A man in his mid-fifties was facing the Zurich judiciary for the murder of his wife. However, the case was initially dropped because the authorities assumed it was an accident.

The trial which began this spring in Meilen (ZH) almost never took place. The 50-year-old defendant is accused of having killed his wife in April 2014. At first, he had managed to make investigators believe that his wife had died accidentally, reports the “Tages-Anzeiger”.

According to the indictment, it all started at the end of 2012. The couple were struggling and the woman had first raised her wishes to initiate divorce proceedings. One evening in December, a violent argument allegedly broke out in the couple’s holiday home in Mallorca (Spain). The man allegedly hit his wife in the face, breaking several bones. Then, he got behind the wheel of his car before hitting his wife, who was standing in front of a small wall at the bottom of their house. Her legs had been totally crushed. The accused then entered the house to open a window about 4 meters above where she was lying. Finally, he would have driven away with their son, leaving his seriously injured wife in the cold.

The prosecution is convinced that he intended to let her die there. The fifty-year-old had indeed waited more than three hours before contacting the emergency services, explaining to them that his wife had fallen from the window after having had an epileptic seizure. Despite the gravity of the facts, she had survived.

For reasons unknown, the woman returned to live with her husband after leaving the rehabilitation clinic. She hadn’t filed a complaint against him either. A decision that turned out to be fraught with consequences. Because, in April 2014, her husband had once again attacked her. In Switzerland, this time, at their home in the canton of Zurich. According to the indictment, he poured hot water on her back, before taking her to the bathroom and drowning her in the tub which he then filled with hot water. His goal: to make believe that his wife had fallen in the bathtub. Once again, the prosecution closed the case after a few months, believing it to be an accident. The investigators had in particular been reinforced in their theory by the Spanish medical reports, which had not revealed any indication suggesting an act of violence.

It was thanks to the tenacity of an insurance employee that the case was finally handled by the Zurich courts. The husband had indeed taken out life insurance for half a million francs for his wife. A day after the death of his wife, he contacted the insurance to collect the money. He then bombarded the employee with calls and emails in order to collect the insurance money. It did not take more for the employee to suspect something. She then went through the old medical files, finding some disturbing elements. Reason for which she asked that an expertise be made. It is thanks to the latter that justice once again seized the case.

The Meilen District Court found the 50-year-old man guilty of attempted and completed murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The verdict is not yet final. In addition to the guilty verdicts for murder, the court found the man guilty of attempted fraud for trying to collect on her life insurance policy. A partial acquittal was made on the charge of completed fraud.

With its verdict, the court largely followed the prosecutor’s requests. The defense of the man, who did not confess, will appeal the verdict to the higher court.