Investigators have recovered images and video of three more women who appeared to be unconscious, injured and possibly dead inside the Horsch family home in Olney.
One of the clips, dated to 2017, shows the late R.C. Horsch handcuffing a naked 27-year-old woman to a bed before choking her with a zip tie, Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said during a Wednesday afternoon briefing inside PPD headquarters.
The act rendered her unconscious, he added. Prior to the strangulation, the woman used drugs and was paid by Horsch, according to authorities.
Photographs discovered in recent days depict two other lifeless women – a 25-year-old and someone detectives have yet to identify. Vanore declined to release the names of the two new known victims, at the request of their families.
A month ago, authorities announced that they had found images showing what appeared to be the bodies of two missing women, Maribel Fresses and Gabrielle Amarando.
Vanore told reporters that law enforcement officials have not recovered any bodies or remains linked to the property at 417 W. Chew Ave., other than five urns suspected of bearing the ashes of Horsch and his relatives.
The FBI is aiding the PPD in processing 1 million pieces of digital evidence, including hundreds of thousands of images and tens of thousands of videos, from computers, hard drives and other devices confiscated from the home.
So far, analysts have reviewed about 30% of the material, according to Wayne Jacobs, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia office. None of the media appears to show R.C.’s son, 44-year-old Eugene Horsch, whose arrest in June sparked the massive probe.
The elder Horsch, a pornographic filmmaker, photographer and writer, died last year, and Eugene is in federal prison on gun and impersonation charges. Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel assured residents that there is “not a current threat to the community.”
Vanore said authorities have identified 58 individuals, almost entirely women, who were pictured on the hard drives. Ten are known to have died later from overdoses outside of the Olney home, he added.
Detectives have interviewed 16 and are in the process of scheduling meetings with another 25. Three people proactively reached out to the PPD and said they would not be talking.
Law enforcement is planning to return to the Chew Avenue property for another search before the end of the month, Jacobs said. Bethel indicated that authorities would be meeting with neighbors prior to the operation.
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