Prosecutors close case of Swiss cyclist Muriel Furrer's fatal crash at 2024 road worlds

ZURICH (AP) — Prosecutors closed an investigation on Monday into the death of Swiss cyclist Muriel Furrer who crashed at the 2024 road world championships and was not found for more than one hour.

The 18-year-old Furrer crashed on a downhill section of rain-slicked road in a forest area approaching Zurich in the junior women’s race.

She was not discovered for one hour, 22 minutes, the public prosecutors’ office in Zurich said in a statement on Monday. Her fall was not seen and she was not spotted from the road because she lay in undergrowth.

Furrer suffered a head injury and she died the next day.

It was “a racing accident without any indication of criminally relevant conduct,” the canton (state) prosecution office said, in relation to organization of the race and her medical treatment,

Racers at the worlds in September 2024 were not wearing GPS trackers that would track their location.

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FILE - A makeshift memorial for Muriel Furrer, the 18-year-old Swiss cyclist who died after sustaining a head injury in a crash at the road world championships, Switzerland, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (Michael Buholzer/Keystone via AP, file)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has formally reopened its embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, after the restoration of full diplomatic relations with the South American country following the Trump administration’s ouster of then-President Nicolas Maduro in early January.

The State Department announced Monday that it had resumed normal operations at the embassy in Caracas — which had been in need of significant repair, including remediations from mold — after a seven-year closure that began during President Donald Trump’s first term.

A small team of U.S. diplomats, based in neighboring Colombia, has been working in Caracas for more than a month but the embassy itself had not yet been reopened.

“The resumption of operations at U.S. Embassy Caracas is a key milestone in implementing the president’s three phase plan for Venezuela and will strengthen our ability to engage directly with Venezuela’s interim government, civil society, and the private sector,” the State Department said in a statement.

It said the move marked “a new chapter in our diplomatic presence in Venezuela.”

FILE - The U.S. Embassy stands in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)