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The_Info_Web/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Eugene Horsch.md

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aliases category tags summary born location created updated relations
Eugene Albert Horsch
Eugene Frederick Steiner
Gizza
Criminals & Offenders
AbuseNetworks
Person
EugeneHorsch
Philadelphia
OlneyHouseInvestigation
FalseCredentials
Firearms
Son of the pornographer R.C. Horsch and owner of the Olney house searched in 2026, held on federal firearm and forged-credential counts and charged with no offense against the seven missing women. 1981 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2026-09-21 2026-10-15
type with role fn
relative_of R.C. Horsch son 2
type with role start fn
relative_of Myroslawa Ferkuniak mother 1981 1

Eugene Albert Horsch (born 1981) is the son of the Philadelphia pornographic filmmaker R.C. Horsch and the owner since 2007 of the house at West Chew Avenue in Olney, Philadelphia that is the subject of the Olney House Investigation. He has been in custody since June 19, 2026, and faces two federal counts, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a fraudulent federal identification document. He has not been charged with any offense against the women whose disappearances the police connect to the house.12

Timaru and Bucks County

Horsch was born in 1981, according to the Inquirer, during the family's years at Timaru, New Zealand, where his father, a fugitive from a Philadelphia methamphetamine charge, worked as a chemist under the stolen identity of Dr. Stanley Edward Stokowski. His mother was Myroslawa Ferkuniak, whom his father had married in Nevada under the same name. The Press of Christchurch reported in 1984 that the family had arrived in Canterbury, New Zealand in 1980 with an 18-month-old son, which does not agree with the 1981 birth reported by the Inquirer. His father left New Zealand in March 1984 on a stolen passport, leaving his wife and son behind, and was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Florida later that year; he was sentenced in April 1985 and imprisoned until 1987.34 His mother died at the family's house in Philadelphia on July 28, 1989; her obituary gave the cause as a lengthy illness, and the Inquirer reported in 2026 that it was an accidental overdose.15 The Inquirer reported in 2026 that he was seven and in the room when she overdosed.1 In a 2013 interview his father said the same: "my son was seven at the time. He was in the room when she died."6 A 2026 Inquirer report on the 1985 psychological evaluation of Horsch's father describes Eugene as four years old and says the evaluator wrote that the father was "very protective" of his wife and son, who were the "most important things in his life."7 He grew up in his father's house in New Britain Township, Pennsylvania. The Central Bucks School District has no record that he graduated.18 The house on West Chew Avenue had been the home of his great-grandparents, Albert Hoersch and Helen E. Hoersch, by 1968, and of their daughter Helen M. Hoersch until her death in 2004.91011 The city's deed index records its transfer to him by a deed executed on October 1, 2007, with Helen M. Hoersch named as grantor; the Inquirer reported that his father used a power of attorney to make the transfer, for one dollar.1213

Convictions

In 2003, while a student at Drexel University, Horsch caused a drunk-driving crash that left the other driver in a vegetative state; the man died sixteen years later. Horsch pleaded guilty in 2004 to driving under the influence and aggravated assault and was sentenced to two to four years. He was released in 2006. In 2013 police found about 1.9 million dollars' worth of marijuana in the house, and he was sentenced to four to eight years. He was in prison from 2013 to 2017. His father's former wife Amy McHale was last seen at the house in 2016. After a fire at the house in May 2025 he was charged with possession of marijuana and amphetamine and received three years of probation.1814 Firefighters had answered a small fire on the second floor on May 18, 2025, and a fire marshal and a patrolman found a marijuana grow, an AR-15 pattern rifle modified to fire automatically, a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun, and a 9mm pistol, all with destroyed serial numbers, and more than a hundred rounds of ammunition. According to a spokesperson for District Attorney Larry Krasner, Jerome Brown told the court that the guns had belonged to his father, who had died three days before the raid, and that he had planned to dispose of them properly. The Inquirer reported that he pleaded guilty to manufacturing drugs and that prosecutors withdrew the gun charges.15

Krista Killen, who lived in the house and appeared in his father's films, told two friends that Horsch shattered her bedroom door and threatened to kill her; in another version of their account he broke the lock on her basement door armed with a gun.116 She died in August 2025, some months after his father's death; the affidavit for the 2026 search gave the cause as "drug intoxication," and the city medical examiner found an overdose.117

Arrest and Federal Case

On the morning of June 19, 2026, a federal park ranger approached Horsch's BMW at a fire hydrant beside Independence National Historical Park. His passenger said he was going to hurt her. She carried an identification card in the name of Blair Tonzelli, missing since 2023. In the car were two handguns with obliterated serial numbers, a switchblade, a baton, a cattle prod, crack cocaine, and Drug Enforcement Administration credentials with his photograph in the name Eugene Frederick Steiner. The search of his house produced forged FBI credentials and the computer used to make them.216

A federal grand jury indicted him on July 9, 2026. On August 6 Assistant District Attorney Alyssa Amoroso of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office withdrew the five state counts of illegal gun and drug possession, telling a city judge that the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania would handle the case; neither Horsch nor Brown attended the hearing.18 United States v. Horsch, No. 2:26-cr-00296, is before Judge John Milton Younge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. A January trial date had been reported; on the defense's request the trial was postponed in September 2026 to begin no earlier than March 22.19 He is represented by Jerome Brown, who had also defended his father in the federal case of 2009; the government's attorneys of record are Maureen McCartney and Justin Ashenfelter, who appear for the United States Attorney's Office in the district's grand jury and warrant matters.20 Brown said: "We categorically deny that Eugene Horsch is a serial killer," "there's zero evidence right now that anyone was killed at that location," and "I'd be shocked if they found any harm related to those missing persons at that location."2142122

Footnotes

  1. "How a pornographer's violent fantasies blurred fact and fiction as cops searched Olney house for missing women," The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 2, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-philadelphia-missing-women-history-20260802.html ↩︎

  2. Kramer, Jillian. "Eugene Horsch indicted in federal court on firearms, fake credentials charges," The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 9, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/eugene-horsch-olney-house-federal-indictment-20260709.html ↩︎

  3. Leask, Anna. "Man linked to multiple missing women in US had fled NZ 40 years ago after posing as scientist," The New Zealand Herald, September 23, 2026 (quoting The Press of 1984). https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/raymond-horsch-man-linked-to-philadelphia-house-of-horrors-lived-near-timaru-under-stolen-name/BVQSWBL3LZDL3GIXFEHHBFY6RY/ ↩︎

  4. Smith, Jim. "Fugitive's Luck Runs Out With 4-Year Jail Sentence," Philadelphia Daily News, April 27, 1985, p. 8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/185948055/ ↩︎

  5. "Anna M. Horsch," obituary, The Morning Call, August 1, 1989, p. 18. https://www.newspapers.com/image/283766965/ ↩︎

  6. West, Ashley. "Ray Horsch: Sociopathic Villain," The Rialto Report, Podcast 27, 2013, audio at 1:13:12 to 1:13:24 (Horsch interview). https://web.archive.org/web/20190331064614/http://traffic.libsyn.com/therialtoreport/27_Rialto_Report_027_-_Ray_Horsch__Sociopathic_Villain.mp3 ↩︎

  7. Marin, Max, Ryan W. Briggs, and Ellie Rushing. "'Consumed by anger': Inside the 1985 psych profile of Raymond Horsch," The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 3, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-horsch-olney-missing-women-psych-exam-20260903.html ↩︎

  8. "Bucks County connection with Philly 'house of horror' case," Yahoo News (syndicated), 2026. https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/bucks-county-connection-philly-house-091634860.html ↩︎

  9. "Hoersch, Helen E. Wissman," death notice, The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 29, 1968, p. 32. https://www.newspapers.com/image/182120759/ ↩︎

  10. "Hoersch, Albert," death notice, The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 3, 1972, p. 10. https://www.newspapers.com/image/180006503/ ↩︎

  11. "Hoersch, Helen M.," death notice, The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 7, 2004, p. B12. https://www.newspapers.com/image/201102740/ ↩︎

  12. "What we know about the Olney investigation into missing women," The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 27, 2026 (which calls Helen M. Hoersch his sister; her 1991 and 2004 notices make her his aunt). https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/olney-investigation-eugene-horsch-missing-women-20260627.html ↩︎

  13. City of Philadelphia, Department of Records, real estate transfer index, W. Chew Ave., deed document 51798675, executed October 1, 2007, recorded October 26, 2007, grantor "Hoersch Helen M," grantee "Horsch Eugene A"; later mortgages of 2007 and 2009 and satisfaction of 2025, via the city's open data (rtt_summary). https://phl.carto.com/ (rtt_summary table) ↩︎

  14. "Who is Eugene Horsch? Man at Center of Philadelphia 'House of Horrors,'" Newsweek, 2026. https://www.newsweek.com/who-is-eugene-horsch-man-at-center-of-philadelphia-house-of-horrors-12459693 ↩︎

  15. Marin, Max, Ryan W. Briggs, Ellie Rushing, and Barbara Laker. "Police searched Olney home last summer, but drugs, not missing women, were the focus," The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 1, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/eugene-raymond-horsch-olney-home-search-guns-drugs-20260701.html ↩︎

  16. "Five takeaways from Philly missing women mystery connected to Raymond and Eugene Horsch," The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 4, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-missing-women-20260804.html ↩︎

  17. Briggs, Ryan W., Max Marin, and Barbara Laker. "A woman missing since 2016 had close ties to the Olney house that's now the target of a massive investigation," The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 27, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/olney-raid-missing-women-mystery-drugs-20260627.html ↩︎

  18. Rushing, Ellie. "Feds will take over gun case of Olney man at center of missing women investigation, as Philly DA withdraws charges," The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 6, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/eugene-horsch-federal-charges-olney-missing-women-20260806.html ↩︎

  19. Charns, David. "Eugene Horsch trial delayed amid missing women investigations." NBC10 Philadelphia, September 22, 2026. https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/eugene-horsch-trial-delayed-amid-philadelphia-missing-women-investigations/4467226/ ↩︎

  20. United States v. Horsch, Nos. 2:26-mj-01270 and 2:26-cr-00296, and United States v. Horsch, No. 2:09-cr-00794 (E.D. Pa.), docket entries and attorney listings via CourtListener search. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73593607/united-states-v-horsch/ ↩︎

  21. United States v. Horsch, No. 2:26-cr-00296 (E.D. Pa. filed July 8, 2026), docket via CourtListener / RECAP. ↩︎

  22. "Eugene Horsch Denies He's a Serial Killer as Philadelphia Cops Hunt for Missing Women," Newsweek, 2026. https://www.newsweek.com/philadelphia-obviously-serial-killer-former-fbi-agent-12457175 ↩︎