The collective suicide of a French family in Montreux, Switzerland, whose five members one by one threw themselves off the balcony of the 7th .
• Also read: Switzerland: One after the other, the five family members jumped into the void
• Also read: Switzerland: A French family falls from a building, four dead
On March 24, 2022, the crime of this family, who lived self-sufficiently in an opulent building in Montreux, just a stone’s throw from the casino of the chic town on the shores of Lake Geneva, had caused consternation.
The 40-year-old father, his wife, his twin sister and the couple’s 8-year-old daughter had died, only the teenage son had survived the fall but was in a coma with serious injuries.
Even if the investigation was very quickly closed on a suicide, the conclusions of the public prosecutor of the canton of Vaud show “that the mother and her sister represented dominant and possessive personalities, in contrast to an obliterated father”, they had “a strong influence” on children and made them believe in a world hostile to them”.
As the first elements of the police investigation already suggested, the family lived in survival mode, the children had almost no contact with the outside world, were homeschooled and only the twin sister went to work regularly.
According to the investigation, the family had “prepared, rehearsed and organized” their departure into a “better world” without having set an exact date, and they were waiting for a triggering event.
Neither the mother nor the little girl were reported to authorities, but the big brother was to be homeschooled and it was a review procedure by two police officers in the early hours of March 24, 2022 that appeared to have urged the family to take action.
As for the surviving son, “he was heard but is unable to tell the story of how events happened. He will be physically restored and cared for by the professional guardianship and guardianship service, »points out the Vaud Ministry and calls for the greatest restraint towards the underage boy.
The ministry, which has dropped the investigation, is expected to close the case within a few days.