6A
Thursday, October 6, 1994
NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Cults suspected in brutal slayings
Canada, Switzerland sites of similar fires
Jouret represents "an occult tradition with strong apocalyptic elements," said Johannes Aagaard, head of a European cult-monitoring organization based in Aarhus, Denmark. "He expects doomsday to be coming soon."
Jouret, who is Belgian, was believed to have fled to Switzerland last year
The Associated Press
Swiss mass deaths linked to Canada?
Officials said the Swiss cult was called the Order of the Roman Tradition, a group that draws on Roman Catholicism and predicts the end of the world. In Morin Heights, Quebec, it was called Order of the Solar Temple.
CHEIRY, Switzerland — Twenty-one bodies made a circle on the floor of a red, mirror-lined chapel hidden beneath the burning farmhouse.
Some were dressed in red, black and white ceremonial robes. Ten had plastic garbage bags tied around their necks with cords, and some had their hands bound. Twenty had bullets in their heads.
In three ski chalets 90 miles away, police discovered more bodies, badly burned by fires apparently set by remote control.
Investigators said the fires in both countries were set off by remote-controlled electrical devices triggered by a timer or a telephone call.
In all, authorities found 48 bodies yesterday, and indications of a mass murder-suicide by a cult they did not know existed. The scenes were reminiscent of last year's fiery standoff between U.S. federal agents and Branch Davidian cult members near Waco, Texas, in which more than 85 people died.
Clues led to Canada, where two bodies were found on Tuesday in the charred wreckage of an unexplained arson fire. Police said the owner of the burned duplex, Luc Jouret, led apocalyptic cults in both Canada and Switzerland and had rented one of the ski chalets where the bodies were found.
after being charged with weapons possession and conspiracy in Canada. Police said they did not know if he was among the people found dead yesterday.
Authorities were not ruling out the possibility that some of the victims were executed, investigating judge Andre Piller said.
"We are still reeling from what we found," he said after inspecting the underground chapel. "When we first walked in it looked a wax museum. The bodies were lying in a circle with their heads outward."
On the wall of the chapel was a picture of long-haired, bearded man with a cape and a rose.
A cassette tape attached to the door of the chapel explained some of the group's spiritual beliefs, Piller said, but gave no reason for the killings.
The farmhouse, perched on a wooded hill over the village of Cheihay, 45 miles northeast of Geneva, was sealed off from reporters.
POLice said they also found literature referring to a sect called the Cross and Rose, believed to be an offshoot of the same group.
The bodies of 23 people, including a 10-year-old boy, were found at the farm. In addition to the 21 people found in the chapel, the body of Albert Giacobino, 70, was found in an adjoining house and another body
was found in the farmhouse kitchen.
was found in the farmhouse kitchen. Villagers considered Giacobino the farm's owner, but the property was listed in the name of "The Agricultural Research Firm of Cheir," whose ownership was unclear.
It also was not clear whether Giacobino had anything to do with the cult. No other victims were immediately identified.
Authorities said most of the victims were Swiss, French or Canadian. The bodies were taken to Lausanne for autopsies, and results would not be announced for several days, Piller said.
Villagers said they had no idea the sect existed.
Twenty-five bodies, including several children lying next to each other, were found in three chalets in a ski area at Granges-sur-Salvan in Valais canton, about 45 miles southeast of Geneva.
Police said they found 15 bodies at one chalet and two at another. Later in the morning, they found eight more bodies in a third chalet, which was destroyed by fire. Police called off the search of the third chalet late yesterday, fearing the structure would collapse.
Valsa police spokesman Carlo Kuonen told Swiss radio there was no sign of force or violence at the chalets.
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