Vatican: Mother of Dead Swiss Guard Asks Pope to Reopen Shooting Case, The Adnkronos, November 4, 2011

Vatican: Mother of Dead Swiss Guard Asks Pope to Reopen Shooting Case

The Adnkronos
November 4, 2011

http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Religion/Vatican-Mother-of-dead-Swiss-Guard-asks-pope-to-reopen-shooting-case_312609948833.html

Vatican City, 4 Nov. (AKI) - The mother of a Swiss Guard who the Vatican said killed his commander and his wife almost 14 years ago before taking his own life has written pope Benedict XVI imploring him to reopen the case, according to reports on Swiss television.

In May 1998 Swiss Gaurd Lieut Col. Alois Estermann, 43, and his wife, Gladys Meza Romero were found shot dead in their Vatican apartment. The body of a 23-year-old Swiss guard, Cedric Tornay, was discovered nearby.

A Vatican investigation concluded that disgruntled Tornay killed his superior after being reprimanded for infractions. The Vatican almost immediately dismissed reports of a crime of passion or the possibility of some other scandal. It said an autopsy found traces of marijuana in Tornay's urine and a small tumour in his brain.

Tornay's mother, Muguette Baudat, told an Italian newspaper she wouldn't accept the Vatican's conclusion and told the Italian media that she did not believe the Vatican and repeated her assertions that her son was murdered and made a scapegoat in a broader plot.

A 2002 letter to the late pope John Paul II asking for the case to be reopened went unanswered.

Baudat lawyer Luc Brossellet on Thursday told Swiss TV that he believes the things are more transparent in the Vatican amid the sex scandals that have plagued the Church.

"Vatican politics, as expressed by the Holy Father, have changed," he said. "He says the Vatican must conform to international law. It is for this reason we thought it was the right moment'' to ask the Vatican to reopen the case.