Homicide in Flaach ZH is a defining case for Kesb
Published: Friday, Dec 27th 2024, 10:10
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On New Year's Day 10 years ago, a desperate mother in Flaach ZH suffocated her two children who were to be placed in a home - eight months later she took her own life in prison. The tragic "Flaach case" triggered an unprecedented public debate about the work of the fledgling child and adult protection authority, as well as about the conditions of detention.
At 9.30 p.m. on January 1, 2015, the mother reported to the Zurich Cantonal Police Operations Centre that her two-year-old daughter and five-year-old son were dead. The emergency services tried to resuscitate the two. In vain. The children died - as it later turned out - from suffocation.
When the emergency services arrived at the house, the mother was no longer there. However, the police were able to find and arrest the 27-year-old Swiss woman a short time later. She had injured herself with a knife, but it was not life-threatening.
Parents were arrested beforehand
The double homicide was the sad culmination of a conflict between the family and the responsible child and adult protection authority (Kesb). The parents were remanded in custody in December 2015 on suspicion of fraud. The five-year-old boy and the two-year-old girl were placed in a home - even though the grandparents had agreed to look after them.
After the mother was released from custody, the children had to stay in the home. The siblings were allowed to go home to their mother over the Christmas holidays. However, on January 4, the 27-year-old was supposed to take them back to the home.
Shitstorm against Kesb
The day after the homicide, the responsible Kesb took a stand and emphasized that it had had no indication of any acute danger to the children from their mother. Months later, an independent expert opinion also came to the conclusion that the Kesb could not have prevented the killing of the two children. There was "no causality between the actions of the Kesb and the killing of the children".
However, the Kesb's reputation had already been severely damaged. The "Flaach case" triggered an unprecedented avalanche of public aggression against the Kesb - including death threats against employees, who had to be placed under police protection.
Lessons learned from the tragic case
The killing of the two children by their mother was such a dramatic event that she will never forget it, Karin Fischer, then and now president of the responsible Kesb Winterthur-Andelfingen, told the Keystone-SDA news agency. The way in which the child protection authority was reported in the media after the killing of the two children was partly irresponsible.
At the beginning of 2013, the professional authority replaced the previous guardianship authorities, which were staffed by lay people. Diana Wider, Secretary General of the Conference for Child and Adult Protection (Kokes), told Keystone-SDA that the Kesb realized from this tragic individual case that there was a lack of information at the time about how the new authority functioned.
According to Wider, the necessary awareness-raising and proactive communication among the population have therefore been the "big learning" of recent years. This has also changed reporting in the media. Today, reporting is more factual, which is a form of appreciation for the Kesb employees, who are confronted with sometimes unimaginably difficult life situations on a daily basis.
Mother killed herself
A few days after the crime, the mother herself confessed. She was initially taken to the closed ward of the Rheinau psychiatric clinic. After the acute crisis was supposedly overcome, she was moved to a security cell in the prison.
The prison management and the psychiatrist in charge had the young woman so closely guarded that she no longer had any chance of committing suicide. However, this arrangement was so restrictive that it was dissolved after a short time. And in the summer of 2015, she finally killed herself in her cell.
A forensic psychiatric report spoke of an extreme act that was inherent in the mother's personality. This was an unstable relationship to reality and a craving for recognition. By taking the children away, an existential power struggle had begun for the mother, which had threatened the core of her personal life principle. This gave rise to the plan to deprive Kesb of the children by killing them.
Improved prison conditions
Following the homicide, Zurich's Director of Justice Jacqueline Fehr (SP) announced that the conditions in pre-trial detention would be improved.
In spring 2019, a special unit for suicidal inmates was opened in the Limmattal prison in Dietikon ZH. It houses inmates who are in an acute crisis. The regime is somewhat more pleasant. However, the inmates are not allowed to stay for long.
Father wanted to seize opportunities for a new life
In September 2016, the father of the children who were killed was sentenced to 42 months' imprisonment and a fine of CHF 1,200 by the District Court of Weinfelden TG for fraud The widower said in his closing statement in court that the Kesb and other authorities were not to blame.
He had discovered a new quality of life after losing everything. He wants to lead a blameless life - as he used to - and he has "the motivation to move forward". He deeply regretted his actions. He apologized to the victims and promised them that he would do everything in his power to refund their money.
©Keystone/SDA
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