One of the most sensational crimes in recent Vatican history is back in the spotlight thanks to a book about the 1998 slayings of the Swiss Guard commander and his wife by a lower-ranking guard who then killed himself.
Muguette Baudat, mother of Swiss Guard Corporal Cedric Tornay, arrives at the launch of lawyer Laura Sgro's book Sangue in Vaticano , in Rome, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022. The book is about the case of Swiss Guard Corporal Cedric Tornay who allegedly committed suicide in the Vatican after killing guards' commander Alois Estermann and his Venezuelan wife Gladys Meza Romero in 1998.
Within hours of the slayings, the Vatican spokesman announced that Baudat's 23-year-old son, Cedric Tornay, a noncommissioned Swiss Guard officer, had killed Col. Alois Estermann and Estermann’s Venezuelan-born wife, Gladys Meza Romero, with his service revolver and then turned the gun on himself. The spokesman said a buildup of resentment over a reprimand by Estermann and the denial of a decoration, combined with a ″peculiar″ psychology, led to Tornay's violent acts.
Last year, the Vatican secretary of state intervened personally in the case and asked the Vatican tribunal to pay “particular attention” to Baudat’s request. Sgro was granted access to the court file. Sgro noted that at least 20 people were allowed access to the crime scene in the moments after the slayings, including chaplains, monsignors and the Vatican spokesman, none of whom wore protective gear. No fingerprints or blood samples were taken, and no DNA tests performed.
The lawyer alleged that the conditions in which she was forced to work to view the file, as well as the mother's long fight to find information about her son, constituted human rights violations that should be taken up by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
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