Alois Estermann (october 29 1954 - May 4 1998) was a Swiss Guard who was murdered in unclear circumstances in the Vatican City.

Estermann was born in Gunwil, in the Canton of Lucerne.

According to the official Vatican version, Estermann and his wife, Gladys Meza Romero, were killed by the young Swiss Guard Cédric Tornay, who later committed suicide. Estermann had been named commander of the Swiss Guard the same day. The mother of Cedric Tornay does not believe in this version and the Swiss Court still have to statue on it. More information on the Cedric memorial website

The homicide has led to a long series of speculations. Markus Wolf, former No. 2 of the East German secret police Stasi, declared that Esterman was a Stasi agent since 1979.^[1][2] According to a piece edited by Fabio Croce, the three were all murdered by a Vatican killer,^[3] due to Estermann's deep knowledge of the small state's traffics.^[4] The text Bugie di sangue in Vaticano (1999), written by "a group of Vatican ecclesiastics and lays who cannot continue to avail, with their silence, official truth told by the Vatican",[3] supports the hypothesis the Estermann was the Pope's personal guard, and that he was killed in the course of the struggle between the Opus Dei and "masonic" parties within the Vatican hierarchy, both attempting to annex the Swiss Guard.

The British journalist, John Follain, undertook extensive interviews with key witnesses to the murders to inform his book, City of Secrets: The Truth behind the murders at the Vatican (Harper Collins, London, 2006). Follain dismisses speculation that Estermann, his wife, and Tornay were murdered by an external third party. Nor that Estermann was a spy for the former East German government. Follain's research indicated that Cedric Tornay did indeed kill his commander, and his commander's wife before turning the gun on himself. Tornay found the running of the Swiss Guard archaic, and resented the dominance of the Swiss German majority contingent. Tornay turned to Alois Esterman for affection, and enjoyed a short homosexual affair. Their relationship deteriorated into acrimony as Tornay realised that Estermann had betrayed him with another guard. Estermann's close links to the Opus Dei movement, and his final refusal to award the Benemeriti medal for 3-years service led to further frustration and Tornay's decision to kill Estermann^[5].