A British schoolgirl left for dead after a gunfight in the Alps that cost her parents’ lives remembers “her attacker’s white skin and bare hands,” it has emerged.
Zainab Al-Hilli was only seven when she was shot in the shoulder and hit over the head during the infamous attack in France almost exactly a decade ago.
5
5
Now she’s 16 and – according to dramatic revelations in Le Parisien newspaper this weekend – she was extensively interviewed by British detectives in June this year.
Although she previously recalled seeing “one bad man”, Zainab has now provided more precise details that may be help to finally solve the cold case.
It came when sources close to the case sensationally told Le Parisien that: Brett Martin, an Englishman who encountered the corpses while cyclingis still considered a suspect.
Mr Martin, a former RAF officer who is now 63 years old, was the first to discover Zainab staggering around a BMW car in a remote rural area near Lake Annecy, in eastern France, on September 5, 2012.
Dead inside she was father, Saad Al-Hilli’50, her mother Ikbal Al-Hilli, 47, and her grandmother, Suhaila Al-Allaf, 74.
All had been shot, along with French cyclist Sylvain Mollier, a 45-year-old father of three, whose body was next to the car.
Zainab’s four-year-old sister, Zeena Al-Halli, was later found alive and well, hidden in the back of the BMW.
French investigators told Le Parisien that Zainab had offered “a testimony of unique precision about the drama” in June.
She told how the family was on vacation and enjoyed a drive through the mountainous countryside near the village of Chevaline.
They came to the ‘edge of a small potholed road’ and Zainab got out of the car with her father.
She remembered seeing cyclist Sylvian Mollier, and shots rang out as other members of the family got out of the car.
Zainab was ordered back into the car by her parents, but then the gunman grabbed the girl from behind.
“She thought it was her father at first, but then she saw the white skin and bare hands of her attacker and realized it couldn’t be him.
Zainab struggled but couldn’t get out of the grip. She said the killer was wearing long trousers and a leather jacket.”
Zainab was then beaten with a gun and blacked out after sustaining multiple facial injuries.
She later made a full recovery and returned to the UK where she now lives.
Mr Martin, who owned a holiday home in the Annecy area, first thought he had encountered a traffic accident but then saw bullet holes and casings on the floor.
Cell phone reception was poor, so he had to cycle off to alert the police after placing Zainab in the recovery position.
SUSPECTS
Le Parisien has now obtained unpublished investigative documents that suggest the killer may have been unknown to all of his or her victims.
Gendarmes working on investigating judges have suggested that there are now… three suspects who may be responsible for the massacre: Mr Maarten; a Lyon businessman named Pierre C.; and a third man identified only as suspect X.
Mr Martin and Pierre C. deny any wrongdoing and claim to know nothing about the murder, Le Parisien said.
Phone records and other records, combined with statements from people who were in the area at the time of the attack, suggest the multiple murders lasted no more than a minute and a half.
Pierre C, who was on the bike that day, was arrested in January this year, but then released without charge.
Lise Bonnet, Annecy’s prosecutor, originally said there were “inconsistencies” with the man’s alibi.
Pierre C. was the “mysterious motorcyclistSeen as he drove away from the crime scene, looking lost.
An e-fit photo of a “prime suspect motorcyclist” with a goatee beard was released in November 2013, showing him in a distinctive black helmet, of which only about 8,000 were made.
The image, mainly produced by two forest rangers who spoke to the man briefly, eventually led to the first arrest of the motorcyclist in 2015.
Martin told detectives he saw the motorcyclist pull away from the crime scene, but made no effort to raise the alarm.
Martin’s testimony about “the mysterious motorcyclist” is considered crucial to the investigation, but according to Le Parisien, gendarmes have suggested that Mr Martin may have used it to “lead investigators into a malfunctioning theory”.
‘COMPLIED FAMILY HISTORY’
The gendarmes are also “intrigued by the fact that he [Marin] brought the clothes he was wearing on the day of the drama to England to wash them, when he has a second home in Haute-Savoie with a washing machine,” said Le Parisien.
Haute-Savoie is the Alpine department – the French equivalent of a county – in which Annecy is located.
Le Parisien reports that the police have thoroughly investigated the life of Martin, 63.
It said: “What emerges is a complicated family history and some very questionable jokes about Muslims, but nothing that would link him to the murders.”
The Al-Hillis had an Iraqi Muslim background, and this has led to theories that they may have been pursued by enemies with ties to Iraq.
Le Parisien gave no further details on the suspected X theory, saying he could be anyone from a local hiker with a gun to a motorcyclist or cyclist.
The so-called Alps Murders case has given rise to multiple theories, from contract murders to family feuds, but no one has yet been charged in connection with the crimes.
In January, a investigation into the alpine family murder descended into farce after a re-arrested suspect was released without charge.
The 57-year-old Frenchman was told he was not allowed to take any further action against the gun killings of Surrey businessman Saad al-Hilli, his wife and his mother-in-law.
Prosecutors in Annecy, France, confirmed that the married father had been excluded from the 10-year investigation. He was not mentioned.
5
5
5