Police reinvestigate killing of British family in the Alps
FRENCH forensic police were yesterday carrying out fresh investigations on the Alpine road where three members of a British family were murdered in a notorious gun attack in 2012.
In a dramatic development to what many had considered a cold case after nine years, magistrates accompanied the specialists, who cordoned off the area near Lake Annecy on Friday.
Their work was being carried out in strict secrecy, with all traffic, including aircraft, banned by court order.
The team are believed to be trying to confirm a theory the Al-Hilli family from Surrey were innocent bystanders in a gangland hit. Police are also “examining inconsistencies in the testaments of witnesses”. On September 5, 2012 businessman Saad Al-Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal, 47, and mother-inlaw Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were gunned down in their BMW.
The couple’s daughter, Zeena, four, hid in the footwell and was unscathed. Her sister Zainab, seven, was shot and beaten but recovered.
Cyclist Sylvain Mollier also died in the bloodbath, after being blasted seven times at point blank range.
Earlier this year, detectives said they were investigating a possible link between the murders and a bungling gang of contract killers based in Paris.
Pistol rounds found at the home of one member – a former police intelligence officer – were of the same calibre as those fired by the antique Luger PO6 used to murder the Al-Hillis, who lived in Claygate.
If the gang was involved, it would be more likely that Mr Mollier, 45, was the target, say investigators.
He was a welder in a subsidiary of the Areva nuclear power group but tensions in his personal life are more likely to have been a motive.
Newly appointed prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis said the “preservation of physical evidence” was a forensic priority. Baffled detectives have considered many theories for the killings. These range from Mr Al-Hilli’s past life in Iraq – including potential financial links to the country’s madman former leader Saddam Hussein – to an assassination by a “lone wolf” psychopath.