The Holiday in the French Alps That Turned into a Bloodbath
By: Jax Hudur
Tags: Mystery, Murder, True Story, True Crime, Crime

The Holiday in the French Alps That Turned into a Bloodbath

The savage killing of a family, now dubbed as the perfect crime in the media

The following true crime story has the hallmark of a Hollywood blockbuster if it wasn’t so tragic and horrifying. Espionage, family feud, secret marriage and other bizarre case theories had investigators clutching for straws.

A retired British Airforce pilot Brett Martin was cycling, enjoying his holiday when he came across a bloodied young girl stumbling on the road with serious injuries. As he approached her closer, the smell of rubber, the sound of a revving engine and bodies riddled with bullets greeted him. A British-Iraqi family from Claygate, Surrey and a Frenchman were massacred in a crime known as the Annecy or Alps shootings. Saad Al Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal, 47, and her mother Suhaila Al Allaf, 74, were shot inside their car while on holiday in the French Alps. Also found murdered at the scene was a French national, Mr. Sylvain Mollier, 45.

The Al Hilli’s had two daughters who both survived. Zeena, a four-year-old who hid under her dead mother’s legs in the back of the car, and Zainab, a seven-year-old who was pistol-whipped and shot in the shoulder. The killer left her for dead. The victims were each found shot in the head twice, while Mr. Mollier was shot seven times.

The French prosecutor on the case, Eric Maillaud, told reporters, “Post-mortem examinations found several bullets killed the victims and all four victims were shot twice in the head.”

The murder weapon

The attack occurred at a rest area where the Al Hilli’s car pulled over. The police do not know who was shot first or in what order, but the chilling murders were confounded by the murder weapon used. According to reports, investigating officials found 25 spent cartridges left on the scene came from a 7.65 Calibre pistol. The AFP news agency quoted a gun expert, Mr. Yves Gollety, the president of France’s Gunsmiths, who said: “The 7.65 calibre can be found in a range of relatively old and even outdated pistols.” It later emerged that a vintage swiss army service pistol Luger P06 was the murder weapon.

The authorities are puzzled by the killer’s motive; they cannot figure out why the Al Hilli’s were murdered on that fateful day and at that particular location. The area is a tourist hub and is quite known for its picturesque scenery. The more questions the investigators asked, the more baffling the theories became.

Saddam Hussein connection

Hussein Al Hilli, in a Facebook chat with his cousin Saad Al Hilli, recalled a previous conversation they had. He said that Saad sounded worried and was desperate to relocate to Iraq. Hussein did not think much of his cousin’s words at the time, however, six months after the murders, Hussein wondered, “Why would a man who has lived most of his life in the UK want to go back to war-torn Iraq when most Iraqis would want to go to the UK in a heartbeat?” Whatever Saad was running away from, it caught up with him in the French Alps.

Saad Al Hilli fled from Iraq and came to the UK as a young boy. His father was a factory owner and a member of the Ba’ath party who escaped from Iraq in the seventies after a fallout with Saddam Hussein. At the time, Saddam Hussein was purging the Ba’ath party as he was consolidating power.

The link between the Al Hilli family and the Ba’ath party in Iraq led investigators to probe a possible Saddam connection, but there was a problem. Saddam Hussein was dead for over five years when the Al Hilli’s murders occurred. Besides, Iraq was a country under occupation and was going through a deadly insurgency. Therefore, if the Al Hilli’s fled Iraq in the seventies, why wait this long if revenge was the motive?

A neighbor of the Al Hilli’s, Mr. Philip Murphy, also re-enforced the Iraqi or Saddam connection. He confirmed to reporters that as the Iraqi invasion was underway in early 2003, British agents believed to be from the Special Branch were watching the Al Hilli’s. The agents had asked for permission to use his driveway to spy on the Al Hilli brothers. He told reporters, “Agents would sit in their car all day watching the house. Whenever Mr. Al Hilli came out, they would follow him. It was all very odd. I never told the family that they were being watched.”

Why were the agents watching him? What threat did the brothers pose to the Iraq war? The details of this covert operation are yet to emerge. The Iraqi link theory did not make sense. Nevertheless, it cannot be dismissed.

Espionage theory

Saad Al Hilli was an engineer by profession and worked on sensitive projects ranging from medical radiation equipment to satellite systems. A UK paper quoted a respected middle east security analyst that Saad Al Hilli and the French cyclist, Mr. Mollier, a senior employee of a company specializing in nuclear power development, were co-conspirators as they intended to supply nuclear material to Iran. Therefore a state-sponsored Israeli assassin eliminated them.

This theory, too, is not plausible. Why would a professional hitman slaughter an entire family, just to get to one target? They could quickly get their man on any street anywhere. A professional hit job would be clean, making it look like a robbery gone wrong or faulty car brakes if spy movies are to be believed.

A close friend of Saad Al Hilli and a former colleague, Mr. Gary Aked, dismissed that Saad worked on top-secret projects. Mr. Aked knows his stuff; he worked for the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) for years. Mr. Aked did, however, confirm that Saad flirted with anti-Semitic tropes. Saad also allegedly showed Mr. Aked a couple of desktop computers and a laptop he used to share his anti-Israeli opinions in Arab chatrooms.

The question then is, why would a state send an assassin to take out a troll? The Mollier-Saad nuclear conspiracy suffered a blow; it emerged that contrary to earlier accounts, Mr. Mollier was only a welder in the said company, and he neither held a senior management position nor was he involved in any of the company’s secrets.

Family feud

Investigating officials were interested in looking closer into the Al Hilli family, and for a good reason. A year before the massacre, the Al Hilli brothers Saad and Zaid lost their father, Mr. Khadim, and the brothers had a fall out over their inheritance.

Saad’s brother, Zaid al Hilli, confirmed the feud and was arrested as a suspect in 2013 when the police found he doctored documents to secure his inheritance claim but was later released as there was no evidence to tie him to the murders. This raises the question: why would the police arrest him, to begin with, if they had no evidence? Zaid stated, “Saad was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think they twisted it around. It is not fair to the families and the victims. This went on for such a long time with no shred of evidence. There is a cover-up. I think they know who is behind it, who is the gunman, and everything. It is absolute nonsense what they came out with. I think they know exactly who the target was, and it was Sylvain Mollier.” With no evidence, why is Zaid too keen on Mr. Mollier being the target?

The authorities found another possible lead that Saad felt threatened. Before the Al Hilli’s vacation, Saad has changed the locks of his house. It was also reported that police found an illegal taser gun during a forensic home search after the murders. Was someone threatening Saad?

The investigation took another turn after reports emerged that Saad’s wife Iqbal had a secret marriage with an American dentist prior to her marriage to Saad Al Hilli. The American ex-husband mysteriously died on the same day as the Al Hilli’s were murdered. This is too much of a coincidence. Investigators ruled out a possible connection as his cause of death was a heart attack. What are the odds of something like this happening at the same time? Will we ever know?

Other suspects

Hillbilly

The police had few other leads. With Zaid Al Hilli ruled out, a hunt began for a mystery motorcyclist seen around lake Annecy on the day of the murders, which led the authorities to arrest a former policeman whom the locals knew as “Hillbilly.” According to reports, the suspect was fired from his job in June 2012. He was described as a loner arms collector. The Hillbilly lead proved to be unworkable, and the suspect was only charged for trafficking antique weaponry.

Legionnaire Sniper Menegaldo

There was also another suspect who was tied to Mr. Mollier. He was a former legionnaire called Patrice Menegaldo, who had an on and off relationship with Mr. Mollier’s sister. Reports state that Menegaldo was questioned as a witness and not as a suspect. However, he later committed suicide.

The police also claimed that Menegaldo’s profile matches the killer’s profile as a professional hitman, making him the chief suspect in the Al Hilli’s massacre. Menegaldo left a seven-page suicide note saying that he could not handle being a suspect. The prosecutor said, “The hypothesis at the top of the chain for the investigators is a local killing. We have a real suspect. Here is a middle-aged man who kills himself and to explain his act leaves a letter saying he couldn’t handle being considered a suspect.” The prosecutor did not disclose whether Menegaldo was suffering from PTSD or any psychological problems that could explain his suicide. The note seems to have satisfied the French authorities; however, Menegaldo’s death only opens the door for more questions. Was Menegaldo a victim himself, killed by the real assassin to make him a patsy?

Other theories such as robbery gone wrong or a local serial killer on the loose proved to be unsubstantiated. DNA found in the Al Hilli’s family car also came up empty as the French police contaminated the evidence. It turned out the DNA belonged to one of the investigating officers.

Coming home to rest in peace

The bodies of the Al Hilli’s were brought back to the UK and are buried in Brookwood Cemetery. Their murder is yet to be solved as no charges were made of the arrested suspects. We do not know who wanted them dead or why. All we know thus far is that the intelligence services were interested in Mr. Saad Al Hilli at some point. To what extent is not clear. We also know the murder weapon used, the alleged suspects but no motive and evidence. The surviving daughters of Saad and Iqbal Al Hilli were given new identities and live with their relatives.

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