A Swiss man suspected of stealing Michael Schumacher's medical records was found dead in his Zürich police jail cell on Wednesday morning.
The man, an employee of the Swiss air rescue service Rega, was arrested on Tuesday and was to be questioned on Wednesday over whether he offered to various media outlets the records, which detail the seven-time Formula One champion’s recovery from a ski accident.
A guard found the man dead in his cell before formal questioning could begin. It is believed he took his own life. Swiss authorities said there was no suspicion of third-party involvement.
Swiss police had opened a criminal case, suspecting the Rega employee of breaching his professional code of confidentiality.
In initial questioning, shortly after his arrest, the man is said to have disputed claims he was involved in trying to sell the Schumacher files.
“If a suspect dies then the case has to be closed,” said a spokeswoman for the state prosecutor in Zürich.
“If no other evidence emerges the case will be concluded without a conviction.”
Schumacher was rushed to a clinic in Grenoble on December 29th last after slipping and sustaining severe head injures while skiing off-piste at the Méribel resort.
After six months in an artificial coma, during which doctors performed several operations, his family moved him in mid-June using a Rega air ambulance to the University Hospital of Lausanne for a “long period of rehabilitation”.
At the time his management company said the 45-year-old was not in a coma any more, and was able to see and hear and communicate with blinks.
In early July the Schumacher family learned that several media outlets had received anonymous approaches with offers to sell them the driver’s medical records for 60,000 Swiss francs (€49,400).
The records reportedly on offer included all details of his treatment in France, including a 12-page letter from doctors in Grenoble to the new clinic in Lausanne.
Media organisations in France, Switzerland, Britain and Germany received emails from someone using the pseudonym "Kagemusha" – a Japanese term used to denote a "political decoy" and the name of a 1980 film by Akira Kurosawa.
The email attachments included limited extracts from the medical records with the promise of the rest once payment was received.
However “Kagemusha” didn’t take any precautions to mask his identity and police were reportedly able to locate the sender via his IP address, a unique identifier for all internet connections.
The 45-year-old driver's manager, Sabine Kehm, described the theft as "outrageous and disgusting".
The Swiss clinic filed a report for theft and violation of patient confidentiality, leading investigators to the air rescue service Rega
“This tragic event makes us all sad and speechless,” said Rega chief executive Ernst Kohler in a statement on Wednesday.
“Our thoughts and sympathies are with the relatives of the dead man.”
