Two policemen who belonged to a doomsday cult may have killed 14 other members whose charred bodies were found last weekend, newspapers reported Wednesday. The policemen then committed suicide, the reports said.
The charred bodies of 14 members of the Solar Temple cult, including three young girls, were found Saturday in a remote forest outside the southeastern city of Grenoble. Their bodies were arranged in a star shape.The bodies of two policemen, Jean-Pierre Lardanchet and Patrick Rostand, were found a short distance away, their 9mm service revolvers at their sides. Police have said their bodies, too, were burned.
The newspapers Liberation and Le Figaro reported that although investigators have not ruled out the possibility that outsiders killed all 16 cult members and fled the scene, they suspect a mass murder-suicide.
Investigators opened a murder investigation Sunday into the deaths after it was discovered that all the cult members were shot. Two rifles were found near the star of bodies. Packages for sedatives were nearby.
"It could be a multiple murder with two or three suicides," Prosecutor Jean-Francois Lorans said over the weekend. Such a scenario would mirror the ritual deaths of other cult members in October 1994, which left 53 people dead in Switzerland and Canada.
Authorities began autopsies on the bodies Tuesday and continued Wednesday.