Orphaned British schoolgirl whose parents were shot dead in the Alps eight years ago tells reveals new details about killer as detectives ‘investigate THREE new suspects’
- Zainab Al-Hilli was only seven when she was shot in the shoulder and beaten
- Ten years on, Zainab has now provided details that may help solve the cold case
- Her father, Saad Al-Hilli, 50, her mother Ikbal Al-Hilli, 47, and her grandmother, Suhaila Al-Allaf, 74 had all been shot, along with French cyclist Sylvain Mollier
A British schoolgirl left for dead after an Alpine gun massacre which claimed the lives of her parents remembers ‘the white skin and bare hands of her attacker,’ it has emerged.
Zainab Al-Hilli was only seven when she was shot in the shoulder and beaten around the head during the infamous attack almost exactly a decade ago.
Now she is 16 and – according to dramatic revelations in Le Parisien newspaper this weekend – she was interviewed at length by British detectives in June this year.
While she has previously recalled seeing ‘one bad man’, Zainab has now provided more precise details that may help to finally solve the cold case.
Saad and Ikbal al-Hilli with their daughter Zainab when she was three
It came as sources close to the enquiry sensationally told Le Parisien that Brett Martin, an Englishman who came across the dead bodies while out cycling, is still considered a suspect.
Mr Martin, a former RAF officer now aged 63, was the first to discover Zainab staggering around a BMW car in an isolated country layby close to Lake Annecy, in eastern France, on September 5 2012.
Dead inside was her 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 lay alongside the car.
Zainab’s four-year-old sister, Zeena Al-Halli, was later found alive and well, hiding in the back of the BMW.
French investigators told Le Parisien that Zainab in June offered ‘a testimony of unique precision about the drama.’
Surrey businessman Saad al-Hilli, 50, (left) his wife Iqbal, 47, and his mother-in-law Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were gunned down in their BMW car on September 5, 2012, alongside French cyclist Sylvain Mollier, 45, (right) who also died in the bloodbath
She recounted how the family was on holiday, and enjoying a drive through mountainous countryside by the village of Chevaline.
They got to the ‘edge of a small road riddled with potholes,’ and Zainab got out of the car with her father.
She recalled seeing cyclist Sylvian Mollier, and while other members of the family were getting out of the car ‘gunshots rang out.’
Saad al-Hilli, a 50-year-old Iraqi-born British tourist and his wife Iqbal were shot dead in front of their two young daughters in a forest car park close to Lake Annecy, near France’s border with Switzerland
Zainab was ordered back into the car by her parents, but then the shooter grabbed the girl from behind.
‘She first of all thought it was her father, but then saw the white skin and bare hands of her attacker, and realised it couldn’t be him.
‘Zainab struggled but couldn’t get out of the grip. According to her, the killer was wearing long trousers and a leather jacket.’
Zainab was then pistol whipped and blacked out after suffering 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, at first thought he had stumbled across a road traffic accident, but then saw the bullet holes and casings lying on the ground.
Mobile phone reception was poor, so he had to cycle away to alert the police, after putting Zainab in the recovery position.
Le Parisien has now obtained unpublished enquiry documents which suggest that the killer may have been unknown to all his or her victims.
Gendarmes working to examining magistrates have suggested that there are now three suspects who could be responsible for the carnage: Mr Martin; a businessman from Lyon named as Pierre C.; and a third man solely identified as Suspect X.
Mr Martin and Pierre C. deny any wrongdoing, and claim to know nothing about the killing whatsoever, Le Parisien states.
Phone records and other data, combined with statements from people who were in the area at the time of the attack, suggest that the multiple killings took no more than one-and-a-half-minutes.
Pierre C, who was on a motorbike on the day, was taken into custody in January this year, but then released without charge.
Lise Bonnet, the Annecy prosecutor, originally said there had been ‘inconsistencies’ with the man’s alibi.
Pierre C. was the ‘mystery motorcyclist’ seen driving away from the crime scene and looking lost.
An e-fit photo of a ‘prime suspect motorcyclist’ with a goatee beard was released in November 2013 and showed him in a distinctive black helmet, of which only about 8000 were made.
The image, mainly produced by two forest rangers who briefly spoke to the man, finally led to a first arrest of the biker in 2015.
Mr Martin told detectives he saw the motorcyclist coming away from the murder scene, but made no effort to raise the alarm.
Mr Martin’s testimony about ‘the mystery biker’ is considered crucial to the enquiry, but, according to Le Parisien, gendarmes have suggested that Mr Martin may have used it ‘direct investigators to a bad working theory.’
The gendarmes are also ‘intrigued by the fact that he [Marin] brought back to England the clothes he wore on the day of the drama to wash them, when he has a second home in Haute-Savoie with a washing machine’, according to Le Parisien.
Haute-Savoie is the Alpine department – the French equivalent of a county – in which Annecy is located.
During the morning of September 5, 2012, Iqbal, her mother Suhaila and her daughters, Zainab and Zeena, were seen picking apples together.
Around 1pm the family left the campsite and drove towards the village of Chevaline.
After 3:45pm an RAF veteran overtook another cyclist on a heavily forested road south of Chevaline in the French Alps.
Moments later he pulled into a car park and found Mr Mollier lying dead beside the family’s bullet-ridden BMW, which still has its engine running and was in reverse.
He spotted injured Zainab walking towards him before collapsing. He put her in the recovery position and called for help.
The cyclist saw the dead bodies of Saad al-Hilli, his wife Iqbal and his mother in law Suhaila, inside the car, which was locked.
Each of them had been shot twice in the head while Mr Mollier was shot seven times.
Around 4:20pm police arrived but did not disturb the crime scene because forensic experts from Paris were on their way. More than two dozen spent bullet casings were later found near the vehicle.
Zainab was taken to hospital in Grenoble while her sister Zeena remained hidden, cowering under her mother’s legs in the rear footwell for eight hours before she was discovered.
Around 11pm a family who had been camping next to the al-Hilli’s told police the couple had two children leading to a rescue mission involving helicopters and search dogs to find Zeena.
A helicopter fitted with thermal imaging flew over the BMW but failed to detect Zeena.
Around midnight on September 6, the police eventually opened the vehicle’s doors and discovered the four-year-old cowering under her death mother’s legs.
Le Parisien reports that the police have thoroughly investigated the life of Mr Martin, 63.
It reports: What emerges is a complicated family history and some very dubious jokes about Muslims, but nothing that would link him to the murders.’
The Al-Hillis were from an Iraqi Muslim background, and this has led to theories that they may have been pursued by enemies linked to Iraq.
In a detailed interview last year, Mr Martin said: ‘In hindsight I realise I could have been the fifth victim.
‘About 200 or 300 metres from the scene, a motorcycle came very slowly past me. It was a black-clad motorcyclist in a full-face helmet and a Trans Alpine style of bike. I couldn’t see their face and couldn’t even say if they were male or female.
‘When they slowed right down, I thought they were going to stop and talk to me, but then they seemed to change their mind.
‘When you reflect, you think, that’s interesting, because at the very least, he or she would have passed the murder scene.
‘I nickname it my ‘luckiest unlucky day’. I think that if the trigger person had had a few more clips of ammunition, I wouldn’t be here.’
At the time, Mr Martin was staying in his holiday home in the nearby village of Lathuile.
He now trains pilots, and lives in Brighton with his wife, Theresa.
He also crossed paths with Mr Mollier – the cyclist who died – minutes before the killings, and passed a still unidentified car, believed to be a dark grey BMW SUV.
Mr Martin said: ‘Mollier came up the main road on a racing bike. We coincided at the intersection and I turned right immediately behind him.
‘I tried to keep up but his pace was much faster, so I eased off and he was out of sight within three or four minutes. About halfway up the hill, a 4×4 type of vehicle passed me at about 20 or 30mph.
‘I cursed under my breath because it was a narrow track and I had to put myself right to the edge of the gravel not to get clipped.
‘I was going, ‘You t*****s, you don’t have to drive that fast past a cyclist.’ That’s why it stuck in my mind.’
Describing the murder scene, Mr Martin said: ‘I saw a bike on the ground first and then I saw a child come from behind some shrubbery.
‘Zainab walked out on to the road and fell on to her face. I didn’t see Mollier until I got much closer because he was on the ground in front of the vehicle.
‘The BMW’s engine was at full power with its wheels spinning. I wasn’t in shock. With my aviation and military background, I just took the necessary actions.
‘My first thought was to get Zainab out of the way of the car in case it lurched forward. Her eyes were rolling and she was going in and out of consciousness. Her head was quite badly injured.
“Then I moved Mollier away from the vehicle. I felt for his pulse and there was nothing there. I walked to the car and wanted to turn the ignition off, but the door was locked and I had to break the window. It was then that I noticed a bullet hole.
‘That’s when I switched my thinking from, ‘This is a car accident’ to, ‘Oh s**t, this is something more nefarious.’ ”
Because he could not get a signal on his mobile, Mr Martin cycled down the hill before stopping a driver, who helped raise the alarm.
He was allowed to fly home to the UK, saying: ‘But they didn’t take the clothes I was wearing. I didn’t wash the clothes for a week or two but eventually I thought, ‘I’ve got to wash these as they’re my riding clothes.’
‘They subsequently asked for them, but I said, ‘A month has gone by, it has been washed.’ They said, ‘Oh, just give it to us.’”
Mr Martin took part in a one-day reconstruction of the day of the murder last year, that included many other witnesses, but not Zainab or Zeena.
Mr Martin said: ‘I’d be happy to meet them one day, if they wanted to, absolutely. I feel desperately sorry for them — and everybody in the world wants this case to be cracked.’
Le Parisien did not offer further details about the Suspect X theory, saying he could be anyone, from a local rambler with a gun, to a motorbike rider or cyclist.
The so-called Alps Murders case has given rise to multiple theories, from contract killings to family arguments, but nobody has yet been charged in relation to the crimes.
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