The mainstream media for the most part has moved on. But there are a few more gleanings to be had, of perhaps the most interesting comes from the Daily Mirror, which labels al-Hilli an extremist on the grounds that he was against the war in Iraq, disapproved of the behaviour of Israel and had doubts over 9/11 – which makes a great deal of the population “extremist”. But the Mirror has the only mainstream mention I can find of the possibility that Mossad carried out the killings. Given Mr al-Hilli’s profession, the fact he is a Shia, the fact he had visited Iran, and the fact that Israel heas been assassinating scientists connected to Iran’s nuclear programme, this has to be a possibility. There are of course other possibilities, but to ignore that one is ludicrous.
Which leads me to the argument of Daily Mail crime reporter, Stephen Wright, that the French police should concentrate on the idea that this was a killing by a random Alpine madman or racist bigot. Perfectly possible, of course, and the anti-Muslim killings in Marseille might be as much a precedent as Mossad killings of scientists. But why the lone madman idea should be the preferred investigation, Mr Wright does not explain. What I did find interesting from a man who has visited many crime scenes are his repeated insinuations that the French authorities are not really trying very hard to find who the killers were, for example:
the crime scene would have been sealed off for a minimum of seven to ten days, to allow detailed forensic searches for DNA, fibres, tyre marks and shoe prints to take place.
Nearby bushes and vegetation would have been searched for any discarded food and cigarette butts left by the killer, not to mention the murder weapon.
But from what I saw at the end of last week, no such searches had taken place and potentially vital evidence could have been missed. House to house inquiries in the local area had yet to be completed and police had not made specific public appeals for information about the crime. No reward had been put up for information about the shootings.
Behind the scenes, what other short cuts have been taken? Have police seized data identifying all mobile phones being used in the vicinity of the murders that day?
The idea that the French authorities – who are quite as capable as any other of solving cases – are not really trying very hard is an interesting one.
Which leads me to this part of a remarkable article from the Daily Telegraph, which if true points us back towards a hit squad and discounts the ides that there was only one gun:
Claims that only one gun was used to kill everybody is likely to be disproved by full ballistics test results which are out in October.
While the 25 spent bullet cartridges found at the scene are all of the same kind, they could in fact have come from a number of weapons of the same make.
This throws up the possibility of a well-equipped, highly-trained gang circling the car and then opening fire.
Both children were left alive by the killers, who had clinically pumped bullets into everybody else, including five into Mr Mollier.
Zainab was found staggering around outside the car by Brett Martin, a British former RAF serviceman who cycled by moments after the attack, but he saw nobody except the schoolgirl.
Her sister, Zeena, was found unscathed and hiding in the car eight hours later.
Both sisters are now back in Britain, and are believed to have been reunited at a secret location near London.
There are of course a number of hit squad options, both governmental and private, which might well involve iraqi or Iranian interests – on both of which the mainstream media have been very happy to speculate while almost unanimously ignoring Israel.
But what interests me is why the Daily Telegraph choose, in the face of all the evidence, to minimise the horrific nature of the attack by stating that “Both children were left alive by the killers”? Zainab was not left alive by design, she was shot in the chest and her skull was stove in, which presumably was a pretty serious attempt to kill a seven year-old child. The other girl might very well have succeeded in hiding from the killers under her mother’s skirts, as she hid from the first rescuers, and then for eight hours from the police.
The Telegraph article claims to be informed by sources close to the investigation. So they believe it was a group of people, and feel motivated to absolve those people from child-killing. Now what could the Daily Telegraph be thinking?
Happy New Year Everyone!
I hope that this year will bring justice for the victims and their loved ones.
I also hope that our host Craig’s health continues to improve.
Last, but not least, a big thank you to Jon for moderation and tech support.
So, a challenge for everyone, your predictions for the France 2 documentary please!
I shall kick off with a real punt, that the French authorities have accepted that there has been so much internet ‘leakage’ that they allow France 2 to reveal some more of what ONF2 saw and heard.
Secondly, more of the extracurricular activities of SM will be revealed.
@Bleb Could you take a screenshot at 00.28 00.29 please, I cant make it out , Is there a cylinder of gas ?
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x18xg9g_extrait-non-elucide-l-affaire-de-la-tuerie-de-chevaline_tv
00:54 shows the killer walking down beside the culvert.
Remember when the ex-Met officer visited Le Martinet? He was pictured beside and looking at the same culvert on the other side of the road. I thought that possibly he had insider information and was signaling it.
My take at the time was that perhaps the killer had hidden in the culvert on the other (river) side of the road and had come up out of it.
However I was unable to reconcile this with the reports that “the killer came from above Le Martinet” and/or “behind the sign”.
This filmic reconstruction initially places the killer literally “above and behind” the carpark. Now perhaps the film producers read the same reports and scripted on that basis but just possibly this is leakage from the EM briefings.
Any views?
I placed a link about october 2012 where i had a link that SM was a member of a local Futsal club. I cannot remember that link, though, because this was irrelevant.
This rather looks like a very bad football court. Not a stadium but rather something for hobby players where they might go for training. Like hard court (red sand) in the middle of the town or on the roof of a shopping center/factory. Look the house and tree in the background.
Why has it taken more than 12 months to release that verified photo? I have no doubts that the Ledauphine journalists had this photo already one day after the crime happened. Why never released?
Definitely a D notice. SM was without doubt a french secret service agent or a french drugs undercover agent and one of their own law enforcement..
OR….
French privacy laws. Very powerful indeed.
And yet they seem to be now about to “break” them.
Is it because the picture had already been published ?
The “re publishing” of a picture already in the “public domain” would not breach any law, would it ?
@Good in Parts
Very early on when I was thinking about the possible scenarios my gut feeling was that he had come down a path from above just there where he’s shown,I think when its wet, that bit behind the sign becomes a run off, there is a similiar trodden area on the other side , when its dry I think people may use the run off as a short cut rather than walk around the bend.
I wavered from it when people came up with other ideas.
But thinking about it if SAH was at the sign and the car face in, he would not have far to go to get in the drivers side ,but the shooter could fire fast SAH had one shot in the back before he made it to the car ,would it not be that he would have been an easy target that close to the shooter,and been hit more ?
Or did SM go at the shooter causing a switch of targets and giving SAH a chance to run and thats why SM took a lot of shots first ,I don’t pretend to be good at this I am just giving some ideas to kick off the chat.
I don’t think Sm would have rode across the lay by towards a man with a gun and I can’t see why the shooter would kick off at SAH with a random stranger riding towards the scene so if thats where the shooter was my guess would be they were there together allready.
As I don’t speak or understand French I won’t really be able the follow the France 2 prog and I am not hopeful for the graphics as I have seen so many variations of that crime scene,with bodies and bikes all over the place, which version to be believe is a challenge.
I have little faith in anything EM says he seems to be able to make it up as he goes along so I kinda threw in the towel a long time ago that we will have anything straight forward to deal with like simple correct facts.
@ Pink
I think SM did, as you say, “go at the shooter causing a switch of targets and giving SAH a chance to run and thats why SM took a lot of shots first”.
One of the most bizarre elements in this case is that both SAH and SM had confided that they thought that they might be shot.
Whichever party was in fact the principal target, it seems likely to me that both assumed it was in fact themselves.
@ James
Not just privacy laws, try local solidarity plus a little ‘leverage’.
His grieving partner even asked his ex-wife to keep shtum. That she runs the local pharmacy and knows every prescription you and your family have taken since the year dot obviously wouldn’t come into it.
I am pretty sure that you are right and the picture was already out there. Even so it still took a while to surface. My guess would be a works team.
@Pink – here is a screenshot at 00:28
http://postimg.org/image/fhb29gdn5/
I don’t think it it is what you are after though.
However the I can see what looks to be a (gas?) cylinder that very quickly flashes up between the two different views of the “Mollier photo” around the 00:34 mark. Unfortunately it is so quick I can’t grab it (it might be possible but I don’t know how – maybe Max would know how?)
Also looks like a football shirt circa 1979/80 to me.
I though rugby shirts looked more like this:
http://postimg.org/image/ih757091h/
ie: collar and three button neck
GIP.
Works team (or amateur type team) and a picture already out there.
If that is so, it just shows you how well the town “shut down”.
And that’s why I think it’s a “local” issue.
Locals in Chevaline “know” what is going on (or have an idea).
I doubt the “Al Hilli” clan is “squeaky clean”. And by now the police know where that “undeclared” money came from…and yet it’s funny that info isn’t being released. It may have been from an “unusual” source…but is it related to this event ? I doubt it.
My focus is on the “mystery” Mollier.
Bleb…
The SM pic is in black and white, so the shirt maybe blue…or red. But we can guess it is at least “darker than the two sleeves.
Cezus play in blue…and with “white” (or grey) sleeves.
Other Co’s (ugitech) may also have a footie team.
The “gold boy” may have been a “not a bad player” in his day.
And a cyclist. So a “good all round sportsman”.
Was this local man “a player” ?
Married, divorced, pregnant partner… did he make enemies ?
@Bleb
Bleb that screenshot is spot on any idea what it is ?
http://postimg.org/image/fhb29gdn5/
The gas cylinder picture.. I thought that’s what it was, here’s a guide to cylinder sizes anyone want to take a punt on which one it is ?
http://www.boconline.co.uk/en/sheq/gas-safety/cylinder-weights-sizes/cylinder-weights-size/cylinder-weights-size.html
The shot is at 00.28
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x18xg9g_extrait-non-elucide-l-affaire-de-la-tuerie-de-chevaline_tv
The adverts coming with that screen shot is about body building and steroids http://postimg.org/image/fhb29gdn5/
https://testocoreadvanced.co.uk/uk/43345tadffa/?&AFID=111&SID=380250&C1=834874205&c2=214014213&c3=
The photo of SM is coming from a newspaper/magazine of a library. They dont have an original. Nobody ever took a private b/w photo since the early 1970tees. Everybody had colour film, even the poor. b/w films were available only at special request and more expensive than colour films. However, newspapers and magazines did print in b/w.
This is a copy from a newspaper or rather from some kind of printed sports club yearbook or from a company magazine. In a newspaper the resolution of that photo would be much more mediocre than it is here. Therefore i guess that this photo is a copy from a magazine.
http://postimg.org/image/phpo6ji2p/
Something looks wrong with his hair.
Enlarge it.
His original hair isn’t black.
The ” black hair” was obviously painted over the picture with black felt pen.
You can see that especially above his ear on the right. This is no pixelation but print and black felt pen.
Pity that felixfelix isnt around anymore. He would find out about the manipulation of that picture.
Bluebird
I agree with your post at 3 Jan, 2014 – 8:56 am – the pic is likely from a newspaper or magazine
But I think your “black felt pen” effect was just the cleanup of this scanned halftone image.
It could have been a filter to avoid moire – see the wiki link below;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moire#Image_processing
But in this case it looks like they got the intern to use a virtual black-felt-pen in photoshop.
Unless it’s a rug.
@Pink
in reply to:
“Bleb that screenshot is spot on any idea what it is ?
http://postimg.org/image/fhb29gdn5/ ”
I think it is probably a figure in a motorcycle helmet (head & upper body).
@ Bleb 3 Jan, 2014 – 4:51 pm
For real?
I see a child hiding in the rear footwell under a skirt and/or travel bag. A cuddly toy with long floppy ears is to the left of the picture immediately above the words ‘non elucide’.
Oh! I see now.
This is some kind of on-line Rorshach test right?
I passed it though, didn’t I . . .
Okaaay, let me tell you about my mother!
GiP
The black hair in the middle of his forehead is painted with felt pen (or a felt pen effect of photishop) while there is some real hair on his forehead left that looks natural and different colour. The rest of his hair left and right is black felt pen, too. I dont think this is because of pixels because there are hardly any pixels in his face. It rather looks that something got hidden with the felt pen. Maybe a baseball cap with a logo that we arent allowed to see.
On the photo of Sylvain in footie shirt? what is the pattern very evident on the far left of the photo? It can be seen to a lesser extent on the right side about halfway up.
Is it the dot effect when magnifying newspaper print? Less seen in magazines.
I dont think so, I believe the photo been kept inside plastic maybe an album and started to deteriorate?
I dont think it is as its too uniform but maybe even caused by finger marks on the picture.
I think the photo has enough to show that only 1 sleeve is white (maybe pale grey) which is quite unusual.
re: “gas cylinder”
This appears between:
1) a view of a photo of Molier @ 00:34
http://postimg.org/image/phpo6ji2p/
==> brief glimpse of “gas cylinder”
2) a view of another photo of Mollier (or the same photo differently framed/cropped) of Mollier @ 00:36
http://postimg.org/image/tvi400fp9/
Don’t some forms of welding use gas in cylinders? Maybe a photo of Mollier’s workplace that didn’t get properly edited out of the video clip? Would go with the photo(s) being from a work source maybe. All wild speculation of course.
@GIP – You could be right. I thought the curve starting at “480 quality” at the top curving down to the left was the outline of a helmet, a visor/scarf curving down to the right with some face and an eye showing. Upper body in a padded jacket below. You have made me doubt it now. Images of Christ in burnt toast / Rorshach test take your pick.
@ Bluebird 8:19pm
“It rather looks that something got hidden with the felt pen. Maybe a baseball cap with a logo that we arent allowed to see.”
Good thought, but it would have to be an eyeshader because the top of his hair looks visible and unaltered (to me at least).
I just now had another thought – perhaps it is an artefact of preparation for digital TV broadcasting i.e. gamma correction see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_curve
IIRC the “legal” gray levels on DTT are (or were) different from other standards. I cannot find it online but I think the top and bottom 8 values (out of 255) were “non-legal”. Presumably they tweaked the gamma to suit.
Caveat all this with compaibility with SECAM – the french standard.
I do remember an issue on early On-digital boxes that failed to display images because the levels were out of range. Basically the distribution system was not checking their legality, so solid black was displayed (similar to what we see here).
@ Straw44berry 9:12pm
“what is the pattern very evident on the far left of the photo?” well I thought it was halftone as used in printing newspapers etc. This can produce artefacts when scanned.
Notice that the halftone dots are very slightly off horizontal? When scanned in as a digital image this can produce a moire pattern which is very irritating to see (to me at least). I thought it likely that this had been re-touched or filtered.
However, I appreciate your point about the photo perhaps being kept in plastic and deteriorating. I had some photos, a long time ago, that came back from the dev lab, not with the usual smooth shiny surface but with a sort of matt effect that when you looked at it was actually a whole grid of raised dots.
So, yes in a plastic album these could get sticky as you say.
A real long shot is that this photo was supplied to the programme makers by someone who wants to remain anon and so the producers tightly cropped it and added a spurious halftone effect to make it look as if it had come from a newspaper and thus was public domain.
Right now I plump for some kind of artefacting (probably gamma) because I can see the same issue on his chin.
Maybe he had a ‘goatee’ and was in fact MC1 as well. It could work if he was a time traveller. But why would he want to shoot himself?
Tim V, it was good to see you at squonk.tk do drop by again, and thanks for the link about the former French foreign minister.
@ bleb 4 Jan, 2014 – 12:23 am
Well I can now finally see what you refer to as the “brief glimpse of “gas cylinder””
I think it is in fact the second (re-cropped and rotated) view of SM which can be seen @ 00:36 but black/white inverted (negative style) and briefly strobed with the contrast turned up to 11.
Thats my take anyway!
I came to that conclusion by moving the cursor along the video progress bar to generate a thumbnail picture. Surprisingly the timestamp of the thumbnail and main picture seem to be inconsistent and misaligned.
If you look at the thumbnail for 00:28 it seems to be a still of the negative strobe picture I described above.
Is that what you perceived as a gas cylinder when strobing?
Blue…
One thing that newspapers did do (back in the day) was shoot in black and white.
It was easier to print from.
I know this because a family friend ran a “picture library”.
They would “sell” the pictures (under copyright) to newspapers.
I worked in the archive section one summer as a “runner”.
If the newspaper didn’t have a “good enough” picture, then a library one could be bought.
Of course newspapers didn’t want to do this, but sometimes had to.
The newspapers would build and maintain there own “owned” material.
That photo could have been “shot”, “owned” and “archived by” the “Chevaline Times” ….and only now “reprinted”. That photograph would not need permission to be reprinted as the copyright isn’t owned by the Mollier/Shcultz family.
If someone knew Molllier had played for “a team”, they could search the archives of a “friendly” media agency….and then reprint it “at will”.
Of course it maybe in “black and white”, but failing any request for a photograph, it’s the best thing they have.
@GIP – I really don’t know. I only started with the screenshot business to preserve the SM photo in case it mysteriously disappeared. I claim no expertise!
Hopefully the full programme might make some of this clearer.