Police start searching house of Britons shot dead in French Alps

1 of 4. French police officers speak with their British counterparts as they arrive at the home of Saad al-Hilli in Claygate, south of London September 8, 2012. Police investigating a gruesome family murder in the French Alps are looking at several theories, including that the British man shot dead in his car with his wife and another woman was involved in a financial feud with his brother.

Credit: Reuters/Olivia Harris

PARIS | Sat Sep 8, 2012 6:32pm BST

PARIS (Reuters) - French and British police began searching the house on Saturday of a British man shot dead in the French Alps with his wife and another woman and a state prosecutor said the man's brother would be officially questioned as part of the investigations.

Forensics experts who performed autopsies on the three victims and a passing local cyclist who was also shot dead, determined all four had been shot twice directly in the head.

"The four people were killed by several bullets and ... were victims of shots straight to the head," State Prosecutor Eric Maillaud told reporters.

Maillaud confirmed the people killed in the car were a couple from Britain - on a camping holiday in the Annecy region with their two daughters - and an older woman.

The girls, aged seven and four, survived and are under police protection in hospital after the shootings on a remote forest road near the village of Chevaline on Wednesday.

Maillaud said a family feud over money was one of several motives being considered for the murders and the brother of Saad al-Hilli, the Iraqi-born British driver, would be formally questioned.

He said he understood the brother had denied any dispute with Hilli, who lived in Surrey, south of London.

"It's clear that during an investigation we will try and find out as much about the life of the Hilli family," Maillaud said.

The prosecutor said investigators had gleaned little from their "moving" chat on Friday with the four-year-old girl, who is in a psychiatric hospital in the city of Grenoble, accompanied by a nurse and British embassy staff.

He said members of the family had arrived on site, but declined to say who they were.

Police hope Hilli's seven-year-old daughter, who was still in an artificial coma in a Grenoble hospital after suffering serious skull fractures, will be able to eventually provide more information.

"The two girls are doing as well as can be expected," Maillaud said.

(Reporting by Johnny Cotton in Chevaline; Additional reporting and writing by John Irish; Editing by Sophie Hares)
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Comments (1)
Herby wrote:
This was a professional hit from my point of view, too professional for a ‘hired’ hit by a person after some financial interests that have been mentioned. For a start there would have been a spotter tracking the family and then the operators who carried out the attack, a motorbike, a 4×4 and the spotters car amount to at least 3 people, planning, equipment and escape logistics etc. This was not a contract killing unless 10s of millions were at stake as this hit would have cost a very large sum of money, 3 people risking prison etc. A dead end track, the family all in the car, even though the victim tried to do a u-turn he was then blocked in and there was nowhere to go and it was over. The ex-RAF chap is crucial, did he see the family BMW, if he did it was likely being followed, if not and he only saw a 4×4 and motorbike then there was a spotter following the family who called in the others when the family were on the track in the car. The 8 year old looks like she tried to run, but I think she tried to attack the assassins and she must be protected. My view is this is a government backed hit and with other hits so crude and obvious like the one in Dubai where nobody has ever faced justice even though we have pictures and video of the perpetrators I don’t hold out much hope of any outcome to this murderous rampage of a family. In a way I hope I am wrong about Agency involvement and that this was a contract killing because otherwise we are heading to real conflict. My heart goes out to the children, friends and family but the children and the RAF chap must be protected at all cost.

Sep 08, 2012 7:26pm BST  --  Report as abuse
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