… The circumstances surrounding the death of Alain Monnier, professor of religion and anthropology in Geneva remain unclear for now, with police saying only that a knife was found in a nearby river and that he died of a stab wound to the heart.
Monnier was a professor for 21 years at the University of Geneva and he was last seen Thursday 4 June when he left his home in the Jura, near the Doubs river area, to go for a walk. His body was found Saturday. Police are not excluding all [should be ‘any’] possibilities, from suicide to accident to murder.
Most of the articles about this are in French, but this one, from Geneva Lunch, conveys the basic elements. Unless police find signs of a struggle, I’d say suicide. Hard to know how you accidentally end up with a knife in your heart.
This article describes a vivid, original personality of enormous warmth and inspiring intellect. He lived a rich life.
Here’s his home page at the university. He did religious ethnography.
June 11th, 2009 at 2:24PM
A short note on why we included the possibility of an accident: the police have said this remains a possibility, but also, a few years ago there was an extraordinary death that I’ve never forgotten, of a young boy, 12 if I remember correctly and I think in the UK, who slipped and fell as he was loading the dishwasher and he fell on a knife that was in the cutlery box, pointing up. He died – unbelievable, so unfair, but a reminder that because something seems implausible we shouldn’t exclude it.
June 11th, 2009 at 2:31PM
Good point, Ellen. Thanks for the clarification.
Margaret S.