Three weeks of digging at a Chew Avenue home tied to seven missing women ended Friday with animal bones, a million digital files, and no human remains.
The FBI and Philadelphia police have finished their search of an Olney home tied to the disappearance of seven women, and they left without the thing neighbors feared most: no human remains were found.
Investigators wrapped up Friday, October 23, after three weeks at the property on Chew Avenue in Olney. Crews in hazmat suits and heavy equipment had been a daily sight there, digging through the backyard soil by machine and by hand, carrying equipment in and out of the house.
A law enforcement source told FOX29 investigators found “a lot of things of interest.” What they did not find, according to law enforcement sources, was a body. The search turned up numerous animal bones in the backyard, but no human bones.
The property is where the investigation has pointed since June, when Eugene Horsch, 44, was arrested during a traffic stop in Old City. That arrest led investigators to the Olney home, which belonged to his late father, Raymond “R.C.” Horsch, who died in 2025 at age 82.
At the start of the investigation, authorities collected more than a million digital images and videos from computers and hard drives in the home. After reviewing that evidence, investigators believe five of the seven missing women are dead.
The women publicly named as tied to the home are Blair Tonzelli, reported missing in 2023; Nicole Fusaro, missing since 2018; Maribel Fresses, last seen in February 2018; Gabrielle Amarando, who disappeared in September 2012; and Amy McHale, who disappeared in 2016 and was once married to Raymond Horsch. Two of the seven linked women have not been publicly named in these reports, and this story does not name them.
One fact the neighborhood should hear clearly: Eugene Horsch has not been charged in connection with the missing women. He remains in custody on drug and weapons charges.
Outside the home, a photo of Gabrielle Amarando has been left by her family. A neighbor named Mary told FOX29 what the last three weeks felt like on the block: “It’s pretty scary. It’s really scary, and I hope they get everything.”
The search at the property is over. The questions are not. Investigators have not said what the digital evidence shows about how the women disappeared, or what comes next in the case. For Olney, a neighborhood that borders Northeast Philadelphia and spent three weeks watching agents dig, the end of the search is not the end of the story.
