Girls may hold key to Alps murder mystery
PARIS — One sister is a “key witness” still under guard in a French hospital, her health too fragile for questioning. The other escaped the gunman who killed their parents by hiding beneath her dead mother’s skirts, but can’t explain what happened during their French Alps vacation.
The young British sisters, who survived the mysterious shootings a week ago, are the only known witnesses to the crime. And experts say 4-year-old Zeena and 7-yearold Zaina could be the key to solving the case.
But it’s a delicate task. There are plenty of examples of investigators botching interviews with child wit- nesses, sometimes with devastating results.
“Children that age are capable of providing tremendously accurate long-term memories,” said Stephen Ceci, a professor of developmental psychology at Cornell University who has studied child witnesses. However, he said, children’s memories are susceptible to corruption if interviews go badly at the outset of an investigation.
Eric Maillaud, the prosecutor leading the investigation in France, told the Associated Press that the younger girl described hearing a shout that might have come from an assailant, but could not specify a language.
“What can you expect from a terrorized 4-year-old girl?” he added.
As for the older girl, Maillaud said she had reached “the age of reason” but was still unlikely to unravel the case.