Sarco boss Florian Willet committed suicide: this is his story

The first use of the suicide aid capsule in Switzerland triggered an international debate and criminal proceedings. In the center of the case: Florian Willet. How he broke on it.

Willet is the head of the Swiss Suicide Aid Association The Last Resort and formally responsible for the first Sarco use. But actually he is only the assistant. The mastermind of the organization is the Australian physicist Philip Nitschke, inventor of the suicide capsule and head of Exit International. The Swiss association is just an offshoot of it, but pretends that it is independent.

But the man who leaves prison is different than before. He loses his self -confidence and joie de vivre. On May 5, 2025, he commits himself with a suicide aid organization in Cologne. Probably with Dignitas Germany, whose spokesman he used to be. How could it get that far?

After the detention he suffered from persecution

His girlfriend Laura tells on the phone how they met five years ago as neighbors in the same apartment building. Willet was first interested in her bitch and then also for her, she says and laughs. It was a happy time. «I never saw him without a smile. He was a positive person, helpful and loyal. » So she describes him before the detention.

After the detention, he suffered from persecution: «In his apartment he only whispered because he said that she was buzal. He was afraid that he would be understood to have evidence. He was above average intelligent and should have known that his feeling was deceptive. »

He had also become suspicious of his friends, but did not want to talk about it: « He blocked everything. It was difficult to get to him. He was slipped from us. He lived in his own world, but he didn’t see that. »

At the beginning of 2025 he tried to commit suicide and jumped from the third floor of her house. He survived and spent three months in the hospital. He was operated on and was in psychiatric treatment.

The psychiatrists diagnosed a psychotic disorder that had developed according to the burdens of pre -trial detention and the associated processes. The symptoms would subside through the therapy, they noted hopefully.

To recover, he went to Germany afterwards, as he said to his friends. Then he stopped contact. Laura says: «Three weeks ago we reported him to be missing. The Swiss authorities were not yet informed that he had long since been dead. »

She draws the following balance: «Florian only wanted the best and was committed to the suicide movement with good intentions. In the end he paid for it with his life. »

The future of The Last Resort depends on the criminal proceedings

Philip Nitschke chooses even greater words. On request, he says: « Florian Willet died as a martyr. » The Australian wants to organize a big commemoration. How the Last Resort continues now depends on the criminal proceedings. If the Sarco use was illegal, the Swiss organization will be dissolved.

The Schaffhaus public prosecutor’s office in a message « her warm condolences » in a message. The procedure against Willet will post them and continue the procedures against the other accused persons. There are two lawyers and a photographer.

So far, Nitschke has not been managed as a suspect. That is surprising to him, as he says. He first refrained from trips abroad because he expected an international arrest warrant. The police searched his office, but so far he has not even been asked.

On May 14, 2025, Philip Nitschke traveled to Switzerland again for the first time to appear at a podium of a Free thinking association. Willwet actually wanted to come too, but he signed up long before.