Dive into the chilling true crime story that rocked Switzerland—the Rupperswil case! Discover how a quiet village was shaken by a shocking crime, the twists in the investigation, and the unbelievable identity of the culprit. If you love true crime mysteries, you can't miss this one! Subscribe to our channel for more gripping stories and drop a comment telling us what surprised you most! #truecrime #mystery #Switzerland #crime #investigation
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@paul_lando
0:05 - Introduction and Discovery of Crime
1:00 - The Fire and Its Immediate Aftermath
3:24 - Community Shock and Victims' Background
6:03 - Victims’ Family Life and Timeline Leading Up
9:09 - The Crime Scene and Early Investigation
12:56 - Investigation Challenges and Initial Suspects
20:41 - Identification and Arrest of the Perpetrator
25:43 - Confession, Motive, and Aftermath
We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/033MgMUOXQEOYvZBJxmxir
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@paul_lando
0:05 - Introduction and Discovery of Crime
1:00 - The Fire and Its Immediate Aftermath
3:24 - Community Shock and Victims' Background
6:03 - Victims’ Family Life and Timeline Leading Up
9:09 - The Crime Scene and Early Investigation
12:56 - Investigation Challenges and Initial Suspects
20:41 - Identification and Arrest of the Perpetrator
25:43 - Confession, Motive, and Aftermath
We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/033MgMUOXQEOYvZBJxmxir
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NewsTranscript
00:05we're going to a city called Ruppersville in Switzerland there a house was on fire so the
00:14firefighters went there to try to put out the flames when they were finally able to contain
00:20the fire and enter the residence they found four lifeless bodies it became clear then that the
00:27real problem wasn't the fire but what they were trying to cover up what started as a fire ended
00:34up becoming one of the most important criminal investigations in recent Swiss history for 146 days
00:42no one knew who was responsible and when they finally identified him the answer surprised
00:48even the investigators this is the story of the Ruppersville case it was Monday December 21
01:022015 there were four days left until Christmas Ruppersville is a small village located in the
01:09mountain of Argao in northern Switzerland it's about halfway between Basel and Zurich the population
01:16is small only about 6,000 people in other words it's one of those places where almost everyone
01:23knows each other where children walk to school and where not much happens we can say it's a quiet
01:29village and the kind of place where you'd think nothing bad would ever happen that December morning
01:35it was cold the sky was cloudy and the houses already had Christmas lights and decorations in
01:42the windows on the east side of town in a neighborhood called sports burley there was a two-story house
01:49with
01:49an attic at first glance it was an ordinary house but the neighbors had no idea what was happening inside
01:57those four walls until they started to see black smoke coming out of the house getting thicker and thicker
02:05this led several of them to call the police at 11 in the morning on December 21 2015 we're discussing
02:12the neighbors and calling emergency numbers a neighbor who thought there were probably people
02:18inside approached the door and started knocking to alert the people living in that house but no
02:23one answered at one point the neighbors said that the father of the woman who lived in that house
02:30arrived and tried to go inside to reach the second floor but when he opened the door the smoke was
02:36impenetrable it was too dangerous to do without proper equipment or clothing so he had to step back
02:43while they waited for the firefighters to arrive sometimes the smoke is more dangerous than the flames
02:49many people lose their lives because of this within a few minutes the firefighters from Ruppersville
02:55arrived and started working to put out the fire which seemed to be a house fire that the firefighters
03:02were used to extinguishing while the fire was still active a team of rescue firefighters entered
03:10the residence to see if they needed to save anyone or any pets but it was at that moment when
03:17they
03:18entered one of the rooms on the upper floor that they found the four lifeless bodies already without any
03:23signs of life at first it was believed to be an accident maybe the fire didn't allow these people
03:31to escape and they ended up in the worst possible way but it didn't take long to realize that several
03:37details didn't fit with this theory the main thing was that the bodies weren't where you would expect to
03:44find them if they had tried to escape the fire the fire was brought under control and it was at
03:50that
03:50moment that the police who were already at the scene were able to see everything clearly a single
03:56mother named Carla shower lived in the house with her two teenage children aged 13 and 19 and the older
04:04son's girlfriend was also there the four bodies were taken to the institute of forensic medicine because
04:11it was necessary to determine the true cause of death as there were doubts as i said it didn't seem
04:17like
04:17they died from the smoke but they had to confirm the real cause in order to continue with an
04:22investigation indeed the autopsy confirmed those suspicions all the bodies had stab wounds therefore
04:30you didn't have to be a genius to figure out that the fire had been set to try to erase
04:35the evidence
04:36the next day the news became public through the prosecutor's office which confirmed the multiple
04:40homicide in the burnt house the craziest thing about this case was that nobody saw anything
04:46the neighbors didn't see anyone entering or leaving that residence the only thing they reported was
04:52smoke and that no one was answering the door the investigation would later discover that there was
04:58no forced entry in other words either the door was open or they let this person in if we consider
05:06that
05:06it's a very small town where everyone knows each other leaving a door unlocked can happen
05:12it could have been a random crime but this led to mass hysteria in that town christmas was approaching
05:21people were out on the streets going about their business shopping and organizing their festive
05:26dinners and lunches which meant that many houses might have been empty and easy targets for one or
05:31more criminals in the area the case of the single mother and her children could have been a robbery
05:37attempt that went wrong when the criminals thought the house was empty
05:54before that house became the scene of one of the worst crimes in swiss history it was simply a home
06:01where a family lived carla shower was 48 years old and was described as a kind hard-working woman who
06:09was
06:09very close to the people in the town she was the kind of person who cared about others and it
06:15was clear
06:15that she did everything possible to support her family carla was always present in her children's
06:22lives and activities she used to take them to practices and soccer games she had been living apart from the
06:29children's father for some time so at least during the week or when she had custody of the kids she
06:35did everything on her own she worked cooked cleaned and basically made sure everything ran smoothly
06:41fortunately she had the support of a boyfriend whom we'll talk about a little later now let's talk about
06:48carla's children her oldest son was named dion he was 19 years old he was a mature young man becoming
06:54increasingly independent he had a good group of friends plenty to keep him busy and he was also
07:00very focused on his girlfriend named simona fast who was 21 years old and unfortunately was at that
07:07residence at the time of the crime it's important to mention that she didn't live in that house but had
07:13gone there that morning to visit her boyfriend the youngest son was named devin and was 13 years old
07:20who was also like any other teenager he went to school he had friends and was an athlete carla's
07:26boyfriend was named george major with whom she also had a stable relationship according to everyone close
07:32to the couple something that had brought them together was that they were both single parents george also
07:38had two children who were almost the same age as carla's children the 19 year old was named mirko and
07:45the 12
07:45year old was named fabio while george lived in the house with carla and her family george's children
07:51lived with their mother but they used to visit them all the time george and carla had met in school
07:58but
07:58it wasn't until 2009 that they met again at a dog training course they fell in love there and both
08:06already
08:06had children by then george went on to say that having a blended or reconstituted family with two people
08:14who already had children had its beauty but also its conflicts they were a solid couple who shared
08:21the house with their children and were building a life together if we go back to the weekend before
08:28the crime the investigators discovered that carla and george had gone to a romantic dinner on friday
08:34night everyone said that couple was destined for something serious no one mentioned any fights or that
08:42it was a broken family with problems in fact everything seemed perfectly normal on sunday december 20th
08:49the night before the crime everyone enjoyed a dinner at the residence we're talking about carla her
08:55children her daughter-in-law simona and george the boyfriend the dinner was a meal called raclette which
09:02is a swiss dish of melted cheese that's shared at the table and is very typical for winter nights
09:08the next morning the next morning on monday george was the first to get up according to his statement
09:14he made carla coffee he took it to her in bed and then got ready to live in his vehicle
09:21he walked to work at 7 25 in the morning we're talking about almost four hours before the fire
09:28what happened in those next four hours was a mystery because there were no security cameras
09:35or witnesses either after the fire and after the bodies were found the town was outraged
09:44they were also worried everyone started locking their doors and many parents began to fear for their
09:51children's lives it was like they felt a tense atmosphere during a time when everyone is supposed
09:57to be happy and together what the investigators had to figure out was who killed that entire family
10:09as i mentioned what confirmed that the crime couldn't have been an accidental fire with a tragic ending
10:16where the autopsies revealing stab wounds the authorities started a manhunt without knowing
10:24exactly who they were looking for i already mentioned the evidence that there was no forced entry into the
10:29residence the other thing they were able to confirm when analyzing the house was that the weapon used
10:35was not there it must have been a kitchen knife but the wounds didn't match the knives present at the
10:42scene
10:42meaning the criminal possibly already had it in other words when he entered the house he already had
10:49the knife or he took it with him when he left what i'm saying is that it could have been
10:54a knife from
10:55inside the house but after committing the crime he took it with him when he left the lack of evidence
11:01was
11:01obvious the fire was so big that it destroyed any possible proof from dna traces to other elements that
11:09could lead to the culprit even so the forensic experts from the roppersville police kept searching
11:15thoroughly until they came across biological traces that were possibly from the culprit additionally in
11:23an area of the house that hadn't been consumed by the fire they even found fingerprints that didn't match
11:29those of the family members when they entered this evidence into the database unfortunately it didn't
11:36match with anything this meant that the person who committed the crime had no prior record since the
11:43database only identifies criminals who have been convicted when they tracked carla's movements they saw
11:50that she had also left the house that morning before the fire according to records carla had gone to a
11:57bank to withdraw money and this was also recorded by the security camera system at the location
12:03at 9 50 in the morning carla was in at one of the atms withdrawing money then she left the
12:09place and 20
12:10minutes later at 10 10 she was at the counter of another bank branch in the neighboring town of wildeck
12:16where she withdrew a significant amount of money these transactions drew attention because it wasn't normal
12:23for her to withdraw so much money but christmas was also approaching and it was possible that she wanted
12:30to buy gifts for her children and loved ones but the fact that she withdrew my from two banks in
12:36such a
12:36short time was something that needed to be analyzed also after this she would be found dead with her
12:43children and her daughter-in-law in her home i mean around 10 in the morning she had been seen
12:50at the
12:50last bank and by 11 am emergency teams had received a call from the neighbors about the fire
12:56we're talking about approximately 30 to 40 minutes between both events if we consider the driving time
13:05from the last bank to the residence these images of carla the banks were published in the media and on
13:14the internet because the authorities wanted to know if anyone had seen a suspicious person at those banks
13:20or if they had seen carla with someone else and it's really interesting to analyze that the investigators
13:27had a hunch they felt there was something more to carla's actions that morning if the robbery theory was real
13:35could someone have followed her knowing she was carrying a lot of money it could also have been that she
13:41was being
13:41forced to withdraw those amounts of money after being threatened for example and these were conjectures
13:48that had to be verified if anyone had seen anything or had seen carla looking nervous the investigation
13:55could take a clearer direction earlier on christmas eve the authorities handed out flyers with carla's photo
14:02and asked for the public's help they also requested footage from the cameras that many drivers have
14:08installed in their vehicles in case any of them had recorded something near the house or in the
14:14surrounding area everyone was talking about this case which led to multiple tips calls possible
14:21witnesses but as often happens most of them turned out to be false evidence or unreliable witnesses
14:28but there was a call that came in on december 26 that raised suspicions a witness said that shortly
14:35after the fire he had seen two men in a pharmacy and they had cuts we don't know if he
14:41was talking
14:42about both men being injured or just one who was being accompanied by someone else this was significant
14:48for the investigation because in case you didn't know it's common for a person to have cuts on their
14:53hand after stabbing someone in most cases the knife can hit a bone which causes the killer's hand in this
15:01case
15:02to slip and end up getting caught in thousands of cases these wounds are seen after stabbing the
15:10authorities managed to find these people questioned them and looked into their movements that day and
15:16were able to confirm that the wounds have no connection to the crime in the burned house
15:21the case also went through interpol since it's in switzerland moving to other countries is easy even
15:28though they are not part of the european union this country is party to more than 100 bilateral
15:34agreements which makes it easy for citizens to move around europe at that point investigators were
15:42considering that the crime must have been committed by at least two people in order to subdue and then
15:47set fire to a residence it was hard to believe that a single person could have done all that by
15:54january
15:55the random crime hypothesis resurfaced two or more criminals who didn't know carla but followed her
16:01after she withdrew a lot of money from the bank and what if that theory was correct the investigation
16:08would become much more difficult because generally when the perpetrator knows the victim the police can
16:14start following different leads we're talking about family members ex-partners current partners but with
16:21this everything changed as there was no relationship to investigate or connection to follow with this
16:27theory obviously other leads were still being pursued but this made it seem like the case had to start from
16:34scratch to try to solve the case the police created a special team about 40 people were dedicated exclusively
16:41to the investigation many of them worked practically all day with a single goal to find out who had entered
16:49that house and ended the lives of an entire family but the days kept passing and the person responsible
16:54still hadn't been found and it's worth imagining what an investigation of this kind is like it's not
16:59like in the movies where a clue changes everything in a matter of minutes reality is much slower it's going
17:06through thousands of statements analyzing hours and hours of recordings and following leads that one after
17:14another lead to dead ends with no answers left it was decided to offer a reward of 100 000 swiss
17:22francs
17:23which was about 122 000 at that time for information that would lead to the capture of the person or
17:29people responsible for the crime and this was the highest reward ever recorded in a criminal case in
17:36switzerland which showed how important this case was in that country after this more than 250 credible tips
17:44were received and over 110 people submitted recordings from their vehicle cameras this meant more months
17:51analyzing each piece of evidence to try to find the culprit for sure you might wonder if they questioned
17:59and investigated people close to carla and the answer is yes many were analyzed but no one matched the
18:07evidence found and everyone had verifiable or verified advice but there was someone very close to the family
18:18who had to go through this process and in a rather intense way
18:29when a crime like this happens without an obvious culprit the investigation has to look everywhere and usually
18:39starts with those closest the victim's circle this is the usual procedure not out of bad faith but because
18:47those statistics always prevail in most crimes the perpetrator is someone the victims knew so the first thing the
18:56investigators did was to look into the family's entire circle they wonder if there were financial problems
19:04personal conflicts any debts or someone who might want to harm them one of the first people to come under
19:11scrutiny was george major carla's partner was the most obvious suspect in this investigation he was the
19:19last one to have direct contact with them and was even at the house that morning george knew he was
19:26under
19:26suspicion but he didn't know he was being watched as intensely as would later be revealed the authorities even
19:34he then tapped his phone placed a hidden gps device in his vehicle and searched his workplace if george
19:43wasn't the culprit this had to be a complicated situation because just imagine losing the people you love most
19:50in your life only to then become the main suspect at the same time it's a problem that has to
19:58be dealt with
19:59in order to solve the crime as they say if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear
20:05he had an
20:06alibi at the time of the crime he was at work and this was confirmed by the security camera in
20:11his office
20:12as well as by the statements of his co-workers but there was something even more important when george's dna
20:19was analyzed he was ruled out his dna did not match the one found at the crime scene the most
20:27obvious suspect
20:28could no longer have been the culprit and that was the big problem in this case
20:33there were no enemies no suspicious neighbors no deaths and no one who wanted to harm carla and her
20:40family only 146 days after the crime were they able to find the person responsible that's what we're
20:47going to talk about next even though 146 days went by a little earlier the investigators began to
21:08analyze the profile of a person who lived very close to the area because they had found certain mobile
21:15phone identifiers linked to the nearby cell tower during the time of the crime located close to the crime scene
21:27this strategy made it possible to narrow down to a list of possible suspects who were thoroughly
21:33investigated until they found a person of interest one of the phones identified belonged to a man named
21:40thomas n who was in the area of the crime scene according to gps data in addition his house was
21:48located approximately 500 meters from where carla's body was found and was this really like something
21:56out of a movie he was arrested on may 12 2016 in the city of auto less than 10 kilometers
22:04from ruppersville
22:05and this 32 year old man was in a starbucks in a coffee shop enjoying his morning while dozens of
22:12officers began to surround the place without resisting thomas was handcuffed to officially begin the
22:19investigation against him we have to say that switzerland has a data protection system so we only
22:25know that his last name starts with n later it was learned that he lived in that house near the
22:32crime
22:32scene with his mother and had no criminal record not even traffic fines he was single and had studied
22:39law at the university of burn but after a year he dropped out of his studies probably the criminal based
22:46on what was known at that time more ordinary than one could imagine which by then was the strangest thing
22:53about this case how a man with a normal life with no criminal record suddenly commits such an atrocious
22:59crime after leaving law school he started studying medicine but again this didn't last long for him
23:06he was a man who apparently had trouble finding direction in his life he would start projects but leave
23:12them halfway done it would later be discovered that thomas had a plan to steal 30 000 swiss francs
23:20murder the victim and survive on that money throughout the following summer
23:25his neighbors knew him as the soccer player since he trained in youth categories and later worked as a
23:32coordinator for a couple of local clubs they also always saw him walking his two dogs alaskan malamutes
23:40through the streets of the town when they saw what thomas did after the crime they discovered that he had
23:47traveled to zurich with his former soccer teammates there they had dinner at a restaurant and then went
23:54to a casino where it is known that he spent quite a lot of money two days after the crime
23:59he posted a
24:00christmas message on facebook with photos of his house and his two dogs wishing everyone a peaceful
24:06christmas and he ended the message with a smiling face emoji i mean 48 hours after murdering an entire
24:15family then his life continued normally and he used the money he stole to buy brand name clothes and even
24:23to pay for his dog's vet bills and his health insurance he used another part of the money to travel
24:30to paris
24:30and then went skiing in a place called nodders in austria as for the murder weapon he himself stated
24:38that after the crime he rubbed the knife in wrapping paper and threw it in a public trash can in
24:43the city
24:43where he lived when the police searched the house where he lived with his mother the officers found the
24:49backpack containing an old swiss army pistol ropes plastic zip ties ready to restrain a person and
24:57adhesive tape all these indicated that thomas was thinking about attacking again perhaps because he was
25:04running out of money but that wasn't all during the search they also found a notebook with names and
25:11photographs of 11 children between 11 and 15 years old according to the investigation they were minors
25:19whom he had been watching and gathering information about as if he were choosing possible victims and this
25:27matched what was found in the backpack possibly to kidnap one of these victims and demand a ransom
25:33thomas ended up confessing to the crime even before the dna results had arrived
25:38this was about four or five months after his capture we already know that the motivation was money but
25:46the prosecutor's office also suggested another much more perverse motivation thomas supposedly
25:52wanted to abuse the youngest boy in the family in his internet searches they found that he was
25:58stalking a family and the boy this also confirmed that thomas chose the family because of the youngest boy
26:07when they performed the psychiatric evaluation on him it was confirmed that the criminal was a pedophile
26:13he was not only watching carla's son but also other children in the area what they couldn't confirm
26:20is whether he had previously abused any minors do you remember that people were considering it had to be
26:27someone they knew or that they opened the door for him because there was no forced entry in the house
26:32well he himself confirmed that he pretended to be the boy's school psychologist for an alleged case of
26:39bullying by a classmate basically thomas held the family hostage while carla went to the bank to withdraw
26:47the money that's why she looked distressed and after that he killed everyone but before that he abused the
26:55boy and this has been confirmed according to the autopsy carla didn't talk to anyone at that moment
27:00because she feared for her children's lives and also thomas had told her that an accomplice of his was
27:06watching her which turned out to be a lie thomas received the highest sentence in switzerland which
27:13is life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 15 years the laws in switzerland are much more
27:19complex there was a whole issue with thomas's sentence but in the end they decided to give him the
27:25maximum possible penalty also experts concluded that thomas could eventually reintegrate into society
27:32after a period of psychiatric hospitalization before he could be granted parole in the future
27:39to this day thomas is still serving his sentence the pain was evident at the funerals
27:46more than 600 people gathered at the rappersville church to say goodbye to carla her children and
27:52also her daughter-in-law this for a small town was impressive and also a huge sign of how much
27:59that
27:59family meant to the community but also how shocking this case was that's it for today's case i look forward
28:07to your comments below let me know which theory seems most likely to you and i'll see you in the
28:14next story
28:16you
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