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

By Danny Freeman, CNN

Philadelphia (CNN) — Something odd caught a park ranger’s attention one recent Friday morning, according to court documents: a black BMW was parked in the wrong place.

But police say the ranger approaching the car would ultimately lead to a sprawling investigation involving drugs, guns, mysterious chemicals, a missing woman and local and federal investigators turning a Philadelphia home inside out.

“At this point, I just don’t know where this is going to go,” Philadelphia Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said at a news conference Friday.

The case began with 44-year-old Eugene Horsch — the man behind the wheel of the black BMW — whose home in the city’s Olney neighborhood has been a focus of the investigation so far.

On June 19, according to a criminal complaint, Horsch was parked illegally in a spot reserved for law enforcement on the edge of Independence National Historic Park, home to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.

When the park ranger on patrol approached the car, he heard a woman in the back seat exclaim, “You’re going to hurt me!” Horsch and the woman seemed to be “engaged in illegal drug activity,” according to the criminal complaint, and they had visible sores on their bodies.

Two guns, a switchblade, crack cocaine and a cattle prod were found in the car, according to a federal affidavit obtained by CNN, and Horsch was arrested and charged with a federal count of felony possession of a firearm and municipal drug and weapons charges.

But authorities said two identification cards were also found in Horsch’s vehicle and raised more questions.

First was a Drug Enforcement Administration badge and ID with Horsch’s photo on it, but the ID was fake, and Horsch has never worked for the DEA, according to court documents.

Then the woman in the car presented an ID that had her photo on it, but a name that was not hers – it was the name of a missing person in Philadelphia, Vanore said.

Investigators executed a search warrant at Horsch’s home and immediately encountered what they called a crime scene at the West Chew Avenue address, with more weapons and drugs, Vanore said.

“The further search of this property produced some other things that we have a lot of questions about,” he said.

In the basement area, investigators found various chemicals in bottles, drums and other plastic containers, and the FBI was called in to help figure out what they were.

“There’s a 55-gallon drum, there’s connections to it going to water lines,” Vanore said.

“We just don’t know what he’s doing, if he’s producing something, if he’s making something, if he’s irrigating something. We don’t know.”

Though he did not release the name of the missing woman whose name was on the fake ID, Vanore said the potential link to her prompted the extra attention at the house.

“That’s why we’re still holding it,” he said Friday. “And we’re gonna look.”

But Vanore noted there were no “apparent bodies” at the scene.

A note mentioning notorious serial killer Ted Bundy was also found at the home, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, citing the affidavit of probable cause to search the home. CNN requested a copy of the affidavit for the search warrant but the US Attorney’s Office said it could not provide one because it’s under seal.

As of Tuesday afternoon, police were still stationed outside the home.

A Philadelphia Police spokesperson told CNN they could not comment further on “specific search tactics, including any potential excavation or utility line inspections at the property,” citing the ongoing investigation.

Horsch’s defense attorney Jerry Brown told CNN he plans to enter pleas of not guilty for the charges his client is currently facing.

He also addressed reports that police could try to search underground or around the property for evidence of other crimes.

“I don’t think that they’re going to find anything there,” said Brown. “They’re barking up the wrong tree.”

When it came to writings mentioning Ted Bundy, Brown said that sounded more like something that came from Horsch’s eccentric father, Raymond Horsch, who previously lived in the house and died last year.

“It’s pretty hard to differentiate between what’s (Horsch’s father’s) and what’s Eugene’s in this house,” explained Brown, who says he knew Horsch’s father.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Horsch’s father was a “known drug manufacturer and erotic filmmaker who had published several works of fiction with violent masochistic themes.” Law enforcement sources said police were considering the possibility that the writings were part of a novel or screenplay, according to the newspaper.

The news of the arrest caught the attention of the family of Amy McHale, a woman who was once married to Horsch’s father and disappeared nearly 10 years ago.

McHale’s family told CNN affiliate KYW she was at Horsch’s home the night before she went missing, and they worry something might have happened to her there.

“Everything about it just screams ‘uneasy’ and it has for the past few years,” Amanda Stofer, Amy McHale’s daughter, told KYW. “There’s been something strange within that house.”

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