Swiss arrest boyfriend after British woman dies in hotel
SWISS police are investigating the death of a 22-year-old British woman found lifeless in the bathroom of a fourstar hotel in the south of the country.
The body of Anna Florence Reed was discovered on Tuesday in Hotel La Palma au Lac in Muralto.
Her 29-year-old German boyfriend, who lives in Zurich, has been taken into custody and reportedly told police that the death was the result of a “sex game” that went wrong. He is facing a charge of homicide.
Local media reported that a postmortem examination showed Miss Reed died of suffocation or asphyxiation and that she had small cuts on her body, including on her neck.
The Foreign Office said it was offering assistance to the family.
The couple checked into the 68room, four-star hotel in the district of Locarno last weekend, according to a source. They had paid a premium to secure Room 501 on the top floor and had been due to stay “several days”.
But on Tuesday morning the woman’s body was found on the floor of the marble bathroom.
According to local reports, the couple had argued so loudly in their room that the night porter intervened at 3am.
At around 6.30am, Miss Reed’s boyfriend, who appeared “agitated”, told the receptionist that his girlfriend “had a problem with her health”.
A source said: “The receptionist could tell by his tone that it was serious, so he called an ambulance. The medics went up to the room. They tried to resuscitate her, but there was no response. She was already dead.”
The ambulance crew then alerted the police.
It is believed Miss Reed’s family was due to arrive in Switzerland yesterday.