Swiss missing twins killed by father before suicide

Swiss missing twins killed by father before suicide

2011-02-12 03:52:58 GMT+7 (ICT)

VAUD, SWITZERLAND (BNO NEWS) -- Swiss police on Friday informed that the father of the missing Swiss wrote a letter saying he killed his two daughters before committing suicide in Italy, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper reported.

Police received the letter, dated February 3, from family members of the six-year-old twins from Vaud canton. Matthias Schepp, 43, sent nine other letters from the southern Italian city of Bari. Seven of them contained money.

The letter was handed on Tuesday but police informed about it until Friday. In it, the father wrote that he had killed his daughters and was planning to kill himself in Cerignola, where he later threw himself under a train.

"The last envelope dated February 3 contained a letter in which the father said he killed the two girls, saying he was in Cerignola where he was about to kill himself," police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel said.

Schepp further wrote that the twin girls "did not suffer and died in peace." The Vaud twin girls were abducted by his father on Janaury 30 who took them to Italy. He reportedly landed in the Corsica region and committed suicide on February 3.

The father picked up his two daughters on January 28 but did not returned the to their St. Sulpice home, where both he and his estranged wife have houses. The girls were last seen on January 30 but Schepp is seen alone arriving to France an getting into a ferry from Marseille to the island of Corsica.

Despite the revelations, police continue searching for the girls, Alessia and Livia, in France, Switzerland and Italy. Police is especially investigating alleged reports that indicate that the two six-year-old girls were spotted along their father in Propriano, France.

On Thursday, search efforts intensified in Upper Corsica, Corsica and Cape Balagne where Schepp went on vacation. Investigators have only found evidence on the suspect on video recordings of him driving a car near Toulon, Bastia and crossing the Italian border in Ventimiglia.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-02-12