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- Aug 18, 2024
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On 5 October 1994 the Confederation was shaken by the massacre of the Order of the Solar Temple, an event of which today there is no longer a clear trace in Salvan and Cheiry.
It is October 5, 1994. Twenty-five bodies are found charred in two chalets in Granges-sur-Salvan, in the canton of Valais. In Cheiry (Fribourg), another 23 bodies were found in ceremonial clothes, some with signs of suffocation, others shot dead. Swiss public opinion is shocked, dismayed and appalled.
Among the victims are two "well-known names": Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret, respectively the head of the Order of the Solar Temple (OTS) and its "guru", a Belgian doctor. In Salvan, the victims took medications capable of causing muscle paralysis. In Cheiry, 20 victims had gunshot wounds, almost all to the head, and some of the bullets were fired with a gun later found in Salvan. News arrives from Canada which immediately raises doubts regarding the involvement of the esoteric sect: three corpses have been found in Quebec, inside a villa in Morin Heights set on fire and belonging to the same owner as one of the Valais chalets. A Swiss citizen, his British wife and their three-month-old son were killed. According to investigators, the Order of the Solar Temple is responsible for the massacre. Five bodies are found in another chalet in Morin Heights.
The other massacres
The massacres in Switzerland and Canada on October 5, 1994 are not the last. In December 1995, in an isolated clearing on the Vercors plateau, near Saint-Pierre de Chérennes, France, the charred bodies of 16 people, including 3 children, were found. Fourteen of them were shot dead before being set on fire. Five other people - also attributable to the sect - were found dead in Saint-Casimir, Quebec, in March 1997. Of these, 3 were French. Three teenagers say they survived because they negotiated the right to live with their relatives. The following day, Libération wrote: «There remain approximately 500 identified members of the OTS in the world, and probably three times that number are unknown. Doctor Jean-Marie Abgrall, expert psychiatrist at the Court of Appeal of Aix and cult specialist, had warned the judge just a year earlier that "a conjunction of objective elements" could give rise to fears of a new massacre between 18 and 22 March ».
In Salvan and Cheiry today there is no longer any trace of the massacre. The chalet and farm that were the scene of the massacre have been razed to the ground. In their place there are new buildings and there is nothing to remember the tragic events. Even today there is no certainty about the reasons for the massacre and the questions of relatives and friends of the victims about what really happened have not found answers. The deaths and the doubt between suicide and murder remain.
It is October 5, 1994. Twenty-five bodies are found charred in two chalets in Granges-sur-Salvan, in the canton of Valais. In Cheiry (Fribourg), another 23 bodies were found in ceremonial clothes, some with signs of suffocation, others shot dead. Swiss public opinion is shocked, dismayed and appalled.
Among the victims are two "well-known names": Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret, respectively the head of the Order of the Solar Temple (OTS) and its "guru", a Belgian doctor. In Salvan, the victims took medications capable of causing muscle paralysis. In Cheiry, 20 victims had gunshot wounds, almost all to the head, and some of the bullets were fired with a gun later found in Salvan. News arrives from Canada which immediately raises doubts regarding the involvement of the esoteric sect: three corpses have been found in Quebec, inside a villa in Morin Heights set on fire and belonging to the same owner as one of the Valais chalets. A Swiss citizen, his British wife and their three-month-old son were killed. According to investigators, the Order of the Solar Temple is responsible for the massacre. Five bodies are found in another chalet in Morin Heights.
The other massacres
The massacres in Switzerland and Canada on October 5, 1994 are not the last. In December 1995, in an isolated clearing on the Vercors plateau, near Saint-Pierre de Chérennes, France, the charred bodies of 16 people, including 3 children, were found. Fourteen of them were shot dead before being set on fire. Five other people - also attributable to the sect - were found dead in Saint-Casimir, Quebec, in March 1997. Of these, 3 were French. Three teenagers say they survived because they negotiated the right to live with their relatives. The following day, Libération wrote: «There remain approximately 500 identified members of the OTS in the world, and probably three times that number are unknown. Doctor Jean-Marie Abgrall, expert psychiatrist at the Court of Appeal of Aix and cult specialist, had warned the judge just a year earlier that "a conjunction of objective elements" could give rise to fears of a new massacre between 18 and 22 March ».
In Salvan and Cheiry today there is no longer any trace of the massacre. The chalet and farm that were the scene of the massacre have been razed to the ground. In their place there are new buildings and there is nothing to remember the tragic events. Even today there is no certainty about the reasons for the massacre and the questions of relatives and friends of the victims about what really happened have not found answers. The deaths and the doubt between suicide and murder remain.
