
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 19, 1994                   TAG: 9411210059
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: TORONTO                                  LENGTH: Medium

5 CULT DEATHS BELIEVED SOLVED

Police wrapped up their investigation of the Solar Temple cult deaths in Canada on Friday, concluding two were suicides and three were ritual murders - including the repeated stabbing in the heart of an infant believed to be the Antichrist.

In all, 53 people connected to the mysterious Solar Temple doomsday cult died in a mass suicide-murder last month. On Oct. 5, authorities discovered 48 charred corpses in two burned-out Alpine chalets and a farmhouse in two remote Swiss villages.

Another five were found in a chalet in Morin Heights, Quebec, north of Montreal. The buildings were set on fire by timed, self-igniting devices.

Michel Brunet of the Quebec provincial police said investigators believe the entire mass killing was to have taken place in Canada last year, but plans changed when police conducted several raids.

``We are pretty sure we saved many, many lives because between 40 and 80 members quit the Temple after that,'' Brunet said.

Lt. Richard St. Denis, a police analyst who studied Solar Temple philosophy and interviewed former members, said many of those who died believed they had to suffer a fiery death to be reborn on another planet.

Swiss police also believe money and power might have played a role in the deaths. They say there was a split between the Canadian and Swiss branches of the cult and in-fighting between cult leader Luc Jouret and Joseph di Mambro, thought to have been the true power behind the Solar Temple. Both men died in the fires in Switzerland.

Cult members Antonio Dutoit, a Swiss citizen, his wife, Nicky Robinson Dutoit, and 3-month-old son Christopher Emmanuel were murdered in Canada, police said.

Quebec police believe two of the cult members who died in the Swiss fires killed the Dutoits. The other two victims in Quebec were Swiss citizens who lived in Morin Heights. Authorities said they committed suicide.

by CNB