January 28, 2026
Prosecutors investigate after suicide of former Sarco boss Willet
Two members of a German euthanasia organisation are alleged to have helped Florian Willet commit suicide, even though he was mentally ill.
It is therefore possible that he did not make his decision of his own free will.
The Cologne public prosecutor’s office is investigating two people associated with the German Society for Humane Dying (DGHS) in connection with the suicide of euthanasia activist Florian Willet. (DGHS).
Willet was president of the euthanasia organisation The Last Resort, which wanted to establish the Sarco suicide capsule in Switzerland.
According to information from ‘der Spiegel’, the proceedings are directed against a Cologne doctor and a member of the DGHS executive committee.
Both are alleged to have accompanied Willet in his suicide in May 2025.
Willet was 47 years old and had previously asked the DGHS for support.
Violations of the association’s internal safety standards are at issue.
For example, Willet had only been a member of the DGHS for just under two months at the time of his death, although the organisation stipulates a waiting period of six months.
In addition, according to the report, the mandatory initial consultation was not conducted in person, but via video call.
Medical records also indicated that Willet had suffered from severe mental health problems prior to his death. In such cases, assisted suicide is only permitted under strict conditions.
In particular, the free will of the decision must be established beyond doubt.
Suspicion of ‘indirect manslaughter’
Investigators initially conducted a death investigation to clarify Willet’s decision-making capacity. In the meantime, criminal proceedings have been initiated against the two accompanying persons – ‘on suspicion of indirect manslaughter,’ as a spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office told Der Spiegel.
Specifically, the suspicion is that the two may have assisted in suicide, even though Willet may not have made his decision of his own free will due to a serious mental illness, and that they knew this and controlled the events.
According to the spokesperson, several rooms belonging to the accused were searched at the beginning of January by court order.
Confiscated mobile phones and documents are now being examined.
Neither the DGHS nor the two accused have yet commented on the investigation. The presumption of innocence applies.
In October, however, DGHS President Robert Rossbruch admitted to mistakes in handling the Willet case and offered his resignation.
The executive committee is said to have rejected this.
Florian Willet had accompanied the first patient to her death using a suicide capsule
Florian Willet was the first person in the world to be involved in a suicide using the Sarco capsule. As a result, he spent ten weeks in custody and faced serious charges, including intentional homicide.
EXITORIAL NOTE – This unfounded charge against was quietly withdrawn by the prosecution when he was released from prison in early December 2024. As video and other evidence confirmed, there was never evidence of any intentional homicide. The autopsy report (released June 2025) also failed to support the charge.
His death led to the proceedings against him being dropped, but the investigations against others involved, such as two lawyers and a photographer, remain ongoing.
The proceedings raise fundamental questions about the use of the Sarco capsule under Swiss euthanasia legislation.
Florian Willet surrounded by the Swiss countryside he so loved.