Eight years after Nicole Fusaro vanished from Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, police told her family she was strangled to death—a discovery linked to a house of horrors where investigators found disturbing videos showing a woman being killed with a zip tie.
Mother Died Never Knowing Daughter’s Fate
Nicole Fusaro, 27, disappeared on July 19, 2018, last seen around 9 p.m. near Kensington and Allegheny avenues. Her mother, Diane Fusaro, spent two years walking the drug-plagued neighborhood handing out fliers with her daughter’s photo attached to sandwiches, desperately seeking answers. Diane died in 2020 without ever learning what happened to Nicole. Her cousin Jonathan Halloran-Koren said Diane spent every waking moment from the time Nicole vanished until her death trying to find her daughter.
Police notified family members in September 2024 that Nicole had been strangled, based on video evidence recovered from a house in Philadelphia’s Olney neighborhood. The footage allegedly shows Raymond Horsch, an erotic filmmaker known for violent themes, strangling a woman with a zip tie until she appeared lifeless. Horsch died last year, and the video’s metadata shows it was recorded in 2017, one year before Nicole was reported missing.
Five Women Feared Dead In House Investigation
Nicole is among seven women connected to the Horsch house, with five feared dead based on photos and videos discovered inside over recent months. Philadelphia police and FBI investigators returned to the property this month searching for physical evidence, but authorities have yet to recover bodies, DNA, or other forensic proof of killings. Raymond Horsch’s son Eugene was arrested in June, leading police to the house, but he has not been charged in connection with any disappearances or deaths. Police confirmed in September that Eugene does not appear in any of the recovered videos.
Victim Remembered As Kind-Hearted Spirit
Nicole grew up in Northeast Philadelphia and was described by her cousin as a kind-hearted person who loved volunteering with animals, especially a Shih Tzu she inherited from her grandparents. Her father died in 2009, and she later struggled with drug addiction after spending time in Kensington. Halloran-Koren said his aunt tried multiple times to get Nicole into rehab, but breaking free from that lifestyle proved difficult. Family members heard rumors Nicole may have gotten into a car the night she disappeared, but those reports were never confirmed. Learning the graphic details of her death at a public police news conference left relatives feeling a mix of sadness and fury.