Investigators say digital evidence indicates the women died, but no bodies have been recovered to establish how or when.
PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia investigators say newly reviewed images appear to answer one painful question about two women missing for years, but the absence of their bodies has left authorities unable to formally determine their causes of death or fully explain what happened to them.
Police said digital evidence seized from an Olney home appears to show Maribel Fresses and Gabrielle Amarando alive and, in later recordings, dead. Fresses disappeared in 2018 at age 27, while Amarando had been missing since 2012, when she was 22. Their families were informed of the findings Wednesday, more than eight years after Fresses vanished and nearly 14 years after Amarando disappeared.
The development presents an uncommon challenge for detectives and medical authorities. No remains belonging to either woman have been recovered. Police Inspector Raymond Evers said the medical examiner cannot issue a death certificate or determine a cause of death without a body or body parts to examine. Police said the office nevertheless concluded that, if the recovered images and videos are genuine and unaltered, the women depicted are dead.
That gap between what investigators believe the recordings show and what can be established through a physical examination now shapes the next stage of the case. Detectives must authenticate the material, determine when it was recorded and continue searching for evidence that could explain the women’s deaths. Police also said a formal legal declaration of death may require proceedings outside the medical examiner’s office.
The recordings were recovered during a wider investigation of a home in the 400 block of West Chew Avenue associated with Eugene Horsch, 44, and his late father, Raymond Horsch. Police have not said how Fresses or Amarando came to be at the property or what relationship, if any, either woman had with the Horsches. Eugene Horsch has not been charged in connection with either woman’s disappearance or suspected death.
Investigators are working through an unusually large volume of material seized from the house. Police said authorities recovered more than 600,000 images, roughly 70,000 videos and more than 10,000 pages of writings, manuscripts and drawings from electronic devices and other evidence. Only a small percentage had been reviewed when police announced the findings, leaving open the possibility that additional relevant material remains among the files.
The West Chew Avenue investigation began after Eugene Horsch was arrested following an encounter near Independence Mall in June. Authorities said guns, drugs and fraudulent federal credentials were recovered during that investigation. A woman who was with Horsch possessed identification in the name of Blair Tonzelli, another missing woman, prompting investigators to examine possible links between Horsch, his home and older missing-person cases.
Authorities subsequently carried out repeated searches of the Olney property. Police reported finding firearms and gun components, false federal identification, electronic storage devices, urns believed to hold cremated remains and more than 20 containers with unknown substances. Some substances were sent to a laboratory for analysis. Investigators also excavated part of the property and examined a sewer pipe while looking for possible physical evidence.
Two disappearances had been publicly associated with the house before police announced the findings involving Fresses and Amarando. Tonzelli had been reported missing before her name appeared on the identification recovered in June. Amy McHale, who had been married to Raymond Horsch, disappeared in 2016 and was last known to have been at the Chew Avenue home. Police have not announced evidence establishing that either case is connected to the suspected deaths of Fresses and Amarando.
Eugene Horsch remains in federal custody on allegations involving a firearm and fraudulent credentials. Those charges are separate from the death investigation, and authorities have not publicly identified a suspect in the deaths of Fresses or Amarando. Police have also not announced a cause or manner of death for either woman.
For investigators, the immediate work centers on authenticating and organizing the digital evidence, locating any additional physical evidence and building a timeline that could explain when the women were at the home and what happened afterward. Until remains are found or other evidence answers those questions, the case remains a death investigation with major forensic and legal issues still unresolved.
Author note: Last updated August 13, 2026.