The 4 members of a French household who have been discovered useless on the backside of an house constructing in a Swiss resort city final week seem to have jumped off a balcony, “one after the other,” as a part of a gaggle suicide, the Swiss police mentioned.
The police mentioned on Tuesday that their investigation means that the 4 folks — a 40-year-old man, his 41-year-old spouse, her twin sister, and the couple’s 8-year-old daughter — plunged to their deaths in Montreux in western Switzerland in succession.
A fifth individual, the couple’s 15-year-old son, additionally apparently jumped from the seventh-floor balcony however survived, and he’s in a coma, mentioned the police in the canton of Vaud, the place Montreux is located.
The police mentioned that they had dominated out the presence of different folks in the house on the time that the members of the family apparently leapt, and provided extra proof to help their concept.
Investigators mentioned they discovered a stepladder on the balcony, there was no signal of a battle and no witness heard any sounds or shouting coming from the house or the balcony earlier than the household fell, they mentioned.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the household was “very interested in conspiracy and survivalist” theories, and had stocked up on an “impressive” quantity of meals that occupied a lot of the house, the police mentioned.
“The family lived in near autarky,” the assertion mentioned, “removed from society.”
Only one member of the household, the mom’s twin sister, labored outdoors the house, the police mentioned. The daughter was not enrolled in college, and she or he and the mom weren’t registered as residing in Montreux.
The son was home-schooled, and two law enforcement officials knocked on the door of the house at 6:15 a.m. on Thursday morning to summon the daddy in reference to the son’s schooling. A voice requested who was on the door, however when the officers recognized themselves, nothing additional was mentioned. The officers then left.
Shortly earlier than 7 a.m., the 5 folks fell from a top of greater than 20 meters in the span of 5 minutes. “All these elements suggest, among the members of this family, the fear of an interference by the authorities in their life,” the police mentioned.