investigation has drawn concern from people who live in the Olney neighborhood.
"It's scary, you know, it's so close to home. It's unbelievable," said Samantha M., an Olney resident. "I was looking at TV, and I said, 'That neighborhood looks familiar.' I said, 'That's my neighborhood.' It's just scary, that's all."
Sarah Laurel of Savage Sisters, an outreach organization that works with women in Kensington, said she was horrified by the allegations.
"There have been many rumors of an individual doing 'snuff' films," Laurel said.
She said vulnerable women can be particularly difficult to reach and that systemic failures may have contributed to alleged abuse going undetected.
"Vulnerable people were exploited in atrocious ways and there are a lot of reasons why many individuals didn't come forward," Laurel said.
She questioned what steps authorities and other organizations can take to prevent similar allegations in the future.
"What is the government doing and what are the police doing to create safer spaces in the future to ensure that women can come forward and report things, and to ensure things are investigated, as this kind of tragedy does not happen within our community again," Laurel said.
Investigators plan to bring an excavator back to the property next week to dig up portions of the grounds as the search continues.
Officials say this portion of the investigation could last through mid-October.
