Dozens of urns with human ashes found in Lake Zurich, ties to assisted suicide group pondered

Dozens of urns with human ashes in Lake Zurich

GENEVA — Swiss authorities are investigating a macabre discovery: Dozens of urns filled with human ashes buried in the mud of Lake Zurich.

The disposals are illegal without a permit and are drawing attention to the practice of assisted suicide, which is permitted in Switzerland but is coming under increasing public scrutiny.

Police won’t say if they have evidence directly connecting the urns to the Zurich group Dignitas, which has helped hundreds of people — including Americans, Britons, Germans and Frenchmen — take their lives in recent years.

The police probe began last week after the mud-covered orange urns were discovered accidentally by divers looking for a sunroof that fell off their boat.