VATICAN: Double Murder and Suicide in Pope’s Swiss Guard

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Jorge Pina

VATICAN CITY, May 5 1998 (IPS) - A vice-corporal’s grudge at being passed over for a merit award led him to kill the head of the Pope’s Swiss Guard and his wife, and then commit suicide, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Tuesday.

Vice-corporal Cedric Tornay, 23, shot and killed Captain Commandant Alois Estermann, 44, on Monday, just 10 hours after Pope John Paul II appointed Estermann as head of the 100-member Swiss Guard.

Tornay also killed Estermann’w wife, Venezuelan physician Gladys Meza, 43, with his duty-issue semiautomatic pistol, which he then turned on himself, Navarro-Valls told a crowded press conference.

The three bodies were found around 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT) Monday in the Estermanns’ apartment in the Vatican, but the incident was not reported until after midnight. The murder weapon, five of whose six bullets had been used, was found under Tornay’s body.

Navarro-Valls based his report on the preliminary post-mortem examinations of the three bodies, although he added that the autopsies had not yet been completed.

He said Estermann had reprimanded Tornay in writing back in February for failing to return to barracks at night.

Less than two hours before committing the murders, Tornay gave a comrade a letter addressed to his family, and asked him to send it in case something happened to him.

Tornay had complained earlier that day that he had not been chosen to receive a merit award at the Swiss Guard’s annual ceremony, which was scheduled for Wednesday. The ceremony, in which 49 new Guards were also to be sworn in, has been cancelled.

As a captain, Estermann distinguished himself by shielding the Pope during a May 13, 1981 assassination attempt, jumping on the moving “Pope-mobile” only seconds after Turkish gunman Ali Agca shot and seriously injured the Pope.

Navarro-Valls ruled out the possibility of sexual motives in the killings of Estermann and his wife, saying that anyone who knew the couple and even Tornay knew that no such elements existed.

The Pope was deeply saddened by the news, given his personal relationship with the head of the Swiss Guard, and sent a telegram of condolence to Estermann’s parents in Switzerland, Navarro-Valls said.

The Swiss Guard, created in 1506 by Pope Julius II, who asked the cantons of Switzerland to provide halberdiers for his personal protection, is made up of 100 volunteers representing each of the Swiss cantons. The corps is comprised of four officers, a chaplain, 25 non-commissioned officers and 70 enlisted men.

The volunteers must be Roman Catholic men measuring at least 1.74 metres in height, who have completed their military service in Switzerland. They earn 770 dollars a month, and their blue, red and yellow uniform is said to have been designed by Rennaissance painter and sculptor Michelangelo.

In his first – and last – interview Monday, Estermann expressed his gratitude to John Paul Monday for the confidence deposited in him, and said he would pray to always be near the Pope. Serving in the Pope’s guard is “an enormous responsibility as well as a great honour,” he told the Italian daily ‘La Reppublica’.

With respect to his role in shielding John Paul during the 1981 assassination attempt, he said “that is one of our duties. When it is necessary, we will not hesitate in becoming human shields to save” the Pope. But unfortunately, Agca “was too fast,” and the Guards were unable to keep John Paul from being injured, he added.

Estermann also said his wife was happy with the news of his promotion. The Vatican daily ‘Osservatore Romano’ described Estermann as “very highly esteemed, serious, straightforward, thoughtful, cultured and duty-bound.”

The funeral service for the Estermanns, who had been married for 12 years but had no children, will be conducted here Wednesday by Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Andelo Sodano.