A little more than a month after the death of a woman in an assisted suicide capsule, the Swiss press indicated that “marks” had been noted on the victim's neck, pushing the inventors of the “Tesla of suicide assisted” in showing images of his death to the Dutch press.
Monday, September 23, a 64-year-old American woman suffering from “serious immunodeficiency” ended her life in Switzerland using a new assisted suicide device developed by activist Philip Nitschke and the company Exit International, the Sarco or the “Tesla of suicide”. A coffin-sized glass capsule that fills with nitrogen and causes death from hypoxia and hypocapnia in its user. A gesture which immediately gave rise to the opening of an investigation for “suspicion of incitement and complicity in suicide”, as well as the arrest of several people, including Florian Willet, co-president of The Last Resort, the Swiss subsidiary of Exit International.
At the time, the latter, a lawyer by profession, described the American's death as “peaceful, quick and dignified” to the Dutch newspaper “de Volkskrant”. “When she entered the Sarco, she almost immediately pressed the button. She didn't say anything. I estimate that she lost consciousness in two minutes and that she died after five minutes,” he detailed, rejoicing that “it looked exactly like what we expected.” However, according to “De Volkskrant”, the forensic doctor would have detected wounds on the neck of the woman who died in the Sarco, suggesting possible strangulation. This is the reason which would explain why Florian Willet has been held in pre-trial detention for six weeks: he is accused of “intentional homicide”.
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A suicide filmed by several cameras
A source close to The Last Resort, however, told Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ) that there was another explanation: the woman suffered from osteomyelitis of the base of the skull, a painful bone infection that could be responsible for the marks. . This source further affirms that the death of the American was filmed by cameras placed inside and outside the Sarco and that the images prove that there was “no intervention of a third.”
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The daily, which had access to the images, describes the scene as follows. The woman entered the capsule at 3:50 p.m. Florian Willet then asked her: “Do you want to speak to Philip? [soit au Dr Nitschke, qui suivait les débats à distance depuis l’Allemagne] “. “No,” she replied. ” I'm doing well. » “Keep breathing,” Florian Willet told him from outside the Sarco, after pressing the activation button. After one minute and 57 seconds, the internal camera, which reacts to movement, turned on twice in a row. Especially when the woman's knees went up. The same thing happened again after two and a half minutes.
At 4:01 p.m., Florian Willet's iPad suddenly emitted a piercing alarm, likely caused by the sound of the woman's heart rate monitor, who had been locked in for six and a half minutes. An alert that our colleagues analyze as resulting from the woman's loss of consciousness, but which would have “confused” the lawyer. The latter then told Dr Nitschke: “She's still alive, Philip”, while leaning over to look inside the Sarco. After 30 minutes, he finally reported that her “eyes were closed.” “She really looks dead,” he said, before calling the local authorities.
Asked by our colleagues, the prosecution refused to comment on this matter.
