Homeschooling Family Dead In Group Suicide Leap

The Daily Mail reports:

A family of four are dead and a teenage boy is fighting for life in hospital after appearing to jump from their apartment building in the Swiss resort of Montreux on Lake Geneva, police said.

The French family were found at the bottom of a seven storey building in Montreux on Thursday and are believed to have jumped moments after police officers tried to execute an arrest warrant in connection with the home-schooling of a child.

Neighbor Claude Rouiller said there had been the strong smell of incense coming from the family’s apartment in the days leading up to the tragedy, while other neighbours claimed the family were part of a cult.

The New York Times reports:

Jean-Christophe Sauterel, the police spokesman in Vaud, said the local authorities usually send the police to visit individuals who fail to respond to repeated written summons.

He said that one of the children living in the apartment was being home-schooled, which is legal in Switzerland, but requires routine checks on the process.

When parents do not respond to solicitations for these checks, they can be summoned by the police, he said.

Four members of the same family, including an eight-year-old girl, have been found dead at the bottom of a seven-story building in Switzerland. https://t.co/aeH99IP53r

— Metro (@MetroUK) March 24, 2022