In September 2021 the incoming Annecy Procureure, Line Bonnet Mathis ordered a new reconstruction of the Chevaline murders, with the aim of better understanding the timeline of events on 5th September 2012. Based on computer modelling of these events this is what was discovered, why it led to the arrest of a Lyon businessman in January 2022 and where the inquiry goes from here:
Chevaline timeline model video as of January 14th 2022
Also at https://youtu.be/y6v_a4Rq0N0
- There was no mystery grey UK registered BMW X5 on the Combe d’Ire that day - it was a misidentification of Saad Al Hilli’s maroon estate car by the ONF ranger who passed it. Various theories had been put forward previously to support this possibility - modelling established that the X5 was seen at the exactly the point on the Combe d’Ire where Saad’s estate would have been at the time. A green “4x4 type vehicle” seen by William Brett Martin was similarly identified as being an ONF ranger’s work van early in the inquiry.
- The order of the sightings of a motorcyclist by the ONF rangers was back to front. It was previously believed that a motorcyclist was seen arriving at the Place du Martinet by one of the rangers and then again later by two other rangers further up the track. In reality the sighting higher up came first and significantly earlier, such that the ONF rangers had escorted the motorcyclist (later identified as a Lyon businessman) down and off the Combe d’Ire before any of the other protagonists arrived at the bottom. With this established, previous confusion around the timeline disappeared. However…
- Despite having apparently left the Combe d’Ire before 3.10pm, the Lyon motorcyclist was not seen leaving the area by CCTV cameras in nearby Doussard until some time later. Thus, the French investigators considered the possibility that after initially leaving the Combe d’Ire he doubled back up the Old (CR dit Ancien de la) Combe d’Yre forest track and then joined the Combe d’Ire, arriving at the Place du Martinet at around 3.30pm before carrying out the attack and returning by the same route (otherwise the timings indicate he would have been seen by William Brett Martin on the way up the Combe d’Ire and Philippe B on the way down). As a result, the motorcyclist was arrested in January 2022. But…
- When this motorcyclist was first seen by the ONF rangers above the Place du Martinet, he was described as wearing a black, open face helmet. The motorcyclist seen arriving later at the Place du Martinet by the other ONF ranger and then by British cyclist William Brett Martin was described as wearing a white, full face helmet. So if it was the Lyon motorcyclist who had doubled back, he also changed his helmet on the way back up and (presumably) again on the way back down for the second time before being seen by CCTV cameras in Doussard. In a similar vein, earlier in the investigation some effort was put into tracing examples of a model of helmet with a retractable chin bar (ISR GPA) in an apparent attempt to reconcile the open face/full face helmet sightings, though this would not have accounted for the change in colour. While a change of helmet would explain the colour difference and would not be impossible if he had a top box on the bike big enough to contain a spare, after two days of questioning and police searches of his home the Lyon motorcyclist was released without charge. So…
- With the Lyon motorcyclist eliminated, another possibility remains: that the motorcyclist seen at the Place du Martinet was not the Lyon motorcyclist seen earlier further up the track. As with the ‘double back’ scenario above, timings indicate that this motorcyclist arrives at the Place du Martinet via the Old Combe d’Yre track, carries out the attack and then returns the same way (but wearing a white, full face helmet throughout). Forest trails leading off the Old Combe d’Yre stretch as far east as Faverges and Giez, but the nearest village is Arnand to the north, through which it is known that both the Al Hillis and Sylvain Mollier had passed prior to the attack. If Arnand was the place from which this motorcyclist came, timings suggest he would have left there at around the same time the Al Hillis, ten minutes after Sylvain Mollier passed through the village on his bike. Unfortunately, if this motorcyclist was a local (as knowledge of the forest trails might suggest) coming from and returning to a nearby village via the forest it is unlikely that he would have passed other witnesses or CCTV cameras along the way. Thus, while a second motorcyclist may become the focus of the inquiry in the future, in the absence of any new evidence he is likely to prove difficult to identify.
