Seewen murder case

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Anna Westhäuser-Siegrist (1896–1976), Emanuel Westhäuser (1924–1976), Max Westhäuser (1927–1976), Eugen Siegrist-Säckinger (1913–1976), Elsa Siegrist-Säckinger (1914–1976) Grave of honor in the Hörnli cemetery , Riehen, Basel-Stadt
Honorary grave in the Hörnli cemetery , Riehen, Basel-Stadt

The Seewen murder is considered to be the largest unsolved crime in recent Swiss criminal history. It occurred in 1976 in Seewen in the canton of Solothurn . The murder of five people, which resembled an execution, shocked the public. The crime is still considered unsolved.

Sequence of events

On June 5, 1976, the Saturday before Pentecost , five people were murdered unrecognized in the wooden weekend house called Waldeggli in the Bannwald a little away from the village of Seewen in the Black Boys' Country in Solothurn . Since the Büren SO shooting range is near the house , the shots were not noticed. Hunters are also said to have been on the move in those days.

The crime was discovered by the homeowner's daughter on the following Pentecost Sunday, June 6, 1976. The perpetrator (s) had killed the couple, the 80-year-old sister of the homeowner and their two sons. The victims were shot in the forehead and chest. None of the victims tried to flee. Eugen Siegrist's corpse indicated a defensive reflex (one bullet in the arm, one in the head). All victims were shot from a distance of no more than three meters.

On the same day, the police found the getaway car, the green Opel Ascona of the killed couple, between Münchenstein and Muttenz .

Investigations

The perpetrator (s) could not be identified despite intensive efforts. For 20 years, the 13 shell casings, which were taken from a Winchester replica and found at the scene, remained the only sure evidence.

The police investigated in several directions. On the one hand, memorabilia from the Nazi era were found in the weekend house - Anna Westhauser's husband, a German, was a Nazi and a musician. On the other hand, industrial espionage (Eugen Siegrist worked at Ciba ) and a connection with the Stasi were clarified.

The police, who saw Eugen Siegrist as the main victim, were able to partially reconstruct the last 36 hours of his life. The previous day he had called someone named Claire or Clerc from his workplace . Who this person is could never be determined. You knew that Siegrist would drive his car for an hour or two every Saturday. However, who or what he was visiting could not be clarified.

In the course of the investigation, over 9,000 reports from the population were examined, around 10,000 people interviewed (including 3007 owners of Winchester rifles), 27 homes were searched, 21 suspects were examined, pretrial detention was imposed nine times , and in the course of the investigation ten, Crimes independent of the murder case solved.

Found the murder weapon

In 1996 the murder weapon was found in a residential building in Olten when a kitchen was being converted. Wrapped in a plastic bag was a Winchester replica with a sawed-off barrel, an expired passport in the name of Carl Doser, and other documents - including an insurance receipt and letters from Doser's father, an officer who was inclined to Nazism. Research revealed that the weapon belonged to Carl Doser, a 29-year-old from Basel who had left Switzerland in 1977. He had already been interrogated as the legal owner of a Winchester in 1976 and was one of thirty people who could not provide sufficient information about the whereabouts of their weapon. He said his Winchester had such a major defect that it was no longer worth repairing. He then sold the weapon at a flea market . However, the investigators could not prove any connection between him and the victim family. It is also uncertain whether he is the culprit. The apartment itself belonged to Carl Doser's mother. According to rumors, Doser had fled to Africa. One trace appeared in Canada in 1998: two Swiss tourists wanted to see him in Canadian national parks; however, these witness reports did not lead to any results.

Suspension of the investigation and significance of the case

The police have stopped the active investigation. Since 2006 - 30 years after the crime - the murders have been statute barred .

The quadruple murder in Rupperswil before Christmas 2015, in which the perpetrator broke into a house and killed four people, was reminiscent of the Seewen murder case. The perpetrator was caught in May 2016 after five months of investigation.

Victim

  • Eugen Siegrist-Säckinger (63)
  • Elsa Siegrist-Säckinger (62), his wife
  • Anna Westhäuser-Siegrist (80), and her two sons:
  • Emanuel Westhauser (52)
  • Max Westhauser (49)

swell

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Stephan Sutter: Seewen - jealousy drama or industrial espionage? In: Tages-Anzeiger. January 24, 2013, accessed March 17, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c Jost Auf der Maur: Jaeggis Fall ( Memento from January 15, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), NZZ Folio , 9/2011.
  3. ↑ a b Katia Murmann, Walter Hauser: Unsolved Murder Cases. Case 1: Seewen. In: SonntagsBlick from February 7, 2016.
  4. ^ A b c Felix Burch: "Maybe the lions ate him": Ex-investigator Jaeggi on the most serious crime in Switzerland and the Rupperswil case. In: watson.ch from January 20, 2016.
  5. ↑ a b Seewen murder case is 30 years old. In: NZZ online from June 2, 2006, accessed on January 22, 2016.
  6. ↑ Stefan Hohler: 8 questions about the brutal quadruple murder in Rupperswil. In: Tages-Anzeiger .ch from 28./31. December 2015, accessed May 14, 2016.

literature

  • Robert Siegrist: The Seewen Murder Case. Told about the son of the victims. Opinio, Basel 2001, ISBN 978-303-999-001-6 .
  • Jost Auf der Maur: Jaeggis Fall ( Memento from January 15, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), NZZ Folio , 9/2011. Report from the series “Am Tatort” about the work of the investigator Max Jaeggi.

Web links