The man at the center of the investigation into what happened to several missing women connected to his Philadelphia home previously cooperated with federal authorities, according to court documents. Raymond “R.C.” Horsch died in 2025 at age 82. In 2009, Horsch faced federal charges following a raid at his former home in Chalfont, Pennsylvania, where police found an illegal marijuana grow operation. A federal judge later sentenced Horsch to more than four years in prison and five years of supervised release. As part of his guilty plea, Horsch agreed to provide information valuable to authorities. In exchange, prosecutors could ask a judge for a more lenient sentence, according to documents filed Tuesday. The new documents come after The Philadelphia Inquirer filed a motion to unseal records in the 2009 case, including transcripts and documents tied to Horsch’s guilty plea and sentencing. In response to the newspaper’s request, Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Ashenfelter wrote that some documents should remain sealed and out of public view because Horsch provided “sensitive” information to law enforcement. “Raymond Horsch is dead,” Ashenfelter wrote. “Therefore, the fact that he entered a cooperation plea agreement with the government need not be kept hidden any longer. That is because the prospect of any danger to him is extinguished by his death. However, the essence of the information he provided to the government during his cooperation is not subject to disclosure or public consumption.” What Horsch actually told federal investigators, however, remains secret. Prosecutors said Horsch did not testify against another criminal defendant. Records obtained by the NBC10 Investigators show Horsch was released from federal prison in 2013. It remains unclear when his supervised release ended. A self-portrait of Raymond “R.C.” Horsch appears to have been uploaded to Wikipedia in 2018. The image itself is dated 2014. Searches of Horsch’s former home revealed no evidence of human remains. Last month, Philadelphia police and the FBI said detectives were reviewing more than 1 million digital files connected to the case. NBC10 investigative reporter David Charns can be reached at [email protected]. ...read more read less