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Laurent Cipriani / AP
Flowers are seen Saturday at the crime scene where three people were shot to death in a British-registered car and a fourth was found nearby, in a forest near Chevaline in the French Alps.
Police from two countries on Saturday searched the Surrey, England, house of a British man shot dead in the French Alps with his wife and another woman.
The search came as French forensics experts who performed autopsies on the three British victims and a passing local bicyclist who was also shot dead determined all four had been shot twice directly in the head.
Iraqi-born aeronautics engineer al-Hilli, 50, his wife, Iqbal, 47, their two daughters and a 77-year-old woman thought to be Iqbal's mother, were holidaying in the Alps near Lake Annecy in the Haute Savoie when they were attacked Wednesday. The adults' bodies were found inside a British-registered maroon BMW at the end of a narrow track near the village of Chevaline.
The passing cyclist was identified as Sylvain Mollier, 45, of Grenoble.
Justin Tallis / AFP - Getty Images
British police officers stand Saturday outside a southeast England house believed to be the home of a family shot dead in their car in the French Alps.
The Hillis' daughters, Zainab, 7, and Zeena, 4, survived and are under police protection after the Wednesday shootings on a remote forest road near the village of Chevaline. Zainab was shot in the shoulder and beaten. Zeena was found cowering under the skirt of her dead mother, where she had remained undetected for eight hours after French gendarmes sealed off the scene.
Read more stories from the U.K.'s ITV News
In Surrey, French police Col. Marc de Tarle, speaking outside police headquarters after his officers searched Saad al-Hilli's home nearby with a British forensics team, said the shooting investigation would be “long and complex,” the BBC reported.
Two relatives of the al-Hilli family have gone to France, accompanied by a British social worker and family-liaison officers from Surrey police, to comfort the Hillis’s two daughters, who survived the attack, the BBC reported.
The brother of a British man, murdered with his family in the French Alps, has denied reports of a family feud. Police also revealed the four year old girl who survived the massacre saw nothing, because she'd hidden under her mother's skirts before the attack began. ITV's Emma Murphy reports.
In France, State Prosecutor Eric Maillaud told reporters, "The autopsies on the four people found dead found there were several bullets, but each one had received two bullets in the full head," the Guardian newspaper of London reported.
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"I cannot say if the killer or killers were professional; all I can say is there was an absolute determination to kill. To put two bullets in the head of each person shows that whoever was responsible for the terrible drama was determined to kill."
"We don't know what the elder girl was hit with and we cannot say in what order the victims were shot,” Maillaud said. “It seems the scene happened very rapidly."
Horrific details emerge after four people were killed in the French Alps but the motive behind the murders of an Iraqi-born British citizen, his wife and her mother is still unknown. A passing cyclist was also killed.
He added the postmortem and ballistic reports had pushed the idea of the victims being targeted by a lone gunman "further down the list of hypotheses."
Family feud behind massacre in French Alps?
Maillaud said a family feud over money was one of several motives being considered for the murders and the brother of Saad al-Hilli would be formally questioned.
"The brother says there was no dispute so let us remain cautious about that," he said.
The prosecutor said investigators had gleaned little from their "moving" chat on Friday with Zeena, who is in a psychiatric hospital in Grenoble, accompanied by a nurse and British embassy staff. Zeena was found cowering terrified under the skirt of her dead mother, where she had remained undetected for eight hours after French gendarmes sealed off the scene.
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Maillaud said members of the family had arrived on site, but declined to say who they were.
Police hope Zainab, who was still in an artificial coma in a Grenoble hospital, will be able to eventually provide more information.
"The two girls are doing as well as can be expected," Maillaud said.
This article includes reporting by Reuters.
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Leave a Comment:
Hummmmmmmm Each with two bullets to the head? sounds like something out of the movies!
This appears to be very professional & well planned .... not a "happenstance" killing ..
Now the very latest. Sun.uk reports that Saad and Zaid Al-Hilli's father Kadhem Al-Hilli owned the Surray home (over 1 mill. British pounds)as he did all the other properties in France,Spain, Switzerland (Iraq was no more mentioned) Father Kadhem was missing 6 days in Malaga,Spain before he was found dead in August 2011. Saad filed a Caveat Notice with British Court Formal notice of Warning) CAVEAT 58692. Saad also replaced Zaid as SHTech partner and hired his wife Iqbal as secretary. Zaid lived for a while with Saad's family- moved out. The inheritance is thus still in the courts. Iqbal's mother Suhala Al-Allaf lost her husband last year -is 74 yrs old and lived in Tromba,Sweden (south of Stockholm) She travelled to Great Britain to be with her daughter and her grandchildren. French sources (Le Parisien)report that little Zeena (4 yrs old)could name father,mother,sister but not grandma, Father Kadhem was an engineer like his son Saad;was a very wealthy person and court records show that Saad was contesting the father's will in distribution of inheritance.
Based on my extensive experience watching movies, two bullets to the head is definitely a professional kill. Either that, or someone who watched the same movies I did...
One in the head and one in the heart is professional according to the movies. OUCH!
double taps to all adults,including unlucky cyclist. why were children NOT taken in such fashion?? seems killer or killers focused on ADULTS?? may the children be able to get beyond all this , and maybe suppress these bad memories.
..
Jason Bourne
When they catch who did this; they should just riddle their body with bullets and be done with it.
British?
~NOT!
Naturalized British citizens - YES
If a British family was shooting random cyclists in Iraq, I don't think they would remain Iraqi citizens long.
Perfectly clean assasination is Israeli Mossad.......
I would not say it was perfectly clean, they left 2 alive.
If it was Mossad those kids would be dead.
With two to the head...
OK--let's get beyond the killings...Zeena found UNDER her mom's skirt "undetected for EIGHT hours" ? Really? Does that not strike anyone else? What was mom wearing... a hoop-skirt gown?
Probably.
What did you expect, they're French. The idiot in charged of the case probably graduated from the Inspector Clousseau's Detective school Academy. Poor kid.
Wolfpack's right, the French make Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean look like 007. I feel sorry for Germany and Great Britain, now that all of Europe is collapsing around them.
its all about the money
An aeronautics engineer...executed with two shots in the head...a potential witness also executed...Iraqi born. Interesting combination of fact wouldn't you say? Sounds like someone may be trying to silence someone with knowledge they were afraid might go public. Like an ICBM program.
"The rich are different."
--F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Yeah, they've got more money."
--Ernest Hemmingway
This is certainly not a normal case. An execution. Probably over money. Or possibly revenge.
I hope they catch the skunk responsible for these murders.. Condolences to any family or friends.
"Iraqi-born" ... case closed. I don't see the problem.
......
The 7 year old in an induced coma? Sounds like she took a"severe" beating, not just a beating. It also makes it sound like they intended to kill all witnesses including any children they saw. Fortunately the 4 year old was hidden. To the poster that wondered about her staying hidden for 8 hours, it sounds like trauma to me. One can only hope the children heal from their physical and emotional scars. I can hope the guilty are captured but if this was a professional hit, the chances of that happening are very unlikely.
This case becomes more complicated as more info is revealed - dailymail.uk reports now tie father to working on classified satelite projects (mention of British intelligence, but also companies that did satelite mapping involving China and Russia- questions regarding discrepancies between profit records of his 3 companies (low) and life style.
Latest reports say 7 year old was pistol-whipped severely. Each of adults 2 bullet wounds to head - now suggesting that there were at least 2 shooters and professional hit. Wide variation in number of reported shell cases and shots fired. Lot of changing details on this story.
Much more to this than we'll ever know.
Report that Brit cyclist smashed drivers side window to turn off ignition - 7 y.o. outside car - yet doors locked?
earlier reports said severe beating. When I first read that I wondered why they would do that unless they were trying to get something from the father. But since he was killed in the car that seems odd too. Wondered if maybe she had left the car to go to the bathroom and came back as they did the killing so they thought they killed her too...but why not shoot her in the head? A lot of questions that may never be answered. I just hope it does not turn out to be family that did this and that these girls can be surrounded by family love and get the counseling they will need to overcome this assault.
@laliana - interesting possibility that the girl may have already been out of the car. Another poster noted that the rear wheels of vehicle appeared sunken in dirt as though the driver had spun them into the ground - got stuck or foot continued on gas pedal when car couldn't revrse any further. . .hmm.
Agree - hope there are other family members who can care for these girls - given the questions around the Uncle and apparently a sizeable inheritance; plus the questionable accuracy of father's business accounts - seems like too many questions to trust those players to have girls' best interest at heart. Agree - whole story on this will never be known by public.
Can anyone say a hit? wow, didn't happen because he and his family were republican's?
more wealthy Iraqi intrigue....................
Dude on the bike was in the wrong place at the wrong time.Unfortunate for him.
Disgusting world we live in..yet again the bad people win.
Iranian engineer or scientist? Call 1800 ISRAEL WILL CAP YOUR @$$
Ha ha ha!
At the very least.....A big thumbs up to the killer for sparing the lives of the two kids.
I see how a little 4 year old could hide under her mom's (probably long) dress - she was probably slender and clutching the mom's leg for dear life. I'm sure she didn't move a muscle because she was so terrified. Poor little thing. I hope they get the people responsible for this.
Satan wants you to believe he does not exist. '...in a handbasket...'
Momma must be sooooooo proud.
If it took them 8 hrs to find a young girl at the crime scene just how long with it take them to find the killer ?
Exactly! "professionals" at work!