Five women feared dead and two missing as 1 million photos examined in chilling case linked to photographer
Police have expanded an investigation into the disappearances of seven women after the discovery of over a million images and videos at a house in Philadelphia.
Among the images is footage which police have said appears to depict women who are injured, unconscious, and even dead.
The images were seized after what started as a routine stop when a federal park ranger approached a car that was illegally parked, making a shocking discovery inside which led to the house being searched.
In a statement on Wednesday, Philadelphia police explained that of the seven missing women, five of them are believed to be dead; however, no bodies have so far been found in relation to the case.
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Now, police are expanding their investigation, including focusing on Raymond 'R.C.' Horsch, a photographer who produced sexually explicit images and died in 2025 aged 82.
In a statement, Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore explained that after analysing the images, police have been able to identify 58 people who are shown in the material which was found in the house.
Of these, he said that four of them seemed to be either unconscious or deceased. He added that 10 others depicted in the images are also known to have died as a result of suspected drug overdoses away from the house where the images were found.
At present, police have only analysed around 30 percent of the images contained in the evidence, meaning there are still hundreds of thousands of images not yet seen.
Investigators have so far traced 41 of the people who were identified in the images, with detectives working to interview 25 of them, while 16 did not want to be interviewed or were reluctant to be.
No homicide charges have currently been announced in relation to the women who are missing.
In June, a federal park ranger spotted a BMW which was parked illegally, with the occupants being Horsch's son Eugene Horsch, 44, and a woman who was carrying ID for someone called Blair Tonzelli, who has been missing since 2023, police say.
The ranger also found forged credentials which said that Eugene was a federal law enforcement officer, including one saying he worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In addition to the IDs, the ranger also found illegal drugs worth $8,000 and two handguns in the vehicle, police have said.
The discovery in the car in turn led to police searching the property, where they made further shocking discoveries.
These included more firearms, drugs, and forged federal law enforcement credentials, as well as computer equipment, five urns containing cremated remains, and containers which held substances which were not identified.
When police examined electronic devices they had seized at the property, they discovered over a million images and videos, some of which showed women in the house itself, they said.
Kit Roberts