Mystery Of French Alps Murder Lingers On 4 Years Later

The horrifying murders shocked France, who are no strangers to national calamity.

Their two young daughters survived the spree, which also saw French cyclist Sylvain Mollier shot dead  with his wife on the remote forest road. Their daughter, Zainab was found near the car with critical injuries after being shot and badly beaten. Her 4 year old sister was more fortunate to be found unharmed by forensic team after hiding underneath her mother’s body for 8 hours.

Police were puzzled by the murder, eventually arresting Al-Hilli’s older brother, Zaid Al-Hilli from Chessington, who was later released without charge the following day by Surrey police. Two others questioned and arrested about the murder, were also released without charge.  Police arrested Michael Helcht- a 53 year old jailed in 2008 for trying to kill his own family, including his sister in law and his nephew, but was later released without charge.

One line of inquiry was that the killing may have been connected to a later discovery by police that his wife had been having a secret online relationship with her ex husband, who many believed had married her as a marriage of convenience to enable him to obtain an American green card. It later emerged that they may have been a lot closer than originally thought, leading police to take this line of inquiry a lot more seriously.

New evidence on the family DNA eventually emerged in December last year. Annency prosecutor, Eric Maillaud said the DNA was a new lead, but had not been matched to anyone on the European criminal data base. The family had traveled to the skiing resort for a holiday trip.

A Surrey police spokeswoman told the eye of media.com ” As part of the joint investigation team which was established as part of the deaths, officers from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime team have worked closely with the French authorities to progress a number of lines of inquiry in the UK”.