Murders in the Alps

[waltky]

French police havin' a hard time explainin' how the girl was overlooked...

Girl spent 8 hours beneath bodies in French Alps
6 Sept.`12 — French investigators struggled Thursday to explain how a 4-year-old girl could go undetected for eight hours in a car full of corpses in the French Alps.

They also acknowledged that they still don't know why a family of British vacationers were slain in a BMW on a remote mountain road near the French village of Chevaline. The attacker or attackers violently beat and shot the girl's sister, who is about 7 years old, Prosecutor Eric Maillaud told reporters in nearby Annecy. The older girl was found near the car and hospitalized. She will be operated on but her life is out of danger, he said.

French authorities were not releasing the identities of the victims, but said the car was registered to a man with a British passport, born in Baghdad in 1962. A Swedish passport and Iraqi passport were also found at the scene, Maillaud said. Four people were found dead on the remote road: one adult man in the driver's seat of the British-registered BMW; two women in the back seat, one older than the other; and a French male cyclist who appeared to have nothing to do with the family. The bodies were found Wednesday by a British former air force officer who was cycling by, the prosecutor said.

A number of rescuers — firefighters, medical workers, police — apparently eyed the crime scene after it was reported about 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Local officials then waited for special investigators to arrive, police said. The 4-year-old girl was only found after midnight, but was doing fine physically, Maillaud said. She described hearing cries and asked investigators where her family was. She was taken into police care and will be questioned later, he said.

The prosecutor said they were looking at all possible motives and are protecting the girls in case the killers are still on the loose and want to "get rid of" witnesses to the killings. Three of the four victims were shot in the head, and the fourth victim remains in the car pending further investigation, Maillaud said. He said the bodies will be autopsied Friday. "We strictly don't know why these people were killed," Maillaud said.

Girl spent 8 hours beneath bodies in French Alps - Yahoo! News

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French Alps slayings: Child found 8 hours later
Sep 6,`12 -- French authorities struggled Thursday to explain why no one found a 4-year-old child for eight hours at a blood-strewn crime scene as she huddled in a car under the skirt of a corpse - apparently her dead mother or grandmother.

The stunning discovery Thursday of the girl, apparently unharmed, heightened the drama around a mysterious shooting rampage in the French Alps that left four adults dead and a 7-year-old girl hospitalized after being shot and brutally beaten. A day after a cyclist came across the corpses in a wooded area near the mountain village of Chevaline, investigators said the reason for the killing remains unclear. Prosecutor Eric Maillaud said investigators were searching for possible perpetrators and studying all possibilities, including a score-settling attack or simply that the family was "in the wrong place at the wrong time."

The two young girls, who police said were sisters, were under police care. The prosecutor warned there may still be a killer or killers on the loose seeking to "get rid of" witnesses to the "scene of immense savagery." "The girl was found totally immobile in fact on the floor of the vehicle, behind the front passenger-side seat, under the legs - under the skirt - of one of the women who were killed, around a large travel bag, totally invisible and silent - which explains why no one saw her before," Maillaud said.

French authorities took pains to avoid identifying the six people found in and around a BMW at the wooded site. The bodies of a man and two women were in the car, and the body of an unrelated male French cyclist was found on the ground nearby. The two girls were found alive. Maillaud said the car was registered to a British man born in Baghdad in 1962. He said the man who had lived in London for a decade and his family had been vacationing in France since August, camping on nearby Lake Annecy. The driver was identified by the Sipa news agency as Saad al Hilli, a resident of a London suburb.

Sky News, citing neighbors in the British town of Claygate, identified his wife as Iqbal, the 7-year-old as Zehab and the 4-year-old as Zeinab. Sky quoted neighbor George Aicolina as saying Saad al Hilli was an engineer who was "very much in love with his two girls." Sweden confirmed that one of the victims was Swedish. French authorities found a Swedish passport that appears to be that of an older woman slain in the car, born in 1938, as well as an Iraqi passport. The French cyclist found near the car was identified as Sylvain Mollier, a man in his 40s from nearby Grenoble who police believe had no relation to the British family. His wife had called police after Mollier failed to return from a ride.

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[waltky]

Survey says...

Family feud may have led to executions in the Alps
6 Sep 2012 - Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal, 47, and Mrs Hilli’s 77-year-old mother were all shot dead in a ruthlessly efficient execution-style killing inside their family car. A French cyclist who was “in the wrong place at the wrong time” was also murdered.

The Hillis’ seven-year-old daughter Zainab, who was battered and shot, and her four-year-old sister Zeena, who escaped the killers by hiding in a passenger footwell, were both under armed guard in separate hospitals last night for fear that the killers would return for the only remaining witnesses to the slaughter. Police sources in France said that the “professional” nature of the murders, with three of the victims shot in the centre of the forehead, pointed to a contract killing, with a “family drama” one of the possible motives. A British family murdered during a holiday in France may have been the victims of a contract killing triggered by a family feud, investigators believe.

Before he set off on holiday, Iraqi-born Mr Hilli, an engineer, had confided to neighbours in Claygate, Surrey, that something was troubling him. Jack Saltman, 67, said he had contacted the police to tell them about Mr Hilli’s fears. He said: “He did say something to me which gave me cause to worry a little bit. Before he left he came round and saw me and asked if I would keep an eye on his house. “It may be totally irrelevant if this was to be a terrible murderous killing. “But I have told the police and if it is relevant they will have it and if it is not relevant then no one will ever know.” Mr Saltman refused to elaborate further, but said Mr Hilli’s fears were “definitely not political”.

Zainab, a pupil at Claygate Primary School, was said to be “stable” in an induced coma in hospital in Grenoble after operations on her fractured skull and a gunshot wound to her shoulder. Her younger sister, Zeena, was being looked after in a psychiatric hospital after spending almost eight hours hiding in the car with the bodies of her parents and grandmother. Eric Maillaud, the senior prosecutor on the case, said the four year-old had not been able to tell the difference between the “good guys and the bad guys” and, after escaping the killers, hid beneath the skirt of one of the dead women when police arrived to take control of the scene. It was only when a holidaymaker at the Solitaire du Lac campsite by Lake Annecy, where the family had been staying in their caravan since Monday, told police that the family had two children that they opened the locked doors of the car and found Zeena.

Mr Maillaud said: “She was totally immobile, hidden in the vehicle behind the front passenger seat underneath the legs of one of the dead women, under her skirts and a large pile of travel bags, totally invisible and mute.” He said she broke into a smile when she was found, and said: “There was a noise and I was scared,” then began asking where her family were. Mr Maillaud said a helicopter with a thermal imaging camera, which had flown over the murder scene looking for survivors or killers, had failed to spot the little girl because the remaining body heat of the other victims had masked her own. Mr Hilli, who was born in Baghdad, came to Britain with his parents in the 1970s to escape persecution from Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party. They lived in Pimlico, central London, where Mr Hilli’s father, Kadhim, also an engineer, set up his own factory. The family moved to a house in Clay-gate in 1984, which became Mr Hilli’s own family home when he married his wife, a dentist, and had children. His mother died 10 years ago and his father died last year.

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[waltky]

Brother denies dispute...

France shootings: Saad al-Hilli brother 'denies family row'
7 September 2012 - The brother of Alps shooting victim Saad al-Hilli has told UK police there was no dispute over "financial matters", French prosecutors have said.

Prosecutor Eric Maillaud said French officers would interview Mr al-Hilli's brother in the UK as a "witness". He formally confirmed Mr al-Hilli and his wife were among four people fatally shot near Lake Annecy on Wednesday. And he said the British cyclist who reported the crime had seen a green four-wheel drive vehicle heading away. The prosecutor said four-year-old Zeena al-Hilli had told French police about the shooting that killed her mother and father during their holiday in the Alps.

Speaking to a press conference on Friday, Mr Maillaud said Mr al-Hilli's brother went to the police after he heard media reports of the deaths - first to ask about al-Hilli's condition, and then, on Friday, to deny reports of a dispute with his brother. However, he said Mr al-Hilli's brother had not yet been formally questioned. Police were still in the process of gathering information about Mr al-Hilli, the prosecutor added. On Friday, French police said they had heard possible reports of a family dispute about money.

'Fury and terror'

Mr Maillaud also confirmed that each of the victims had at least one bullet in the head, and about 25 shots were fired - more than originally thought. He refused to confirm the type or number of weapons. He said that four-year-old Zeena al-Hilli had identified her family, and described the "fury" and "terror" of the attack to French police. The little girl was between her mother and the older woman in the car - who has not yet been officially named - and hid under her skirts when she the shootings began. Her older sister Zainab, aged seven, is in a medically-induced coma in Grenoble University Hospital after being shot once and suffering head injuries.

Mr al-Hilli's daughters are believed to be the only witnesses to Wednesday's killings, and both are under police protection. The fourth victim, a cyclist whose body was found near the car, has been named as 45-year-old Sylvain Mollier. Meanwhile, a French investigator has landed at Heathrow to begin work with British authorities, which is now officially "a Franco-British investigation", according to Mr Maillaud. Two more French detectives were due to arrive on Friday evening, and one more on Saturday, he said.

'Terrible news'

 

[waltky]

Clues sought in family slaying...

Police searching UK home of family slain in France
Sep 8,`12 -- French and British police on Saturday searched the U.K. home of a British-Iraqi couple brutally slain while vacationing in the French Alps, while investigators looked into a possible family dispute as a potential motive for the attack.

The brother of the man shot dead with his wife and two others came forward to British police Friday and denied any conflict in the family, French prosecutors said. Authorities have identified the dead as mechanical design engineer Saad al Hilli and his wife, Ikbal. Their identification was based partly on the testimony of their 4-year-old daughter Zeena, who survived unhurt by hiding under her mother's skirt as some 25 automatic-handgun rounds were fired at the family car. Her old sister, 7-year-old Zaina, was badly wounded in the attack and is receiving medical care.

French cyclist Sylvain Mollier, 45, whom authorities suspect was in the wrong place at the wrong time, was also killed in Wednesday's rampage. Investigators were working to identify a fourth victim, an elderly, Iraqi-born Swedish woman also inside the family's vehicle. Early reports suggested the woman was the girls' grandmother, but that has not been confirmed by authorities.

Swedish authorities have confirmed that a passport discovered on the scene corresponds to a Swedish person living in Sweden, but as yet no absolute connection has been made between the older woman in the car and either the passport or between her and the rest of the victims, the local prosecutor said Saturday. Eric Maillaud, the French prosecutor in Annecy near the site of the killing, said each of the victims was shot twice in the head, in addition to an undisclosed additional number of times elsewhere. Autopsies on the bodies were completed late Friday, Maillaud said.

Maillaud said relatives of the dead have arrived in France to help care for the two young sisters, but he would not identify them or say how many there were. The bodies of the victims will be returned to their family "as soon as possible," Maillaud said. French news agency Sipa reported that four French investigators had arrived in Britain on Friday night. TV footage on Saturday showed police in forensic gear snapping pictures of the home of Saad al Hilli in the village of Claygate, a London suburb in the county of Surrey.

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[waltky]

Daughter of couple slain in the French Alps returns to UK as sister emerges from coma...

Police wait to interview key seven-year-old Alps shooting witness
Sunday, Sep. 09 2012, Police were on Monday waiting to question a young British girl seen as the key to solving the mystery of a shooting on a lonely forest road that left three members of her family and a cyclist dead.

Doctors placed seven-year-old Zainab al-Hilli in an artificial coma following the murders last Wednesday to help her recover from a fractured skull. Officials on Sunday said she had regained consciousness but warned that she was still under sedation and her speech was not yet audible. Her four-year-old sister Zeena, who survived unhurt for eight hours after the attack hidden beneath her mother’s body, has already been seen by police but was unable to provide any information. It was not clear how long investigators specialising in dealing with child witnesses would have to wait before speaking to Zainab.

Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud, however, has said she was “extremely traumatised” and stressed that there was no question of rushing the process. Zeena on Sunday returned to Britain with relatives who had flown out to Annecy in southeastern France to collect her. Saad al-Hilli, his wife Ikbal, an elderly relative and the two girls had been on a camping holiday on the shores of Lake Annecy when the tragedy happened. Local cyclist Sylvain Mollier was also killed after apparently stumbling on the scene. Police on Sunday carried out a second day of searches at the family home at Claygate in southern England.

Mr. Hilli, a naturalised Briton of Iraqi origin, worked as a mechanical design engineer with the Surrey Satellite Technology firm. His brother Said was also interviewed by police in Britain at the weekend after he came foward to deny reports of a financial dispute between the brothers. The fact that each of the four victims was shot twice in the head has fuelled speculation that the killings were a professional hit. But police in France say they are considering a range of possibilities.

Source

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Daughter of slain British-Iraqi couple back in UK
Sep 9,`12 -- The younger daughter of a British-Iraqi couple slain while vacationing in the French Alps has returned to Britain, while her badly wounded older sister has come out of an artificial coma, authorities said Sunday.

Four-year-old Zeena and 7-year-old Zaina survived a vicious shooting that killed their parents, Saad and Iqbal al-Hilli, as well as a still-unidentified older woman and a French man who apparently happened to be passing by on his bicycle. French police have been scrambling to hunt down leads since Wednesday's rampage, while relatives of the couple arrived in France to take care of the girls. Authorities say they are probing whether an alleged financial dispute between Saad al-Hilli and his brother Zaid played a role, though the surviving brother has denied any conflict.

Eric Maillaud, the prosecutor for Annecy near where the shootings occurred, told The Associated Press in a text message that Zeena had returned to Britain along with two relatives. The older daughter, Zaina, was shot in the shoulder and took violent blows to the head during the attack. She underwent two operations and had been placed in a medically induced coma. She has come out of the coma but remains on sedatives and cannot yet talk to investigators, Maillaud wrote Sunday. Depending on what she remembers, the 7-year-old could prove crucial to the investigation.

Meanwhile, French and British police spent a second day searching the couple's U.K. home in Claygate, a suburb of London. Surrey Police said the force is supplying resources from its major crime team, which works jointly with Sussex Police, as well as forensic officers, search teams and translators. The force said dozens of British officers are assisting with the French-led investigation but that the number fluctuates depending on needs. Saad and Iqbal al-Hilli and the two other people killed were each shot twice in the head, along with suffering other wounds. Zeena survived unhurt by hiding under her mother's skirt as some 25 automatic-handgun rounds were fired at the family car.

Source

 

[waltky]

Waitin' for child testimony experts to try to ascertain what happened...

Alps murder prosecutor waits for key witness, 7
Mon, Sep 10, 2012 - Questioning of the seven-year-old British girl considered a “key witness” in the French Alps murders will be carried out by investigators specializing in child testimony.

“The investigators want to speak to her as quickly as possible and with the greatest sensitivity possible,” said prosecutor Eric Maillaud, who has ruled out getting any information from Zainab al-Hilli’s younger sister Zeena, four. Zainab was beaten on the head and suffered a fractured skull as well as being shot in the shoulder during the attack on Wednesday. Left for dead near the car where her parents and grandmother had been killed with two bullets to the head, she was found by a passing British cyclist. For now, Zainab is in an induced coma in hospital.

However, once she is conscious again, and when doctors believe she is ready, investigators will want to talk to her. “It is out of the question to go and interview her in any sort of rushed way. She is extremely traumatized. Only the doctors have the ability to say [when she can be interviewed] and until I get the green light, I will do nothing,” Maillaud said. It is hoped that Zainab, who had been enjoying a camping holiday with her family in the picturesque Haute-Savoie region of eastern France, could give a description of the attacker or attackers. The possibility that she might be able to provide vital clues is regarded as all the more important now that police have given up hope of coaxing anything from her younger sister.

Zeena, who was physically unhurt in the attack, was only found eight hours afterwards, cowering beneath her mother’s skirt in the family car where they were shot. A fourth victim — a local man — is believed to have been killed after stumbling across the scene by chance. “All that time she [Zeena] was hiding, terrorized behind her mother’s legs. She saw nothing,” the prosecutor said. In line with French law on questioning minors, the interview will have to be filmed. Professionals involved in such work try to relax the child to encourage them to tell their story, in particular by using open-ended questions. “The idea is to lead the child to say things without asking too many questions. Often a child wants to please and there is a tendency to say: ‘Yes.’ This is tragic for an investigation,” Maillaud said.

Problems are compounded in the case of Zainab because of the need for a translater and possible memory loss she might have suffered because of her severe head injuries. In the meantime, Maillaud said Zeena was “benefiting from all the psychological support available” in the hospital where she was being treated. Relatives from Britain arrived in France on Saturday to see the two girls. Maillaud, speaking to reporters in Annecy, France, said he could not give further details for security reasons, but added that the children were as well as could be expected. In the longer term, he said, it was hoped they would return to live with family members. “Obviously at a certain time, the only legitimate destination would be in the arms of family,” he said.

Alps murder prosecutor waits for key witness, 7 - Taipei Times

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Alps shootings: Zainab al-Hilli brought out of coma
9 September 2012 - Police have continued to search the al-Hilli family home in Surrey

A seven-year-old girl shot and injured in an attack in the French Alps which left her parents dead has been brought out of a coma. French prosecutor Eric Maillaud said Zainab al-Hilli, from Surrey, is still under sedation and will not be able to be questioned for several more days. But police hope she will will eventually be able provide more information about the shootings. Mr Maillaud said her four-year-old sister Zeena has returned to the UK. Zeena lay undiscovered for eight hours after her parents, a woman thought to be her grandmother and a local cyclist died in Wednesday's attack in Chevaline. Mr Maillaud said: "She returned to the UK by air. On arrival she was put under the care of the authorities and the social services."

In an earlier briefing, Mr Maillaud told reporters Zeena had been interviewed, but he did not see a need to speak to her again as she "did not see anything". Two relatives of the girls had travelled to France with a British social worker and police family liaison officers. Meanwhile, police have spent a second day searching the family's home in Claygate. French and British investigators, including Surrey Police firearms officers, started examining the home of Saad al-Hilli, 50, on Saturday as part of an attempt to establish a motive for the murders which took place during the family's camping holiday. In France, police returned to the scene of the crime and widened their area of investigation, Mr Maillaud said. "We are trying to see how those who committed these acts were able to get away," he added.

Ballistics details

French police have also asked their Italian and Swiss counterparts to help in the hunt for the killers. Mr al-Hilli's wife, Iqbal, and a 74-year-old woman who held a Swedish passport and who is reported to be Mr al-Hilli's mother-in-law, were killed during the attack in Chevaline, close to the tourist destination of Lake Annecy, on Wednesday. The fourth victim, a cyclist whose body was found near the car after apparently stumbling across the attack, has been named as 45-year-old Sylvain Mollier. In Annecy on Saturday, the French prosecutor told a news conference that the post-mortem examinations on the victims had been completed on Friday night. "All four were killed by several bullets and all four were hit twice in the head," Mr Maillaud said. The prosecutor, who had previously said 25 shots were fired in total, told reporters that officers had discovered more information about the ballistics but the details would not be disclosed publicly.

Caution urged

A couple of days after the killings, French police said that a possible dispute over money between Mr al-Hilli and his brother, Zaid, was one of the lines of inquiry in the investigation. This was based on credible information coming from the British police, they said. But Mr Maillaud has since said that Zaid al-Hilli, who denied to UK police there was any dispute over "financial matters", would be interviewed "as a witness" by French officers "just like any other family member". "Everyone talks about a dispute between the brothers as if it was an established fact. The brother says there was no dispute so let us remain cautious about that," he said. Flowers have been left at the scene of the shooting in France, while floral tributes from neighbours continued to be placed at the al-Hilli home during the day on Saturday.

The vicar of Claygate, the Reverend Philip Plyming, said in a statement: "I, and the church community of Claygate, share the shock felt by so many in the village and beyond at the recent tragic events in France." He said that during Sunday's church services there would be prayers for the al-Hilli family, "as well as all those affected by the news". Speaking to BBC News on Sunday morning, one churchgoer said: "Today in church we'll see a lot of emotion and a lot of prayers and the community drawing together. "And I know if the little girls come back here, there'll be so much support for whoever's looking after them."

BBC News - Alps shootings: Zainab al-Hilli brought out of coma

 

[bigrebnc1775]

Maybe they need less gun control.

 

[Swagger]

Or just more muslim control.

 

[strollingbones]

i have been following this story.....i am not sure why they are trying to put this on the uncle...but we shall find out when they talk to the 7 yr old....as far as the 4 yr old they did not find her till they began to move the bodies...she had hidden herself and was motionless....poor thing...i cant imagine the trauma that child has endured...

we can 2nd guess all we want...none of us know how we would react at a scene like this

 

[Mr. H.]

God alps those who alps themselves.
-Groucho Marx

 

[waltky]

Family all tore up about Alps shooting...

Alps shooting: Saad al-Hilli family 'heartbroken'
12 September 2012 - French prosecutor Eric Maillaud says "a number of questions still exist in Britain"

The relatives of a British man and his family killed in the French Alps last week have said they are "heartbroken" by the "shocking crime". A Foreign Office statement from the family said they hoped the perpetrators would be "brought swiftly to justice." Saad al-Hilli, 50, was shot with his wife, mother-in-law, and a passing cyclist while on holiday. His two daughters survived the attack. The victims' bodies have now been returned to their families.

Speaking for the first time, Ahmed al-Saffar - a close relative - said in an FCO statement: "The victim's family and I are heartbroken by this shocking crime and we have been touched by the expressions of sympathy from people all over the world. "The victim's family are of Iraqi-Arabic origin. We are very grateful for the support provided by the British, French and Iraqi authorities during this difficult time. We hope that those responsible for the deaths of our loved ones are brought swiftly to justice. "In the meantime, we would ask that the media understand that as a family we need time to grieve and we would therefore request that they respect our privacy at this intensely difficult time."

Forensic examinations of the bodies have now been completed and they have been returned to their relatives. French investigators, assisted by British police officers, started examining the Claygate home of Mr al-Hilli on Saturday as part of an attempt to establish a motive for the murders. A French investigating judge and a prosecutor are due to join them in the UK on Thursday. French prosecutor Eric Maillaud said co-operation between French and British police was important because "a great number of clues will be in the UK". He said he would be meeting British detectives and Crown Prosecution Service officials on Thursday.

But he said sometimes the language barrier between French and British police was slowing inquiries down. Mr Maillaud said Mr al-Hilli's daughter, seven-year-old Zainab, who has now been brought out of an induced coma, was a "key witness" and the "only person alive who saw what happened". He added the investigation, which involves 40 French officers, would not be based purely on Zainab's evidence and she was still in "a delicate condition". Mr Maillaud said Mr al-Hilli's ethnic origins were being examined: "The fact that he was born in Iraq, that he had family in Iraq, of course that's something that is of interest and we are asking ourselves if there is a link between that and his death. "There are specialised people as far as Iraq is concerned who are looking at it, in other words, people who know who to contact in order to be able to work with that country so, for example, we have a security attache we are working with."

More BBC News - Alps shooting: Saad al-Hilli family 'heartbroken'

 

[waltky]

Scene looked like a slasher movie...

Alps shootings cyclist 'feared' attacker still around
13 September 2012 - Brett Martin told the BBC that the scene of the shootings "was like something out of a Hollywood movie"

The ex-RAF pilot who found a British family murdered in the French Alps feared "some nutter" with a gun could still be nearby to shoot him next. Brett Martin, from East Sussex, helped Zainab al-Hilli, seven, after the attack which claimed the lives of her parents, grandmother and a local man. He told the BBC he made the difficult decision to leave her bleeding on the ground while he went to seek help. Meanwhile, a French prosecutor has said the motive has its "origins" in the UK. Eric Maillaud was speaking outside Woking police station in Surrey after arriving with the French judge leading the inquiry.

French and British police are continuing to search the Claygate, Surrey, home of Saad al-Hilli, 50, who was shot with his dentist wife Iqbal, 47, mother-in-law, 74, and passing cyclist Sylvain Mollier, 45, in Chevaline, close to the tourist destination of Lake Annecy. Zainab and her four-year-old sister Zeena both survived the attack on 5 September during their camping holiday. Mr Martin said he initially believed there had been a car accident after coming across the scene while cycling in the forest area.

Police protection

He told the BBC the car's engine was running when he arrived and he had to break a window on the vehicle to switch it off. "At first I thought there's been a terrible accident between a cyclist and a car because there was a cyclist on the ground, more or less in front of the car, but there were things that didn't quite match because the cyclist's bike wasn't beside him, so as the minutes went on I started to change my opinion," he said.

He saw three bodies in the car, and once he realised a crime had taken place, he was worried who might still be around. "There was a lot of blood and heads with bullet holes in them," he said. "I've never seen people who've been shot before... but it seemed to me just like a Hollywood scene, and if someone had said 'cut' and everybody got up and walked away, that would have been it, but unfortunately it was real life. "I then started scanning the woods to see if there was some nutter or who knows what with a gun and I was going to be the next person shot."

More BBC News - Alps shootings cyclist 'feared' attacker still around

 

[waltky]

Girl may be able to identify the shooter...

Alps shootings survivor's return to UK offers ray of light in complex case
Friday 14 September 2012 - Investigators say Zainab al-Hilli is key witness to unexplained killing of her mother, father and grandmother

At about 8am on Friday, almost nine days after she was rushed to Grenoble university hospital in a state which police later described as somewhere "between life and death", Zainab al-Hilli was whisked away from France by British police and taken to a secret location in the UK. Her departure was a rare ray of light in the otherwise unrelentingly bleak story of her family's sudden, brutal and as yet unexplained killing in the French Alps. Not only was her survival against all the odds, but it also reportedly enabled her to give investigators a key piece of witness testimony from the massacre, in a secluded clearing beside a forest road, of her mother, father and grandmother. According to police sources quoted by AFP and a French television station, the seven-year-old told investigators before leaving hospital that she had seen only one "baddie" during the attack that killed Saad al-Hilli, his wife, Iqbal, her mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, and French cyclist Sylvain Mollier.

Public prosecutor Eric Maillaud warned this week that investigators could not depend on any evidence which might be given by Zainab – but her statement, if officially confirmed, is highly significant nonetheless. She is, as he has said, the only living person who actually saw what happened. And the inquiry, now spread across four countries and occupying dozens of officers on both sides of the Channel, has so far raised many more questions than there are, as yet, answers. At a press conference in Annecy this week before he headed to Britain for meetings with police, Maillaud said there were three leads but no suspect, and warned that such cases could often take "two years, three years or 10 years" to crack. "It's not like the American TV series [CSI]," he added, with a hint of irritation, "where they solve everything in 45 minutes."

It is perhaps testament to the other-worldly horror of what awaited them on the winding Combe d'Ire forest road near Chevaline on Wednesday afternoon last week that both main witnesses who stumbled on the crime scene also used the prism of sensationalised fiction to describe it. "There was no sound. It was like in a film," Philippe Didierjean, a French hiker, told Le Parisien. "One of those TV series where everything starts with a murder. Except this time we were the actors and we couldn't change channels with a remote control." Before him, inside their maroon BMW with the engine still revving, had lain the bodies of Saad al-Hilli, a 50-year-old British-Iraqi engineer, his wife, a 47-year-old dentist, and his 74-year-old Swedish-Iraqi mother-in-law. Mollier, a 45-year-old father of three from the nearby village of Ugine, was lying dead on the road.

Unbeknown at that time to Didierjean and to Brett Martin, an RAF veteran believed to have been the first on the scene, four-year-old Zeena al-Hilli was hiding beneath the skirts of her mother inside the footwell of the car. She would not be discovered by police for another eight hours. The family, from Claygate, Surrey, had been on the fifth day of their camping holiday near Lake Annecy. In the immediate aftermath, locals were shocked and, understandably, concerned for their own safety. "I thought it was a guy who wanted to let rip," said Paul Ducher, a farmer mucking out his cowshed in Chevaline. He and many others feared that one seemingly random shooting spree could quite easily be followed by another. Before long, however, that initial panic ebbed away as indications grew that these were more likely to have been planned killings, the roots of which lay far away from Chevaline. "This goes way beyond us," said Martial, Ducher's neighbour.

More Alps shootings survivor's return to UK offers ray of light in complex case | World news | The Guardian

 

[waltky]

Wonder if Mrs. Mollier's lover shot `em?...

French Alps murders: Cyclist 'was shot first'
19 October 2012 - Police suggest the killer of the Hilli family behaved ruthlessly but without logic

Police investigating the shooting of a British family in the French Alps believe the cyclist also found dead at the scene was shot first, according to a leaked provisional scenario. Sylvain Mollier was hit by the first bullets, the report leaked to the French Le Parisien newspaper suggests. The killer then shot Saad al-Hilli, his wife and mother-in-law while they sat in their car. French investigators suggest the killer was acting alone. The family, from Surrey, were on a camping holiday on the shores of Lake Annecy when they were killed. The report details how forensic tests suggest Mr Hilli was outside the car with his seven-year-old daughter Zeinab when the shooting started and had attempted to escape with his family before being shot, the BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says.

Without logic

In panic, Mr Hilli reversed the car into a bank of earth surrounding the remote car park above the hamlet of Chevaline, the report suggests, trapping the back axle and preventing his escape. Zeinab was also shot in the shoulder and was struck with the gun, but survived. The killer then returned to Mr Mollier, who had been wounded by the first shots, police believe. The killer apparently missed her four-year-old sister Zeena who was found hiding under the skirts of her dead mother and grandmother the following day.

Police described the killer as behaving ruthlessly, but without much logic, a pattern of behaviour they suggest is not consistent with a professional hitman. The report does not suggest investigators are any closer to learning the identity or motive of the killer. French and British police have formed a joint task force to investigate Mr Hilli's work as an engineer, his family connections and links to Iraq, where he was born.

Innocent bystander

It also remains unclear whether the Hilli family were the intended targets. Early on in the investigation Mr Mollier, who lived near the site of the shootings, was characterised by French chief prosecutor in the case, Eric Maillaud, as an innocent bystander in "the wrong place at the wrong time". But local police later said they were open to the theory that the 45-year-old father of three had been the target of the killer, though they provided no evidence to support this. Mr Mollier worked for a subsidiary of a company called Areva Group, producing metals for use in constructing nuclear reactors. The company has a research and development centre in the nearby town of Ugine.

He was reported missing by his wife when he failed to return home from his cycle ride. Speaking earlier this month, Mr Maillaud warned there was no hope of solving the murders "in the near future". "There are lines of inquiry but each raises so many questions and nothing suggests there will be a quick solution," he said. Christian Fraser says the leaked report does not dispel French police's current working theory that the gunman was local and a "lone wolf".

BBC News - French Alps murders: Cyclist 'was shot first'

 

[strollingbones]

i guess the little girl couldnt tell them much....or has blocked it out....

 

[waltky]

Cloak and dagger intrigue in the Alps...

Claims emerge Alps murder victim may have had access to part of Saddam Hussein's fortune
27 Oct 2012 - A British engineer murdered in the French Alps may have had access to part of a multi-million pound fortune once belonging to Saddam Hussein, it has been claimed.

The possibility was raised by German secret agents working on the international enquiry into the quadruple killing close to Lake Annecy on September 5. Iraqi-born Saad Al-Hilli, 50, died in a blaze of gunfire alongside his wife Iqbal, 47, his mother-in-law Suhaila Al-Allaf, 74, and Sylvain Mollier, 45, a French cyclist. Since the massacre in an isolated wooden layby on September 5th, police and prosecutors have been at a loss to establish a motive for the bloodshed. But now intelligence officials based in Berlin have uncovered evidence that Mr Al-Hilli may have had access to cash which belonged to the former Iraqi dictator.

This raises the possibility that sinister forces specifically targeted Mr Al-Hilli as a means of gaining access to part of the enormous wealth that Saddam hid around the world, and especially in Switzerland. Specialist police were last week questioning Geneva-based bankers about the Al-Hilli’s assets, while financial records in countries including the USA have also been requested. It has already been established that Mr Al-Hilli was in dispute with his older brother, 53-year-old Zaid Al-Hilli, over the will of their father, Kadhim, who died around a year ago in Spain. Until now it was thought that the money under dispute came from Kadhim’s property dealing and other business interests.

But the German agents have now told their French anti-terrorist counterparts that cash deposited in an Al-Hilli account in Geneva originally came from Saddam. Kadhim, a former factory owner, left Baghdad in the late 1970s with his wife, Fasiha, and two boys, after allegedly falling foul of Saddam's Ba'ath Party. The family settled in Pimlico, central London, with any accounts containing money given to Kadhim by Saddam allegedly frozen after Kadhim was struck off a "list of beneficiaries", according to the new German intelligence. But the clear implication is that Kadhim may not have fallen out with Saddam at all, and was in fact being used to get money out of Iraq on behalf of the dictator, who was always making plans in case he was overthrown.

MORE

 

[percysunshine]

What...thats it?

Give us the end of the novel...

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Mebbe he killed `em to cover up the fraud...

Alps al-Hilli family murders: Man charged in fraud inquiry
13 November 2012 - Mr al-Hilli was originally from Iraq but held British citizenship

A man suspected of trying to access the bank accounts of the family of an engineer murdered in the French Alps has been charged with fraud. Saad al-Hilli, 50, from Claygate in Surrey, was shot dead along with his wife, mother-in-law and a cyclist near Chevaline, Lake Annecy, on 5 September. Abiodun David John allegedly tried to access accounts in the name of al-Hilli family members after the killings. Mr John, 33, is due to appear at Guildford Magistrates' Court later. He is accused of eight counts of fraud by false representation.

Surrey Police could not confirm whether the accounts belonged to Mr al-Hilli himself and stressed the fraud charges were not linked to the murder investigation. A Surrey Police spokeswoman said: "Abiodun David John was arrested at an address in Salford, Greater Manchester in October. "He returned on bail today (Tuesday) where he was charged with eight counts of fraud by false representation which are alleged to have taken place between July and September this year."

Mr al-Hilli's dentist wife Iqbal, 47, her mother, Suhaila Al-Allaf, 74, and passing cyclist Sylvain Mollier were killed in the gun attack. The Iraqi-born engineer's daughters Zainab, seven, and Zeena, four, survived. About 100 police officers in the UK and France are investigating the four murders.

BBC News - Alps al-Hilli family murders: Man charged in fraud inquiry

 

[skye]

Who gives a fricking fig about the Alps .... honestly


...TY for posting anyway

 

[waltky]

Still no motive in Alps shooting...

French Alps shooting: Prosecutor still baffled by motive for al-Hilli murders
17 November 2012 - It is now thought Mr al-Hilli tried to escape the killer when his car became stuck

The prosecutor probing the deaths of three members of a British family in the French Alps has told the BBC there is "still no motive" for the killings. Eric Maillaud said all lines of inquiry into the deaths of Saad al-Hilli, his wife Iqbal, her mother Suhaila al-Allaf and a French cyclist "remain open". Sixty officers from the gendarmerie are working on the Annecy inquiry, which spans seven countries. Mr al-Hilli's daughters Zainab and Zeena survived September's shooting. Two months on, the Gendarme continue the hunt for answers. Mr Maillaud told me: "We are further than day one, but still no motive." "When I have the motive, then I'll have my suspect. But for now, all lines of inquiry remain open."

The gendarmerie officers are working around the clock on the case, but it is a hugely complex inquiry. It spans seven countries; France, Switzerland, Italy, the UK, Sweden and Spain, where Mr al-Hilli's father had an apartment. Statements have been taken from about 800 witnesses, thousands of hours of film and images from the toll booths and roadside cameras have to be analysed, and of course, there is the forensic evidence. Mr Maillaud added: "Without doubt we are looking for someone who has killed before, someone who puts no value on human life. "We are not sure whether that means it's a professional hit but if it was done on a contract it was very badly done."

There is also a working hypothesis on how the events unfolded, though Mr Maillaud would confirm only scant detail. It appears Zainab and her father were outside the car when the gunman approached, firing, from the forest trail above them. The French cyclist Sylvain Mollier was already at the lay-by or at least close by. In the panic Mr al-Hilli bolted for his car. He reversed in a u-turn at such speed that perhaps he ran over the fallen Mr Mollier. The car slammed into the bank at the rear of the lay-by where the axle became stuck. And the rest we know. Saad, his wife Iqbal, his mother-in-law Suhaila and the cyclist were shot at least twice at close range. The police have ruled out the idea that Mr Mollier was the target. "We are 99% sure he was nothing to do with it," Mr Maillaud said.

'Unbalanced people'