The Annecy shootings, also the French Alps shootings or the Chevaline killings, were the deaths on 5 September 2012 of three members of a British family and a French citizen on the near Chevaline, Haute-Savoie, France, near the southern end of Lake Annecy.
Four people were killed: an Iraqi-born British tourist named Saad al-Hilli, 50; his wife Iqbal, 47; her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, who held a Swedish passport; and French cyclist Sylvain Mollier, 45. The al-Hillis' two daughters both survived the attack. One, aged 4, was hidden under the legs of her dead mother in the rear footwell for eight hours even while the were on the scene; she was only discovered by specialist forensic investigators. The elder daughter, aged 7, was shot in the shoulder and also suffered a head wound; she returned to the United Kingdom on 14 September 2012.
Police investigated al-Hilli's past in Iraq as an engineer on sensitive topics, as well as his work at the time of his death, as a potential motive for the attack.
The attack has been compared to the 1952 killing of biochemist Jack Drummond in the Dominici affair.
In September 2017, after five years of investigation, French police said they had "no working theory" to explain the murders and no suspects. Veronique Dizot, the lead prosecutor, suggested that the family "may have been targeted randomly".
Description of the attack
The attack took place in a lay-by on the mountain-side road at about 15:45 CEST on 5 September 2012. Twenty-five shots were fired in total. Initial reports stated only one semi-automatic pistol was fired, though it was later reported that full ballistics analysis was likely to disprove this. Eventually, ballistic analyses of the cartridge cases and butt plate fragments showed that the weapon used by the killer was a Luger P06 semi-automatic pistol (model 1906) firing the 7.65×21mm Parabellum ammunition with an eight-round magazine.
The bodies were discovered by Brett Martin, a British ex-RAF pilot, who is a resident in France, while he was out riding his bicycle. He heard nothing of the shots. This might be because he was crossing the last river bridge just a few hundred metres from the murder location; the noise of the water easily masking the sound of gunfire. Al-Hilli's eldest daughter, seven-year-old Zainab, was the first victim he saw when he arrived on the scene. She was stumbling into the road and collapsed in front of the British family's BMW car.
Prior to the incident, the BMW was reversed sharply into the side of the lay-by, leaving marks which were still visible when the site was reopened to the public. When Martin found the car, the engine was still running and the car was in reverse gear, the rear wheels spinning in the loose sand. The doors were locked. The deceased in the car were each shot twice in the head.
The French cyclist killed near the car was Sylvain Mollier. It has been reported that he was shot seven times.
Police investigation
The investigation is being carried out by the (Criminal Investigation Department) of the National Gendarmerie, based in Chambéry, together with the of the National Gendarmerie, located near Paris. On 10 September, the Royal Logistic Corps bomb disposal unit were called to the home of al-Hilli in Surrey after concerns were raised about items discovered during the police search, although the items under investigation were later described as "non-hazardous". The search did yield a Taser, an item that is illegal to possess in the UK.
In September 2012, in order to speed up the investigation, France and Britain agreed to create a joint Franco-British investigation team under Eurojust, which is rarely used in the UK.
A 54-year-old man was arrested on 24 June 2013 in Surrey in connection with the murders. Although unconfirmed by the police, some reports named the suspect as Zaid al-Hilli, the brother of Saad al-Hilli.
On 21 October 2013, BBC Panorama reported that a grey BMW X5 right hand drive 4×4 car was at the crime scene at the time of the murders, the driver of which may be a possible accomplice to the crime along with a motorcycle rider also spotted nearby. The motorcycle rider has been reported as having a goatee beard and an unusual helmet by French investigators.
Panorama also found that Zaid al-Hilli had tried to create a false will for his father and to withdraw £2m from his father's bank account at Geneva in Switzerland. Zaid al-Hilli claimed he was not guilty of the shootings and offered to take a lie detector test. In January 2014, it was announced that there was insufficient evidence to bring a charge against Zaid al-Hilli and his bail was lifted.