ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 1, 1996 TAG: 9601020177
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: HOLIDAY
DATELINE: PARIS
SOURCE: Associated Press
The doomsday cult disciples who died last week in a murder-suicide witnessed a similar ritual killing in 1994, according to a cult expert who believes other witnesses are in serious danger.
Jean-Luc Chaumeil, an expert on the shadowy Order of the Solar Temple cult, said in a newspaper interview published Sunday that nine witnesses to the 1994 Switzerland killing are still alive - and in danger of being abducted or murdered.
Under Chaumeil's advice, French and Swiss police have expanded their murder probe into the recent deaths and are collaborating on a search for former Solar Temple followers to offer them protection.
``I think that these massacres are a settling of scores between rival groups,'' Chaumeil told Le Journal du Dimanche.
``The people who died [last week] were all witnesses to the Swiss massacres,'' he said. ``I think they were kidnapped and murdered. Nine others remain who, to my knowledge, are still alive, and I have informed the authorities.''
In Switzerland and in Canada in 1994, 53 cult leaders and members died in simultaneous ritual killings. Today, there are an estimated 1,000 cult members living in France and up to 2,000 in Australia.
The Order of the Solar Temple is rooted in centuries-old secret Roman Catholic societies. Cult experts have speculated that last week's deaths were timed to match the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.
On Dec. 23, the charred bodies of 16 cult followers were discovered in an Alpine forest near Grenoble in southeastern France. It looked at first like murder-suicide, but mounting evidence suggests the deaths may not have been voluntary.
Fourteen of the bodies were laid out in a star formation. The other two, lying nearby, were French police officers who belonged to the cult - and who authorities believed killed and set fire to the others before doing the same to themselves.
Chaumeil, who has been studying the cult for 25 years, said the theory that the dead were willing participants simply doesn't hold up.
One cult member, 43-year-old Dominique Masson, a mother of three, had purchased a birthday gift for her daughter.
``Why would she have done that on the eve of her death?''
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB