A euthanasia advocate who was questioned for murder after the death of a woman using a Sarco pod last year has died by assisted suicide, it was announced yesterday.
Dr Florian Willet, 47, was arrested in September 2024 following the death of a 64-year-old woman using a suicide pod after she was allegedly found inside with strangulation marks on her neck.
He was the only person present for the death of the woman, who was the first person to use the nitrogen gas capsule, after it had been set up in a forest near Merishausen, Switzerland.
Dr Willet was held when police arrived at the scene and he remained in custody for 70 days as investigators probed the circumstances surrounding the death.
The public prosecutor said that there had been a ‘strong suspicion’ that ‘intentional homicide’ had been at play.
But these accusations were said to have such a traumatic effect on the author and activist that he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital twice before his death on May 5.
Exit International Director Dr Philip Nitschke, who invented the Sarco pod, wrote yesterday: ‘When Florian was released suddenly and unexpectedly from pre-trial detention in early December 2024, he was a changed man.
‘Gone was his warm smile and self-confidence. In its place was a man who seemed deeply traumatised by the experience of incarceration and the wrongful accusation of strangulation.’
Dr Florian Willet (above), who was last year questioned over the death of a 64-year-old using a pod, has died by assisted suicide
Sarco pod inventor Dr Philip Nitschke (above, right) said the accusations had a hugely damaging effect on Dr Willet after he was freed from police custody
Dr Willet was only person present for the death of the woman, who was the first person to use the nitrogen gas capsule (above) after it had been set up in a forest near Merishausen, Switzerland
Dr Nitschke told Dutch news outlet Volkskrant that Dr Willet died last month in Cologne ‘with the help of a specialized organization’.
In Dr Willet’s obituary, which yesterday announced his death, Dr Nitschke revealed that the 47-year-old had ‘fallen’ from the third floor of his property in Zurich earlier this year, causing him ‘serious damage’.
Dr Nitschke said he was fully assessed by a psychiatric team during his three-month recovery, who said Dr Willet had developed ‘an acute polymorphic psychotic disorder’.
He says this had been brought on ‘following the stress of pre-trial detention and the associated processes’.
Dr Nitschke added: ‘No one was surprised. Florian’s spirit was broken. He knew that he did nothing illegal or wrong, but his belief in the rule of law in Switzerland was in tatters.
‘In the final months of his life, Dr Florian Willet shouldered more than any man should.’
Dr Nitschke said his friend and colleague Dr Willet died last month in Cologne ‘with the help of a specialized organization’
Dr Nitschke (above, left) revealed that the 47-year-old (above, right) had ‘fallen’ from the third floor of his property in Zurich earlier this year, causing him ‘serious damage’
The above map shows where the controversial assisted suicide took place last September which saw Dr Willet arrested
Dr Willet had informed Swiss authorities after the woman’s death and they quickly descended on the forest.
Police discovered the woman’s lifeless body inside the pod and arrested several people.
Dr Willet was detained with two lawyers and a Volkskrant photographer who had been taking pictures of the pod and documented the woman arriving in the woodland.
The public prosecutor in the Schaffhausen canton said that Sarco’s creators had been warned not to use the device in the region, but that the warning had not been heeded.
‘We warned them in writing,’ prosecutor Peter Sticher said in September. ‘We said that if they came to Schaffhausen and used Sarco, they would face criminal consequences.’
Pictured: A police cordon on the forest floor in connection with the first use of the death capsule Sarco in Merishausen, Switzerland, September 25, 2024
Pictured: Philip Nitschke lies down in a ‘suicide pod’ known as ‘The Sarco’ in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, July 8, 2024
Dr Willet described the death in the controversial capsule as ‘peaceful, fast and dignified’.
The pod is designed so that the push of a button injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber, with the person inside then dying by suffocation within a few minutes.
Before his arrest Dr Willet said he had ‘considered’ suicide at the age of five. His father died by suicide when he was 14 years old and he said he was ‘completely fine with it.’
He added: ‘I was extremely sad because I loved my father. But, I understood immediately my father wanted to do this because he was a rational person, which means that expecting him to remain alive just because I need a father would mean extending his suffering.’
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