Werner Ferrari was a Swiss man who was convicted of killing a child in 1971, served part of a twelve-year sentence, and was released in 1979. In 1989 he was arrested after the killing of a nine-year-old girl in Hägendorf, in the canton of Solothurn. In June 1995 the district court in Baden, in the canton of Aargau, convicted him of five child murders and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He died in custody on December 12, 2025, at the Lenzburg prison, aged 78.
The record has an unusual legal shape. One of the five convictions of 1995, for the death of a twelve-year-old girl named Ruth Steinmann in Würenlos in May 1980, was reviewed after a campaign by a journalist and Ferrari's defense lawyer. In April 2007 the same court acquitted him of that killing. The killing is not attributed to him. Four child murders, from 1983, 1985, 1987 and 1989, remained as the basis of the life sentence, and the 1971 killing remained as an earlier conviction.
Ferrari was born in Basel in 1946, according to a profile published by the web.de magazine, which gives December 29, 1946. His mother was young and rejected him soon after the birth. The profile says he lived with his grandparents for about four years, then in a children's home, and briefly with his mother and a stepfather who, in his own account, treated him with violence. The documentary page of Swiss Radio and Television (SRF) says that his childhood was marked by care in institutions from the age of three, together with violence and abuse.
At 12 he was sent to a reform institution for boys, where he stayed about four years. The web.de profile reports that psychiatrists diagnosed a schizoid personality disorder and that he committed offenses as a young man, among them arson, theft and tampering with railway tracks. At 19 he was placed in a psychiatric clinic. A doctor warned that he could commit an offense against a child, the profile says, but he was released about twenty months later.
In August 1971 Ferrari, then in his twenties, killed a ten-year-old boy. SRF dates the killing to August 6, 1971. The location is given as Reinach in Basel-Landschaft by SRF and by the Swiss news portal blue News; an earlier Beobachter article placed it in Dornach in the canton of Solothurn, and other reports say only that it happened in the Basel region.
SRF writes that Ferrari gave himself away after the killing by asking about the boy's whereabouts before the matter was publicly known. He confessed. He was sentenced to twelve years in a penitentiary, and the sentence was served in part at the Regensdorf prison in the canton of Zurich.
Ferrari was released early in August 1979. The reports differ on how long he had served: SRF's report on his death says six years, while its other pieces, and Beobachter, say eight, and the dates they give point to the longer period. Reporters later called his release hard to understand. Blick's police reporter Vik Dammann described the series that followed as a series of murders that had been announced in advance, a verdict he gave in an interview after Ferrari's death. SRF wrote in 2025 that he had been judged cured when he was set free. Beobachter reported that he was released against his own wish to stay in prison.
Between 1980 and 1989, according to SRF, 21 cases involving children and young people occupied Swiss police, and several remain unsolved. Only a few of these cases were ever tied to Ferrari in court. Blick reported that four killings were proved in court and that twelve cases were never solved. Another SRF piece speaks of eleven child killings that occupied the nation in the 1980s. The numbers differ because the reports draw different lines around which cases belonged to one series, and only the court findings can be stated as fact.
Ruth Steinmann was 12 and lived in Würenlos, in the canton of Aargau. Beobachter wrote in 2002 that she died there on a Friday in mid-May 1980; the magazine's pieces give May 16 in one place and imply May 15 in another. Her mother described her as a cheerful girl, recalled that the day had seemed strange, and said that the family's life changed completely afterward.
The 1995 verdict counted her among Ferrari's victims. Her father told police that he had seen a man on a moped nearby and later identified Ferrari as that man. Beobachter reported in 2002 that he remained convinced it was Ferrari, though he wondered whether he had simply wanted to recognize him, and that the question troubled the parents.
Benjamin was ten years old when he died in 1983. Blick's overview lists him among the four children whose killings between 1983 and 1989 remain the basis of the life sentence. His town has never been made public. The conviction for his killing stands.
Daniel died in September 1985 in Rümlang, in the canton of Zurich. Blick reports his age as seven in its account and ten in a summary list, and the discrepancy has never been resolved. The conviction for his killing stands.
Christian was ten when he died in October 1987 in Windisch, in the canton of Aargau. The conviction for his killing stands.
Fabienne Imhof was nine years old when she died in August 1989. She came from Hägendorf in the canton of Solothurn. A friend of hers gave police a precise description of a man. According to SRF, that description led within days to Ferrari, and he was arrested on August 30, 1989, in Olten. The killing ended the series, and SRF and swissinfo reported that the child killings stopped after his arrest. Parents of this last victim later supported the popular initiative for lifelong detention of dangerous offenders, according to SRF.
The police response to the series drew lasting criticism. SRF's documentary page, which looks back at the case, says the cantonal police forces worked poorly together because information was not shared, and that clues were not passed on or were not weighed by the officers responsible. Ferrari was not examined more closely despite the earlier conviction, though some people who knew him were surprised that he had not been. The page adds that phone tracking and DNA analysis, which later transformed such inquiries, were not yet available in the 1980s. Blick's Dammann said that a victim's mother had pointed out the similarity of the cases and that nothing came of it.
Investigators also looked at other men, and some of the 1980s cases were never solved. Beobachter reported in 2003 that the cantons of Zurich and Lucerne wanted to reopen unsolved cases from the period. In 2002 it wrote that investigators had tried without success to connect Ferrari with five further child cases from 1980 to 1989.
Ferrari was arrested on August 30, 1989. Beobachter wrote in 2007 that he was 43 at the time. In custody he confessed to killings. The web.de profile says he first confessed to three, retracted, confessed to four, and then withdrew those too, saying that pressure had produced them. Beobachter's account is simpler: he confessed to four killings, denied the Steinmann case throughout, and retracted all of his statements before trial.
A first trial opened in Baden in December 1994 and collapsed, according to SRF, after Ferrari retracted all his confessions. The web.de profile adds that this happened on the first day, when his appointed defense lawyer withdrew because Ferrari denied every charge.
The second trial ended in early June 1995. Beobachter dates the judgment to June 8, 1995, in its 2002 piece; SRF gives only the year 1995. The Bezirksgericht Baden convicted Ferrari of five child murders and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The case rested on circumstantial evidence, SRF and swissinfo reported, and the web.de profile says the court relied on details in the confessions that only the perpetrator could have known. Beobachter reported that the court did not order indefinite preventive detention, called Verwahrung in Swiss law, because it was then not regarded as practically permanent, even though the judges feared he could kill again.
Ferrari was taken to the Lenzburg prison in 1995 and stayed there for the rest of his life. Blick reports that in his last years he was held in the unit for prisoners aged 60 and over.
The Steinmann count was challenged by a journalist, Peter Holenstein, who wrote in Beobachter from 2002 and later published a book on the case, titled Der Unfassbare. His reporting pointed to weaknesses in the investigation. Beobachter set out several points in 2002 and 2003.
Police had attributed a physical trace gathered in the case to the perpetrator. Years after the trial a DNA analysis commissioned by Holenstein found that it did not come from Ferrari. Two witnesses described a man without a moustache, while Ferrari wore one in 1980. A woman came forward about twenty years after the killing with an account of her own involvement; she later withdrew parts of it, although Beobachter noted that she had mentioned details that had not been published. According to SRF's 2026 summary, her account named other men, not Ferrari.
A second line of inquiry concerned a man known in the press only by the initials E.R. or by a pseudonym, who resembled Ferrari and who had died by suicide in 1983. Beobachter wrote that police looked at him shortly after the 1980 killing but dropped the line for reasons not explained. After the review was ordered, the Aargau court president approved a forensic examination in his case in April 2004, according to Blick's overview. SRF wrote in January 2026 that a forensic comparison reportedly matched evidence from the case, and Blick's Dammann said the comparison pointed to a man who looked like Ferrari. No court convicted that man, who was dead, and the Aargau chief prosecutor, Erich Kuhn, had said earlier that no proceedings are conducted against the dead. These are press reports and a journalist's conclusion, not a verdict.
Ferrari's lawyer, Patrick Schaerz, applied for a retrial in August 2002. On June 12, 2003, the Aargau Obergericht, the cantonal high court, ordered the Bezirksgericht Baden to examine the Steinmann killing again, citing witness statements and new evidence. The new trial took longer than expected. Beobachter wrote in January 2006 that the court president, Guido Näf, was waiting for an expert opinion, and that an acquittal in this count could also expose Ferrari to a new and harsher decision on the sentence, including possible preventive detention. A retrial was set for April 10 and 11, 2007. In April 2007 the Bezirksgericht Baden acquitted Ferrari of the Steinmann killing. The life sentence remained, since four convictions stood.
Former prosecutor Erich Kuhn still considered Ferrari responsible for the other killings but acknowledged that he had been wrong in the Steinmann case, SRF's documentary page says. He added that only Ferrari himself knew how many children he had killed.
Under Swiss practice, a person serving a life sentence may be considered for conditional release after fifteen years. Beobachter reported that Ferrari applied in 2004, that he behaved well but that his therapy had ended early and he still denied the offenses. SRF wrote in June 2025 that he could apply for release each year and that the Aargau authorities had judged him too dangerous because of the risk of reoffending, and that a life sentence in his case could in fact mean life.
His case fed into a wider debate. The popular initiative on lifelong detention of dangerous offenders was approved by Swiss voters in 2004. SRF notes that parents of his last victim supported it, and that it requires two expert opinions before an offender is declared untreatable and detained for life. SRF noted in June 2025 that only one person had been placed in lifelong detention under it.
Ferrari died on the morning of Friday, December 12, 2025, at the Lenzburg prison, after a long illness. The Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Aarau cantonal hospital confirmed the death. He was 78. SRF, swissinfo, Blick, RSI and La Télé reported it the same day. In January 2026 SRF again referred to his death in custody in an article on how cases are reopened in Swiss law.
Several points remain unsettled. The place of the 1971 killing is given as Reinach in Basel-Landschaft by SRF and blue News and as Dornach by an older Beobachter article. The time Ferrari served after 1971 is given as six years in one SRF report and eight in others. Daniel's age in 1985 is given as seven and ten in the same Blick article. The number of children in the 1980s series is given as eleven, fifteen and twenty-one by different outlets, depending on what is counted.
The unsolved cases of the period are not attributed to Ferrari by any court. The former prosecutor's remark that only Ferrari knew how many children he killed is a remark, not a finding. The identity of the person responsible for Ruth Steinmann's death has not been established in a verdict.
1946: born in Basel (web.de profile).
August 6, 1971: the killing of a ten-year-old boy in the Basel region (SRF).
1970s: sentenced to twelve years in a penitentiary.
August 1979: released early.
May 1980: Ruth Steinmann, 12, dies in Würenlos (later the subject of an acquittal).
1983: Benjamin, 10, dies.
September 1985: Daniel dies in Rümlang.
October 1987: Christian, 10, dies in Windisch.
August 1989: Fabienne, 9, dies in Hägendorf; Ferrari arrested in Olten on August 30.
December 1994: first trial in Baden collapses.
June 1995: Bezirksgericht Baden convicts him of five child murders; life imprisonment.
2002: Holenstein's reporting; Ferrari applies for a retrial.
June 12, 2003: Aargau Obergericht orders the Steinmann count reexamined.
2004: voters approve the initiative on lifelong detention.
April 2007: Bezirksgericht Baden acquits Ferrari of the Steinmann killing; life sentence remains.
December 12, 2025: dies in custody at Lenzburg, aged 78.