Overview
- Investigators, with crews from the Philadelphia Water Department, began excavating the front yard and street Wednesday to remove pipe sections and other items for FBI and Philadelphia Police forensic analysis.
- Earlier searches of the 400 block West Chew Avenue house uncovered guns, vats of chemicals, a 55‑gallon drum connected to water lines, hidden compartments, and what police sources called a significant amount of blood while no human remains were found during the initial sweep.
- Homeowner Eugene Albert Horsch was arrested June 19 in Center City and has been federally indicted on counts tied to illegal firearms and unlawfully produced law‑enforcement credentials but has not been charged with violent crimes in this probe.
- Investigators recovered items linking the house to missing women, including a fake ID and a bank card in the name of Blair Tonzelli and reports that Amy McHale was last seen at the property, though authorities have not publicly confirmed any forensic connection to those disappearances.
- Officials say removed pipes and other material will go to labs for DNA and other testing that can take weeks to months, forensic techniques can sometimes recover trace biological evidence after water exposure, and the prolonged investigation has left neighbors anxious and local streets disrupted.