Assistant District Attorney Alyssa Amoroso withdrew the charges the Philadelphia DA’s office had filed against Eugene Albert Horsch for illegal gun and drug possession Thursday morning, telling a city judge that the U.S. Attorney’s Office would instead handle the case.
Horsch, 44, has been in federal custody since June after a U.S. park ranger encountered him and another woman inside a black BMW near Independence Hall, acting suspiciously. Police said they searched Horsch — who was not allowed to possess guns because of felony convictions — and found a switchblade and a glass pipe in his pants, as well as two illegal guns, drugs, and a phony federal drug enforcement badge in his car.
And then, in an unsettling twist, the woman with Horsch presented a fake ID bearing the name of a woman, Blair Tonzelli, who had been reported missing in 2023.
Horsch was charged with illegal gun and drug possession after his June 19 arrest, and was held on $500,000 bail.
Eugene Albert Horsch, 44, of Philadelphia.Courtesy of Philadelphia police
In the days after Horsch was arrested with the weapons in Center City, local and federal investigators searched his decrepit twin house on Chew Avenue and found another gun, as well as materials to grow marijuana.
They also discovered a trove of more concerning materials — barrels of chemicals in the basement, several urns holding cremated remains, supplies to make counterfeit IDs, documents tied to at least two women who have been missing for years, and a handwritten letter that described hurting people and mentioned the serial killer Ted Bundy.
A woman also told investigators Horsch had told her he knew how to use chemicals to melt bodies in the basement.
As officials investigated the whereabouts of Tonzelli, the woman whose name appeared on the ID handed to park rangers, they learned that she was reportedly last seen at the Chew Avenue house in late 2022.
They also found that another missing woman was last seen at the address. Amy McHale, the ex-wife of Horsch’s deceased father, Raymond “R.C.” Horsch, disappeared in June 2016.
In the months since the investigation began, police have repeatedly searched Horsch’s home, excavated its yard to recover pipes to test for DNA, and pored over hundreds of pieces of documents and Horsch’s devices in hopes of learning the fate of the missing women.
Law enforcement sources said none of the items recovered from inside the home — including what initially appeared to be significant amounts of blood — tested positive for blood or either woman’s DNA. It was not immediately clear if the tests of the excavated pipes have been completed.
Raymond “R.C.” Horsch in 1999.S. E. Stokowski / Wikimedia
Raymond Horsch was a porn actor and director who produced films and self-published novels that often featured women in addiction in violent fantasies — including some that depicted various ways to kill women. He cast himself in some of the stories as an “empathetic” serial killer who preyed on addicted women to end their suffering, and billed the books as stories that combined real details from his life story with his fantasies.
Investigators have since found themselves working to sort fact from fiction in discerning whether anything more sinister happened inside the home, or if it was just a den for troubled drug users.
Eugene Horsch’s lawyer, Jerome Brown, has said his client did nothing wrong. Brown did not attend Thursday’s hearing.
Horsch, too, did not appear in court. He remains in federal custody as Philadelphia homicide detectives and federal officials continue to investigate.
For nearly a dozen years, Vito Maglio’s family has agonized over who could have shot him in the head and neck, torched his SUV, then dumped his body into the Schuylkill.
“I said to myself, maybe I’ll die before I know,” his wife of 40 years, Maria, 75, said from her Bustleton home.
Then, this week, Philadelphia police arrested a 30-year-old woman in connection with Maglio’s death, saying she and others robbed him of his gold ring, phone, and a small amount of cash, then killed him and tossed his body into the river in December 2014.
Melanie Morat was taken into custody at her East Frankford home Tuesday afternoon and is expected to be charged with murder, robbery, arson, and related crimes, police said. Detectives are investigating whether at least two other people were involved in the crime, law enforcement sources said.
The arrest comes as Philadelphia homicide detectives, with more time and resources amid a striking decline in violence, continue to work through a backlog of unsolved cases — a combination of the hundreds of killings from the pandemic-era spike in shootings and higher-profile cases from years past that ran cold.
The killing of Maglio, 69, was among the latter, a disappearance and death that shocked his family and community, and left police struggling to amass enough evidence to make an arrest.
Maglio, a father of six, was a mechanic who owned several gas stations and ran a social club, the Napoli Association in Rhawnhurst, for many years before selling the businesses and retiring in November 2014.
Maria and Vito Maglio had been married for 40 years.
But on Dec. 14, 2014, he did not return to his Bustleton home, and his family reported him missing. Several days later, police found his GMC Yukon in East Germantown, charred and windowless, with a bullet casing inside and a pool of blood beneath the driver’s seat, police said.
His remains were not recovered from the Schuylkill until late March. He was identified by his pacemaker.
The investigation was challenging from the start, officials said, in part because homicide detectives did not take over the case until his body was recovered months after his disappearance. The assigned detective, Gregory Santamala, said in a 2016 interview that police did not know where Maglio was killed because his phone records showed that he was in various neighborhoods on the night he disappeared, and there were no surveillance cameras in the area where his car was burned.
Detectives suspected he had been set up in a robbery that went awry, he said. An early tip led investigators to interview two women in the Northeast, and both failed polygraph tests. But the women immediately hired lawyers and stopped talking, officials said.
Santamala retired in 2022, and the case went cold.
Then, this summer, the case was reassigned to Detectives Joseph Cremen and Robert Daly, who began reviewing phone records and the more than a dozen interviews their colleagues held with suspects and witnesses over the years.
Investigators told Maglio’s family it was not necessarily new evidence that allowed them to make an arrest this week — but a new style of building cases. Years ago, they said, prosecutors had less experience making cases from cell phone location data and circumstantial evidence. Now, they said, law enforcement has greater expertise in understanding those records, which, alongside the witness statements, allowed prosecutors to conclude there was sufficient evidence to charge Morat with murder.
Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said using today’s technology to solve older cases is the crux of cold case review.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Maglio’s family said the developments came as a welcome surprise after a decade of fleeting hope. Sitting in the green-walled living room of their parents’ home Tuesday night, Maglio’s children said they were grateful for an arrest and eager for the court process to begin.
“I’m just glad it didn’t fall through the cracks,” said daughter-in-law Sandra Maglio, 50. “It was our biggest fear. We live in a city where people die every day, sadly. … So I’m just glad that, you know, someone took the initiative to say, ‘Hey, let’s look at this again.’”
They were also struck by the timing. Maglio’s brother-in-law died Monday. And his son, Donato, died three years ago this month at the age of 47.
They imagine them all together now.
“It gives us some kind of closure,” said daughter Lucia Thrasher, 37. “But we already got the outcome we didn’t want to 12 years ago.”
Thrasher’s eyes welled with tears as she looked at her 6-year-old twins, Charles and Thomas, who never got to meet their grandfather. Charles, bouncing in the doorway, asked why everyone was in the living room.
“Nonno,” she told him.
“You know, Nonno,” she said, as he looked away bashfully. “Where’s Nonno?”
He pointed toward a gold-flecked picture frame in the corner of the room.
Vito Maglio, 69, was a father of six.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
What initially appeared to be a significant amount of blood inside the Olney home tied to a missing persons investigation was not real blood, according to law enforcement sources.
Forensic testing conducted so far also has found no DNA belonging to the two missing women at the center of the evolving investigation, the sources said.
Philadelphia police and FBI agents began searching the home of Eugene Horsch last month after police arrested him with a woman carrying a fake ID in the name of Blair Tonzelli, a woman struggling with drug addiction who was last seen at the property in 2022. The probe also renewed interest in another missing person, Amy McHale, the ex-wife of Eugene’s father, who was last seen in 2016 at the same house on West Chew Avenue.
But detectives did not find the DNA of either woman on items tested so far, and while preliminary tests indicated that a significant amount of blood was present in the house, subsequent forensic tests came back negative, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case.
The Philadelphia Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
This week police began excavating a pipe beneath the property to search for more evidence. And FBI agents are examining hundreds of pages of handwritten and typed documents, CDs, videos, and text messages for clues related to the missing women, the sources said.
Police arrested Horsch on June 19 near Independence Mall with drugs, guns, and various other weapons, as well as a phony U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration badge in the name of “Eugene Frederick Steiner.” He remains in federal custody on charges related to those offenses but has not been accused of any crimes in connection to the missing women.
Horsch, 44, was incarcerated for a previous drug conviction at the time McHale’s family reported her missing in 2016. But his father, Raymond “R.C” Horsch, who died in May 2025, has become another focal point of the investigation.
Raymond Horsch was an erotic photographer and filmmaker whose career in the porn industry dates to the 1970s. His work depicted graphic sexual violence and simulated death scenes, often involving women in addiction. Some scenes used what appeared to be prop blood. Horsch also penned semi-autobiographical novels that featured sadomasochists and serial killers.
While the forensic testing has not shown that any real violence took place, investigators continue to examine other evidence found in the home, including unpublished film and writing, law enforcement sources said. One of those items is a handwritten note that describes hurting people and references the serial killer Ted Bundy.
Shortly after Raymond Horsch’s death last year, a fire led police to search the property and arrest Eugene after they found a drug manufacturing operation and several illegal firearms.
When police searched the property again last month, they found additional drugs and guns, as well as hidden compartments, vats filled with chemicals, and a 55-gallon drum with connections to water lines in the basement.
When police arrested Eugene Horsch near Independence Mall in his black BMW, a woman with him showed police a fake ID in Tonzelli’s name. According to an affidavit of probable cause to search the Olney home, the woman told police that she did not know Tonzelli. She said Eugene never harmed her, but he told her he knew the chemicals needed to dissolve human bodies.
Testing of the pipe excavated from the property this week remains ongoing.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said Thursday that the two prosecutors who accused DA Larry Krasner of encouraging them to act unethically in a controversial appellate case did so in a court filing that was both unauthorized and “ill-informed.”
In a court document filed late Thursday, written by Assistant District Attorney Thomas Gaeta and signed by Krasner, the office said prosecutors Katherine Ernst and Steven J. Wildberger acted inappropriately and without Krasner’s permission when they filed a brief Monday saying the office had a conflict in the appeal of Dennis Johnson, who is seeking to have his murder conviction overturned.
The office said it had taken steps to address all of the issues it saw with Johnson’s case, and that Ernst and Wildberger’s assertions were “ill-informed” and made without firsthand knowledge because they were no longer a part of the case.
The filing primarily focused on the steps the office took to ensure it was handling the case in a legal and ethical manner — and did not directly address the two prosecutors’ contentions that Krasner had asked them to “protect the office.”
In their filing Monday, Ernst and Wildberger said they tried to persuade Krasner to allow the state attorney general’s office to take over Johnson’s appeal after the prosecutor previously assigned to the case, Jaclyn Mason, recommended that his case be overturned — a recommendation the office later sought to reverse, saying Mason’s filing was full of false statements.
U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond then ordered a hearing on the matter. And in explosive testimony in federal court last week, Mason said she had sought to vacate Johnson’s conviction at the direction of her boss, Matt Stiegler — whom she accused of colluding with defense attorneys. Stiegler has said that was not the case.
Mason, who has since resigned, also said she was later told to lie about the case to minimize scrutiny of the office.
District Attorney Larry Krasner at a 2025 press conference. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Ernst and Wildberger, who work in the law division of the DA’s office, said that as they were evaluating the case in the spring, they tried to encourage Krasner to refer the case to the state attorney general because of issues with how it was handled.
For example, they said, Stiegler, the supervisor who they believed had made mistakes while overseeing the case, was still offering legal advice about it from a different role in the office, which Ernst and Wildberger viewed as self-interested and “inappropriate” because of his potential interest in clearing his name rather than evaluating the case on its merits.
But Krasner’s office kept the case. And as they deliberated how to move forward, the two prosecutors wrote, Krasner told them “to litigate the case in a manner to ‘protect the office.’”
Then, in late June, Ernst and Wildberger wrote, they again asked Krasner to refer the matter to state prosecutors, but “DA Krasner stated that there would be ‘consequences’ for anyone who notified the court of the conflict issues.”
Ernst and Wildberger then filed a notice in federal court saying they believed the DA’s office was beset by conflicts and should not handle Johnson’s appeal.
Krasner’s team, in its first response to the matter this week, said that was not true.
Ernst and Wildberger, they said, were appropriately excluded from the case as soon as they disclosed a personal conflict with it, and did not have firsthand knowledge of the office’s discussions thereafter.
The prosecutors “are disqualified from filing or speaking on behalf of the Commonwealth” and were not authorized to file the “notice of conflict” or to speak for the office about the matter, they said.
Any discussions Ernst and Wildberger had with the office about the case are privileged conversations they should not be able to disclose, the DA’s filing said.
To remedy the issue, the office said, it has hired a new prosecutor to handle the case who has been walled off from the ongoing conversations. Assistant District Attorney Jean Peters-Baker, who recently joined the office and has spent more than 25 years as a prosecutor, will review Johnson’s case and decide if it has merit, the filing said.
Johnson was convicted of second-degree murder in 2009 in the shooting death of Kenyatta Smith during a robbery outside a North Philadelphia convenience store two years earlier. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Johnson appealed his conviction, in part because he said his trial attorney was ineffective. Mason filed court documents in 2022 agreeing with that assertion and saying Johnson’s conviction should be overturned.
But then, this spring, others in the office reviewed the case and took the opposite view.
Ernst and Wildberger said they were prepared to testify before Diamond about the situation. Others in the office are also expected to take the stand as the case proceeds.
The judge has not yet scheduled a date for testimony.
Until last year, Philadelphia police detectives wrote search warrants on typewriters. Officers still take incident reports with pen and paper, and hand deliver them to detective bureaus. And when someone reports a minor crime, it can take hours for police to respond — if they do at all.
To Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, those details capture something bigger: a department in need of a systems upgrade.
In a new five-year strategic plan released Thursday, Bethel broke from the tradition of his predecessors by treating the police department and its nearly $900 million budget as a business in need of modernizing — with an eye toward better “customer service” for residents — rather than centering on crime-fighting tactics like commanders of the past.
“If we’re going to be a modern police department,” he said in an interview this week, “we have to take on some of the structures of a modern business.”
To him, that involves tackling many of the less glamorous parts of police work: upgrading internal records systems, streamlining police report forms, and expanding training for officers.
But there are also some flashy — if not eyebrow-raising — initiatives within the 73-page plan: integrating artificial intelligence into 911 calls, allowing residents to report nonemergency crimes via video chat, and creating an internal diversion program for officers who violate low-level department policies.
Some parts of the plan — built on conversations with more than 200 people in the department, city leadership, and community — would be funded through grants, the department said, while others would need to be approved and funded by City Council, which has been largely amenable to Bethel’s budget requests in recent years.
The department said the long-term view “allows future needs to be considered through the normal budget process well before they arise.”
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel speak at a press conference in 2024.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
It has been one of Bethel’s signature undertakings since Mayor Cherelle L. Parker appointed him as Philly’s top cop in January 2024, part of a long history of police commissioners and mayors working together to craft long-term public safety plans to guide their administrative goals.
In 2012, then-Mayor Michael Nutter said the department would focus on confiscating illegal guns, and ramp up overtime to put more cops on the street. And in 2020, amid an unprecedented spike in gun violence, then-Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw outlined goals to increase the clearance rate for homicides and shootings.
Bethel’s plan, by contrast, is light on specifics for traditional crime fighting. While it broadly describes strategies like increasing foot patrols on SEPTA and expanding the use of digital forensic evidence in investigations, it does not set targeted reductions in homicides, shootings, or traffic deaths.
That, he said, was intentional.
“This plan is really not a crime plan. We have a crime plan. We’ve been covering it for a long time. We know that space of it,” he said. “But we’ve never done anything as an organization with, how do we move into being a modern and forward-thinking, always-evolving organization?”
That has likely given Bethel the rare breathing room to look past the crime stats that have defined past administrations and focus instead on the machinery behind them.
Here are some standout parts of the plan:
Illegally dumped trash piles up at South 56th and Hoffman Streets in Kingsessing in this 2024 photo. Residents would now have officers in their police district to specifically help address quality-of-life issues. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
New quality-of-life officers
Quality-of-life concerns have long dominated community police meetings, Bethel said. So within the next two years, the department plans to install “quality-of-life officers” in every police district to be the point of contact for residents on issues like abandoned cars, illegal dumping, and nuisance businesses.
Those officers, Bethel said, would be responsible for coordinating calls with other city departments to more quickly resolve problems.
Report low-level crimes via video call
One of the biggest issues for the department, Bethel said, is poor “customer service.”
Officers typically juggle high-priority calls — like shootings and assaults — alongside reports of nonviolent crimes like petty theft, vandalism, or minor car crashes. Because the lower-level offenses are considered less urgent, officer response can sometimes take several hours, leaving residents frustrated.
Under the new system, he said, people would be able to report low-level crimes online and be provided with a link to a video chat with officers, who could take the report and send a copy to the caller digitally, with no in-person visit needed.
Filing a report over the phone will still be possible, he said, but for people who want to avoid an emergency call for minor issues, this is a new option.
The new system could start to roll out within the next year.
AI-assisted 911 calls
The department also plans to test 911 call systems that use artificial intelligence to screen calls.
When people call for help, they will be connected to an emergency dispatcher, with AI listening in the background. Callers who report lower-level crimes, like vandalism or theft, will be transferred to an AI-assisted line and have the option to report the matter online or via video call.
There will also be a separate, nonemergency phone number that will be answered by an artificial voice. The system will screen for keywords or issues linked to high-priority crimes, like a robbery or shooting, and immediately transfer those calls to a human dispatcher, the department said.
Bethel said the department is still evaluating potential pitfalls, and acknowledged the nuances: “A theft can turn into a robbery, and a robbery can turn into a shooting, a shooting can turn into a murder,” he said.
Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel inside the radio room at PPD headquarters in 2024.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
An internal diversion program
When city police officers violate department policy, their disciplinary cases are sent to the Police Board of Inquiry, and reprimands can remain on their record and affect future promotions unless appealed and overturned through union arbitration.
Under a new initiative, officers accused of lower-level violations could go through an internal diversion program that requires them to undergo training and avoids a mark on their record. Among those offenses are sleeping on duty, dismissive behavior, using derogatory or offensive language, or failing to activate body-worn cameras. In the latter case, Bethel said, the diversionary program would not be available for officers with repeated failures to turn cameras on.
Officers would not be eligible for diversion if they are found to have committed the same offense within the previous six months, or if the offense happened alongside more serious violations ineligible for the program.
Bethel said the diversion option was developed in coordination with the Citizens Police Oversight Commission with a goal of giving officers “a second chance, but also train them.”
Expand communication with the public
The department intends to develop transition plans when captains or commanders leave neighborhood police districts — something community leaders had requested, Bethel said.
It will also host quarterly community meetings to review data, and develop publicly available dashboards with additional crime, quality-of-life, and other types of data to measure performance.
By expanding points of contact with the community, Bethel said, “they’re going to hold us accountable.”
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is investigating ties between one of DA Larry Krasner’s top advisers and a man serving life in prison after prosecutors learned that the official sent the man money years ago and did not disclose it.
G. Lamar Stewart, chief of external engagement and government affairs in the DA’s office, said he sent $100 to Anthony Sutton in January 2021 to support Sutton’s mentorship program, “Mann Up,” for men incarcerated at State Correctional Institute Phoenix.
Sutton, 61, who is serving life in prison for killing a man in Germantown in 1984, has been appealing his conviction for more than a decade.
The issue came to light last week, after the prosecutors assigned to Sutton’s appeal were reviewing his prison records and noticed that Stewart was among those who had sent Sutton money in recent years.
The records showed Stewart did so only once, Krasner said.
The payment raised concerns, in part because Stewart had organized and participated in meetings between Sutton’s defense attorney, Krasner, and prosecutors about the case, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Krasner’s office has opposed Sutton’s appeal and said his profession of innocence lacked merit.
When the prosecutors discovered the payment, it was quickly brought to the attention of Krasner, who then asked his office’s special investigation unit to investigate, according to multiple sources familiar with the case. The inquiry remains ongoing.
Stewart, who is also senior pastor of Taylor Memorial Baptist Church in Nicetown-Tioga, was working as the head of the office’s community engagement unit at the time of the donation. In an interview, he said he used his own money to support Sutton’s program as part of the faith-based charitable work he does to assist families and community organizations across the region every holiday season.
“I thought that the work that they were doing was positive, transformative, and it was geared to helping reduce violence in Philadelphia and to make communities and families whole,” he said.
He said he did not know of any way to reach the organization other than to send it through Sutton directly. “I was very intentional to make sure that my name was listed because when you’re not trying to hide anything, you just do things above the board,” he said.
District Attorney Larry Krasner (left) and G Lamar Stewart, head of the Community Engagement and Government Affairs at the DA’s Office, outside the President’s House in Independence National Historical Park in February 2026.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
During a brief hearing in Sutton’s case on Monday, Assistant District Attorney David Napiorski, supervisor of the office’s law division, told Common Pleas Court Judge Giovanni O. Campbell that his attorneys needed additional time to investigate Sutton’s case after they found that someone in the office had put “money on the defendant’s books in prison.”
“That needs to be investigated by the office thoroughly before we can take any further action,” Napiorski told the judge.
Stewart said he did not try to influence the outcome of the appeal or advocate for Sutton. He acknowledged that he attended at least one meeting about Sutton’s case, but said his job requires him to coordinate and attend meetings with Krasner.
Krasner said that he saw no issue with Stewart’s donation or subsequent participation in meetings, and that his office’s inquiry and prosecutors’ comment in court Monday “establishes integrity.”
“G. Lamar Stewart gave a small amount of money for an organization … and then this office decided to oppose Mr. Sutton’s request. Where’s the issue?” he asked.
He added: “Any rock we haven’t flipped yet, we will flip. Preliminarily, it seems quite clear that this was a donation given for a completely legitimate purpose.”
Sutton did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent through a messaging app for people in prison. His attorney, Jason Javie, said Tuesday that he did not know anything about Stewart’s payment to Sutton and declined to discuss the matter further.
“My focus is 110% on the exoneration of Mr. Sutton,” he said.
The revelation comes amid mounting scrutiny over Krasner’s office’s handling of post-conviction matters. In a forceful ruling last month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said Krasner’s office had a pattern of misleading judges when seeking to overturn old murder convictions.
Last week, in a separate, controversial federal appellate case, a former assistant district attorney in Krasner’s office said prosecutors were “colluding” with defense attorneys to find the most effective way to have the murder conviction thrown out. And then, on Monday, in a striking court filing in that same contentious case, two supervisors in the law division said Krasner had instructed them to litigate the matter in a way that would “protect the office.”
And now, the office is investigating a case connected to Stewart, who has worked in the DA’s office since 2019 and is one of Krasner’s most trusted advisers.
District Attorney Larry Krasner at a press conference in May, denouncing criticism of his office leveled by Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Stewart, who is paid $154,500 annually, oversees the office’s community engagement, public affairs, and communications strategies, and acts as a conduit between Krasner and other public officials. Since Robert Listenbee retired as first assistant district attorney in January, Krasner has not named a successor — and several prosecutors say Stewart, who is not a lawyer, has effectively absorbed parts of that job. He often helps coordinate sensitive matters in cases, including relocating victims and witnesses.
He is respected by many in city government and across the community. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, speaking at Krasner’s inauguration ceremony in January, mentioned Stewart as one of the office’s most essential staffers.
“District Attorney Krasner, as a moment of personal privilege, I want you to know that G. Lamar Stewart is one of the most committed, committed, committed members of your team in engaging in community outreach, and he represents you well, sir,” she said to applause.
Stewart, born and raised in Germantown and North Philadelphia, served in the U.S. Army and worked for the Philadelphia Police Department before joining Krasner’s team in 2019. At his church, he runs a nonprofit called Taylor Made Opportunities that offers job support and mentorship to young men in the neighborhood, and supports families of homicide victims.
Stewart said he donates to community organizations, and provides meals, Christmas gifts, and other means of support to crime victims’ families each year, using his personal money.
He does not typically disclose those donations to the DA’s office, he said, and it has never been a problem.
“My Christian faith is rooted in giving, in love, in showing up for the least of these, showing up for those who have been harmed, for showing up for those who are trying to rehabilitate and be accountable for the harm they caused to bring healing to our community,” he said. “For anyone to suggest that me giving through a faith lens, in the interest of good for community, is problematic for me, that is an infringement upon my faith tradition and my religious rights.”
Krasner said he did not think it was necessary for Stewart — or other employees in the office — to disclose donations.
“I don’t know that it makes sense to require 700 employees, especially if they’re doing so on a faith basis, to disclose everyone they give donations to,” he said. “It’s certainly something we could think about.”
In Stewart’s case, his money went to support a program run by Sutton, better known as Benny Doo, who was sentenced to life in prison after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Richard Berry in the Pelham section of Germantown in December 1984. In the early 1980s, prosecutors said, Berry hired Sutton and other members of his crew, called the “Ghostbusters,” to retrieve jewelry that had been stolen from him, and agreed to pay with “a few ounces of blow and a couple thousand dollars.”
Berry never paid up, and after he started avoiding Sutton and his crew, Sutton killed him, prosecutors said.
But Sutton said prosecutors violated his right to a fair trial when they failed to turn over police documents — including polygraph results and police interviews with several witnesses — to his defense attorney. One man who testified at trial has also since come forward to recant his testimony.
Prosecutors, in a court filing in May, said Sutton failed to show how those issues could have changed the outcome of his trial. His appeal, prosecutors wrote, was untimely and lacked merit.
Prosecutors on Thursday withdrew all charges against a Philadelphia Family Court judge accused of assaulting his wife and daughter earlier this year, saying that the women did not wish to proceed with the case and that the judge had shown proof of “extensive mitigation” in the months since the incident.
Michael Fanning was charged with aggravated assault, strangulation, and related crimes in March after prosecutors said he repeatedly punched his wife in the face, choked her, and dragged his 30-year-old daughter to the ground by her hair, causing her to cut her face, during a fight at their East Torresdale home.
But Assistant District Attorney Brian Collins said Wednesday that the two women were evaluated by medics and did not suffer injuries. They did not want to move forward with prosecuting Fanning, he said.
Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Fanning.Courtesy of Philadelphia Courts
That, combined with the “extensive mitigation” records Fanning provided to prosecutors and the court, led the district attorney’s office to withdraw the charges, he said.
Collins did not detail the forms of mitigation Fanning presented, and Berks County Court Judge Jeffrey Sprecher, who presided over the case to avoid any conflict of interest with Fanning’s peers, did not ask during the brief hearing.
But at a hearing in March, Fanning’s wife said he had voluntarily entered a 30-day inpatient recovery program to treat his alcoholism, an issue the family had worked to address in the past.
Fanning did not testify during Wednesday’s hearing. He thanked Sprecher for his time before leaving the courtroom.
He declined to comment through his attorney, Fortunato Perri Jr.
Within days of his arrest, the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline, which adjudicates complaints against judges, suspended him without pay.
It was not immediately clear Wednesday how that judicial discipline case would proceed after the outcome of the case, or whether Fanning would be allowed to return to the bench.
The first week of July has typically been one of Philadelphia’s most violent, with recent Independence Day weekends marked by mass shootings, police officers shot, and bursts of violence that left a dozen dead.
But this year, amid a dramatic decline in violence and a flood of visitors to the city, the holiday weekend was noticeably calmer than in years past, offering another encouraging sign that the dramatic decline in shootings held through one of its toughest tests.
Twenty-three people were shot from July 1 through July 7 — a slightly higher total than most weeks in 2026, but nearly half the average number of shooting victims during the same period over the last decade, according to city data. In 2021, at the height of the city’s gun violence crisis, more than 70 people were shot in that week alone.
If the current pace continues, Philadelphia is on track to record fewer than 200 homicides for the first time since the 1960s, a remarkable turnaround from just five years ago, when nearly three times as many people were killed.
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Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said in an interview that the July Fourth weekend is historically one of the most challenging for urban police departments.
Bethel said he and other city, state, and federal law enforcement officials spent about two years planning for this holiday weekend, preparing for potential crises that never came.
Anticipating hundreds of thousands of visitors for FIFA Club World Cup events and the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations, the department canceled many officers’ vacation requests over the last month and, on the Fourth, deployed more than 2,000 members of local and state law enforcement across the city, he said.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel, speaks at a press conference on the details for the Roots Picnic in May 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Reinforcements from the Pennsylvania State Police and neighboring municipalities helped the city maintain staffing levels in neighborhoods that have historically seen more violence, Bethel said. Officers worked in the record-breaking heat, he said, with some starting their shifts at 7 a.m. and clocking out only after the concert on the Parkway ended at 3 a.m.
The FBI took the lead on monitoring the skies, Bethel said, intercepting several drones that were flying illegally. (None of the drones, he said, was flying with “nefarious” intent.)
He called the weekend a validation of the city’s planning and broader work that has contributed to the decline in gun violence.
“I can’t tell you how many people grabbed me and said they felt welcomed and felt safe,” he said of the events over the last month. “Let’s own the win. Let’s not hide from it.”
Bethel also said there had been no acts of violence around the approximately two dozen bars that were approved to stay open until 4 a.m. from June 11 to July 19 to accommodate crowds attending the FIFA, July Fourth, and MLB All-Star celebrations.
“We’re seeing zero issues,” he said.
Soccer fans gather to watch Mexico play South Africa on a giant screen during the opening day of the FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill on Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Philadelphia.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
The reduction in violence over the holiday weekend fits a broader pattern. Shootings and homicides in the city began to decline in 2023, mirroring a national trend, and have continued to fall. So far this year, 90 people have been killed in homicides — less than a third of the number recorded at the same time three years ago, according to police data.
Just as there was no clear explanation for the spike in crime that began in 2019, criminologists and law enforcement officials say, it is similarly difficult to pinpoint the reasons for its decline. But there are theories: an overall return to normal life after the pandemic, expanded community-based violence prevention programs, more arrests in shootings and homicides, and targeted prosecutions of some of the city’s most violent gangs.
One measurable change has been the police department’s improved clearance rates, which researchers have long viewed as a potential deterrent to future violence.
The homicide clearance rate — the share of killings solved, including arrests made this year in both new and older cases — has climbed to nearly 99%, up from about 47% in 2022. The clearance rate for nonfatal shootings has risen to about 41%, roughly double what it was in 2021.
Bethel said those arrests take would-be shooters and victims off the streets and interrupt cycles of violence.
“We’re impacting retaliation, we’re impacting somebody being shot again, we’re impacting someone who may shoot and kill somebody,” he said.
Jeff Asher, a New Orleans-based national crime analyst, said because the decline is likely driven by many programs and societal changes, it is hard to know what will sustain the progress.
“I keep expecting [the crime rate] to stop falling, and it’s just not,” he said in an interview. “So, maybe this is the new normal. We just can’t say with a ton of confidence.”
Still, the quieter weekend was not wholly peaceful.
Three men were killed between Friday and Monday morning, leaving families and neighbors to mourn loved ones even as the city showed signs of sustained progress.
On Monday morning, Shawn Caddell, 32, was killed during a robbery inside a Logan beer deli, police said. And on Sunday, two men were slain in areas that have long been hot spots for shootings: Emanuel Aguirre, 27, was fatally shot in the Hunting Park section of North Philadelphia, and Donald McPhaul, 51, was gunned down on Salford Street in West Philadelphia.
A 16-year-old in South Philadelphia was among more than a dozen people who were shot and survived.
Philadelphia police examine a car with a bullet hole after a man was fatally shot along the 500 block of East Wyoming Avenue on July 5, 2026.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Bethel said the pockets of the city that have long experienced higher rates of violence — and that continue to see shootings, albeit fewer, today — remain a priority.
“We are never going to give up in those communities,” he said. “We are going to keep working in those areas.”
Recent polls have found that a majority of Philadelphians have noticed the decline and feel safer. But for residents on blocks where shootings remain a recurring threat, a citywide trend line can feel distant from daily life.
Chantay Love, president of the victim-advocacy organization EMIR Healing Center, said the communitiesseeing recurring violence are still grappling with “the trauma and collateral damage that is left behind” from the last six years.
Linda Days, 72, who lives in the area, said the shooting that killed McPhaul was another reminder of the violence she has come to expect since moving there seven years ago from Olney.
Standing in her doorway on Tuesday, Days said it feels as if gunfire has become part of the soundtrack outside her home. But during the Fourth of July weekend, she said, she is especially careful to stay inside.
“I don’t even come out to watch the fireworks,” she said.
Philadelphia police found a “significant amount” of blood inside the decrepit Olney house linked to the investigation of at least two missing women, multiple law enforcement sources said.
The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said forensic testing has not yet determined whose blood it is or whether it’s even human — a process that could take several weeks to complete. But, the sources said, police are prepared to excavate the front and backyards of the West Chew Avenue home in the coming weeks in search of potential human remains.
Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore declined to confirm or comment on the discovery Monday afternoon, citing the ongoing investigation. Vanore said Friday that police had not recovered any human remains from the home and were awaiting testing of the tubs of chemicals and other materials found in the basement.
Forensic investigators search the backyard of 417 W. Chew Ave. on June 27.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
The finding marks the latest development in an unusual saga that began after the arrest of Eugene Albert Horsch, 44, the owner of the Olney home now being searched by law enforcement for a second week in connection with the disappearance of at least two women who have been missing for years.
Horsch was arrested June 19 after U.S. Park Police saw him parked in his black BMW near Sixth and Market Streets, acting suspiciously. When a ranger approached the car, police said, he heard a woman in the back seat say, “You’re going to hurt me” and saw drug paraphernalia.
Police searched the car and reported recovering two guns with obliterated serial numbers, as well as cocaine, fentanyl, and marijuana, a cattle prod, switchblade knives, handcuffs, and a fake U.S. Drug Enforcement badge featuring Horsch’s photo.
The woman with Horsch falsely identified herself to the officers as Blair Tonzelli, a 38-year-old woman who had been reported missing in Kensington in 2023, police said.
The woman, 39, later told investigators that she gave Tonzelli’s name because she had open warrants for her arrest in ongoing drug cases and that Horsch had made her fake identification cards in that name and said she could use it if she was ever stopped and questioned by police, sources said.
Eugene Albert Horsch, 44, was arrested June 19 for illegal gun possession and drug crimes. Courtesy of Philadelphia police
The woman said she did not know Tonzelli or even that she was missing — but the way Horsch spoke about her and other women made her feel like something bad had happened to her, the sources said.
Philadelphia homicide detectives then began reviewing that missing woman’s case, and, alongside federal law enforcement, searched Horsch’s home at 417 W. Chew Ave. last week.
That search produced a trove of bizarre discoveries: a basement with drums filled with chemicals, bottles of unknown substances, Tonzelli’s bank card, the death certificate of another woman, and what appeared to be urns holding at least one of Horsch’s relatives’ cremated remains.
Investigators also found another handgun, materials used to grow marijuana, and a 55-gallon drum with connections to waterlines leading into a hole in the ground.
Federal investigators also discovered a multipage, unsigned, handwritten letter that appeared to describe hurting people and referenced the serial killer Ted Bundy, according to the affidavit of probable cause to search the home that was obtained by The Inquirer.
Eugene Horsch lived at 417 W. Chew Ave. with his father until he died last year. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Law enforcement sources said police were working to determine whether the writings were part of a novel or screenplay. Horsch’s late father, Raymond “R.C.” Horsch was a known drug manufacturer and erotic filmmaker who had published several works of fiction with violent, masochistic themes, including one described as an “autobiographical memoir of a caring, empathetic serial killer.”
The probe into the younger Horsch took another twist when investigators learned that Raymond Horsch’s ex-wife Amy McHale was last seen at the Olney property in 2016 and has not since be located. A lawyer for Eugene Horsch and his father said the two men had nothing to do with McHale’s disappearance and said she struggled with substance abuse and mental illness.
Horsch has been charged with illegal gun possession and drug crimes by Philadelphia authorities.
He is also facing a federal gun possession charge, court records show. The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a complaint against Horsch on Friday, charging him with possession of a firearm by a felon and centering their allegations on the guns that park rangers found in his car during an encounter in Center City earlier this month.
Horsch has not yet been arraigned in that matter, and he remained in a city jail, held on $500,000 bail as of Monday afternoon. But the case could give federal prosecutors an opportunity to argue to a judge that he remain in federal custody until trial.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Staff writers Jesse Bunch, Max Marin, Barbara Laker, and Chris Palmer contributed to this article.
Philadelphia police are investigating whether three men shot near the Hunting Park Recreation Center in the last month — two of them fatally and just six days apart — were targeted by the same gunman, according to law enforcement sources.
The two men killed this month were found partially undressed and shot in the torso inside the large North Philadelphia park, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. A third man was shot in late May and survived.
Police believe the same person was involved in both killings, the sources said, and are looking into whether the men had met the suspect through a dating app.
Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said investigators have identified a person of interest interest in the case, a man in his late teens or early 20s, after capturing his image on surveillance footage as he entered and exited a Broad Street Line station.
The man — whom investigators did not identify — is considered armed and dangerous, Vanore said at a news conference Monday.
Philadelphia police said this man is a person of interest in the shooting deaths of two men near the Hunting Park Recreation Center in separate incidents within the last 10 days.Courtesy of Philadelphia police
“All three incidents are perpetrated very similarly, in the same geographic area,” he said. “We’re believing now that they’re all connected and being done by the same person.”
On June 20, officers responded to the park, at 1101 W. Hunting Park Ave., shortly after 10 p.m. and found Martin Higgins, 45, on the bleachers of the baseball field, suffering from a gunshot wound to the torso. He died at the scene, police said.
Then, on June 26, police responded and found another man just before 11 p.m. suffering from multiple gunshot wounds near the basketball courts. Police have not yet identified the man but said he was 29-years-old.
Police now believe a third shooting last month is linked to the gunman.
In that May 29 incident, a 55-year-old man was shot in the elbow and torso in the park just before 10 p.m.The victim later told investigators that a man wearing all black who appeared to be in his 20s approached and told him that he was being robbed, according to Vanore.
Vanore said investigators had yet to determine a motive tying the cases together, though they believe robbery is the motivation behind the shooting that was not fatal.
Asked whether the victims had met the suspect on a dating app — a detail law enforcement sources said they are investigating — Vanore declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
“If that is [part of the case], that’s something we’ll have to develop moving forward,” he said. “But at this point we know that this individual appears to be preying on people.”
Higgins’ relatives could not be immediately reached for comment Monday. An obituary shared online said he was a graduate of Temple University’s business school and worked as an inspector for the city’s Community Life Improvement Program.
“Marty was known for his passion for clothing, style, and self-expression,” the obituary said. He had a “kind heart, generous spirit, and unwavering support for those he loved” and “was the person who showed up when someone needed him, always making time for family and friends no matter what was going on in his own life,” his family wrote.
He was one of six children and was an uncle to many nieces and nephews.
Meanwhile, as investigators continue to search for the gunman, they are asking anyone with information about the crimes to contact the homicide unit at 215-686-3334 or submitting an anonymous tip at 215-686-TIPS (8477).
