Was the first person who died in Swiss Sarco pod strangled?

Was it suicide or murder?

There are reports that first woman who used the ‘suicide pod’ in Switzerland was found with strangulation marks around her neck.

The Sarco pod was reportedly used on 23 September by a 64-year-old American woman to end her life.

A number of arrests have been made since the incident.

But what happened? And do we know?

Let’s take a closer look:

What happened?

The “Sarco” capsule is designed to allow a person sitting in a reclining seat inside to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber.

The person is then supposed to fall asleep and die by suffocation in a few minutes.

As per BBC, the woman died inside the capsule set up near a forest cabin in Merishausen –  which is in the Schaffhausen region near the German border.

The woman died from fatal hypoxia after pushing a button which injects nitrogen gas into the pod invented by Dr Philip Nitschke, a leading global figure in right-to-die activism.

Exit International, an assisted suicide group based in the Netherlands, is behind the 3D-printed device that cost over $1 million to develop.

Swiss law allows assisted suicide so long as the person takes his or her life with no “external assistance” and those who help the person die do not do so for “any self-serving motive,” according to a government website.

As per Daily Mail, Florian Willet, president of The Last Resort, the company that operates the pod, and the woman who wished to end her life approached the pod together.

“If you’re ready…?” Willet reportedly asked.

“Do I leave my shoes on?” she wondered.

Willet instructed her to leave them on – following which she entered the pod and lay down.

Willet then asked the woman if she wanted to talk to Nitschke, who was watching the proceedings via video.

“No. I’m okay,” she responded.

Willet then told Nitschke, “It seems that she is ready to go.”

According to Newsweek, the woman, a mother of two adult sons, had been contemplating assisted suicide for two years.

The woman, who had been diagnosed with skull base osteomyelitis, previously said her sons “completely agree that this is my decision. And they are behind me one hundred percent.”

She is said to have closed the lid of the pod with no hesitation and almost immediately pushed the button.

Willet then instructed her to keep breathing deeply and calmly as the pod filled up with nitrogen.

Her oxygen levels then dove and her body began experiencing severe cramps.

She eventually is said to have died within a half an hour of having pushed the button.

“She had her eyes closed,” Willet said. “And she was breathing very deeply. Then the breathing slowed down. And then it stopped. She really looks dead,” as per Daily Mail.

Exit International said in a statement a 64-year-old woman from the U.S. Midwest — it did not specify further — who had suffered from “severe immune compromise” had died near the German border using the Sarco device.

It said Willet, co-president of The Last Resort, a Swiss affiliate of Exit International, was the only person present and described her death as “peaceful, fast and dignified.”

As per BBC, several people including Willet were arrested in the aftermath of the incident.

A law firm informed prosecutors in Schaffhausen canton that an “assisted suicide” involving the Sarco had taken place near a forest cabin in Merishausen, regional police said in a statement.

The police added that prosecutors have opened an investigation on suspicion of incitement and accessory to suicide.

Nitschke, the Australian-born trained doctor behind Exit International, had previously said his organisation received advice from lawyers in Switzerland that the use of the Sarco would be legal in the country.

In the Exit International statement, Nitschke said he was “pleased that the Sarco had performed exactly as it had been designed … to provide an elective, non-drug, peaceful death at the time of the person’s choosing.”

Twist in the tale

But The Times quoted Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant as reporting that an autopsy uncovered “strangulation marks on the woman’s neck.”

Newsweek reported that Peter Sticher, the public prosecutor in Schaffhausen has “extended the scope of the investigation to include the possibility of murder.”

de Volkskrant cited documents showing that this is based on a “phone note” from September 23.

“During that conversation, the prosecution heard from the forensic doctor that the woman had, among other things, severe injuries to her neck,” the Dutch newspaper reported.

However, The Times reported that the prosecutor has refused to confirm the reports.

Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung quoted “a person close” to The Last Resort as saying the marks on the neck may have been caused by the woman’s skull base osteomyelitis.

The Last Resort has dismissed any such allegations.

“Without the full autopsy report, The Last Resort cannot comment on the ‘suspicion’ of ‘injuries’ on the neck of the first Sarco user,” the organisation said in a statement.

“The Schaffhausen prosecutor has been reported in past media stating that the autopsy was conducted on 23 September 2024. Five weeks later, the autopsy report has been kept hidden, including from the lawyers for The Last Resort and Exit International and persons involved.”

“The Last Resort and Exit International maintain that the Sarco worked precisely as planned and the user died peacefully from nitrogen hypoxia. The allegations of intentional homicide are ridiculous and absurd. The Last Resort and Exit International strongly reject these allegations.”

With inputs from agencies