LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Lausanne police Wednesday pulled in 44 of the 91 residents questioned at the Venne refugee centre, the Etablissement vaudois d’accueil des migrants (EVAM), in the city after a dawn raid that continued until 14:00. Authorities seized a quantity of drugs: 232 grams of cocaine, 22 g of heroin and 60 g of marijuana. They also seized CHF42,ooo and a smaller amount of euros in addition to 20 fake CHF100 bills.
The raid involved 158 police officer and several sniffer dogs. It was organized after investigations indicated that several residents were involved in the drug business and theft in the region.
Stolen goods uncovered included 216 cell phones, with one resident alone have 23 of them; 28 laptops, digital cameras and iPods, watches and jewelry.
Update 13:00 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in canton Vaud, with 140 people involved directly, are conducting a new search for six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia Schepp, between Morges and Saint Prex. The search is focusing on the Boiron area, a wooded stretch with a small river that feeds into Lake Geneva.
The search is being undertaken after a new witness came forward 6 April to say a man was seen in the area, carrying a suitcase, Sunday 30 January around 16:00. The information, combined with other elements in the investigation, has prompted police to carry out the search.
The Boiron stretch of beach is about a 20-minute drive from the home of the girls’ father, in St Sulpice, where the girls were last seen by people who knew them, earlier that Sunday afternoon. The beach was until recently popular with nudists, but since nudism was banned in the area, which can be reached only on foot, it has been less frequented.
Police spokesperson Jean-Christophe Sauterel says that the new search involves 11 sniffer dogs from several cantons, trained to search for bodies. A two-day search has been scheduled; when pressed by journalists as to whether or not this means police are now looking for a body, Sauterel said that they remain open to all possibilities.
Missing St Sulpice twins, Alessia and Livia Schepp
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - SwissMissing, with help from Canton Vaud Police, carried out an 8km2 search in the Geneva countryside Saturday 9 April to Monday morning, looking for the bodies of the two missing six-year-olds, Alessia and Livia Schepp. Twelve people including a police officer and three dogs that are trained to look for bodies, teamed up and worked out of Confignon et à Chancy, Jean-Christophe Sauterel, head of press and communications for Vaud Police, told GenevaLunch.
He confirmed that the search turned up no results.
The search was undertaken after a sniffer dog confirmed the presence of the father, Matthias Schepp, in the area: a Geneva woman earlier reported that he had been seen with his daughters in the area Sunday 30 January.
SwissMissing has published a short report, in English, on the search, to thank donors who covered the CHF34,000 cost of the weekend search. The organization has also posted a YouTube video showing the search (in Italian). The family was not directly involved in the search.
Myles Robinson and his sister Cara
Update 2 21:37 Wengen, canton Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “We think he must be here somewhere, maybe in a house,” Sarah Robinson, mother of missing British 23-year-old tourist Myles Robinson, told GenevaLunch Saturday evening 26 December. Her son disappeared in the early hours of Tuesday 22 December from the small Alpine resort of Wengen, not far from Interlaken, without a trace. The young man was at the Blue Monkey bar in the car-free resort above Lauterbrunnen, then walked an old family friend home and chatted with her for a while before heading back to his family’s place at 02:00, a 200-metre walk. It was a clear night.
Myles Robinson has not been seen or heard from since.
He was expecting his girlfriend to join the family for New Year’s and he had just been hired for a job he was looking forward to, with a financial firm in London.
Police and the family have appealed to villagers to look everywhere for the missing man. His mother says that she takes hope from a tall, dark-haired cousin of Myles being asked on the streets if his name is Myles. “People are looking out.”
A police spokesperson told GenevaLunch Saturday, “We have no clues. Nothing. We called for witnesses and several people phoned, but they were mostly sightings from other villages and turned out to be false alarms.” He noted that the police can’t even say they suspect foul play because there are no clues on which to make judgements. The police investigation continues, focusing now on interviewing people around him.
Sarah Robinson says police have done a thorough job of contacting people who know her son well.
A search of the mountainside is unrealistic, given the rugged terrain – the area is famous for its cliffs, forests and some of the toughest skiing in Switzerland, including the Lauberhorn race. The police spokesperson told GenevaLunch that the Swiss Army loaned a helicopter for a flyover search of the area around the town, which turned up nothing.
But Myles Robinson was not lost while skiing: he was walking a short distance home from a bar in the centre of town at an hour when pre-Christmas revellers were still out. There is no evidence that he ever left the village, intentionally, accidentally, or through foul play.
“He doesn’t take drugs, he doesn’t smoke – he’d had a few drinks and might have been a bit tipsy but [the friend he walked home] says they talked for a while and he was fine,” Sarah Robinson says.
She is quick to say that the police “have been very good” and the family is getting help from a Swiss judge, but launching a search, for example a house to house hunt, in the town when there are no clues poses legal problems. Villagers are being asked to check every possible place, such as cellars and buildings they don’t use often.
“We know that his cell phone was still active at least at lunchtime Tuesday,” says his mother. But initial reports that it emitted a signal from the south end of Wengen have been put in perspective, given the realities of cell phones in the mountains. “We are unsure about the transmitters for Wengen and we’ve been told that, with the mountains, signals could bounce off of Murren or some other area.” Murren, Wengen and Grindelwald are three villages in the area that have long been favourites of the British, who helped develop the modern sport of downhill skiing in this area.
The Robinson family (father, mother, Myles and his sister Cara) whom the mother describes as “close”, has been coming to the resort for 15 years and Myles knows the area well. He is fit and an avid skier.
“He can’t just have disappeared without a trace!” Sarah Robinson insists. Several kinds of sniffer dogs have been used and they have not picked up any trail. Asked if they suspect he might have been pulled into a vehicle, which could explain the disappearance of his scent, she says, “It’s a car-free resort – I can’t imagine what kind of vehicle it would have been.” There are few roads down from the resort, and a vehicle leaving would most likely have been remarked by someone.
“We’re being as pro-active as we can. We’re talking to everyone we can. We want to keep this in front of the public. We’ve got to try to achieve something.”
The family is not discussing the case of Daniel Baptista, she says, “but we’re all aware of it.” Battista disappeared in 2006 from Wengen after taking mescaline, and there has been no sign of him since.
“At the end of the day, we just want to make sure we get him back. Alive, we hope.
“I’m living on hope at the moment.”
Ed. note: the disappearance of Myles has been followed closely by the UK media. Links: BBC, Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph, Times, UK
