1994 Solar Temple massacres: From 30 September to 5 October 1994, 53 members and former members of the Order of the Solar Temple died in a series of mass murders and suicides in Morin-Heights, Quebec, Canada, and in Cheiry and Salvan in Switzerland.

>The Solar Temple, or OTS, was founded in 1984, active in several [Francophone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francophone) countries. The group was led by [Joseph Di Mambro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Di_Mambro) with [Luc Jouret](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc_Jouret) as a second in command. **The group had a theological doctrine that by committing** [**suicide**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide)**, one would not die, but "transit".** They conceptualized the transit as a ritual involving magic fire, where **they would undergo a spiritual voyage to the star** [**Sirius**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius) **where they would live on.**

>Following several scandals and outside pressures the group faced, this idea became more prominent. They began to plan the "transit" and wrote a letter declaring their intents and purposes in the act, called *The Testament*. **On 30 September 1994, the Dutoit family (former members) were ritualistically murdered in Morin-Heights, including their infant child, by members Joël Egger, Jerry Genoud, and Dominique Bellaton.** Di Mambro held a grievance against the Dutoits for past betrayal and may have believed their child to be the [antichrist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antichrist). On the night of 2 to 3 October, 23 members in Cheiry in Switzerland, many of those considered "traitors" to the movement were killed via gunshot by Egger and Jouret. Twenty five members in Salvan died from poison injections.

>The bodies in Switzerland were found on 5 October. In all, **53 people died, including several children.** Both Jouret and Di Mambro died in the mass suicide in Salvan. **Some of the deaths were genuine suicides, but others were murdered for betraying the movement.** **Many members had been lured into death with the promise that money they had given to the group would be returned to them.** Others may have consented to being killed by other members, but it is not known how many agreed to die. **The locations were then set on fire with an automated ignition system triggered by telephone.** The investigation was criticized for some of its decisions, and several aspects spawned conspiracy theories.

>The group was obscure prior to the deaths, but following the discovery of the bodies and the suicides it became notorious, resulting in a [media frenzy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_frenzy). The events strengthened the [anti-cult movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-cult_movement) in Europe and abroad. Though the group's leaders died in the incident, **mass suicides and murders of remaining members followed in** [**1995 in France**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Vercors_massacre) **and in** [**Canada in 1997**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Saint-Casimir_mass_suicide)**.**

# Background

>The Order of the Solar Temple was a religious group active in several French-speaking countries, led by Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret. Founded in 1984, it was a neo-Templar secret society with eclectic beliefs sourced from many different movements like Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, and the New Age. **The group reached its peak of membership in January 1989, with 442 members.** After the group faced internal and external scandals, it began to decline. The group was relatively unknown prior to these events.

>\[...\] **Jouret, Di Mambro, and Camille Pilet** (a retired sales direct of the Piaget SA watch company) **owned 3 villas in Granges-sur-Salvan, as well as a luxury condominium complex in Morin-Heights. The group owned a farm called La Rochette in Cheiry.**

>The "transit" concept was first introduced by Di Mambro in 1990 or 1991. It was to mean a voluntary departure of the members to another dimension in space, and they imagined the transit as a ritual involving magic fire, where they would undergo a spiritual voyage to the star Sirius. He told the members that they would be summoned on short notice, and would need to always be ready, as this could occur any day. Beginning in the late 1980s, several members began to doubt Di Mambro, with several scandals and issues disrupting its membership. In March 1993, Jouret and several other members became embroiled in a gun scandal. Following the gun scandal, Jouret became very paranoid and concerned with purported injustice. He began speaking of the transit concept previously established by Di Mambro.

>**Di Mambro believed his daughter Emmanuelle, the "cosmic child", to be under threat from the antichrist.** He reportedly believed the antichrist was born to Antonio "Tony" and Suzanne "Nickie" Dutoit, though this interpretation has been disputed. Tony Dutoit, a Swiss citizen, was formerly very close to Di Mambro, to the point where he was considered his adopted son. **Tony Dutoit was in charge of the ceremonial special effects secretly staged by the group. After 1991, he distanced himself and had threatened to reveal that the effects were fake.** His wife Nicky Dutoit had been for some time responsible for educating Di Mambro's daughter. Di Mambro had previously forbidden Nicky from having children following a miscarriage, but after she left the group, she and Antonio had a son, who they named Christopher Emmanuel. The Dutoits had invited Di Mambro to be the godfather of this child, but this deeply offended him. Di Mambro was disturbed by the name similarity ('Emanuelle' versus 'Christopher Emmanuel'), the disobeying of his instructions, and that he had not been consulted in the naming of the infant.

# Planning

>**Di Mambro and Jouret's original plan seemed to have been a mass suicide in early 1993**; following Jouret's arrest that year, **plans for a "transit" were found on his computer by the police. However, due to the esoteric language, the police failed to understand what the documents meant.** This original transit was intended to take place at a luxury house in the village of Saint-Sauveur in the Laurentians in Canada, where the OTS had an underground ceremonial crypt. **After the police raid Di Mambro ordered OTS members to destroy the crypt and empty the house, viewing it as having been ruined by the intrusion**; the transit plans were then postponed and moved to Switzerland. An agent of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) claimed that **if this had gone according to plan there may have been anywhere from 60 to 80 dead.** According to another interpretation, however, this may have only sped up their plans.

>Di Mambro, according to former members, felt cornered; he was sick, with financial issues, and worried that his lies would be uncovered. In a tape likely dating to early 1994, Jouret and Di Mambro discussed **the Waco siege**, saying that **the Branch Davidians had "beaten us to the punch"**, with Di Mambro telling Jouret that **"what we'll do will be even more spectacular".** In another tape from early 1994, Di Mambro stated:

>"We are rejected by the whole world. First by the people, the people can no longer withstand us. And our Earth, fortunately she rejects us. How would we leave \[otherwise\]? We also reject this planet. We wait for the day we can leave ... life for me is intolerable, intolerable, I can’t go on. So think about the dynamic that will get us to go elsewhere."

>Prior to the deaths, many members made comments seen as concerning by those around them: in July 1994 Jean-Pierre Vinet told Hermann Delorme, who had left the OTS by that point, that "I’m leaving definitely \[...\] You probably will never see me again. You don't have anything left to accomplish, but I do." **Another told a relative that one day the members would depart to Venus, and that when they went there was no reason to be sad.** Another member gave her daughter a will, telling her that "one never knows what might happen".

# Preparations

>To prepare for the transit, specific missions were given to the most faithful members. Towards the end of August, the Genouds left Switzerland and went to Canada; prior to this, Colette closed her bank account. They then bought the equipment that would be used in the Morin Heights ignition system. Bellaton arrived in Canada on 17 September. **Di Mambro ordered two group members, Jerry Genoud and Joël Egger, to kill the Dutoit child.**

>Egger, a former rock musician, had an adolescence full of problems, with a past of drug addiction and his father dying by suicide. When he met Jouret, he "\[became\] his God"; he was described as "completely under the spell" of the leaders. He was the group's handyman and occasionally Di Mambro's driver. A former member described him as "a petty criminal, willful, very easy to subjugate, very fanatical but without any spiritual scope". Genoud was loyal to Jouret, having been a member of the Golden Way since 1979. **According to the SQ, they found a written ritual procedure outlining how the baby had to be killed.** The drugs were acquired as well, stored in a cupboard, with Jouret writing a note on what drugs to use; **he noted that children could be more resistant, so the dose of sedatives must be doubled.**

>During the last meeting of the order, On 24 September 1994, the group was renamed as the Alliance Rose Croix (ARC), announced by Tabachnik. The group claimed the renaming was in order to reach "the irreversible stage of the return to the Father" and the "Vth Reign", which would lead to the abolition of hierarchies. The group was told that the end was near and that the planets were in formation for Solomon's Leap, and that now they must prepare. Everyone who witnessed this ceremony would die in the mass suicide, barring Patrick Vuarnet, Jean Vuarnet's son. Vuarnet, when interviewed by police, claimed that while he had actually been shown a "testament from the Rosy-Cross" on video cassette during the Avignon meeting, he had not noticed any difference with the other messages since it was always about the world ending, and that they had not seen the full thing; in this video, the "transit" is discussed with little ambiguity. Vuarnet died in the next mass suicide of the group in the Vercors in 1995.

>**On the 29th, many of the most faithful members gathered in Cheiry, apparently understanding what was to come. Patrick Vuarnet said that while he was not included, his mother Edith Vuarnet had attended and she described it as wonderful**. One member, Joël Egger, was not included, as he was flying to Canada to execute a "mission" (to kill the Dutoits). Upon arriving in Canada, he met with Dominique Bellaton and Collette and Jerry Genoud in a chalet owned by Di Mambro in Morin-Heights. On 30 September, Di Mambro had a meal with some followers near Montreux in Switzerland; according to an attendee (Vuarnet) Di Mambro had asked him to meet them, including Jouret and Pilet. They were joined shortly after by Daniel Jaton, who went off to speak with Jouret. The only two people besides Vuarnet at this meeting who did not die in the 1994 incident were Jean-Pierre Lardanchet and Patrick Rostan. Both of them died in the following 1995 transit.

>The next day, Jouret was in Salvan, where records and eyewitness testimony place him on the phone, and was seen late in the day at a restaurant with others. Several members were lured with the promise that they would get their money back. Di Mambro's son, Elie, told his coworkers that he was going to visit his father; he had previously been ideologically influenced by his father, but publicly expressed doubts and informed other members about the money issues, after which he was declared an enemy, but according to his sister still loved his father. Albert Giacobino and his friend Marie-Lou Rebaudo also went to Cheiry, on the promise that they would have money paid back to them. The same day, Daniel Jaton picked up his wife and children separately and brought them to Cheiry. At this time, Robert Falardeau (later to be killed as a "Traitor"), whom Jouret despised, was in Switzerland, having been called to sign papers with Di Mambro and get his money back, intending to return to Canada as soon as he could. He already booked a return flight, and had called his wife several times, seeming normal. His flight was delayed a single day; on 2 October, he called a friend and told them that "things are happening here" that he "\[didn't\] understand at all".

# Deaths

# Dutoit family murders

>On 30 September 1994, at about 5 p.m. the Dutoits were lured to the chalet in Morin-Heights, having been invited to dinner by Bellaton. According to the sequence of events by investigators, upon entering the house someone, likely Bellaton, lured Tony Dutoit to the basement bathroom. **Waiting behind the door were Egger and Genoud, who knocked him unconscious with several dozen hits to the head with a baseball bat. He struggled, but was stabbed repeatedly and died. As ordered by Di Mambro, these murders were carried out in a ritualistic fashion. Nicky was stabbed eight times in the back, four times in the throat, and once in each breast (each number of symbolic importance), while her husband was stabbed fifty times in the back. She, likely knowing what had happened to her husband, did not resist. Their child was stabbed six times, both with a knife and a wooden stake through the heart.** The two adults died from multiple stab wounds and having their throats slit.

>Bellaton and Egger left for Switzerland at 10:10 p.m. the same day, using the Dutoits' car to drive to the airport. **The Genouds spent the next four days cleaning up the scene, removing the blood residue, and preparing for death. On 4 October they set incendiary timers to go off and, while wearing robes and medals, laid out on a bed. The Genouds ingested soporifics, before dying of asphyxiation from smoke inhalation when the fires began. They jammed chairs under the doorknobs to prevent responders reaching them to interrupt their suicides.** The bodies of the Dutoits were hidden in a storage closet by the Genouds, wrapped in blankets and a carpet and hidden in a cellar alcove. Their child's body was found hidden behind a water heater, inside a plastic bag with the stake. Antonio's body was also found with a plastic bag over his head. **According to telephone records, Di Mambro was informed of the success of the plan.**

# Cheiry massacre

>During the night from 2 to 3 October 1994, **23 died in Cheiry.** Two victims, Albert Giacobino and Marie-Lou Rebaudo, were likely killed first, with Rebaudo being shot, the evidence showing she had tried to defend herself, and Giacobino being smothered. Their bodies were found far away from the others, indicating that someone may have tried to hide them. Some of the victims had died much earlier than the others, and following their deaths their bodies were moved. Some of the dead were shot more than three times in the head. **Eight of the dead had plastic bags over their heads: this may have been done to burn their faces faster.** Twenty of the dead had been shot with one gun; twenty‑one of them had died from gunshot wounds, previously drugged with sleeping pills, with another two dying of suffocation from plastic bags (Pilet and Pfaehler).

>Several of the bodies in Cheiry showed signs of a struggle. Eight of the bodies in Cheiry were arranged in a circle shape, with the bodies radiating out like wheel spokes; all were wearing silk capes of white, black or gold. Some of the dead had their hands tied. **The bodies were all located in a room beyond a corridor only accessible through a secret door, from a salon, itself hidden. This room was full of religious and esoteric symbolism, including a sword, crosses, chalices, and occult ritual items.** Past that room was another smaller one, octagonal shaped with walls covered with mirrors, where three more bodies were located. In a room adjacent to this there was another body, which was by itself. The depot in the Cheiry crypt where the bodies were found had its doors held closed with a wire being put between the door handles and the frame. Fifty‑two spent shells were found in Cheiry.

>In the hours before the deaths in Cheiry, Daniel Jaton repeatedly called Jouret, Di Mambro, and Egger on the phone, likely playing a significant role; under his body was found the same string used to tie two victims in Cheiry, and some of the substances used in the killings were found in his home. Victims had been killed with a Smith & Wesson .22 LR pistol, bought by Egger the previous year. Egger also set up the ignition system used to burn the building down. The ones who had killed the others in Cheiry were Egger and Jouret, though it is possible they were not the only ones. Following the deaths in Cheiry, Jouret was recorded as calling Di Mambro, possibly to inform him that it had been a success, and shortly after so did Egger. At about 6 a.m. Jouret left Cheiry for Salvan. At about 8 a.m., the Cheiry mailman witnessed a red Ford Fiesta, containing three or four young men, coming from the farm and heading down to the village. Soon after, he saw the same men near the cemetery near a car that belonged to Colette Genoud, where they found her will.

# Salvan massacre

>At this time, Di Mambro was in Salvan; he, with several of the most faithful, were seen at a restaurant there on 3 October. They were noted to have an "absent and sad air" and barely ate. **By this time Di Mambro may have already had his son Elie killed as a "traitor"**, the first death in Salvan: his body was found alone, off to the side from the others. On 4 October at 6:30 a.m, Joselyne Di Mambro called the wife of Robert Falardeau, who, sensing that something was wrong, asked where her husband was. Joselyne told her that her husband was with Michel Tabachnik and not to worry (in reality, at this time Tabachnik was conducting an orchestra in Denmark and her husband was already dead). At 10 a.m., Jouret was seen in a grocery store buying garbage bags of different sizes, later used to cover the heads of the dead. The fires in Morin-Heights were discovered by the police at 1:40 p.m. in Swiss time.

>At 4 p.m., Jouret called a locksmith from the Les Roches de cristal chalet, pretending he had lost his keys. **According to Thierry Huguenin, Jouret and Di Mambro had planned for there to be exactly 54 dead, in connection with 54 Templars who had been burned at the stake in the fourteenth century. This was to allow an immediate magic contact with these departed Templars.** Huguenin had met with Di Mambro near Salvan that day, but became uncomfortable and sensed danger, smelling gasoline. When the locksmith arrived and the door opened, Huguenin fled the scene at the last minute, which left the death toll at only 53. Vuarnet arrived and was given the transit letters by Di Mambro: he later said he did not notice anything strange, except that several members had a strange expression, especially Egger, who he said "wasn't in his right mind". What happened after this is not known.

>At 11:33 p.m., Di Mambro called Egger a final time, a 39‑second call. Egger shortly after triggered the remote-control ignition system via telephone. From 11:42 p.m. to 12:12 a.m. he called the Cheiry farm three times, triggering the ignition system, before doing the same to the group's hideout in Aubignan and one of Di Mambro's apartments in Territet. However while many of the OTS properties had been rigged to burn, several of the ignition systems failed, and only the Cheiry farm and two chalets in Salvan burned. The fires were ignited with a sophisticated automatic ignition system, involving timers, phones, heating rods and plastic bags full of the chemicals gasoline and benzene.

>25 were found dead in Granges-sur-Salvan. The bodies were spread around two of the chalets, while one was empty. Most of the bodies in Salvan were burned beyond recognition, and Jouret and Di Mambro's bodies had to be identified via dental records. The gun used in the Cheiry killings was found in Salvan. The dead had been injected with a curare, opioid and benzodiazepine-based poison. Among the opioids and benzodiazepines found were fentanyl, flunitrazepam, metoclopramide, and diazepam. According to the investigative report, it is likely that the fatal injections at Salvan were done by Line Lheureux (an anesthesiologist), with Annie Egger doing the same to the children. A note found on Di Mambro's body, written by him, declared: "Your Transit must be assured of total success, but that depends on you."

>At some time during this period (investigators could never place exactly when) the members in Salvan recorded a final video tape, later discovered by investigators, showing about a dozen of the followers in their last meal, including Jouret, Di Mambro, Pilet, the Eggers, and several others. During the tape, the members sing *The Knights of the Round Table*; in another part, Pilet tries and fails to contact the "Masters". The members then drink something and fall asleep. The film ends showing two of the children, before moving to Di Mambro's wife, all already dead.