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Justin Tallis / AFP - Getty Images
A British police officer searches the Hilli family home. Saad al-Hilli and his wife Ikbal were both shot dead in their car in the French Alps on Wednesday. An older woman riding with them -- presumably a grandmother -- and a French cyclist passing by were also fatally shot. The two daughters, age 7 and 4, were spared.
Zainab al-Hilli, the 7-year-old British girl who survived a gun attack in the French Alps last week that saw her father and mother shot dead, is out of a coma and will be questioned by police as soon as she is able, a French prosecutor said Sunday.
"(Zainab) has come out of her artificial coma and she is now sedated," Eric Maillaud, the regional prosecutor, told Reuters. "She is better and her condition is improving little by little. She will be able to be questioned.”
It has been five days since a British cyclist came across a chilling scene: Three people shot dead inside a BMW, its engine still running. Nearby was a dead cyclist, 45-year-old Sylvain Mollier. The British cyclist recognized him because he had passed him on the road earlier. Outside the car, a 7-year-old was gravely wounded and appeared to have been beaten.
French forensics experts who performed autopsies on the three British victims and the French bicyclist determined that all four had been shot twice directly in the head – indicating, Maillaud said, that the shooters were intent on killing their victims.
Related: Alps slaying victims each shot twice in head
The motive for these slayings remains unclear, and the shooters remain at large.
Eight hours after police arrived at the crime scene, they discovered Zainab’s sister, 4-year-old Zeena, who had been hiding under her mother’s skirt. Zeena has since returned home to Britain with relatives.
Related: Girl, 4, hid for eight hours in car filled with corpses
Justin Tallis / AFP - Getty Images
A British police crime scene investigator examines the interior of a window inside the British home of a family shot dead in their car in the French Alps on Wednesday.
Maillaud said investigators had gleaned little from their "moving" chat on Friday with Zeena, who had been in a psychiatric hospital in Grenoble, accompanied by a nurse and British embassy staff.
Meanwhile, French and British police continued their search of the Hilli family home in Surrey near London of Saad al-Hilli, father of the two girls who was among the three shot dead in the car. The two others were his wife, Ikbal, and an older woman with a Swedish passport. Zeena told authorities she didn't know the woman well; they believe the woman was her maternal grandmother.
Police erected a tent in front of the family's $1.6 million house on Sunday.
Hilli, who had moved to the U.K. as a child from Iraq, was a mechanical engineer who contracted with Surrey Satellite Technology, a subsidiary of aerospace and defense firm EADS. A company statement described him as "an experienced and committed engineer."
He helped to design the kitchen of the European Airbus aircraft, according to Julian Stedman, his accountant since 2004. He specialized in computer-aided design and mostly worked from his house in the village of Claygate, said Stedman.
British police have refused to comment on British media reports Hilli was known to security services and was under police surveillance early on in the Iraq war.
His wife Ikbal, 47, had been training as a dentist.
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The case has sparked great interest in Britain and has not left the front pages of newspapers since news of the murders broke on September 5.
Most Sunday papers ran the story across several pages, speculating about motives, including robbery, a family feud or a possible link to Hilli's work in the aerospace industry.
Maillaud said a family feud over money was one of several motives still being considered for the murders and Hilli's brother had been formally questioned.
The brother, Zaid al-Hilli, has denied any dispute with Hilli.
"He is being questioned as a witness." Maillaud said. "It's a lead that is serious and interesting, but so is the profession of the dead person and his Iraqi origins."
In France, police returned to the scene of the crime on Sunday and widened the area of investigation.
"We are trying to see how those who committed these acts were able to get away," Maillaud said.
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It is absolutely incredible that a full eight hours after they arrived at the crime scene went by before that child was found hiding under her mother's skirt. I cannot imagine the self possession it took to remain quiet and still that long, or the level of incompetence of the police.
Surely they examined the bodies thoroughly to determine if anyone were alive and needed assistance, and in doing so would have discovered a child as large as a four year old. Perhaps if the mother were wearing a burqa with its full skirts it might be possible, or if the local police were instructed by higher authorities to secure the scene and wait for more experienced investigators due to the victim's importance.... but still.
The adults were all shot twice in the head. It doesn't take much of an exam to know they were dead.
The doors were left closed till the bullet holes in the glass could be examined before the tempered glass fell apart.
Do a little reading, the information is out there.
Double taps. To the head. Times four. Definitely a professional hit.
Maybe. But the French prosecutor said 25 shots were fired in total.
i hope the girl grows up to be an assassin like columbiana
There was a French helicopter with infrared flying over- but it could not detect little Zeena under her mother's skirtedges. The police had to wait for expert crime scene people from Paris- not to touch anything. They did not know based on police infrared search that there was a living person inside the BMW. Now little Zeena is back in Great Britain accompanied by 2 relativies (not Zaid Al-Hilli,brother),social worker and security personnel. Zainab suffered a very bad skull fracture(beating with heavy gun)-now she is out of the induced coma- but police/security from both F +GB must wait until the MD's say it is o.k. The brothers' (Saad and Zaid) cousin Ali Al-Hilli lives in Melbourne,Australia. He was contacted. Iqbal's mother's name was misstated- it is Suhaila Al-Saffar (74 yr widow -a Swedish citizen).Saad and Iqbal met in Dubai in 2002- were married when he became a British citizen. Police has accumulated all CCTV tapes from Lake Annecy+environs. They also found a Blackberry and mobile phone in ther BMW. Some woman in Annecy area has claimed having seen a 4x4 green truck at the time of the horrific murders. Hopefully Zainab gets real well soon- but taking little Zeena away it might complicate matters. Recovery/coping had been easier if the two sisters had not been separated.
@mimi jacques -thank you for providing updated information over past several days since this occurred. Very tragic for these girls. Recovery from the type of severe Traumatic Brain Injury that Zainab, the 7 year old, sustained would be long and difficult with parental support. Can't imagine how difficult that will be compounded by the loss of parents and horror of what she saw and experienced. Hope she can be reunited soon with her younger sister.
I just had a thought what if the cyclist was the target and the people in the car were silenced to eliminate witnesses
Interesting possibility, but seems unlikely. The shooter would have been very careful to pick a more secluded place to commit the crime.
The family's name begs to question if the Family were Muslim or if there were relatives that are Muislim. This sounds like it could have been a Faith Based Honor Kiling, or something to that effect?I am so glad yh children ar alight.
No, honor killings have always seemed to me at least, to be less professional (less "neat"), clumsier, and the killer never tries to deny it or get away.
Was this Jihad? It doesn't sound like an Honor Killing as Larry-5534379 suggests. It sounds more like an execution because of different faiths. It's against all religion that I know of to commit suicide or murder and a 7 year old wouldn't have the ability to dishonor you or your family. Those of us living in America may not understand why this is what it is until we have our own religious war on our own soil.
To many Radical Muslims in France.
Continue. Your post sounds like you were about to address radical Muslims in France. Go on...
This will wind up being a movie. Poor members of the religion of peace and love.
Sad story (and interesting) and I wish the best for those poor girls. On a different note, it must pay well to be an engineer in England. Either that or he might have inherited some family money, which the article may have stated and I missed. A 1.6 million dollar house? Not bad.
I just hope both girls are heavily protected. I know life isn't like in the movies but we do have two potential witnesses here that are quite vulnerable.
On one hand it's nice to see information, but on the other hand, it's odd they released the condition and the names of the children in the press. The person who did this is still at large and unless they have a very good lead, these kids could still be in danger.
Just a thought.