On 21 December, 2015, firemen were called to a fire in a house in Rupperswil, a village in Aargau (northern Switzerland). The bodies of four people were found in the house, and it soon became clear that they had been killed before the fire broke out. The victims were 48-year-old Carla Schauer-Freiburghaus, her 13-year-old and 19-year-old sons, and the older son's girlfriend. He tied up the three teenagers and forced Schauer-Freiburghaus to withdraw 10,000
Swiss francs and 1,000
euro at banks, then tied her up also and sexually abused the younger son. He murdered all four by slashing their throats and set fire to the house. The cantonal police offered a reward of 100,000 francs for information. For five months, the killer remained elusive, but the investigation led in May 2016 to the arrest in a
Starbucks in
Aarau of a 33-year-old student, Thomas Nick. His
DNA as well as his
fingerprints were identified at the crime location, and he gave a comprehensive confession. He did not know the victims and apparently sought them out because of the younger son. When he was apprehended, the police found cable ties, adhesive tape, an old
Swiss army ordnance pistol, and rope handcuffs in a rucksack. These were interpreted as a sign that he planned future crimes of a similar nature. ==Trial and sentence==