A euthanasia advocate who was quizzed by murder detectives after the death of a woman using a controversial Sarco euthanasia 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 the 64-year-old woman after police claimed there were 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 Sarco suicide device, which 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 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.