Family collective suicide was pre-meditated and rehearsed, say prosecutors

The family jumped from their seventh-floor balcony one after the other. © Keystone / Cyril Zingaro

Authorities in canton Vaud in western Switzerland are preparing to close the case of a collective suicide last year, when five members of the same family jumped from their seventh-floor apartment one after the other.

Investigators found it was pre-meditated and ruled out third-party involvement. They also found no evidence that a sect was involved. 

This incident on March 24, 2022, in Montreux caused shock and incomprehension in Switzerland. The family members – an eight-year-old girl, 15-year-old boy, their parents and the mother’s twin sister – all jumped from their balcony in silence at five-minute intervals. All died on the spot, except the 15-year-old who suffered serious injuries. He has now recovered physically but does not remember anything about that tragic morning, according to authorities.

After a year of investigations, the probe concluded that the act was prepared, organised and even rehearsed, according to a statement on Tuesday from the Vaud public prosecutor’s office. It found that the family, originally from France, was reclusive and had a profound mistrust of authorities. “Covid and the outbreak of the war in Ukraine also seem to have affected the family members,” it said.

Investigators point to the dominant personalities of the twin sisters who maintained the family “in a belief that the world was hostile to them”, says the statement. According to evidence collected, attesting to the religious belief of the victims, they saw death as a “departure to a better world”. The probe concludes that while the date of the deed had not been decided, it was probably triggered by the arrival of two police officers who had come to take the father for questioning about the home education of the boy.