Reconstruction to be staged 12 years after murder of British family in the Alps
Words by producer Zahra Manji
The murder of a British family in the Alps - one of France's most notorious unsolved crimes - will reportedly be reconstructed this week, 12 years after they were killed.
Three members of the same family, Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife, Iqbal, 47, and her mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were found dead in the village of Chevaline overlooking Lake Annecy in September 2012.
A cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, 45 was also shot dead. Their murders have never been solved.
The daughters of al-Hilli, aged four and seven at the time, survived the horrific shooting.
Now, 12 years on, police are reportedly staging a reconstruction at a disused air base outside Paris in a bid to find those responsible.
RTL, the French broadcaster, reported that several people involved in the case had been ordered to attend Thursday's reconstruction, including lawyers.
Eric Maillaud, the Annecy prosecutor who led the inquiry into the murders, admitted the case may never be solved.
Here's a look back at the unsolved murders and the investigation that followed.
What happened?
The three family members were found dead in their car on September 5, 2012.
The al-Hillis’ daughters survived the attack. Zainab, then seven, suffered serious injuries after being shot, while her sister, Zeena, then four, was uninjured, after sheltering under her mother’s skirt in the back seat of the car where she lay undiscovered for eight hours.
A French cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, was also shot dead. He was said to be involved in a dispute over his partner, Claire Schutz's, family-owned pharmacy business worth millions.
What did the original police investigation reveal?
The motive for the killings remains unknown more than a decade on, with initial investigations putting victim Saad al-Hilli as the primary target.
Detectives examined claims that victim Saad al-Hilli was involved in a money feud with his brother, public prosecutor Eric Maillaud previously told AFP. But he cautioned against drawing conclusions too early, saying it was difficult to see how such a quarrel could "pass from a financial dispute to a quadruple murder".
Other lines of enquiry have suggested a financial feud involving Sylvain Mollier was also a motive explored which could have put him as the primary target and the Al-Hilli family were merely tragic witnesses to another killing.
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Has anyone been arrested?
Several suspects have previously been detained in connection with the case, including al-Hilli’s brother Zaid, who was arrested on suspicion of murder in 2013 but later told there was insufficient evidence to charge him with a crime.
On the ninth anniversary of the killings, almost all witnesses were summoned to the car park where the shootings took place for a reconstruction. It led to the arrest of a motorcyclist who was seen close to the scene of the shootings. He was later cleared of involvement.
What's happening now?
Detectives are now understood to be staging a reconstruction this Thursday on a disused air base as part of the ongoing investigation. RTL said the victims’ lawyer sees "this initiative as an encouraging sign of the perseverance of the investigating judge”.
The prosecutor's office told ITV News it could not comment on the ongoing investigation.
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