Suicide pod activist takes his own life after being arrested for murder of woman who used the Sarco pod he promoted
A euthanasia advocate who was quizzed by murder detectives after the death of a woman using a controversial Sarco euthanasia pod 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 traumatized 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.
'In the final months of his life, Dr Florian Willet shouldered more than any man should.'
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.'
Dr Willet described the death in the controversial capsule as 'peaceful, fast and dignified'.
Following allegations of 'strangle marks' on the first person to use the Sarco, a person close to Swiss Sarco operator The Last Resort said she had previously been diagnosed with skull base osteomyelitis.
The disease could manifest as an infection of the bone marrow, which could have been responsible for the marks on her neck resembling strangulation marks, the person told Swiss outlet NZZ.
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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