Wealthy French family obsessed with Covid conspiracies jumped one after the other to their deaths from a 7th floor apartment 'after police tried to arrest the dad for home schooling'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A wealthy French family who had become survivalists obsessed with Covid conspiracy theories jumped one after the other to their deaths from their seventh-floor apartment in the Swiss town of Montreux, police have revealed.
Eric David, 40, his wife Nasrine Feraoun, 41, and her twin sister Narjisse, and the couple's eight-year-old daughter were found dead at the bottom of a seven storey building on Thursday - just 45 minutes after police knocked on their door.
The couple's 15-year-old son survived the fall but remains in a stable condition in a coma in hospital.
The Vaud regional police said on Tuesday they are working on a theory of 'collective suicide' with evidence 'all the victims jumped from the balcony one after the other'.
Police do not believe anyone else was involved in their deaths.
All five family members had 'withdrawn from society' and jumped more than 65ft to their deaths moments after police attempted to execute an arrest warrant on the father over his decision to home-school one of his children, police said.
Police said the deaths happened after two officers arrived at the apartment at 6.15am to execute a warrant for the father in connection with the home-schooling of one of the couple's children on Thursday.
The officers knocked on the door and heard a voice ask who they were. But when they answered, the apartment went quiet. After failing to make contact, the officers left.
Shortly before 7am, all five family members jumped from the balcony within the space of five minutes.
A step-ladder was found on the balcony, but there was no signs of struggle, police said.
'Before or during the events, no witnesses, including the two police officers present on the spot from 6:15 am and the passers-by at the foot of the building, heard the slightest noise or cry coming from the apartment or the balcony,' police said.
'Technical investigations show no warning signs of such an act,' they added, noting however that 'since the start of the pandemic, the family was very interested in conspiracy and survivalist theories'.
The family lived in virtual self-sufficiency with a well-organised stockpile of various foods that took up most of the living space in the apartment.
Only the mother's twin sister worked outside the home, while neither the mother nor the eight-year-old girl, who did not attend school, were registered with the local authorities.
'All these elements suggest... fear of the authorities interfering in their lives,' the police statement said.
Neighbours said the family was quiet and kept to themselves.
'We heard nothing from their home, the father never said hello in the hallway and ordered many packages almost daily,' neighbour Claude Rouiller told Swiss newspaper Le Temps .
France's Journal du Dimanche newspaper said the father, Eric David, grew up in a wealthy part of Marseille and attended the Ecole Polytechnique, one of the most prestigious schools in the country.
The twin sisters, Nasrine and Narjisse Feraoun, grew up in a family of five children who were all educated at the elite Lycee Henri-IV in Paris, the weekly said. The mother was a dentist and her sister an ophthalmologist.
The newspaper also said the twins were granddaughters of Algerian novelist Mouloud Feraoun.
A close friend of the French philosopher Albert Camus, Feraoun was assassinated in Algiers in 1962 by a far-right French pro-colonial group.
Montreux, a bucolic lakeside city, is best known as a tourist hot spot and in particular for its annual jazz festival.
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How does an eight year old jump to her death? What a twisted family.
Shades of Andrea Yates. Nightmare Parents...
A family with a cult mentality. A tragedy that the human mind is capable of such powerful delusion.
What do they mean by:
Emphasis mine. Does one have to register with local authorities in Switzerland? And one is not allowed to homeschool?
Yes, a sick, twisted family, but it sounds like they wanted to be left alone. What's wrong with that?
it sounds like they wanted to be left alone
Maybe a little too much.
When is too much, though?
Somewhere upstream of an eight year old who is willing to jump to her death over it, I guess.
My guess would be when they all did a swan dive off of the balcony.
First and foremost, I want to tell you again how much I like your moniker. It's brilliant and always does something positive to my emotional state, even when we are at odds.
Second, in my opinion, you're asking a pretty valid question. One that Hal isn't treating seriously, in my opinion. I don't know, definitively, what you intended by your question but what it brings to my mind is, how much power should the state have over the individual? Specifically, why would the state believe it had the authority to deny parents the right to homeschool? In my opinion, as long as a homeschooled child could demonstrate proficiency in educational standards set by the state they should have no objection. To my mind, a government's highest priority should be the free exercise of a citizen's conscience without restriction as long as it doesn't unduly restrict the same of other citizens.
Of course, in this particular story, we may not have all the information. The warrant concerning homeschooling may have been just a legal angle by which the authorities were trying to help a family that had gone off the rails in an obviously serious way.
Lastly, I am embarrassedly giddy over my first ever use of the word "moniker" in a published sentence!
It’s Switzerland. Who are any of us to be taken seriously on the politics and social mores of Switzerland, much less judge them? I seeded the article because it is interesting on human scale.
This is the one thing I think we can find agreement on. Why should the state have that much power over the individual.
And thanks. I made that name up while driving one day. I saw a bumper sticker that said "Fish tremble at the sound of my name" and I thought to myself after I stopped laughing...they giggle at the sound of my name. And since I love trout fishing....there ya go!
It is interesting! But being an American and having lived here 60 years, I enjoy a certain amount of freedom that maybe I've taken for granted and just assumed that the Swiss enjoyed also. My fault for assuming
Drak if it's of any interest each canton (county) in Switzerland determines if homeschooling is legal and even where it is legal a teaching certificate may be required to do so. This inciden occurred in the canton of Vaud where it is legal and does not require a teaching certificate however the child does have to be taught cantonal curriculum and demonstrate proficiency. It is possible the parents were failing to follow the rules and the child failing to demonstrate proficiency (not to mention the other child not being registered al all) or as you say it may have been the family were known to be loons and the homeschooling was just an excuse to have a looksee at how looney they were.
I do hope the son manages to pull through
It would be interesting to know what he explains about what happened and why, if he is willing to do so.
Thanks for the info. It does clear a few questions up for me.
He is going to need long term mental health care. I hope he can get past this eventually to live a normal life.
I’m surprised they didn’t have a batch of Sarco pods printed and waiting for such circumstances.
So what exactly is their crime that the police had a warrant for the father's arrest? Home schooling? The family was highly educated and more than capable.
Sounds like the Establishment didn't like someone bucking their system. Guess it is better having them dead, than home schooled.
What is sounds like is a legitimate pretext for the authorities to investigate the wellbeing of children.
Children who it turned out were in fact in danger...
In this case, sadly, the authorities acted too late!
Wealthy French Family Obsessed With Covid Conspiracies Jumped One After The Other To Their Deaths From A 7th Floor Apartment
Sacré bleu!
There has to be more to this story than home schooling issues.
And how on earth did the 15-year-old son survive the jump?
Looks like there’s several balconies that he may have tried to reach for to slow himself down in a panic.
Or he landed on the others softening his impact or maybe he tucked and rolled upon landing, really it could be anything.
With a name like Freefaller we should take seriously your opinions about it.