France shooting: alleged violent past of son of Alps murder victim

Another plot twist

The son of one of the victims of the British family massacre in France had allegedly attacked his parents and threatened to kill them in the past, it has emerged.

Seven-year-old survivor 'remembers' Alps shooting

Seven-year-old Zainab, the eldest daughter of the British-Iraqi couple shot dead in the French Alps last week, started speaking to investigators after coming out of an induced coma, a British daily has reported.

On Monday the Times quoted an unnamed source as saying Zainab had “expressed fear, said she was terrified and seemed to remember what she had been through”. The same source added that police had “been able to speak to [Zainab] but this was just an initial meeting. They could not go into any detail and the child was very tired.”

The Times exclusive also highlighted a series of “secret meetings” that the slain father took part in days before the grisly murders, quoting people who had observed the family at the Village Camping Europa, one of the two campsites the family stayed in during their French holiday.

Zainab had been in hospital in Grenoble after being bludgeoned over the head and shot in the shoulder during the attack.
French state prosecutor Eric Maillaud had previously said

French Alps shootings: single weapon was 7.65mm pistol, say investigators

The British family murdered while on holiday in the French Alps were all shot with a single weapon, according to investigators.

Ballistic and forensic experts who have examined the bullet casings at the scene say they were fired from a 7.65mm automatic pistol, a medium calibre that is not as powerful as modern 9mm pistols.

Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife, Iqbal, 47, and her mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were each shot twice to the head in their car at a beauty spot near Lake Annecy, in the Haute Savoie, last Wednesday.

Syvain Mollier, 45, a French father of three who appears to have come across the bloodbath while cycling up the mountain path, was shot up to seven times, including twice in the head.

The Hillis two daughters were the only survivors. The eldest, Zainab, aged seven, was shot in the shoulder and beaten around the head, leaving her with a fractured skull. She has been brought out of a medically induced coma and police are waiting to interview her.

Her sister, Zeena, four, who hid for eight hours in the rear footwell

French Alps shootings: police evacuate victims' neighbours

And, the plot thickens.
The 4 year old is not certain of her Grandmother's identity?
Strange....

French police have confirmed that the elderly woman found murdered in the car was Iqbal al-Hilli's mother.

Detectives had struggled to identify the 74-year-old Swedish passport-holder. Zeena, who survived by hiding underneath her dead mother's skirt for eight hours, was able to confirm her parents' identity, telling investigators who showed her photographs: "That's Mummy … and that's Daddy." However, when asked about the older woman, the traumatised child told them it was someone she had not seen often, and of whose identity she was uncertain

Could this have anything to do with the "Man in the suit" reported to have been seen around their camp site?

Surrey police are evacuating neighbours of the murdered engineer Saad al-Hilli after finding "items" at the family home in Claygate, Surrey.

Neighbours living close to the property were prevented from returning to their homes as army bomb disposal officers were called to the scene. The police investigation appeared to focus on a shed or workshop at the bottom of the garden

French Alps shootings: hiker says he thought girl was dead

A French hiker who was one of the first to reach the forest clearing where a British family was murdered has described how the seven-year-old girl, who was shot, badly beaten and left for dead at the scene, showed no sign of life.

The witness, named only as Philippe D, said: "She wasn't responding to our calls. I tapped her hands but she did not respond. I even spoke a few words in English, because I saw the car was registered in Great Britain. But there was nothing. To me, she was dead."

He then went back down the hill leading to the Alpine beauty spot near Lake Annecy to call the emergency services, who discovered the Iraqi-born British engineer Saad al-Hilli, 50, his dentist wife, Iqbal, 47, and her 74-year-old mother dead from bullet wounds in the car. Each of the victims had been shot twice in the head.

The body of a French cyclist who had been shot seven times, twice in the head, was found nearby.

The first to discover the bloodshed was a British former Royal Air Force pilot who was cycling up

Alps shootings: Zainab al-Hilli brought out of coma

Update on the shootings in France

A seven-year-old girl shot and injured in an attack in the French Alps which left her parents dead has been brought out of a coma.

French prosecutor Eric Maillaud said Zainab al-Hilli, from Surrey, is still under sedation and will not be able to be questioned for several more days.

But police hope she will will eventually be able provide more information about the shootings.

Mr Maillaud said her four-year-old sister Zeena has returned to the UK.

Zeena lay undiscovered

Official: Family feud suspected in brutal murder of 4 in French Alps

I think the key word is Iraqi here. Honor killings are something that at least need to be considered here.

(CBS/AP) ANNECY, France - French prosecutors focused Friday on a feud between brothers as they searched for a motive in the slayings of a British-Iraqi family vacationing in the French Alps.

Two young sisters survived the deaths of their parents and an older woman in the family car late Wednesday, as well as a French cyclist whose body was found nearby. The children, apparently the only witnesses to the shootings on an isolated Alpine road, were under police and consular protection Friday, held in separate places.

The girls are being held separately only because the oldest of the 2 was shot in the head and she is in the hospital in a medically induced coma.
The 4 year old has already been traumatized enough, and does not need to see her sister in this state.

Prosecutor Eric Maillaud said British police have reported that the girls' father had been feuding with his brother over money. A family friend said the father of the two men died recently — while public records showed the brother had left the victim's small aeronautics design firm.

"This seems to be credible information coming from the British police. The brother will have to be questioned at length," said Maillaud. "Every lead will be meticulously followed."

It could possibly be over the "rights of the first born" and the jealousy that that entails.
Iraqi's do not hold the same "divide the wealth" tradition that Americans or that of the rest of the "civilized" world do.
I hope for the little girls sake that the Uncle is not involved and am left to wonder if the elderly lady that was killed was the mother of the 2 brothers

But French police said Friday they are not focusing on any particular lead and are still open to the idea that there was more than one person involved in the murder. On Friday, police increased security around the two children — both potential witnesses — fearing that the shooter or shooters may be at large.

Maillaud said Friday that investigators are looking for a green or dark colored 4x4 vehicle and a motorbike in connection with Wednesday's killings. Maillaud also confirmed that the 4-year-old's UK-based uncle is offering his help to British police.

For the first time in nearly two days,

France shootings: Three victims shot in head

Three of the four victims of a shooting in the French Alps were shot in the head, a French prosecutor has said.

A man, named by UK neighbours as Saad al-Hilli, 50, from Surrey, and an elderly woman were found dead in a car. A French cyclist, found nearby, was also shot dead.

An automatic pistol was used, and the killer "targeted" the victims rather than indiscriminately firing into the car.

Zainab, found shot outside the British-registered car, has been transferred to a hospital in the city of Grenoble where she has been placed in a medically-induced coma. She is due to be operated on again.

She was shot once, and had head fractures. "She suffered a violent attack," Mr Maillaud said

France shootings: Girl hid under bodies in car

This poor baby, yesterday it was reported that her sister had died, that report ended up being false, she is in a more stable condition this morning and holding on.

A four-year-old girl has been found hiding inside a British-registered car in which three bodies were discovered eight hours earlier, French police say.

The three are thought to be British - a husband and wife, and a grandmother. They were found near Lake Annecy, a popular tourist destination.

The girl had been under the legs of one of the women. An older girl from the family was found shot outside the car, in a critical condition.

A local cyclist was killed nearby
“She was hidden under the bodies for some eight hours and didn't move for the whole time”

French police say they are shocked and baffled by the brutality of the shooting, in the middle of the afternoon, in a popular tourist region, says the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Annecy.

The girl found away from the car - thought to be seven or eight years old - was shot three times and seriously injured, and the younger daughter - only four - hid beneath her mother and was not even found until midnight, our correspondent says.

In the UK, Surrey police have said they are assisting