After 'Suicide Capsule' Is Used for First Time in Woman's Death, Swiss Police Arrest Multiple People

Mar. 15, 2025

ARND WIEGMANN/AFP via Getty

Police in Switzerland have said in a news release that “several” people have been detained after the first reported use of a 3D-printed “suicide capsule,” a device designed to put its passenger to sleep before suffocating the person to death.

Police in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, wrote ina news releaseTuesday that “the public prosecutor’s office of the canton of Schaffhausen has opened criminal proceedings against several persons for incitement and aiding and abetting suicide” and that “several persons have been placed in police custody.”

The release says that the public prosecutor’s office was informed late Monday afternoon that a person had died inside the so-called “Sacro” capsule, marking the first reported use of the machine.

Nitschke’s “Sacro” pod has drawn intense legal debate in Switzerland and around the globe.

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The outlets reported Tuesday that the 64-year-old woman who died in Monday’s inaugural use of the suicide pod was an American citizen from the Midwest.

Schaffhausen police said Tuesday that the deceased woman was taken in for an autopsy after forensics teams secured the first hut in Merishausen, Switzerland, about 40 miles north of Zurich, where her death took place.

“The public prosecutor’s office is also investigating the violation of other criminal offenses,” the news release said.

source: people.com