3 weeks ago
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[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
The very first person to die inside the Sarco suicide pod (pictured above) in a forest in Switzerland was reportedly found inside of it with strangulation marks around her neck.
Yes, you read that right. A 64-year-old American woman died in the specialized suicide pod in the woods outside Merishausen, Switzerland back on September 23. The woman had been diagnosed with a condition called skull base osteomyelitis, according to Swiss news outlets.
And now, the company in charge of the Sarco suicide pod — a firm called The Last Resort — is under fire for the woman’s suspicious death. Its president Dr. Florian Willet was the only person present when the mother of two died in that Swiss forest. Since then, after coroners discovered the apparent injuries to her neck, he and several other people have been arrested by Swiss authorities.
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According to Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, a forensic doctor who observed the woman’s body hours after her passing noted that she had suffered serious neck injuries. The Sarco suicide pod isn’t meant to strangle a victim, though; it works by releasing 100% nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber and (hopefully) creating a peaceful, quick, and fatal hypoxia for the person left inside.
However, there has been no official autopsy report released yet on the woman, despite the suspicions of Swiss prosecutors. And the case is being made even more complicated by the fact that Swiss outlet NZZ reports that a person close to The Last Resort is now claiming that the bone marrow disease skull base osteomyelitis that had afflicted the woman could be responsible for creating marks on her neck that resemble strangulation bruising.
Huh?!
The unnamed woman’s death is suspicious enough that the chief Swiss prosecutor on the case, Peter Sticher, has gotten a judge to extend Dr. Willet’s prison custody following his arrest late last month. But per the de Volkskrant report, Sticher has not yet publicly accused Dr. Willet of intentional homicide even as the investigation continues.
According to the Sarco suicide pod’s inventor, Dr. Philip Nitschke, in conversation with Dutch media outlets, the woman “almost immediately pressed the button” to begin the process of taking her own life as soon as she was sealed inside the machine. The inventor said:
“It looked exactly as we expected it to look. My guess is that she lost consciousness within two minutes and that she died after five minutes. We saw sudden, small contractions and movements of the muscles in her arms, but she was probably already unconscious by then.”
But just hours after her death, Swiss police swooped in and arrested Dr. Willet, two lawyers who were involved, and a photographer for de Volkskrant who had been documenting the scene with pictures. Of that group of detainees, multiple reports state Dr. Willet was the only one actually on the scene at the moment of death.
BTW, the police were nearby, and acted so quickly, because Swiss authorities had previously warned The Last Resort in writing (!) not to use the area for an assisted suicide endeavor. Prosecutors from the local Schaffhausen canton have contended that the Sarco suicide pod is illegal in their region, and should it be put into use, they would react. After the arrests on the day the woman died, Sticher told Swiss media outlets:
“We warned them in writing. We said that if they came to Schaffhausen and used Sarco, they would face criminal consequences.”
Specifically, Sticher noted that the arrests were made so quickly so that those at the scene “were not colluding with each other or covering up evidence.” Over the next 48 hours, the two lawyers and the Dutch photographer were released from custody. However, Dr. Willet, still remains behind bars.
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Prior to her death, the woman allegedly made an oral statement to The Last Resort in which she confirmed it was her wish to end her life. The statement, which de Volkskrant reports was recorded, explained that she’d wished for death for “at least two years” after falling into “severe pain” upon being diagnosed with “a very serious illness.” Per that same report, the woman’s two sons were supposedly in support of her wishes.
Nitschke explained that her death went “well,” and the Sarco device had “performed exactly as it had been designed to do.” He went on:
“As soon as she lay down in the Sarco, she almost immediately pressed the button. She really wanted to die. She didn’t say anything any more. … It provided a non-drug, peaceful death at the time of the person’s choosing.”
On the very same day that the device was used back in September, Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider went before that country’s National Council and delivered remarks about how government officials there consider the Sarco suicide pod to be illegal. She stated:
“The Sarco suicide capsule is not legal in two respects. On one hand, it does not fulfill the demands of the product safety law, and as such, must not be brought into circulation. On the other hand, the corresponding use of nitrogen is not compatible with the article on purpose in the chemicals law.”
According to a government website, assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland so long as a person takes their own life with “no external assistance,” and those who help the person die did so without “any self-serving motive.”
This whole story is honestly so wild. We can’t even imagine the pain that woman must have been in, and for such a long time spanning several years, to even consider this as an option — let alone the jaw-dropping controversy that has now popped up after her passing. Sending all our love to her family and friends…
For resources on mental health, visit https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/find-help.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, help is available. Consider contacting the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, by calling, texting, or chatting, or go to 988lifeline.org.
[Image via MEGA/WENN]
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