British Alps murders: new reconstruction to take place
The case of the Chevaline killings remains unsolved more than 12 years later
The reconstruction is being organised by the Nanterre cold-case judge and Chambéry gendarmerie
M G White/Shutterstock
A new reconstruction into the murder of three Britons and a French man in the mountain village of Chevaline is set to take place, as investigators continue to work on the case.
On September 5, 2012, three members of a British family of Iraqi origin and a passing cyclist were found shot dead on the Combe d'Ire forest road in Chevaline, Haute-Savoie (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes).
The father, Saad al-Hilli, 50, an Iraqi-born British engineer; his wife Iqbal, 47; and mother-in-law, Suhaila al-Allaf, 74 were killed by bullets to the head, and found in the family BMW. The couple’s two daughters - aged four and seven at the time - were present and found hiding in the car. One of them was injured, and the other unhurt.
A cyclist – Sylvain Mollier, 45, a father from the local area, who appeared to have no connections to the family – was also killed, having been shot seven times.
The murders are thought to have taken place between 3.29pm and 3.40pm, and 21 bullets were fired in total.
Cold case reconstruction
The reconstruction will take place on October 17, organised by the Nanterre cold-case judge in charge of the case, and gendarmerie at the Chambéry research unit. It will take place at a disused air base in the Île-de-France region.
The aim of the reconstruction, and the potentially-new information on which it may be based, have not been made public at this stage. The victims’ lawyers have been summoned, but it is not clear if any of the witnesses have been called to take part.
These include a second cyclist, also from England, who arrived at the car park immediately after the killings, and a motorcyclist from Lyon, who passed by the site just before the murders.
Read more: Arrest made nine years after quadruple murder in French Alps
Read more: Update: What is known about man arrested over French Alps shootings?
‘A sign of the investigating judge's perseverance’
The surviving daughters’ uncle, Zaid al-Hilli, has said that he welcomes the new reconstruction, and “sees this initiative as an encouraging sign of the investigating judge's perseverance”.
The case has already been the subject of several reconstructions, with investigators having forensically considered the possible movements of the victims and witnesses on several occasions.
On September 30, 2021, almost all witnesses were summoned for a general re-enactment. Some statements revealed small inconsistencies, including the timing of the motorcyclist’s passing, and whether he was in the car park at the time of the shooting. He was taken into custody at the time, but later released when this scenario was ruled out.
Read also: French Alps killings: motorbike rider released without charge
Other investigative leads include searches for the murder weapon, which has never been found. Ballistics experts have established that the killer used a very distinctive gun; a collector's pistol used by the Swiss army in the 1930s. It was a Luger P06-29, calibre 7.65 parabellum.
Extensive forensic examinations have narrowed the search to a series of just 940 pistols, which were manufactured in 1935.
Investigators are also awaiting the results of DNA tests and new analyses of fingerprints.
Read also: 2012 Annecy ‘Alps murder’ of British family: police reminded about gun
Read also: New DNA tests ordered in quadruple British murder case in Alps
