Major breakthrough in unsolved massacre homicide of British household and bicycle owner
A major breakthrough in the 14-year “Alps Murders” mystery has emerged after police divers found a rare Luger-style pistol matching the killer’s weapon at the bottom of Lake Annecy
File photo dated 07/09/12 of members of the media surveying the murder scene nea Chevaline in the Haute-Savoie region of south-eastern France where British national Saad Al Hilli, his wife Iqbal and his mother-in-law were found murdered in their BMW car(Image: PA)
A rare pistol of exactly the same type used to kill three members of a British family and a cyclist in France has been found at the bottom of a lake close to the scene of the unsolved crime.
The breakthrough comes as the baffling 14-year-old case dubbed the “Alps Murders” remains unsolved. It was in September 2012 that 50-year-old Surrey engineer Saad al-Hilli was gunned down alongside his wife, Iqbal Al-Hilli, 47, and her mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, 74.
The bloodbath in an isolated layby close to Lake Annecy in eastern France also claimed the life of cyclist Sylvain Mollier, 45. Hand-grip fragments of a rare Luger PO6/29, Parabellum 7.65, were found at the scene, leading forensics experts to conclude that it was the weapon used.
50-year-old Surrey engineer Saad al-Hilli, was gunned down alongside his wife, Iqbal Al-Hilli, 47(Image: family archive)
Now, police divers have found exactly the same kind of Swiss Army sidearm at the bottom of Lake Annecy, which at its deepest is 82 metres (269ft). “It was found in the water last week,” said an investigating source.
“The gun was immediately salvaged, and rushed away for forensic analysis.” The source further shared: “The time it has spent in the water will clearly make analysis extremely complex, but the priority is to work out if it was the one used in the quadruple murder.”
The killer fired 21 bullets in under two minutes, hitting his victims with 17 of them. The Al-Hilli’s seven-year-old daughter, Zainab Al-Hilli, was shot in the shoulder and beaten around the head with the gun, while her sister, Zeena Al-Halli, four, escaped by hiding in the back of the family’s BMW car.
50-year-old Surrey engineer Saad al-Hilli(Image: family archive)
Detectives discovered that the murder weapon was the sort of Luger issued to Swiss soldiers between 1909 and 1947, after being manufactured in either Switzerland or Germany. Sabine Khéris, a magistrate who specialises in cold cases, later narrowed the scope of the inquiry by determining that the gun was built in 1935, when only 940 such Lugers were manufactured.
Ms Khéris said the killer was likely to have been “methodical and calm”, and had undoubtedly received “shoot to kill” training, after performing ‘double taps’ on his victims. A “double tap” involves a shooter hitting a victim with a bullet, and then using another one to confirm a kill.
While DNA was once thought to be completely washed away in deep water, advancements in forensic technology mean DNA profiles can sometimes be recovered. Beyond this, the gun will have a serial number, and this may help investigators track down its precise history, potentially right up until it came into the hands of the murderer.
Experts working for France’s elite cold case unit in the Paris suburb of Nanterre will now re-test the original gun fragments from the scene of the crime, and compare them with the newly discovered pistol. The Al-Hillis, of Claygate, Surrey, originally came from Iraq, and one theory was that their links to the regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein may have been a reason for their murders.
There were also claims that Mr Al-Hilli was involved in a dispute over a family inheritance, but this has been discounted because of a complete lack of evidence. Other theories include the main target having been Mr Mollier, the French cyclist, meaning that the Al-Hillis ended up as collateral damage.
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