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The Olney House of Horrors Investigation Uncovered A Basement Laboratory · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: Imagine you are standing on a crisp October morning in Philadelphia. Okay.
0:06
Speaker 1: You're in the Olney neighborhood. And this is a place where,
0:09
Speaker 1: you know, people know their neighbors, kids play on the sidewalks,
0:12
Speaker 1: and life usually just moves at that very familiar, comforting,
0:16
Speaker 1: everyday suburban pace. Right.
0:18
Speaker 2: Just a totally normal neighborhood. Exactly.
0:20
Speaker 1: You are standing on the 400 block of West Chew Avenue.
0:24
Speaker 1: But today, the street is completely shut down.
0:27
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yellow police tape everywhere. Everywhere.
0:29
Speaker 1: It stretches all across the pavement. And there is this enormous, imposing,
0:35
Speaker 1: inflatable FBI tent just taking up the entire front yard
0:38
Speaker 1: of a totally ordinary-looking house.
0:40
Speaker 2: That's a very jarring image.
0:42
Speaker 1: It really is. And, you know, lining the sidewalk, sitting
0:45
Speaker 1: right out there in the open air are ordinary, everyday
0:48
Speaker 1: trash bags. Right. But these aren't filled with, like, grass
0:51
Speaker 1: clippings or autumn leaves. They are filled with critical evidence.
0:55
Speaker 2: Yeah.
0:56
Speaker 1: Because what you are looking at is the epicenter of
0:58
Speaker 1: a chilling... active crime scene that local news is already
1:02
Speaker 1: calling a house of horrors. So today, this deep dive
1:06
Speaker 1: is venturing into some incredibly heavy true crime territory based
1:10
Speaker 1: on breaking reporting from CBS Philadelphia from October 6th, 2026.
1:15
Speaker 2: The visual of that scene, I mean, it is profoundly
1:20
Speaker 2: unsettling because it completely disrupts the baseline expectation of American suburbia,
1:25
Speaker 2: you know?
1:26
Speaker 1: Right. It feels like a movie set.
1:28
Speaker 2: It does. But when you look at the raw source
1:30
Speaker 2: material coming out of this neighborhood, you realize we're looking
1:32
Speaker 2: at something that challenges our fundamental understanding of community safety.
1:36
Speaker 1: Yeah.
1:37
Speaker 2: The headlines coming out of Philadelphia are definitely sensational. But
1:41
Speaker 2: the real narrative we're going to trace today is the meticulous,
1:44
Speaker 2: you know, step-by-step scientific process being deployed by the FBI
1:48
Speaker 2: and the local Philadelphia police.
1:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, the actual science of it.
1:52
Speaker 2: Exactly. We are looking at an absolute masterclass in modern
1:55
Speaker 2: forensics applied to a situation that is frankly, almost unfathomable.
2:00
Speaker 1: Unfathomable is the word. So our mission for this deep
2:03
Speaker 1: dive is to explore the staggering complexities of that modern
2:07
Speaker 1: forensic investigation. We're going to look at how digital evidence
2:11
Speaker 1: collides with physical excavation and the profound, just devastating ripple
2:16
Speaker 1: effects that a gruesome discovery like this has on a
2:19
Speaker 1: local community.
2:20
Speaker 2: Because the ripple effect is massive.
2:22
Speaker 1: It really is. So OK, let's unpack this, because trying
2:27
Speaker 1: to understand this investigation is like it's like untangling a
2:31
Speaker 1: massive dark knot.
2:33
Speaker 2: That's a good way to put it.
2:34
Speaker 1: You know, you pull on one seemingly unrelated thread, just
2:37
Speaker 1: a tiny, mundane little string. And suddenly the whole thing
2:41
Speaker 1: comes apart and you find yourself unraveling what appears to
2:43
Speaker 1: be a decades long nightmare. Yeah.
2:46
Speaker 2: And the public tends to think that a massive FBI
2:49
Speaker 2: mobilization like, you know, heavy equipment, hazmat suits, neighborhood blockades.
2:54
Speaker 1: Right. The stuff you see on TV. Right.
2:55
Speaker 2: They think it starts with a cinematic inciting incident.
2:59
Speaker 1: Like a deathbed confession or something.
3:01
Speaker 2: Exactly. A deathbed confession or a smoking gun tip called
3:04
Speaker 2: into a hotline. But the reality of law enforcement, and
3:08
Speaker 2: specifically this case, is that monumental secrets are often masked
3:12
Speaker 2: by the most mundane events imaginable.
3:16
Speaker 1: The mundane events. Yeah.
3:18
Speaker 2: The thread that unraveled this entire situation didn't involve a
3:21
Speaker 2: serial killer task force. It involved a traffic stop.
3:25
Speaker 1: A traffic stop. A routine traffic stop in June. Eugene Horsch,
3:29
Speaker 1: who lived at this Chew Avenue house, was pulled over.
3:31
Speaker 2: Right.
3:32
Speaker 1: And that stop resulted in drug and gun charges. But
3:37
Speaker 1: I have to stop you there and push back on
3:38
Speaker 1: this timeline a bit because I really want to understand
3:40
Speaker 1: the legal mechanics here. Sure. I understand getting a search
3:44
Speaker 1: warrant for a car or even a house if you
3:47
Speaker 1: find drugs and an illegal firearm in a vehicle. But,
3:51
Speaker 1: I mean... The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable search and seizure, right?
3:54
Speaker 2: It does, yes.
3:56
Speaker 1: So a judge doesn't just sign a piece of paper
3:58
Speaker 1: that says, sure, go ahead and take a sledgehammer to
4:00
Speaker 1: the foundation of a residential property because a guy had
4:03
Speaker 1: an unregistered gun in his car.
4:05
Speaker 2: No, absolutely not.
4:07
Speaker 1: So what is the legal threshold here? How do you
4:09
Speaker 1: jump from a standard gun charge in June to the
4:14
Speaker 1: literal physical dismantling of a house in October?
4:17
Speaker 2: Well, the jump doesn't happen overnight. and it certainly doesn't
4:21
Speaker 2: happen on a single warrant.
4:22
Speaker 1: Okay.
4:23
Speaker 2: It's a cascading series of legal thresholds. In legal circles,
4:26
Speaker 2: it's often referred to as warrant daisy-chaining.
4:29
Speaker 1: Daisy-chaining. Right.
4:30
Speaker 2: Okay. So when Eugene Horsch was taken into custody on
4:33
Speaker 2: those drug and gun charges, the immediate goal of the
4:36
Speaker 2: patrol officers was complete. You know, he was off the street.
4:39
Speaker 2: And as the reporting notes, he currently remains in custody.
4:41
Speaker 1: Right. He's still locked up.
4:43
Speaker 2: Exactly. But while he is in holding, detectives begin the
4:46
Speaker 2: secondary work. So they pull a search warrant for the vehicle...
4:50
Speaker 2: And based on the severity of the narcotics or firearms found,
4:53
Speaker 2: they establish probable cause to search his primary residence.
4:56
Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense.
4:57
Speaker 2: They go to a judge, and they argue that someone
4:59
Speaker 2: trafficking those specific drugs or carrying those specific weapons likely
5:03
Speaker 2: has more of the same at their home address.
5:05
Speaker 1: Right.
5:06
Speaker 2: So the judge signs a very narrow warrant. The police
5:09
Speaker 2: are only legally allowed to look in places where a
5:11
Speaker 2: gun or drugs could reasonably be hidden.
5:14
Speaker 1: Meaning they can look in, like, A shoebox or under
5:17
Speaker 1: a bed, but they can't start knocking down drywall looking
5:20
Speaker 1: for a handgun.
5:21
Speaker 2: Exactly. They cannot touch the drywall on that first pass.
5:24
Speaker 2: But this brings us to a critical legal concept called
5:27
Speaker 2: the plain view doctrine.
5:30
Speaker 1: Plain view doctrine.
5:31
Speaker 2: Yes. When investigators walk into a residence with a valid
5:35
Speaker 2: warrant for narcotics or firearms, they are legally permitted to
5:38
Speaker 2: document anything else that is sitting out in the open
5:41
Speaker 2: that indicates other criminal activity.
5:43
Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
5:44
Speaker 2: So, for example... If an officer opens a closet looking
5:48
Speaker 2: for a rifle and sees a stack of stolen passports
5:51
Speaker 2: sitting on the shelf, they can seize those passports.
5:54
Speaker 1: Even though the warrant wasn't for passports. Right.
5:57
Speaker 2: Because they were in plain view while executing a legal search.
6:00
Speaker 2: So in the horse home, detectives walked in looking for
6:04
Speaker 2: evidence related to Eugene's June arrest. But what they stumbled
6:07
Speaker 2: into was an environment that triggered far more severe alarms.
6:10
Speaker 1: They saw something else entirely.
6:12
Speaker 2: They documented anomalies in plain sight. Then they took those
6:16
Speaker 2: observations back to a judge, submitted a new affidavit detailing
6:19
Speaker 2: what they saw, and obtained a second, much broader warrant.
6:23
Speaker 1: And that just keeps going.
6:24
Speaker 2: Yeah. That second search revealed even more, which led to
6:27
Speaker 2: a third, highly invasive warrant. And that is exactly how
6:32
Speaker 2: a June traffic stop steadily, legally escalates over months into
6:36
Speaker 2: an October excavation.
6:38
Speaker 1: And that escalation has led us to the reality on
6:40
Speaker 1: the ground right now.
6:41
Speaker 2: Right.
6:42
Speaker 1: It is Tuesday, the second day of the latest phase
6:44
Speaker 1: of this investigation. The 400 block is just a ghost
6:47
Speaker 1: town of normal activity, totally closed off. Surrounding blocks are restricted.
6:52
Speaker 2: The whole area is locked down. Yeah.
6:54
Speaker 1: And that inflatable tent we mentioned is staged right in
6:56
Speaker 1: the front yard, basically acting as a command center and
6:59
Speaker 1: a privacy shield for the investigators.
7:01
Speaker 2: They need that privacy for this.
7:02
Speaker 1: Absolutely. They have heavy equipment staged to be brought out
7:05
Speaker 1: next week. And those trash bags sitting outside, it is
7:08
Speaker 1: such a jarring visual. You know, you see a black
7:11
Speaker 1: trash bag on a suburban curb, you think of fall cleanup. Sure, leaves.
7:15
Speaker 1: But these bags are filled with items removed from the
7:17
Speaker 1: horse home, just bagged up and waiting for transport to
7:20
Speaker 1: a lab. It is the absolute intersection of the ordinary
7:23
Speaker 1: and the horrific.
7:25
Speaker 2: It really is. And to understand why the authorities are
7:28
Speaker 2: taking this unprecedented step of literally tearing the house apart
7:33
Speaker 2: piece by piece, we have to pivot our focus.
7:36
Speaker 1: Right. Away from Eugene. Right.
7:38
Speaker 2: Away from Eugene, the son who was pulled over. Because
7:40
Speaker 2: the investigations shifted drastically when they looked into the mastermind
7:44
Speaker 2: behind this address.
7:45
Speaker 1: Yeah.
7:46
Speaker 2: We have to look at the late Raymond Horsch, who
7:49
Speaker 2: went by the initials R.C. Right.
7:52
Speaker 1: Raymond R.C. Horsch. He died in 2025. And his profile is,
7:57
Speaker 1: I mean, it's chilling.
7:59
Speaker 2: Deeply chilling.
8:00
Speaker 1: He had a public persona as a creator of dark
8:03
Speaker 1: pornographic films and books. The content he was producing and
8:06
Speaker 1: putting out into the world was extreme.
8:09
Speaker 2: Very extreme.
8:10
Speaker 1: And back in 2013, he gave a podcast interview where
8:14
Speaker 1: he explicitly referred to himself as a perverted serial killer. Yeah.
8:19
Speaker 1: He said it out loud, into a microphone, for public consumption.
8:23
Speaker 1: And for years, people just thought it was edgy marketing
8:25
Speaker 1: for his dark books and films.
8:27
Speaker 2: They thought it was a bit.
8:28
Speaker 1: Right. a shocking persona. But how does a man call
8:31
Speaker 1: himself a serial killer on a public broadcast and face
8:34
Speaker 1: zero consequences from law enforcement for over a decade?
8:38
Speaker 2: Well, this touches on a really fascinating and disturbing sociological
8:42
Speaker 2: blind spot.
8:44
Speaker 1: Tell me. R.C.
8:45
Speaker 2: Horsch basically utilized a twisted form of plausible deniability.
8:51
Speaker 1: Plausible deniability?
8:53
Speaker 2: Yeah. In our culture, we often give a very wide
8:56
Speaker 2: berth to people we label as transgressive artists.
8:59
Speaker 1: Oh, I see what you mean.
9:00
Speaker 2: When someone operates in the realm of extreme horror or
9:03
Speaker 2: dark fiction or underground adult films, society expects them to
9:07
Speaker 2: be provocative.
9:09
Speaker 1: So people just brush it off.
9:10
Speaker 2: Exactly. So by publicly claiming to be a serial killer
9:14
Speaker 2: within the context of promoting dark fictional content, he essentially
9:18
Speaker 2: hid the truth in plain sight. Wow. Right. If anyone
9:21
Speaker 2: questioned his behavior or his morbid interests, Or the violent
9:26
Speaker 2: nature of his statements, he could simply retreat behind the
9:28
Speaker 2: defense of performance art.
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Speaker 1: He could just say, hey, I'm just playing a character.
9:33
Speaker 2: He weaponized the public's assumption that people who make scary
9:36
Speaker 2: movies are just playing a character. But law enforcement sources
9:39
Speaker 2: are no longer looking at that 2013 interview as marketing.
9:43
Speaker 1: No, definitely not.
9:45
Speaker 2: Based on the cascading search warrants, they now legitimately consider
9:48
Speaker 2: Raymond Horsch a suspected serial killer. They have linked him
9:51
Speaker 2: to at least five missing women who are feared dead.
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Speaker 1: Five women. And the way he maintained that facade. I mean,
10:00
Speaker 1: here's where it gets really interesting. We have to look
10:02
Speaker 1: at the digital footprint he left behind.
10:04
Speaker 2: The digital footprint is massive.
10:06
Speaker 1: Sifting through the hard drives found in that house isn't
10:08
Speaker 1: like finding a needle in a haystack. It is like
10:10
Speaker 1: trying to find a deadly needle in a stack of
10:12
Speaker 1: millions of fake prop needles.
10:16
Speaker 2: That's a great analogy.
10:17
Speaker 1: Because he produced adult films that simulated dark, violent acts, right?
10:20
Speaker 1: His hard drives are full of that staged material. But
10:23
Speaker 1: mixed in there, buried in the hard drives, is the reality. Right.
10:28
Speaker 2: And what's fascinating here is the sheer scale of it.
10:31
Speaker 2: The reporting states that over one million video and image
10:34
Speaker 2: files were recovered from inside the home.
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Speaker 1: One million.
10:38
Speaker 2: One million. The logistical and technical challenge of processing that
10:41
Speaker 2: volume of data is just staggering.
10:44
Speaker 1: I mean, a million files isn't a manual job. You
10:46
Speaker 1: don't just put a rookie detective in a chair with
10:49
Speaker 1: a mouse and a pot of coffee and tell him
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Speaker 1: to start double-clicking MP4s.
10:52
Speaker 2: No, you can't. It would take lifetimes.
10:54
Speaker 1: So how do digital forensics teams even begin to process
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Speaker 1: a million files to find evidence of real murders hidden
11:00
Speaker 1: among simulated violence?
11:02
Speaker 2: Well, they rely on heavy computational automation before a human
11:05
Speaker 2: eye ever even looks at a screen. Okay. The first
11:09
Speaker 2: step in modern digital forensics is creating a forensic image
11:12
Speaker 2: of the hard drives. That's a bit-by-bit perfect replica of
11:17
Speaker 2: the storage devices. So the original evidence is never altered.
11:20
Speaker 1: Right, you don't want to corrupt the original files.
11:22
Speaker 2: Exactly. Then they run those replicas through specialized software suites
11:26
Speaker 2: like NCASE or Forensic Toolkit. And the first major filter
11:30
Speaker 2: they apply uses something called MD5 hashing.
11:33
Speaker 1: MD5 hashing.
11:35
Speaker 2: Okay.
11:36
Speaker 1: What is that actually doing to the files?
11:38
Speaker 2: Think of a hash algorithm as a mathematical meat grinder.
11:41
Speaker 1: Okay, a meat grinder.
11:43
Speaker 2: You put a digital file into it, A photo, a video,
11:46
Speaker 2: a document. And the algorithm grinds it down into a unique,
11:49
Speaker 2: fixed-length alphanumeric string. Okay. That string is the file's digital fingerprint.
11:55
Speaker 2: And if you change even one pixel in an image,
11:58
Speaker 2: the entire hash value changes completely.
12:00
Speaker 1: Wow, even just one pixel?
12:02
Speaker 2: Just one pixel. So law enforcement maintains massive databases of
12:06
Speaker 2: hash values for known legal files, like standard operating system files,
12:12
Speaker 2: commercially available movies, or stock images.
12:14
Speaker 1: Okay, I see where this is going. Right.
12:17
Speaker 2: The software compares the millions of files on Horsch's drives
12:19
Speaker 2: against these databases. In a matter of hours, the computer
12:23
Speaker 2: can say, out of these one million files, 400,000 of
12:26
Speaker 2: them are just standard Windows system files or known commercial media.
12:30
Speaker 2: Ignore them.
12:30
Speaker 1: Oh, wow. So they immediately cull the herd, getting rid
12:34
Speaker 1: of all that digital noise.
12:36
Speaker 2: Exactly.
12:37
Speaker 1: But that still leaves hundreds of thousands of files created
12:40
Speaker 1: by R.C. Horsch himself. And since he generated this content,
12:43
Speaker 1: there is no existing database to compare it against, right? Right.
12:46
Speaker 2: At that point, investigators turn to artificial intelligence and machine
12:50
Speaker 2: learning algorithms designed to scan the remaining files for specific
12:54
Speaker 2: visual markers.
12:55
Speaker 1: Like what kind of markers?
12:57
Speaker 2: The software is trained to flag videos containing specific skin
13:00
Speaker 2: tones or algorithmic shapes that indicate violence, weapons, or physical restraints. Okay.
13:06
Speaker 2: They also scrape the EXIF data. That's the hidden metadata
13:10
Speaker 2: embedded in the files.
13:11
Speaker 1: The metadata. Right.
13:12
Speaker 2: This metadata can reveal the exact GPS coordinates where a
13:15
Speaker 2: photo was taken, the specific make and model of the
13:18
Speaker 2: camera used, and the precise timestamp.
13:21
Speaker 1: Oh, that's huge. It is.
13:23
Speaker 2: If detectives know one of the five women went missing
13:25
Speaker 2: on a Tuesday in October 2019, the software instantly filters
13:29
Speaker 2: the remaining files to isolate any photo or video created
13:32
Speaker 2: that week.
13:33
Speaker 1: That narrows the scope incredibly. But ultimately, the technology can
13:36
Speaker 1: only take it so far, right? Right. Because R.C. Horsch
13:39
Speaker 1: made a career out of filming simulated violence, and AI
13:42
Speaker 1: looking for restraints or weapons is going to flag almost
13:45
Speaker 1: everything he produced.
13:46
Speaker 2: Exactly. You get a lot of false positives.
13:48
Speaker 1: So it eventually comes down to a human being. The
13:50
Speaker 1: human investigator has to sit down and actually review the
13:53
Speaker 1: flagged files?
13:54
Speaker 2: Yes. A human still has to watch it.
13:56
Speaker 1: And the sources in the reporting explicitly mention a specific
14:00
Speaker 1: video reviewed by police that shows Raymond Horse strangling a
14:03
Speaker 1: woman with a zip tie. And this specific video implicates
14:08
Speaker 1: him in murder. I just I just want to sit
14:11
Speaker 1: with the psychological toll that takes on the law enforcement teams.
14:15
Speaker 2: It's immense.
14:16
Speaker 1: You are an investigator staring at a monitor watching simulated
14:20
Speaker 1: horror for hours. You are analyzing the micro expressions of
14:24
Speaker 1: the actors looking for the moment the performance drops. And
14:28
Speaker 1: then suddenly you click on the next file and the
14:31
Speaker 1: simulated violence becomes real. You are witnessing the actual murder
14:36
Speaker 1: of a human being in high definition. Digital forensics is
14:40
Speaker 1: often talked about like it's a clinical I.T.
14:42
Speaker 2: Job.
14:42
Speaker 1: We just talked about algorithms and metadata. But the people
14:46
Speaker 1: doing this work are bearing witness to the worst of humanity,
14:49
Speaker 1: frame by frame.
14:50
Speaker 2: The secondary trauma experienced by digital forensic examiners in cases
14:54
Speaker 2: of extreme violence is a recognized occupational hazard.
14:58
Speaker 1: I can't even imagine.
14:59
Speaker 2: They cannot look away. Their job requires them to analyze
15:02
Speaker 2: the darkest moments of a victim's life in excruciating detail.
15:07
Speaker 2: And what is crucial to understand about this specific investigation
15:11
Speaker 2: is that these digital files are acting as a horrific,
15:14
Speaker 2: highly detailed blueprint. For the physical search of the house
15:17
Speaker 2: in the present.
15:18
Speaker 1: Right. The videos are telling the police exactly where in
15:21
Speaker 1: the house to look.
15:22
Speaker 2: Exactly.
15:23
Speaker 1: If they watch a video of an assault and see
15:26
Speaker 1: a specific wood paneled wall or a distinctive exposed pipe
15:30
Speaker 1: in the background, they can match that up with the
15:32
Speaker 1: physical layout of the Chew Avenue house.
15:34
Speaker 2: Yes, it guides the physical search.
15:36
Speaker 1: And that blueprint has led them directly into the darkest
15:39
Speaker 1: part of the property, which is the basement. According to
15:42
Speaker 1: a source close to the investigation, the basement of this
15:44
Speaker 1: house is broken into multiple rooms and bizarrely resembles an
15:49
Speaker 1: old high school science lab.
15:51
Speaker 2: And a high school science lab in a residential basement
15:54
Speaker 2: is a massive red flag.
15:55
Speaker 1: A huge red flag.
15:56
Speaker 2: The reporting details a massive chemical haul that was removed
15:59
Speaker 2: months ago, shortly after the initial warrants were executed in
16:03
Speaker 2: the summer. They pulled out a 55-gallon drum.
16:06
Speaker 1: A 55-gallon drum.
16:09
Speaker 2: The presence of industrial-scale chemical storage, I mean, A 55-gallon
16:13
Speaker 2: drum is standard in commercial manufacturing, not a suburban home. Right.
16:17
Speaker 2: It immediately elevates the physical danger of the crime scene.
16:21
Speaker 2: It required hazmat protocols, environmental protection considerations, and specialized forensic
16:27
Speaker 2: chemists to safely identify and transport these substances.
16:30
Speaker 1: It's a whole different level of danger.
16:32
Speaker 2: And alongside that drum, they removed a couple dozen containers
16:36
Speaker 2: filled with what authorities described as an oily, sludge-like material,
16:40
Speaker 2: as well as other toxic chemicals.
16:42
Speaker 1: So what does this all mean? Because this timeline is
16:45
Speaker 1: just haunting me.
16:47
Speaker 2: It's a very long timeline.
16:48
Speaker 1: Raymond R.C. Horse died in 2025. This investigation, triggered by
16:53
Speaker 1: the Sun's traffic stop, didn't start until June of 2026. Yes.
16:57
Speaker 1: Does that mean this toxic laboratory, complete with a 55-gallon
17:01
Speaker 1: drum and dozens of containers of oily sludge, just sat
17:05
Speaker 1: festering in the dark under a normal neighborhood for over
17:07
Speaker 1: a year after the mastermind died?
17:10
Speaker 2: Yes, the infrastructure of this nightmare. remained intact and completely dormant.
17:15
Speaker 1: For an entire year?
17:16
Speaker 2: For an entire year. And now, guided by the background
17:19
Speaker 2: details in those one million videos, the FBI is dismantling
17:22
Speaker 2: the house piece by piece. Investigators aren't just looking around.
17:27
Speaker 1: No.
17:28
Speaker 2: They photographed the home from top to bottom last week,
17:30
Speaker 2: and now they are ripping up flooring, tearing down drywall,
17:33
Speaker 2: smashing through plaster. Wow. If a video shows a drop
17:37
Speaker 2: of blood hitting the baseboard in 2018... They are going
17:39
Speaker 2: in in 2026 and ripping that specific baseboard out.
17:43
Speaker 1: Because they're hunting for microscopic trace evidence.
17:46
Speaker 2: Exactly. In a space deliberately designed to process chemicals and
17:49
Speaker 2: hide crimes. Right. And to find anything of value after
17:53
Speaker 2: years have passed, they have to rely on advanced chemical reagents.
17:57
Speaker 2: The reporting explicitly mentions the use of luminol to check
18:00
Speaker 2: for traces of blood.
18:01
Speaker 1: Okay, let's do a technical deep dive on luminol. Because
18:04
Speaker 1: we see it on television procedurals all the time, right?
18:07
Speaker 2: Constantly.
18:07
Speaker 1: The detectives turn off the lights, spray a clear liquid,
18:10
Speaker 1: and the room just magically lights up with a glowing
18:13
Speaker 1: blue splatter.
18:14
Speaker 2: Right, the TV version.
18:15
Speaker 1: Yeah. Think of luminol like a chemical blacklight for iron.
18:19
Speaker 1: Just like a blacklight makes invisible ink glow by reacting
18:22
Speaker 1: to specific phosphors, luminol is looking for the iron in
18:25
Speaker 1: your blood, acting like a microscopic flare gun the second
18:28
Speaker 1: it makes contact.
18:29
Speaker 2: That's a great way to visualize it.
18:30
Speaker 1: But how does that chemical reaction actually work on a
18:33
Speaker 1: molecular level in a basement that has been sitting for years?
18:36
Speaker 1: potentially bleached or scrubbed clean by a man who literally
18:40
Speaker 1: built a chemical lab.
18:42
Speaker 2: Well, the chemistry of luminol is a brilliant application of
18:44
Speaker 2: forensic science. Okay. Luminol itself is a chemical compound that
18:48
Speaker 2: exhibits chemiluminescence. That means it emits light as the result
18:53
Speaker 2: of a chemical reaction.
18:54
Speaker 1: Chemiluminescence, got it.
18:56
Speaker 2: When forensic teams spray a crime scene, they are actually
18:59
Speaker 2: spraying a mixture of luminol powder, a hydroxide base, and
19:03
Speaker 2: hydrogen peroxide.
19:04
Speaker 1: Okay, so it's a mix of three things. Right.
19:07
Speaker 2: And this mixture is inherently unstable, but it reacts very
19:10
Speaker 2: slowly on its own. It needs a catalyst to speed
19:12
Speaker 2: up the reaction and produce that visible blue light.
19:15
Speaker 1: And the catalyst they are looking for is blood.
19:19
Speaker 2: Specifically, the iron found in hemoglobin. That's the protein in
19:22
Speaker 2: our red blood cells that carries oxygen.
19:24
Speaker 1: Right, the iron.
19:26
Speaker 2: When the luminol and hydrogen peroxide mixture comes into contact
19:29
Speaker 2: with even microscopic degraded amounts of hemoglobin, the iron acts
19:34
Speaker 2: as a powerful catalyst. It rapidly accelerates the oxidation of
19:37
Speaker 2: the luminol.
19:39
Speaker 1: Okay, so it speeds up the reaction.
19:41
Speaker 2: This chemical reaction creates an unstable molecule in an excited
19:45
Speaker 2: energy state. And as that molecule quickly degrades back down
19:49
Speaker 2: to its ground state... it releases that excess energy in
19:52
Speaker 2: the form of a photon.
19:53
Speaker 1: Which is the light we see.
19:55
Speaker 2: Exactly. Our eyes perceive that photon as a faint blue glow.
19:58
Speaker 1: Okay, but what if the perpetrator used industrial bleach to
20:01
Speaker 1: clean the floor? I mean, wouldn't that destroy the blood?
20:03
Speaker 2: Well, bleach will physically destroy the DNA, making it incredibly
20:06
Speaker 2: difficult to get a genetic profile.
20:08
Speaker 1: Okay.
20:09
Speaker 2: However, Bleach is also a strong oxidizing agent. In fact,
20:14
Speaker 2: if you spray luminol on a freshly bleached floor, the
20:16
Speaker 2: bleach itself will cause the luminol to glow.
20:19
Speaker 1: Oh, wait, really?
20:20
Speaker 2: Yes, which can create false positives. But an experienced forensic
20:24
Speaker 2: technician can tell the difference. How so? A bleach reaction
20:28
Speaker 2: usually causes a rapid, intense, all-over flash that fades very quickly.
20:33
Speaker 2: A blood reaction creates a slower, longer-lasting glow. that specifically
20:37
Speaker 2: outlines the shape of the splatter or the smear or
20:40
Speaker 2: the footprint.
20:41
Speaker 1: Wow, so the shape gives it away.
20:43
Speaker 2: And because iron is an element, it cannot be destroyed
20:46
Speaker 2: by household cleaners. Right. If a drop of blood fell
20:50
Speaker 2: on porous concrete, the water and organic material might evaporate
20:54
Speaker 2: or be scrubbed away. But microscopic atoms of iron can
20:57
Speaker 2: remain lodged deep within the pores of the floor for decades.
21:01
Speaker 1: Decades?
21:02
Speaker 2: Decades. The luminol will find it.
21:04
Speaker 1: That is incredible. And beyond blood... they are looking for tissue, hair,
21:09
Speaker 1: or fibers. They are systematically vacuuming and swabbing every square inch,
21:13
Speaker 1: knowing that a single hair follicle caught in a drain
21:16
Speaker 1: pipe could be the key to identifying one of those
21:18
Speaker 1: five missing women.
21:19
Speaker 2: Exactly.
21:20
Speaker 1: They are searching for microscopic evidence for hair and traces
21:23
Speaker 1: of blood because of what is missing. Right. Because the
21:27
Speaker 1: reporting explicitly states that as of now, no human remains
21:30
Speaker 1: have been found at 417 West Chew Avenue. None. None.
21:34
Speaker 1: Five women are feared dead. Connected to this man, connected
21:37
Speaker 1: to this house, but there are no bodies. And that
21:40
Speaker 1: introduces the absolute darkest theory of this investigation.
21:43
Speaker 2: It is truly grim.
21:45
Speaker 1: Law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the case have
21:48
Speaker 1: told reporters that detectives are looking for evidence of wet cremation.
21:52
Speaker 2: Yes. The presence of the basement laboratory, the 55-gallon drum,
21:56
Speaker 2: and the toxic chemicals, they all coalesce into this singular hypothesis.
22:01
Speaker 1: Wet cremation.
22:02
Speaker 2: Wet cremation is an industrial process. sometimes used legally in
22:06
Speaker 2: alternative funeral practices, where it's known as alkaline hydrolysis or
22:10
Speaker 2: water resolution. Okay. In a legal regulated setting, it's considered
22:15
Speaker 2: an eco-friendly alternative to traditional flame cremation.
22:18
Speaker 1: Sure.
22:19
Speaker 2: But in this context, in a basement lab in Olney,
22:23
Speaker 2: it is a method of absolute chilling erasure.
22:26
Speaker 1: Erasure. I need to understand the actual mechanics of this.
22:29
Speaker 1: We use terms like erasing the evidence, but how does
22:32
Speaker 1: a chemical bath physically erase a human being?
22:36
Speaker 2: Alkaline hydrolysis is a process that accelerates the natural decomposition
22:40
Speaker 2: of a body. Okay. In a legal funeral setting, the
22:43
Speaker 2: body is placed in a specialized pressurized steel chamber. The
22:47
Speaker 2: chamber is filled with a mixture of water and an
22:50
Speaker 2: incredibly strong alkali base, usually potassium hydroxide, which is essentially
22:55
Speaker 2: industrial lye.
22:57
Speaker 1: Industrial lye? Wow.
22:59
Speaker 2: The system then heats the liquid to around 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
23:03
Speaker 1: Wait, if water boils at 212 degrees, how does it
23:06
Speaker 1: get to 300 without boiling away into steam?
23:10
Speaker 2: That is where the pressure comes in.
23:12
Speaker 1: Oh, the pressurized chamber.
23:13
Speaker 2: Exactly. The chamber is highly pressurized, which raises the boiling
23:17
Speaker 2: point of the water, allowing it to reach 300 degrees
23:20
Speaker 2: while remaining a liquid.
23:22
Speaker 1: Okay.
23:24
Speaker 2: This combination of intense heat, high pressure, and extreme alkalinity
23:28
Speaker 2: creates a highly reactive environment.
23:31
Speaker 1: And what does that do to the body?
23:32
Speaker 2: Human tissue is primarily composed of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.
23:38
Speaker 2: The strong base essentially attacks the chemical bonds holding those
23:40
Speaker 2: organic molecules together. It triggers a process called base-catalyzed hydrolysis.
23:46
Speaker 1: Base-catalyzed hydrolysis. Right.
23:50
Speaker 2: The lye attacks the peptide bonds holding the body's proteins together,
23:53
Speaker 2: severing them. Over the course of several hours, the solid tissues, organs,
23:57
Speaker 2: and fats are completely broken down into their fundamental building blocks.
24:01
Speaker 1: Which are what?
24:02
Speaker 2: A sterile, liquid solution of amino acids, small peptides, sugars,
24:06
Speaker 2: and salts.
24:08
Speaker 1: The tissue literally dissolves into a liquid?
24:10
Speaker 2: Yes.
24:12
Speaker 1: What about the skeleton?
24:14
Speaker 2: The bones do not dissolve, but they are profoundly altered.
24:18
Speaker 1: Altered how?
24:19
Speaker 2: The alkaline process completely strips away all the collagen and
24:22
Speaker 2: organic material that gives the living bone its strength and flexibility.
24:26
Speaker 2: What is left behind are essentially bone shadows.
24:30
Speaker 1: Bone shadows?
24:31
Speaker 2: Yes, the pure calcium phosphate structure of the skeleton. They
24:34
Speaker 2: look like normal bones, but they are incredibly brittle.
24:38
Speaker 1: So they just crumble.
24:39
Speaker 2: In a commercial setting, these brittle remains are easily crushed
24:43
Speaker 2: into a fine white powder, similar to traditional ashes, and
24:46
Speaker 2: given to the family.
24:47
Speaker 1: Right.
24:48
Speaker 2: In a criminal setting, those brittle fragments could easily be
24:51
Speaker 2: smashed and scattered, while the sterile liquid solution is simply
24:54
Speaker 2: poured down the drain.
24:56
Speaker 1: Poured down the drain. That is an astonishing thought, but
25:00
Speaker 1: It highlights the resilience of forensic science.
25:02
Speaker 2: It really does.
25:03
Speaker 1: A man builds a literal chemical lab in his basement.
25:06
Speaker 1: He thinks he has completely beaten the system, using a
25:09
Speaker 1: complex chemical process to sever the peptide bonds of the evidence,
25:13
Speaker 1: chemically erasing these five women.
25:15
Speaker 2: You thought he was untouchable.
25:16
Speaker 1: But the house itself remembers. The house's own plumbing, the
25:20
Speaker 1: microscopic scratches inside a PVC pipe, the chemical residue left
25:24
Speaker 1: in the trap under the sink. The house itself might
25:27
Speaker 1: be the thing that ultimately testifies against him. Yes. Because
25:30
Speaker 1: the reporting notes that detectives have physically removed chemicals and
25:33
Speaker 1: pipes from the property.
25:35
Speaker 2: And this is a massive pivot for the investigation. The
25:37
Speaker 2: justice system is largely built around the concept of the
25:40
Speaker 2: body as the primary piece of evidence. Right.
25:43
Speaker 1: No body, no crime is the old saying.
25:45
Speaker 2: Exactly. The autopsy tells you the cause of death. But
25:48
Speaker 2: when a perpetrator chemically erases the victims, investigators are no
25:52
Speaker 2: longer looking for a body. They have to shift entirely
25:55
Speaker 2: to finding the mechanism of erasure.
25:58
Speaker 1: The mechanism itself. Right.
26:00
Speaker 2: They have to prove that the lab itself was the
26:02
Speaker 2: weapon of disposal. So by removing that plumbing and taking
26:05
Speaker 2: it back to the FBI laboratory, chemists can analyze the
26:08
Speaker 2: residue inside those pipes to prove human remains were processed
26:12
Speaker 2: through that system.
26:13
Speaker 1: The reporting mentions they will use advanced testing on that residue.
26:17
Speaker 1: But how do they actually test a piece of PVC
26:20
Speaker 1: pipe for human amino acids after years of normal wastewater
26:24
Speaker 1: running over it?
26:26
Speaker 2: They rely on two incredibly powerful analytical tools used in tandem.
26:31
Speaker 2: Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.
26:34
Speaker 1: Okay.
26:34
Speaker 2: Commonly referred to as GC-MS. This is the gold standard
26:39
Speaker 2: of forensic chemistry.
26:41
Speaker 1: Break that down. Let's start with gas chromatography.
26:45
Speaker 2: Gas chromatography is a method of separating a complex mixture
26:48
Speaker 2: of chemicals into its individual components.
26:50
Speaker 1: Okay.
26:51
Speaker 2: Imagine the residue swabbed from the inside of that pipe.
26:53
Speaker 2: It is a microscopic, tangled mess of soap scum, dirt,
26:58
Speaker 2: household cleaners, and potentially... the chemical byproducts of alkaline hydrolysis.
27:03
Speaker 1: Just normal drain grime mixed with evidence.
27:06
Speaker 2: Exactly. The forensic chemist takes a tiny sample of that
27:09
Speaker 2: residue and injects it into the gas chromatograph, where it
27:13
Speaker 2: is instantly heated to a very high temperature until it
27:15
Speaker 2: vaporizes into a gas.
27:17
Speaker 1: Wait, so they turn the swabbed grime into a vapor?
27:21
Speaker 2: Yes, they vaporize it. That vapor is then pushed by
27:25
Speaker 2: an inert carrier gas, like helium, through a microscopic... coiled
27:30
Speaker 2: glass tube. This tube can be up to 100 feet long,
27:34
Speaker 2: but it is as thin as a human hair.
27:36
Speaker 1: That's tiny.
27:37
Speaker 2: It is. The inside of this tube is coated with
27:40
Speaker 2: a specific chemical layer known as the stationary phase. As
27:44
Speaker 2: the vaporized mixture travels through the tube, different molecules react
27:48
Speaker 2: differently to that coating.
27:50
Speaker 1: How so?
27:51
Speaker 2: Well, some molecules breeze right through, while others are chemically
27:55
Speaker 2: attracted to the coating and drag their feet. Because every
27:59
Speaker 2: chemical compound has a slightly different boiling point and chemical affinity,
28:03
Speaker 2: the molecules separate as they travel. Oh, I see. They
28:07
Speaker 2: exit the end of the tube one by one at
28:09
Speaker 2: different times.
28:10
Speaker 1: So it basically separates the tangled mess into a single-file
28:14
Speaker 1: line of distinct chemicals.
28:16
Speaker 2: Exactly. And as each distinct chemical exits the tube, it
28:20
Speaker 2: flows directly into the mass spectrometer.
28:23
Speaker 1: Which is the second machine. Right.
28:25
Speaker 2: This is where the actual identification happens. The mass spectrometer
28:29
Speaker 2: blasts those molecules with a beam of high-energy electrons. This
28:33
Speaker 2: bombardment essentially shatters the molecules into charged fragments, or ions.
28:38
Speaker 1: You're blowing the molecules up.
28:40
Speaker 2: Breaking them apart to see what they're made of. Those
28:43
Speaker 2: charged fragments are then passed through a powerful magnetic field. Okay.
28:47
Speaker 2: The magnetic field bends the path of the fragments. Lighter
28:50
Speaker 2: fragments are bent sharply, while heavier fragments resist the bend
28:53
Speaker 2: and maintain a straighter path.
28:55
Speaker 1: Like a sorting mechanism.
28:56
Speaker 2: Exactly. A detector at the end measures exactly where each
29:00
Speaker 2: fragment hits. This creates a highly specific graph, a mass-to-charge ratio.
29:05
Speaker 1: And that graph tells them what it is?
29:08
Speaker 2: Every chemical compound in the universe breaks apart in a
29:11
Speaker 2: highly specific, predictable way, creating a unique atomic fingerprint.
29:16
Speaker 1: Wow.
29:17
Speaker 2: So the chemist looks at that fingerprint, compares it to
29:20
Speaker 2: a database, and can say with absolute certainty, this specific
29:23
Speaker 2: spike on the graph proves the presence of human amino acids.
29:27
Speaker 2: Or this bike proves the presence of industrial potassium hydroxide
29:31
Speaker 2: in a residential drain pipe.
29:34
Speaker 1: That is just.
29:35
Speaker 2: It is a slow, painstaking, molecular-level investigation.
29:41
Speaker 1: So while this molecular level search is happening in the
29:45
Speaker 1: dark of the basement, let's pull back to the macro view.
29:48
Speaker 2: Good idea.
29:49
Speaker 1: I want to look at the people standing outside the
29:51
Speaker 1: police tape on West Chew Avenue. The lawyers, the neighbors,
29:54
Speaker 1: the community, because the ripple effect of this discovery is massive.
29:59
Speaker 2: It affects everyone.
30:01
Speaker 1: Let's look at the legal pushback first. Eugene Horish, the
30:04
Speaker 1: son whose traffic stop started this whole thing, has an attorney. Right.
30:08
Speaker 1: That attorney declined to comment on the specific drug and
30:11
Speaker 1: gun charges, but he went on the record to express
30:13
Speaker 1: that he is upset that the house will be, quote,
30:16
Speaker 1: destroyed by the police activity.
30:18
Speaker 2: Upset about the house?
30:20
Speaker 1: The dissonance there is jarring. You have an attorney publicly
30:24
Speaker 1: expressing concern over property damage, complaining about drywall and plaster,
30:29
Speaker 1: while the FBI is tearing up that drywall, searching for
30:32
Speaker 1: the erased remains of five missing women.
30:35
Speaker 2: It creates a very surreal public relations moment.
30:37
Speaker 1: Absolutely surreal.
30:39
Speaker 2: But if we connect this to the bigger picture, it
30:42
Speaker 2: perfectly illustrates the inherent tension in our legal system between
30:45
Speaker 2: private property rights and the execution of a forensic search warrant. Right.
30:49
Speaker 1: The lawyer is just doing his job.
30:51
Speaker 2: Right. An attorney's job is to fiercely advocate for their
30:54
Speaker 2: client's interests. And in this case, the client owns the
30:57
Speaker 2: physical property being dismantled.
30:59
Speaker 1: And the Fourth Amendment protects that property.
31:02
Speaker 2: The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches, meaning the
31:05
Speaker 2: state cannot just destroy a home on a hunch. However,
31:08
Speaker 2: a judge has signed off on this search warrant, determining
31:12
Speaker 2: that the probable cause.
31:13
Speaker 1: The million files.
31:15
Speaker 2: The millions of files. The 55-gallon drum of chemicals. The
31:19
Speaker 2: suspected serial killer connection.
31:21
Speaker 1: Yeah.
31:22
Speaker 2: The judge determined that all of that overwhelmingly outweighs the
31:25
Speaker 2: property rights. The state has met the immense burden of
31:28
Speaker 2: proof required to literally deconstruct the home.
31:31
Speaker 1: Well, if the lawyer is worried about the house being destroyed,
31:34
Speaker 1: the neighbors have the exact opposite opinion.
31:36
Speaker 2: Completely opposite.
31:37
Speaker 1: We have to bring in the voices of the only residents,
31:40
Speaker 1: the people who have to live next to this reality
31:42
Speaker 1: every single day. There is a quote from an unidentified
31:46
Speaker 1: neighbor in the reporting that cuts right to the bone.
31:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, that quote is intense.
31:50
Speaker 1: They simply said, Knock it down. Knock it out. I
31:53
Speaker 1: think that's going to need to be knocked down because
31:55
Speaker 1: there was too much going on.
31:56
Speaker 2: Wow.
31:57
Speaker 1: They don't want the house saved. They want it erased
31:59
Speaker 1: from the block.
32:01
Speaker 2: And that reaction speaks directly to the psychological trauma inflicted
32:04
Speaker 2: on a community when a house of horrors is uncovered
32:07
Speaker 2: in their midst.
32:07
Speaker 1: Right.
32:08
Speaker 2: The building ceases to be just wood and brick. It
32:10
Speaker 2: becomes a physical manifestation of evil. It alters the psychological
32:14
Speaker 2: geography of the neighborhood.
32:16
Speaker 1: The psychological geography. That's a powerful way to frame it.
32:20
Speaker 2: A space that was once perceived as safe or mundane
32:22
Speaker 2: becomes a daily unavoidable reminder of the victims and the
32:26
Speaker 2: betrayal of community trust.
32:27
Speaker 1: You really get the sense from the reporting that the
32:31
Speaker 1: neighborhood sensed this darkness long before the FBI arrived with
32:34
Speaker 1: their inflatable tents.
32:35
Speaker 2: People always know.
32:36
Speaker 1: There is a story from a neighbor named Samantha. She
32:40
Speaker 1: told reporters that she used to literally cross the street
32:43
Speaker 1: just to avoid R.C. Horstrom.
32:45
Speaker 2: Cross the street.
32:46
Speaker 1: She said, it wasn't safe. I didn't feel safe. Just
32:49
Speaker 1: the aura of the man made her alter her walking path.
32:54
Speaker 1: The community knew something was wrong, even if they couldn't
32:56
Speaker 1: fathom the high school science lab of horrors in the basement.
33:00
Speaker 2: Community intuition is incredibly powerful.
33:02
Speaker 1: It is.
33:03
Speaker 2: People pick up on micro behaviors, strange schedules, unsettling interactions
33:07
Speaker 2: that don't quite rise to the level of a police report,
33:10
Speaker 2: but trigger a primal warning system.
33:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, that primal gut feeling.
33:15
Speaker 2: And that intuition is now transformed into a grim vigilance.
33:18
Speaker 2: The reporting highlights a first-year psychology student from Only, Alexis Velez.
33:23
Speaker 2: She checks the block on West Chew Avenue almost daily.
33:26
Speaker 1: Daily.
33:27
Speaker 2: She told reporters, Without a doubt, there is something in there.
33:31
Speaker 2: Human remains. Something. I truly think they're going to find
33:34
Speaker 2: something there.
33:35
Speaker 1: She is checking daily. The entire neighborhood is holding its
33:39
Speaker 1: collective breath, just waiting for the forensics team to finally
33:42
Speaker 1: walk out of that tent with an answer.
33:44
Speaker 2: Waiting for closure.
33:46
Speaker 1: But while the adults and psychology students are processing this,
33:49
Speaker 1: the reporting touches on the most innocent bystanders in all
33:52
Speaker 1: of this. The children of Olney.
33:54
Speaker 2: That's the hardest part.
33:56
Speaker 1: Imagine being a parent on that block right now. You
33:58
Speaker 1: have FBI agents in hazmat suits, news helicopters overhead, yellow
34:03
Speaker 1: tape everywhere. One neighbor talked about the struggle of trying
34:07
Speaker 1: to shield young children from the disturbing details unfolding right
34:10
Speaker 1: on their street, saying, some kids have questions you want
34:13
Speaker 1: to answer to the best of your ability. How do
34:16
Speaker 1: you explain to a child that the house down the
34:18
Speaker 1: street was a laboratory for a suspected serial killer?
34:21
Speaker 2: It is an impossible parenting situation. You are forced to
34:25
Speaker 2: navigate the loss of innocence for an entire generation of
34:28
Speaker 2: children on that block. Right. The trauma isn't just about
34:31
Speaker 2: what happened inside the house. It is about the destruction
34:35
Speaker 2: of the illusion of neighborhood safety.
34:37
Speaker 1: It's like a radioactive monument of trauma.
34:40
Speaker 2: Exactly. And the investigation itself, while completely necessary for justice...
34:45
Speaker 2: prolongs the community's exposure to that trauma. As we synthesize
34:49
Speaker 2: everything we've discussed today, the trajectory of this case is
34:53
Speaker 2: just staggering.
34:54
Speaker 1: It really is.
34:55
Speaker 2: It began with the legal mechanics of a routine traffic
34:58
Speaker 2: stop in June. That single pulled thread unlocked a digital
35:02
Speaker 2: vault of horrors requiring immense computational power and agonizing human
35:07
Speaker 2: review of over a million files.
35:09
Speaker 1: One million files.
35:11
Speaker 2: Those files served as a map. leading investigators to a
35:14
Speaker 2: physical excavation of a suburban basement, forcing them to rely
35:19
Speaker 2: on molecular chemistry from luminol to gas chromatography to hunt
35:23
Speaker 2: for traces of wet cremation. And the culmination of all
35:27
Speaker 2: this science is a community left standing on the other
35:30
Speaker 2: side of the police tape, grappling with a devastating aftermath
35:34
Speaker 2: of what was hidden in plain sight.
35:35
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Absolutely. As we wrap up this deep dive, I
35:39
Speaker 1: want you, the listener, to really reflect on the painstaking
35:43
Speaker 1: dedication of the investigators working this case right now.
35:46
Speaker 2: It's incredibly hard work.
35:47
Speaker 1: Think about the sheer mental and physical endurance required to
35:50
Speaker 1: review a million files, process toxic sludge, and dismantle a
35:55
Speaker 1: house board by board. They are doing this grinding, traumatic
35:59
Speaker 1: work to bring answers to the families of those five
36:02
Speaker 1: missing women.
36:03
Speaker 2: They are dedicated to finding the truth.
36:06
Speaker 1: And I want to leave you with a final lingering
36:08
Speaker 1: thought to mull over, something that builds on the timeline
36:11
Speaker 1: we've been discussing.
36:12
Speaker 2: Okay.
36:13
Speaker 1: R.C. Horse died in 2025. Right. The mastermind was gone.
36:16
Speaker 1: But this investigation, the FBI tent, the hazmat suits, none
36:20
Speaker 1: of it started until his son's random traffic stop in
36:23
Speaker 1: June of 2026.
36:24
Speaker 2: A full year later.
36:27
Speaker 1: This means that for an entire year after his death,
36:30
Speaker 1: that chemical lab, the 55-gallon drums, the pipes— And the horrifying,
36:36
Speaker 1: silent secrets of what happened to those five women, it
36:39
Speaker 1: all just sat there in total silence.
36:42
Speaker 2: Just waiting.
36:43
Speaker 1: Behind an ordinary front door on a normal suburban street
36:47
Speaker 1: where kids rode their bikes. It leaves you wondering, as
36:51
Speaker 1: you drive home today, as you walk down your own
36:53
Speaker 1: street and look at the ordinary houses you pass every day,
36:56
Speaker 1: How many other ordinary suburban doors are hiding a lifetime
37:01
Speaker 1: of horrifying secrets, just waiting for a random traffic stop
37:04
Speaker 1: to pull the loose thread?