Four members of a French family who died after jumping from an apartment block in Montreuxin the west of Swissprobably last week they had rehearsed a “collective suicide”local police reported Tuesday. A fifth member, a 15 year old boyremains in a coma.
The 40-year-old father and 41-year-old mother, their eight-year-old daughter and the mother’s twin sister, died on March 22.
The police reported that “they had jumped one after another just before 7 am”, during a segmented period of five minutes from the balcony of his apartment, from a height of 20 meters. The Police have ruled out the participation of third parties.
There were also no reports of unusual noises or shouting from the apartment or the balcony, police said. Officers discovered a stepladder on the balcony, but no signs of a struggle.
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The case hypotheses
The family had come to Montreux from France about two years ago. Authorities are still unclear why they jumped from the balcony of their apartment in the lakeside city.
The investigation has not revealed any obvious warning signs. However, they indicate that since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the family had been “very interested in conspiracy and survival theories.”
The family had amassed a large store of food and medicine packed in boxes that took up most of the apartment. “This action was to allow him to face a great crisis”the statement said.
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“Withdrawn from society”
Swiss police said the family had withdrawn from society and lived almost self-sufficiently in “fear that the authorities might interfere with their way of life.”
The father reportedly ran an independent online ticketing business. The mother’s twin sister was the only one who worked outside the home as an ophthalmologist. Neither the mother nor the girl were officially registered with the local authorities, which explained why they did not attend school.
The eldest son had been educated at home. The tragic incident last week occurred when two police officers arrived at the apartment early on March 24 regarding a homeschooling issue.
The officers, who had been present since 6:15 a.m., called the family’s apartment, but no one answered the door and they left shortly after.
“Our theory is that they were very afraid that the authorities, whoever they were, would interfere in their lives. The father had some explaining to do about homeschooling. He had not responded to all the formal requests sent to him. That’s why he sent the police.”Vaud police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel told the Keystone-SDA news agency.