Police post $100,000 reward in murder case

Authorities in the canton of Aargau have issued a 100,000-franc ($100,000) reward for information to help stumped investigators solve the savage murder of four people in December.

Published: 18 February 2016 20:27 CET

Police post $100,000 reward in murder case

Photo: Aaurgau cantonal police

Cantonal police have so far been baffled by the case, dating from December 21st 2015, when a 48-year-old woman, her sons aged 13 and 19 and and the 21-year-old girlfriend of the elder son were found dead in a home at Rapperswil that had been set on fire.

The victims were bound with cables and stabbed to death before the fire was set, according to information released earlier by police.

Investigators have established that the mother made two withdrawals from separate bank ATMs in the last few hours of her life, when she took out more than 9,850 francs and €1,000.

But on Thursday, Aargau’s attorney general Philip Umbricht admitted at a press conference on Thursday that other than that police had no serious leads in the case.

This was despite the fact they had received around 250 tips from the public, interviewed 110 people and examined DNA evidence.

A task force of 40 police investigators have been working on the case

Aargau authorities decided to offer the reward in the hopes of getting fresh information that might cast light on what happened.

“It is one of the biggest rewards ever offered in Switzerland,” Umbricht told the press conference, the ATS news agency reported.

The crime is one of the most serious crimes the canton has had to face, he said.

“At this stage every detail can prove to be a piece of the puzzle.”

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Two victims suffered serious wounds, police said. The attacker was also in hospital being treated for injuries that investigators said were self-inflicted.

The man was “believed to be of foreign origin” and was aged about 40, police said in a statement which added that he was thought to have acted alone.

All of the injured remained hospitalised late Wednesday.

Armed with “sharpened or pointed” metal weapons, the man first lashed out at a passer-by at the railway station in the town of 12,000 people in the Aargau canton, about 60 kilometres (38 miles) west of Zurich, police said.

He then wounded several people seemingly at random before entering a house, police added.

Among those attacked were two teachers from the Zofingen cantonal school, the institution’s director, Patrick Strossler, told 20minuten.ch news website.

The Aargauer Zeitung newspaper quoted one man as saying his pregnant wife had been among those attacked. She was cut in the face but her life was not threatened.

After two hours of negotiations with a specialised team, the man was arrested in the house, police said. The suspect had injured himself and was taken to hospital, said Bernhard Graser, a police spokesman.

Graser told the Zofinger Tagblatt newspaper that the attacker’s injuries were self-inflicted.

Police have called for witnesses to share video or photos that may be useful for their investigation.

Images shown by Aargauer Zeitung showed a large deployment of police and emergency vehicles. The security forces had assault rifles and bullet-proof vests.

A police helicopter landed on a nearby sports field, causing the local youth football team to cut short a training session, the newspaper said.