Eight years after a woman disappeared, a Philadelphia house holds possible clues to her fate and a wider mystery

Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP

The summer Nicole Fusaro went missing, her mother walked up and down Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood until her feet ached.

Diane Fusaro and her friends would go deep into the often drug-plagued neighborhood where Nicole — Nikki to her friends and family — lived and was last seen, handing out fliers with the 27-year-old’s photo attached to sandwiches, hoping someone, anyone, might know something.

“Please help me find my daughter she has been missing for over 8 days with no one seeing or hearing from her,” she posted on Facebook on July 26, 2018, along with a selfie of Nicole with long, dark hair and blue eyes. Dozens of people shared the post, with promises to keep an eye out.

Diane died in 2020, never knowing what happened to her daughter.

“She spent every waking moment of her life from the time that Nicole went missing to the time of her passing, trying to find Nicole,” Diane’s nephew, Jonathan Halloran-Koren, said.

Eight years after Nicole vanished, her cousin believes he knows, to some degree, what happened to her. Police told him and his mother last month that she had been strangled, he said, and he believes she is the woman police described that day in a video recovered from a house in the city’s Olney neighborhood.

Philadelphia Police Department

Police said the video appears to show Raymond “RC” Horsch strangling a woman with a zip tie until she “appeared to be lifeless.” Raymond Horsch, who once lived in the house and died last year, was an erotic filmmaker whose work depicted violent themes, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer .

Kyle Mazza/Sipa USA/AP

Five women feared dead in connection to Philadelphia home where disturbing images were recovered

Nicole is among seven women tied to the house, five of whom police fear are dead, based on photos and videos found inside over the past several months. Police have yet to find bodies, DNA or other physical evidence of a killing, however.

Raymond Horsch’s son, Eugene Horsch, whose arrest in June led police to the house, has not been charged in any of the women’s disappearances or deaths, and police said in September that, so far, detectives had not reported seeing him in any of the videos.

This month, Philadelphia police and FBI investigators returned to the Horsch house, searching for any physical evidence that could confirm what the horrific images appear to show.

courtesy Jonathan Halloran-Koren

Nicole grew up in Northeast Philadelphia, her cousin said.

She was a “kind-hearted spirit,” he told CNN.

He recalled a family trip to Disney World and said Nicole loved volunteering with animals. She especially loved a Shih Tzu she inherited from her grandparents.

“She took that thing everywhere with her,” Halloran-Koren said, with a smile.

Nicole’s father died in 2009. Later, after Nicole and her mother moved to other parts of the city, Nicole began spending time in Kensington, and Diane eventually moved there to be near her, Halloran-Koren said.

Halloran-Koren said Nicole struggled with drugs — as so many have in Kensington.

“I know my aunt tried getting her into rehab a couple times, but it just … once you get into that lifestyle it’s really hard,” he said.

Nicole was last seen around 9 p.m. on July 19, 2018, near Kensington and Allegheny avenues, according to her missing person report .

“There was talk about her possibly getting into a car, but that was never” confirmed, Halloran-Koren said. “It was just rumors at that point.”

Police first notified relatives on Nicole’s father’s side, Halloran-Koren said. Then, on the morning of September 16, police came to him and his mother.

“They advised both myself and my mother that Nicole was, in fact, a victim, that she had been strangled,” Halloran-Koren said.

He said he learned more graphic details only later that day, along with the public, at a police news conference.

“It was a wide range of emotions of sadness and anger,” he said. “(It was) beyond infuriating.”

Police said the metadata on the video of the apparent strangulation was dated 2017, the year before Nicole was last seen. Police have not publicly identified the woman in the video.

Halloran-Koren said he decided to make his cousin’s identity public in part so that the friends who helped his aunt search for Nicole would know what happened to her.

At the same news conference, law enforcement officials reiterated that so far in the Olney house they’d found unidentified chemicals, a “homemade laboratory of some kind,” five urns believed to contain human remains, and a trove of digital images and videos.

In all, police said, five women appear dead in images found in the house: Maribel Fresses, 26, and Gabrielle Amarando, 27, whom police named; two women police identified but would not name at their families’ request; and one woman police could not identify.

FBI officials said by mid-September they’d gotten through about 30% of more than 1 million digital pieces of evidence recovered from the home.

Two other missing women are also tied to the investigation: Blair Tonzelli, who was reported missing in 2023 and whose name, CNN has previously reported, was on the ID the woman in Eugene Horsch’s car gave officers when he was detained in June, and Amy McHale, whose family says she was once married to the elder Horsch.

Yet police have stressed the central problem in the case: There is still no physical evidence of a killing.

“Let’s remember, he was making movies,” Philadelphia Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said in September. “Some of his movies are there on this digital evidence. So, that’s the part, where, you know, some of this is play acting, and some of it we believe could be real.”

“We need to corroborate what we see; we need to find evidence to prove what we think, and the FBI is here to help us,” he said.

However many questions surround what happened inside the house, how investigators got there is well documented.

Around 8 a.m. on June 19, a federal park ranger noticed a black BMW parked without a police placard beside a fire hydrant near Sixth and Market streets, in Independence National Historical Park, according to a federal criminal complaint. As the ranger approached, he heard a woman in the back seat say, “You’re going to hurt me!”

Bizarre encounter in Philadelphia leads to a home full of guns, chemicals and drugs, police say – and a missing woman’s name

The driver was 44-year-old Eugene Horsch. Officers found a switchblade and a glass drug pipe in his pants pockets, according to the complaint. In the car, they found two loaded guns, suspected crack cocaine, a cattle prod, police handcuffs and, in the trunk, a second switchblade and DEA badges with ID cards bearing Eugene Horsch’s photo and the name “Eugene Fredrick Steiner.” Eugene Horsch “is not employed by the DEA and never has been,” the complaint says.

The woman in the back seat gave officers an ID bearing her photo but the name of a missing Philadelphia woman, police said.

Eugene Horsch, who has prior drug and assault convictions, was charged with illegally possessing a firearm as a felon and remains in federal custody.

His attorney, Jerry Brown, did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. Brown previously told CNN he planned to enter pleas of not guilty.

Police then searched his home on West Chew Avenue. That’s when the case grew into something far larger. Investigators turned their attention to Eugene’s late father, Raymond Horsch, and to missing women who might be connected to the home.

“The scope of this investigation is significant,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said at a news conference in September.

There has been some form of police presence at the Olney home since June, but local and federal law enforcement officials began a new effort this week.

Philadelphia police have not released details about the renewed work. “The investigation remains active and ongoing,” a police spokesperson told CNN in a statement. “Additional information will be released as it becomes available and is appropriate for public release.”

The FBI’s Evidence Response Team “continues to assist the Philadelphia Police Department,” a bureau spokesperson told CNN, referring further questions to police as “the leading investigative agency.”

Still, the change in the neighborhood is clear.

Crime scene tape is back up, and police signs bar parking on the blocks surrounding the home from October 5 to 16. Police officers and FBI agents have been seen by CNN and its affiliates going in and out of the house, removing everything from junk and debris to big-screen televisions and full plastic bags.

The sound of jackhammering in the Horsches’ backyard pierced the otherwise quiet street Wednesday afternoon.

The search for physical evidence of the missing women continues.

Halloran-Koren hopes investigators keep pushing for any answers they can get, even as he understands the reality ahead.

“I don’t think they’ll ever find remains that we can turn around and end up laying to rest,” Halloran-Koren said.

The only comfort, he said, is that “at least I knew what happened to her to a degree.”

杰西卡·格里芬/《费城问询报》通过美联社

妮可·富萨罗失踪的那个夏天，她的母亲在费城肯辛顿街区来回走动，直到双脚酸痛。

黛安·富萨罗和她的朋友们会深入妮可（朋友和家人都叫她妮基）居住和最后一次被人看到的地方——这个经常充斥着毒品的街区——分发传单，传单上贴着这位27岁女孩的照片，夹在三明治里，希望有人，哪怕只是一个人，能知道些什么。

“请帮我找到我的女儿，她已经失踪超过8天了，没有人见过她，也没有人联系到她。”她在2018年7月26日发布在Facebook上，并附上了一张妮可的自拍照，照片中妮可有着长长的黑发和蓝色的眼睛。数十人转发了这条帖子，并承诺会帮忙留意。

黛安娜于 2020 年去世，至死都不知道女儿的下落。

“从妮可失踪到她去世，她醒着的每一刻都在寻找妮可，”黛安的侄子乔纳森·霍洛兰-科伦说。

妮可失踪八年后，她的表弟认为自己对她的遭遇有所了解。他说，上个月警方告诉他和他的母亲，妮可是被勒死了。他相信，妮可就是警方当天在奥尔尼社区一户人家找到的视频中描述的女子。

费城警察局

警方称，视频显示雷蒙德·“RC”·霍尔施用扎带勒住一名女子的脖子，直到她“似乎失去生命迹象”。据《费城问询报》报道，雷蒙德·霍尔施曾居住在这栋房子里，于去年去世，他是一位情色电影导演，其作品描绘了暴力主题。

Kyle Mazza/Sipa USA/AP

费城一处住宅内发现令人不安的照片，五名女性恐已遇害。

妮可与这栋房子有关联，警方根据过去几个月在屋内发现的照片和视频，认为其中五人已经死亡。然而，警方尚未找到尸体、DNA或其他谋杀证据。

雷蒙德·霍尔施的儿子尤金·霍尔施于 6 月被捕，警方因此找到了他的房子。尤金·霍尔施尚未因任何女性的失踪或死亡而被起诉，警方在 9 月份表示，到目前为止，侦探们还没有在任何视频中看到过他。

本月，费城警方和联邦调查局调查人员重返霍尔施的住所，寻找任何可以证实这些可怕照片所显示内容的物证。

图片由乔纳森·霍洛兰-科伦提供

妮可的表妹说，妮可成长于费城东北部。

他告诉 CNN，她是一个“心地善良的人”。

他回忆起一家人去迪士尼乐园的旅行，并说妮可很喜欢做动物志愿者。她尤其喜爱从祖父母那里继承来的那只西施犬。

“她走到哪儿都带着那东西，”霍洛兰-科伦笑着说。

妮可的父亲于 2009 年去世。后来，妮可和她的母亲搬到了城市的其他地方，妮可开始在肯辛顿待一段时间，黛安最终也搬到了那里，以便离她近一些，霍洛兰-科伦说。

霍洛兰-科伦说，妮可曾与毒品作斗争——就像肯辛顿的许多人一样。

“我知道我姑姑曾几次试图让她去戒毒所，但是……一旦你习惯了那种生活方式，就很难改掉，”他说。

根据失踪人员报告，妮可最后一次被人看到是在 2018 年 7 月 19 日晚上 9 点左右，地点在肯辛顿大道和阿勒格尼大道附近。

“当时有传言说她可能会上车，但这从未得到证实，”霍洛兰-科伦说。“那只是谣言而已。”

霍洛兰-科伦说，警方首先通知了妮可父亲一方的亲属。然后，在9月16日上午，警方找到了妮可的父亲和他的母亲。

“他们告诉我和我母亲，妮可实际上是受害者，她是被勒死的，”霍洛兰-科伦说。

他说，直到当天晚些时候，他才和公众一起在警方新闻发布会上了解到更多细节。

他说：“我当时百感交集，既悲伤又愤怒。（这）简直令人怒不可遏。”

警方表示，这段疑似勒颈视频的元数据显示日期为2017年，也就是妮可最后一次露面的前一年。警方尚未公开视频中女子的身份。

霍洛兰-科伦表示，他决定公开表妹的身份，部分原因是希望帮助他姑姑寻找妮可的朋友们能够知道她身上发生了什么事。

在同一场新闻发布会上，执法官员重申，到目前为止，他们在奥尔尼的房子里发现了不明化学品、“某种自制实验室”、五个据信装有人类遗骸的骨灰瓮，以及大量数字图像和视频。

警方表示，在屋内发现的照片中，共有五名女性似乎已经死亡：26 岁的 Maribel Fresses 和 27 岁的 Gabrielle Amarando（警方公布了她们的姓名）；两名警方确认身份但应家属要求未透露姓名的女性；以及一名警方无法确认身份的女性。

FBI官员表示，截至9月中旬，他们已经处理了从该住宅中查获的100多万份电子证据中的约30%。

另外两名失踪女性也与此案有关：布莱尔·托泽利 (Blair Tonzelli)，她于 2023 年被报失踪，据 CNN 此前报道，她的名字出现在尤金·霍尔施 (Eugene Horsch) 车内一名女子在 6 月份霍尔施被拘留时向警方提供的身份证件上；艾米·麦克海尔 (Amy McHale)，她的家人说她曾嫁给老霍尔施。

然而，警方强调了案件的核心问题：目前仍没有杀人物证。

“别忘了，他当时在拍电影，”费城副警长弗兰克·瓦诺雷在九月份说道。“他的一些电影就保存在这些数字证据里。所以，关键在于，你知道，有些是表演，有些我们认为可能是真的。”

他说：“我们需要证实我们所看到的；我们需要找到证据来证明我们的想法，而联邦调查局会帮助我们。”

尽管围绕房子里发生的事情有很多疑问，但调查人员是如何到达那里的却有详细的记录。

根据一份联邦刑事诉状，6月19日上午8点左右，一名联邦公园巡逻员注意到一辆黑色宝马车停在独立国家历史公园第六街和市场街附近的一个消防栓旁，车上没有警用标志。巡逻员走近时，听到后座上的一名女子说：“你会伤害我的！”

费城一起离奇事件导致警方发现一处藏有大量枪支、化学品和毒品的住宅，并找到了一名失踪女子的姓名。

司机是44岁的尤金·霍尔施。根据起诉书，警方在他的裤子口袋里发现了一把弹簧刀和一个玻璃吸毒管。在车内，他们发现了两把已上膛的枪支、疑似可卡因、一根电击棒、一副警用手铐，并在后备箱里发现了第二把弹簧刀和几张带有尤金·霍尔施照片及“尤金·弗雷德里克·施泰纳”姓名的美国缉毒局（DEA）徽章。起诉书称，尤金·霍尔施“并非美国缉毒局雇员，也从未受雇于该局”。

警方称，后座上的女子向警方出示了一张身份证，上面有她的照片，但名字却是费城一名失踪女子的名字。

尤金·霍尔施曾有毒品和袭击罪的前科，他被控非法持有枪支（作为重罪犯），目前仍被联邦拘留。

他的律师杰里·布朗尚未回复CNN的置评请求。布朗此前曾告诉CNN，他计划作无罪辩护。

随后，警方搜查了他在西丘大道上的住所。案件由此变得更加复杂。调查人员将注意力转向尤金已故的父亲雷蒙德·霍尔施，以及可能与这所房子有关的失踪女性。

“这项调查的范围非常广泛，”费城警察局长凯文·贝瑟尔在9月份的新闻发布会上说。

自六月以来，奥尔尼家附近一直有警察驻守，但本周当地和联邦执法官员开始采取新的行动。

费城警方尚未公布重启调查的具体细节。一位警方发言人在一份声明中告诉CNN：“调查仍在积极进行中。如有更多信息，我们将及时发布，并视情况决定是否公开。”

联邦调查局的一位发言人告诉 CNN，联邦调查局的证据反应小组“将继续协助费城警察局”，并将进一步的问题转交给警方，因为警方是“主要的调查机构”。

不过，社区的变化是显而易见的。

犯罪现场警戒线已重新拉起，警方告示牌显示，从10月5日至16日，房屋周围的街区禁止停车。据CNN及其附属机构报道，警察和联邦调查局特工进出房屋，搬走了从垃圾、碎片到大屏幕电视和装满的塑料袋等所有物品。

周三下午，霍尔舍家后院传来电钻的轰鸣声，打破了原本安静的街道。

对失踪女性的物证搜寻工作仍在继续。

霍洛兰-科伦希望调查人员继续努力寻找任何可能的答案，尽管他也明白摆在面前的现实。

“我不认为他们会找到遗骸，让我们能够转身安葬，”霍洛兰-科伦说。

他说，唯一让他感到欣慰的是，“至少我大致了解了她身上发生了什么事。”