Chevaline: "followed by a parallel route"

The Place du Martinet

Saad al Hilli, his wife Iqbal, mother-in-law Suhaila and French cyclist Sylvain Mollier were shot to death at the Place du Martinet, close to the village of Chevaline (Haute-Savoie) at approximately 3.35pm local time on the afternoon of Wednesday 5th September 2012. Additionally, Saad and Iqbal's eldest daughter Zainab sustained a bullet wound to the shoulder and was bludgeoned with a Luger pistol, leaving her unconscious and with serious injuries. Their younger daughter Zeena was found by police several hours later, hiding on the floor of the car in which her parents died.

These are the most basic facts of the horror that unfolded in a matter of minutes on a quiet mountain road in the sunshine of a late summer afternoon. And for a long time, that's all that was known about the events of that day. What little official information was available came via Eric Maillaud, the then Procureur (Chief Prosecutor) of the Annecy area of Haute-Savoie. One of the first questions he was asked by journalists was “were the victims followed?” His reply, that there was no evidence of the Al Hilli family being followed from England or from the campsite where there were staying on the day of the murders, but that “they may have been followed by a parallel route” caused confusion at the time and for a long while afterwards.

Eric Maillaud, Annecy Procureur in 2012

The confusion was further heightened when it was later suggested that the killer arrived at the scene before the victims, appearing previously unseen from above the car park at the Place du Martinet shortly after they arrived from the village below. How could this be? A clandestine meeting? A pre-planned ambush targeting the Al Hilli family or Sylvain Mollier, the French cyclist also killed in the attack? It was only in 2015, when press and public interest in the case was beginning to wane that new information revealed an important clue to what is perhaps the simplest theory which explains what led to the death of four people that day and one that French police have most likely been pursuing since the investigation began.

The Al Hilli family had intended to go to a theme park that day, but time drifted by and the plan was abandoned. Given instead the choice of shopping in Annecy or taking a walk in the countryside, the two girls opted for the latter. And so the family left the Camping le Solitaire du Lac at around 1pm and drove towards Chevaline, a small village to the south east on the edge of the Bauges National Park. At approximately 2.40pm their maroon BMW estate car was seen in the village of Chevaline heading south on the Chemin Rural dit la Grande Combe by local builders doing restoration work on a holiday home. At 3.17pm Suhaila took a photo of Saad, Iqbal, Zainab and Zeena, apparently smiling and relaxed in front of a farm building on the Route du Moulin, just south of Arnand, with a view of the mountains behind.

Al Hilli family photo on the Route du Moulin

What happened in between these two events is not known in detail - most likely Saad drove south through Chevaline, then turned left to come back north on the Route du Moulin towards Arnand, before parking up to explore on foot. It is known that there are several photographs of the family around the area of Arnand taken in the half hour before the 3.17pm photo, which is believed to be the last image of the family together. Of those photos, it has been known since early in the investigation that one of them was taken in front of a house or wall decorated with flowers (variously referred to in the French media as a "maison fleurie" or "mur fleuri"). But not until 2015 was it revealed that, unlike the other photos, all five members of the Al Hilli family group appeared in this image.

Was the mobile phone used to take this picture carefully placed and the photo taken using a self-timer? Or did the family encounter someone in Arnand who offered to take their photo in front of the house? Did a conversation ensue between the Al Hillis and this person? And, in the course of that conversation, did this person either direct the Al Hillis towards the Place du Martinet or become aware of their intention to go there? With the decision to go Chevaline that day apparently spontaneous and to a large degree random and available CCTV showing no evidence of them being followed from the campsite to Arnand, it was perhaps here that what Eric Maillaud referred to as the pursuit of the family “by a parallel route” began.

A "maison fleurie" in Arnand

There are two routes from Arnand to the Place du Martinet. The first, south on the Route du Moulin and then onto the Combe d’Ire (Route Forestière Domaniale de la Combe d’Ire) is accessible by car; this was the route taken by the Al Hilli family. The second, via the Chemin de la Combette begins as a gravel track accessible by car as it leaves Arnand, but narrows further south before eventually emerging at a bend in the road above the Place du Martinet as little more than a forest trail. To complete the climb from Arnand to the Place du Martinet via this route in the time available between the photo and the shootings would require a trail motorcycle or similar – possibly the kind of bike seen moving slowly down the Combe d’Ire by British cyclist William Brett Martin just before he arrived at the scene minutes after the shooting and described by Eric Maillaud in 2014 as a “high-powered scooter”.

And so we come to the central question: while the Al Hillis returned to their car and began the drive up to the Place du Martinet, was the mystery photographer, for whatever reason, going to his home, picking up a handgun and three fully loaded magazines before climbing onto a motorbike and riding via the back roads to intercept and kill them? In short, rather than a complex web of intrigue, clandestine meetings or family feuds, were the Chevaline murders simply the result of a local killer acting on impulse? The photo, the description of the motorbike, the local knowledge required to get to the Place du Martinet unseen and the use of an historic weapon strongly associated with the area (a Swiss army issue Luger P06) all suggest that this must remain a strong possibility.

From L'Essor Savoyard: 22nd October 2015

In terms of theories surrounding the Chevaline killings, this is as simple as it gets. But even the simplest theory is not evidence.  In October 2015 an anonymous Chevaline resident told a reporter from the local newspaper L'Essor Savoyard that "people saw things on the day of the murders, but haven't spoken to the police for fear of reprisals." In the Gregory Villemin case (the 1984 murder of a young boy in a similar rural community) witnesses are only now coming forward to speak for the first time in 33 years. Until those who claim that they "saw things" that day in Chevaline and Arnand do the same, theories may be all we have.