Philly Sociopath Raymond Horsch Once Grabbed 9-Year-Old Girl

Raymond “R.C.” Horsch, who described himself as a “sociopath” and is now at the center of a disturbing investigation involving dead and missing women in Philadelphia, had previously been convicted in connection with the attempted abduction of a 9-year-old girl. That child, now an adult, said this week that she feels “really lucky” she survived the encounter.

Horsch, a convicted pornographer who authored the disturbing book “Memoir of an Empathetic Serial Killer,” received a sentence of 2½ to 5 years in prison in 2010 after trying to take Ashley Rivera, according to an investigation by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her mother and stepfather intervened before Horsch could drive away.

After calling Rivera “sexy,” Horsch allegedly seized her arm and attempted to pull her toward his Jeep. Investigators later reported finding binoculars, recording equipment, an eyepatch and a condom inside the vehicle.

“He looked very evil … I couldn’t forget that face,” Rivera, now 26 and a mother herself, told the Inquirer. Horsch, who has since died, is being examined in connection with more than a million files recovered from his Philadelphia home, including videos investigators have described as snuff films.

“I really do feel like I escaped something big,” Rivera said. “He could have kidnapped me. He could have done the same thing to me that he did to those women. He could have raped me, killed me.

“I was a 9-year-old girl. I was just a kid.”

Rivera recalled that her injured stepfather heard her cries and managed to reach Horsch’s vehicle, where he struck the window and frightened him away. According to Rivera’s mother, Sasha Rivera, Horsch soon returned to the area.

“I chased him with a baseball bat,” Sasha Rivera recalled. “I thought he was going to kill her. If he had taken her, I may never have found my daughter.”

Police arrested Horsch and charged him with luring a child into a motor vehicle and corrupting the morals of a minor.

Rivera said the fear she felt during the incident resurfaced when Horsch stared at her in court.

“I was so scared, and he just kept staring at me. I just broke down crying,” she told the newspaper. Rivera said she was ultimately removed from the witness stand because she could not stop crying.

“I felt like I was looking at a killer,” she said.

Horsch was sentenced to 2½ to 5 years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender. He later sought a new trial and won that request. Sasha Rivera then decided she could not put her daughter through another courtroom appearance and the trauma of facing the man she believed posed a deadly threat.

“I thought he and his family would do something to us,” she said. Horsch’s conviction was vacated in 2015 after prosecutors determined they could not move forward without the central witness.

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Although Rivera was only 9 at the time, she said she has struggled with the unfounded belief that she somehow could have prevented the suffering of women investigators suspect died inside Horsch’s home.

“Maybe it’s my fault that he was free,” she said. “I thank God every day my stepdad was there to save me because I could be missing or dead. I feel really lucky.

“But I feel so bad for all the victims and their families. I didn’t have to go through what they went through.”

The memory has also shaped how Rivera protects her own son, who is now 9 — the same age she was when Horsch targeted her. She said she becomes “instantly scared” when men stare at her.

“I tried to get that memory out of my head,” she said. “But I can’t. It stays with me.”

The Philadelphia property where Horsch lived with his son, Eugene Horsch, remains a major focus of the investigation. Authorities are reviewing roughly a million photographs and videos recovered from the house, including material described as snuff films.

Last month, investigators uncovered harrowing video footage from 2017 that they say appears to show Horsch strangling a woman in a bedroom.

The woman, who has not been publicly identified, was seen using drugs before being given money by the elder Horsch and then was handcuffed to the bed, Philadelphia police said. 

Horsch then appeared to put a zip tie around her neck before she lost consciousness. 

Cops revealed they found images and video of two women — Maribel Frieses, who was last seen in 2018, and Gabrielle Amarando, last seen in 2012 — that appeared to show them deceased.

Blair Tonzelli, who vanished in 2023, and Amy McHale, Horsch’s ex-wife who was last seen in 2016, have also been named by the authorities.

McHale’s family said her last known location was the home that Horsch and his son lived.

“Something happened to her in that house,” McHale’s mom, Gloria, said.

Authorities have also uncovered multiple alleged snuff movies featuring R.C. and several missing women, along with vats of mysterious chemicals, and writings referencing serial killers.