Swiss police found the bodies of 48 members of the Order of the Solar Temple, who had died in a cult mass murder-suicide.

The Order of the Solar Temple, or simply the Solar Temple, was a new religious movement and secret society, often described as a cult, notorious for the mass deaths of many of its members in several mass murders and suicides throughout the 1990s. The OTS was a neo-Templar order, claiming to be a continuation of the Knights Templar, and incorporated an eclectic range of beliefs with aspects of Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, and New Age ideas. It was led by Joseph Di Mambro, with Luc Jouret as a spokesman and second in command. It was founded in 1984, in Geneva, Switzerland.

From 30 September to 5 October 1994, 53 members and former members of the Order of the Solar Temple died in a series of mass murders and suicides in Morin-Heights, Quebec, Canada, and in Cheiry and Salvan in Switzerland. The Solar Temple, or OTS, was founded in 1984, active in several Francophone countries. The group was led by Joseph Di Mambro with Luc Jouret as a second in command. The group had a theological doctrine that by committing suicide, one would not die, but "transit". They conceptualized the transit as a ritual involving magic fire, where they would undergo a spiritual voyage to the star Sirius where they would live on.