On December 21, 2015, firemen were called to a fire in a house in Rupperswil, a village in Aargau (northern Switzerland).
[5] For five months, the killer remained elusive, but the investigation led in May 2016 to the arrest in a Starbucks in Aarau of a 33-year-old student,[3][4][6] Thomas Nick.
When he was apprehended, the police found cable ties, adhesive tape, an old Swiss army ordnance pistol, and rope handcuffs in a rucksack.
[2][4] Nick was tried in the district court in Lenzburg on charges of murder, extortion, kidnapping, hostage-taking, sexual acts on a child, indecent assault, arson, and pornography.
[6][12] There was public discussion of whether Nick should be considered for release after 20 years, as is the norm with indefinite sentences under Swiss law.