French Alps Shooting: Mystery Surrounds Crime Scene Where Zainab Al-Hilli Found In the Road

Mystery Surrounds Crime Scene Where Zainab Al-Hilli Found

French media has speculated about the "unanswered questions" from the police investigation into the shooting massacre of three members of a British family and a French cyclist.

Local paper Le Dauphine raised four key questions about the crime scene, after the area was reopened this week.

The embankment near the scene of the slaughter bears the imprint of the BMW's rear.

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Members of the media survey the murder scene near Chevaline in the Haute-Savoie region of south-eastern France

"Does that mean that Saad al-Hilli saw the killers coming, and did he hastily reverse? Was this the point his wife hid his 4-year-old- daughter under her skirt?" the paper asked.

Libération reported that marks in asphalt of the car park and on the slope suggested al-Hilli tried to manoeuvre, reverse and hastily drive away, with his doors locked.

Questions were raised by Le Dauphine about the scene stumbled upon by the English cyclist, a former RAF man, who found seven-year-old Zainab al-Hilli lying in the road, beaten round the head, shot in the shoulder and left for dead.

"The English cyclist who discovered the scene had to break the window of the car to cut off the engine. So how is it that the 7-year-old girl was found outside the vehicle, with the doors locked?

"And why was the body of the rider Sylvain Mollier found lying near the car, which is several feet from the road he would have taken? Was the killer hidden? Or did he threaten him?"

Crucially the paper asked why the shooters had not bothered to "clean up" and why two children had been left alive.

"Did they panic after they had to eliminate a troublesome witness [the cyclist] and flee hastily? Did they run out of ammunition?"

In the comments on Libération, locals speculated that target had been the British RAF cyclist, "who might be on Her Majesty's Secret Service", with the French cyclist killed in a case of mistaken identity, and the British family innocent bystanders.