A Philadelphia man whose home has been linked to seven missing or dead women is clearly a serial killer, a former FBI special agent said Thursday. Klaver, who spent 26 years at the FBI, said Eugene Horsch, 44, plainly fits the classification of a serial killer following Wednesday's announcement by police that images and videos recovered in his Philadelphia home appear to show five women unconscious or lifeless. Police sources said two other missing women are also connected to the residence.
The FBI defines serial murder as "the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s), in separate events." "Obviously, this guy's a serial killer," Klaver told Newsweek, adding that Horsch appeared to have extensively documented many of his alleged victims. "In this day and age, everybody's recording everything, but I think even today most people are not recording murders. But it appears this guy was." Klaver noted that Horsch's father, Raymond "R.C." Horsch, 82, who lived at the home for decades prior to his death last year, had been a prominent pornographer who produced alleged "snuff films," or footage that purports to show real-life killings.
"I don't want to say he's following in his father's footsteps, but he appears to be taking it one step further and documenting his actual murders," Klaver said. Among the missing women linked to the investigation are Gabrielle Amarando, who was 22 when she disappeared in 2012, and Maribel Fresses, who was 27 when she disappeared in 2018. Philadelphia police declined to comment on Klaver's characterization of Horsch, who remains held in federal custody Thursday on gun and related charges.
"This remains an active and ongoing investigation," police said in a statement early Thursday. Horsch's attorney did not respond to a Newsweek inquiry seeking comment. Klaver said detectives in Philadelphia are now tasked with scouring roughly 1 million photos, videos and other pieces of evidence in the sprawling investigation into the home on Chew Avenue in Philadelphia's Olney section.
"I would think that within the Philadelphia police, the investigators are treating this as a serial killer; they're just not saying it publicly," Klaver said. "Because one of the challenges they have is they don't have any bodies." No remains of the five women believed to be deceased have been recovered from the home. The city's medical examiner cannot conclusively determine their cause or manner of death, police said.
"It's very difficult to charge someone with homicide without a body," Klaver explained. "That's not to say it couldn't be done, and it has been done, but from an evidentiary standpoint, that's the biggest piece of evidence—the dead body." Investigators are now working to locate any forensic evidence inside the home indicative of violence or homicide, as well as to connect with relatives of the dead or missing women, Klaver said. "They're going to be reaching out to family members to get DNA samples so they can do forensic analysis of any potential DNA they find inside the house," the former FBI agent said.
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