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Trial of Swiss mass murderer to begin in March 2018

The Local
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Trial of Swiss mass murderer to begin in March 2018
Photo: Kapo Aargau.

Thomas N – known as the 'Beast of Rupperswil' – will face trial early next year. He is accused of brutally killing four people with a knife in 2015 in the canton of Aargau.

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On September 21st 2015, Thomas N allegedly murdered Carla Schauer (48), her two sons David (19) and Dion (13), and their 21-year-old friend Simona in the normally quiet Swiss town of Rupperswil in a case that shocked the country.

The trial will take place in the Lenzburg Regional Court in March 2018 and will likely last four days, communicated the Canton of Aargau on Thursday September 28th.

Swiss media have described the murders as one of the "most gruesome cases in Swiss criminal history:" The accused reportedly killed his victims with a kitchen knife before setting fire to their home.  

Dubbed the 'Beast of Rupperswil' by media outlets, the accused was a local football coach who lived only a few doors away from the victims he brutally murdered. 

The 34-year-old alleged killer has been charged with multiple murders, rapacious blackmail, deprivation of liberty, the taking of multiple hostages and a spate of other offences by the public prosecutor in Lenzberg-Aarau. 

The suspect managed to evade the police for five months before an unprecedented 100,000 franc reward for information leading to his capture was offered. When the accused was finally caught, he confessed immediately, according to a report by the canton of Aargau. 

The reward was given to the more than 40 police investigators who worked on the case and helped catch the accused. Police apparently received 250 tips from the public during the course of the investigation. 

The perpetrator reportedly acted alone and used a kitchen knife to kill his victims. The murder weapon was never found. The accused said he wrapped the knife in gift wrapping and disposed of it in a trash bin in the city of Aarau, the capital of the Aargau canton. 

Extensive child pornography was also found on computers seized at the man's home.

Thoman N allegedly raped Dion, thirteen, before killing him, according to local newspaper Aargauer Zeitung. The accused has been held in prison pending trial since December 2016. 

READ MORE: DNA links two Swiss killings exactly five years apart

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