Two Missing Women, One House, A Search That Won't Stop

Beneath a deteriorating three-story home on West Chew Avenue in Philadelphia’s Olney section, investigators in hazmat suits have spent days doing something most search warrants never require: scouring the sewer lines for traces of DNA and the chemicals sometimes used to dissolve a body.

The home belongs to Eugene Albert Horsch, 44, who was arrested June 19 and charged with illegal gun possession and drug-related crimes. He has not been charged in connection with either missing woman, and no remains have been found. But the FBI and Philadelphia police are actively investigating his connection to two separate disappearances, one from 2023 and one from 2016.

“You’re Going to Hurt Me”

The investigation began almost by accident. On the morning of June 19, a U.S. park ranger near Independence Hall overheard a disturbance coming from a car and approached after hearing a woman say she was afraid Horsch was going to hurt her, according to Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore. The woman handed the ranger an identification card bearing her photo but the name of a different woman - one who had been reported missing from the Kensington area in February 2023, sources told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A search of the vehicle turned up cocaine, fentanyl, marijuana, two firearms with obliterated serial numbers, a collapsible baton, a cattle prod and switchblade knives, according to police.

A House Full of Warnings

What investigators found inside Horsch’s home pushed the case further. Officers described a “strange setup” involving a 55-gallon drum connected to a water line, along with hidden compartments, unidentified chemicals, a woman’s death certificate and several urns. A handwritten letter recovered from the home referenced “a drum set up” and described, in the writer’s own words, having “been ready and waiting” and showing “no hesitation” before an unspecified act.

The chemicals were brought to a lab for testing, and police say the underground search is aimed at finding DNA evidence, signs of a drug lab, or chemical traces consistent with disposing of a body. “When it goes to DNA, things like that, it’s going to take time,” Vanore told reporters. “So when they give it back, we’ll move on it, we’ll start the investigative process.”

Two Women, Decades Apart

The second woman tied to the case, Amy McHale, disappeared from South Philadelphia in June 2016. McHale was the ex-wife of Horsch’s father, R.C. Horsch, who police questioned about her disappearance at the time. McHale’s daughter, Amanda Stofer, said her mother left her a voicemail the day she vanished saying she was at the Olney home. “She left me a voicemail, and she said she was at Ray’s, and that’s where Ray lives,” Stofer said, referring to Horsch’s father by a nickname. “Ray even spoke with me and my grandmother and the detectives afterward and gave the same story that she was there and that when he woke up in the morning, she wasn’t.”

Stofer said the news of the search initially gave her hope. “I immediately thought they had found my mom,” she said. No remains turned up in that search, but she said the renewed attention still offers something her family hasn’t had in years: a reason to believe the case might move.

No Remains, Not Yet

Horsch has a lengthy criminal record, including a 2013 case in which police found nearly $1.9 million worth of cannabis inside the same Chew Avenue property, and a March aggravated assault charge that prosecutors withdrew after a witness failed to appear in court. He remains held on the gun and drug charges from his June 19 arrest. Police have not said when forensic results from the sewer search are expected, and Vanore said investigators are holding the property under guard rather than releasing it, to avoid the need for a second warrant if more evidence needs to be collected.

References: Missing woman’s family says she was last seen at Philadelphia home where police found chemicals, weapons | Olney investigation: What we know about Eugene Horsch, missing women, and the search