PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Investigators are trying to determine what activities were taking place inside an Olney home after authorities discovered chemicals, firearms, ammunition and fake IDs.

Eugene Horsch, 44, is being held on drug and firearms charges following a multi-agency investigation involving the Philadelphia Police Department and the FBI.

Authorities spent Friday searching Horsch’s home on the 400 block of West Chew Avenue, where Chopper 6 showed investigators wearing hazmat suits entering the property as police secured the neighborhood.

Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said investigators found chemicals in the basement that raised safety concerns.

READ MORE | Chemicals, ammo and drugs found after investigation into Olney home, Philadelphia police say

Multiple law enforcement agencies are conducting an investigation after chemicals, ammunition and drugs were found inside a home in Olney.

“Some of these chemicals, if they were to be put together and obviously ignited, they could cause some hazards,” Vanore said.

Investigators also found what Vanore described as a 55-gallon drum connected to water lines, though police have not determined its purpose.

“We just don’t know what he was doing,” Vanore said. “He’s producing something. If he’s making something, if he’s irrigating something, we don’t know.”

Vanore said detectives are continuing to search the property, including an area near a sump pump, but emphasized that no human remains have been found.

“We’re going to further search,” he said. “There’s a sump pump that looks like a hole in the ground, but there’s no bodies. I don’t have any bodies.”

Authorities also plan to examine activity at the property before Horsch lived there.

“We’re certainly going to look into the activities that went on at that house even before he was there,” Vanore said.

The investigation stems from an encounter on June 19 at Independence Mall, where park rangers encountered Horsch and a woman inside a vehicle. Police said Horsch was carrying fake Drug Enforcement Administration credentials, while the woman possessed a fake identification card bearing the name of a missing person.

The developments drew the attention of the family of Amy McHale, who disappeared in 2016 after she was last seen at the West Chew Avenue home.

McHale had previously been married to Horsch’s late father.

Amanda Stofer, McHale’s daughter, said news of the search initially gave her hope that investigators had found answers about her mother’s disappearance.

“I immediately thought they had found my mom,” Stofer said.

Her grandmother, Gloria McHale, said she shared the same reaction.

“My reaction, too, was, finally, after all these years, we’re going to get some closure for this,” she said.

Stofer described Horsch as “very quiet” and “very intelligent” and said her mother left her a voicemail the day she disappeared, saying she was at the home.

“She left me a voicemail, and she said she was at Ray’s, and that’s where Ray lives,” Stofer said. “Ray even spoke with me and my grandmother and the detectives afterward and gave the same story that she was there and that when he woke up in the morning, she wasn’t.”

Although no remains were found during Friday’s search, Stofer said the investigation still provides hope that her family could eventually learn what happened.

“It’s obviously not the ending that anybody would want, but it feels like it could be close to some kind of end and just some kind of closure because 10 years is a really long time,” she said. “Especially for my grandmother. It’s her daughter.”

Horsch’s attorney, Jerry Brown, said the chemicals found inside the home belonged to Horsch’s father and that he does not believe they are dangerous.

Brown declined to comment further on the criminal investigation.

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