Current Zurich public prosecutor wants to keep "parking garage murderess" in custody
The Zurich public prosecutor's office wants to keep the 52-year-old woman known as the "parking garage murderer" in custody. They do not consider the conditions for converting her into an inpatient measure to be fulfilled.
02.12.2025, 10:18
02.12.2025, 15:05
SDA
At the hearing at the Zurich High Court on Tuesday, the responsible public prosecutor claimed various deficiencies in the psychiatric report on the "parking garage murderess". The Zurich District Court approved the conversion of the detention into an inpatient measure in August 2024 and based its decision primarily on the expert opinion.
According to the public prosecutor's office, however, there are contradictions between the main expert opinion from 2020 and the supplementary expert opinion from 2023 in one of the most important points. For example, the expert had apparently made a U-turn in his assessment of the prospects of success of an inpatient measure. Essentially, this concerns the question of how much therapy can reduce the risk of relapse.
During his questioning on Tuesday morning, the expert confirmed that he assumed there was a sufficient probability that the risk of relapse could be reduced as part of a five-year inpatient measure. In addition to the progress that the 52-year-old has made in recent years, her advancing age also speaks for a decreasing probability that she could commit further serious crimes.
Public prosecutor questions expert opinion
The public prosecutor, on the other hand, considered the positive prognosis regarding the chances of success of therapy to be insufficiently substantiated. The contradictions on this central question in the two expert reports meant that the requirements for converting custody into an inpatient measure were not met. An expert opinion is needed to clarify this point, or at least a further expert opinion in the form of a second opinion.
According to the public prosecutor's office, the limited emotional empathy of the detainee would also lead to an increased risk if she were to be released after inpatient treatment. It is also problematic that she did not make any statements during her questioning in the morning about any violent fantasies that may still exist. Violent fantasies are said to have played a major role in her crimes in the 1990s.
