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?
Any luck sorting this out yet, BB?
“There this same named guy refers to Gerard Devouassoux’s book by cooking a “souffle” and drinking wine. It’s a crazy message if he isn’t a cook. I still need to investigate before i am posting that message.”
Now that there is an Eric D Alexis who worked as a waiter, it might make more sense.
Just a little observation on that recent crime scene photo partly in response to your q Bleb. The first thing to notice is its an aerial photo. I assume its not a press one as when the daily mail flies over bodies have gone. They went late morning as far as we know so did they remain where they fell over night or were they taken away in the night? So we dont know whether the photo was taken evening of the 5th or morning of the 6th. Its a statement of the obvious that it wasn’t at night. It could have been taken by the heat seeking aircraft (that missed Zainab in the back of the car) We just don’t know. However the position of the (SM?) body is interesting. He lies neatly on his back, legs and arms quite straight. This is not typical of a person shot in a hail of bullets particularly if he was running away. Such a person would tend to fall frontwards and appear crumpled and bent, often in what is termed “the recovery position”. Further a person shot but not killed in the first instance, as suggested of poor Mollier, is more likely to be in a frontal crawling position. His indicated position is therefore far too neat and tidy to reflect how he fell. It does however fit somewhat being turned over, dragged or arranged on his back. This to some extent fits WBM’s account of what he did. If as he says he moved him, did he drag him by arms or legs? In other words from the front or back of the lay-by? If as WBM said it was to move him from the front it tends to be answered. http://actudirect.com/news/exclusivite-bfmtv-les-photos-de-la-scene-du-crime-de-la-tuerie-de-chevaline/ has now been removed it appears. Did anyone copy the photo? I also had a close look at the tyre tracks Bleb. They do appear somewhat different don’t they but not enough to change my opinion about them. It seemed to there were parallel ones in front of the car that might relate to a straight reverse manouevre but Now its gone I can’t check.
you will notice a strange little detail about the “photo fit” here http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/french-alps-murder-picture-eric-3160241#ixzz2tktE0f5u
have a look see.
Do you notice the helmet is drawn ON TOP of the body giving an “x-ray” effect. Would you expect this of a professional portraitist? Ok if you wanted to show clothes around the shoulders you may amend the drawing accordingly but a see-through image of the helmet? I don’t think so.
WIKI has following:
“PhotoFIT generation[edit]
Construction of the composite was originally performed by a trained artist, through drawing, sketching, or painting, in consultation with a witness or crime victim. In the 1970s[citation needed] techniques were devised for use by those less artistically skilled, employing interchangeable templates of separate facial features, such as “Photofit” in the UK, Smith & Wesson’s “Identi-Kit” in the US and PortraitPad.
In the last two decades, a number of computer based facial composite systems have been introduced, amongst the most widely used systems are SketchCop FACETTE Face Design System Software, “Identi-Kit 2000″, FACES, E-FIT and PortraitPad. In the U.S. the FBI maintains that hand-drawing is its preferred method for constructing a facial composite. Many other police agencies, however, use software, since suitable artistic talent is often not available.”
Also see http://www.gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr/fre/Sites/Gendarmerie/Presentation/Police-Judiciaire/Centre-national-de-formation-a-la-police-judiciaire-CNFPJ/Formation-portrait-robot and compare. Chevaline certainly didn’t utilise the nationally approved and adopted system.
More detail about the standard method at http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/le-portrait-robot-des-dessins-a-la-main-au-logiciel-informatique-06-06-2012-1470036_23.php “The portrait “assesses the state of memories” of the victim: facial morphology, height, build … “We start from an empty shell” from 55 different types of faces, where we add eyes, nose, mouth , ears and hair, he says.”
Why would the GIGN be called in for the arrest of Eric D?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gendarmerie_Intervention_Group
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10647731/Alps-shooting-former-policeman-arrested-as-final-al-Hilli-family-photo-emerges.html
Wouldn’t the police be able to handle it, if this were an average case of murder?
@Q 19 Feb, 2014 – 4:39 pm
Re timing of photos
The explanation of the DST mistake sounds plausible until you think about it.
If SAH had a camera that thought it was standard French Central European time (GMT +1) but in fact on Sept 5 the time was French DST (GMT +2) That would mean the camera was 1 hour slow and that would mean the timestamp would apparently give them an extra hour to play with, not an hour less.
If SAH had a a camera set at British DST (GMT +1) but it was in fact French DST (GMT +2) that would mean exactly equivalent to above.
If SAH had a camera set at British time from the winter, (= GMT) but it was in fact French DST (GMT +2) That would mean the camera was 2 hours slow and that would mean the timestamp would apparently give them an extra 2 hours, not an hour less.
In order for this theory to work he would have to be set at French DST time (GMT+2) but was actually winter Central European time(GMT +1) which is impossible OR, he had the camera set for Eastern European Time in e.g. Bucharest but was actually in France for Central European time. which is highly unlikely.
There are some serious allegations about the GIGN (‘scandal of the Irish of Vincennnes’) here:
http://schuitemaberend.blogspot.ca/2013/06/mary-reid-gign-agent-fight-to-clear-her.html
np Q Q
19 Feb, 2014 – 6:13 pm KEEP POSTING!
WIKI: “After the Munich massacre during the Olympic Games in 1972, and a prison mutiny in Clairvaux Prison the year before, France started to study the possible solutions to extremely violent attacks, under the assumptions that these would be difficult to predict and deflect.[1]
In 1973, the GIGN became a permanent force of men trained and equipped to respond to these kind of threats while minimizing risks to the public and hostages, for the members of the unit, and for the attackers themselves. The GIGN became operational on the first of March, 1974, under the command of Lieutenant Christian Prouteau.
Ten days later, it had its first intervention against a deranged person in Ecquevilly, proving the necessity of the unit. GIGN initially had 15 members, which increased to 48 by 1984, 57 by 1988, and 87 by 2000.[1]
In 2007, a major reorganization was implemented, with the GIGN, EPIGN and GSIGN staff merged into a single 380-member unit also called GIGN. In the future, newly recruited gendarmerie officers will be trained for intervention, and will have the opportunity to be trained in close protection and/or research/observation (missions of the old EPIGN). The total man power was expected to increase to about 420 soldiers in 2010. The reorganization goal was to enable the deployment of a 200 strong unit, trained together, for large-scale interventions, such as a Beslan-type mass hostage-taking – in French they’re called POM (Prise d’Otage Massive). With the reorganization the acronym GSIGN has become moot and the acronym “GIGN” no longer refers to the same small unit. Collaboration between GIGN and RAID has become more and more focused upon large hostage-rescue scenarios.”
“Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion (Research, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence) or RAID is, like the GIPN, a special operations tactical unit of the French National Police with more manpower and equipment. It is a nationwide unit, and, as an counterterrorism unit, has an exclusive jurisdiction on the 21 closest Département_in_France of Paris. It is the National Police’s primary anti-terrorism unit and the counterpart of the GIGN of the Gendarmerie Nationale. RAID was founded by Robert Broussard and Ange Mancini in 1985, in response to a bombing and murder campaign. Since 2009, RAID is included within The French Police Intervention Force, alongside with GIPN and the BRI of Paris.”
The use of the former confirms as you said Q this is definitely far more than the suggested “lone mad killer”.
From you 7.51 post Q
“She was innocent of the charges and received an apology from the French government, although she continued to fight to have her name fully cleared. Her case against Paul Barrill, a former head of GIGN, the French equivalent of the SAS and the person most associated with the attempt to implicate the three Irish refugees in the bombing of a Jewish restaurant in Paris, collapsed after it was announced by his Counsel that the file to prosecute Barrill was presented a day late. Mary’s own Counsel Antoine Comte declared his interest in continuing the case against the former GIGN agent and is currently considering how this can be pursued.
Paul Barrill is a notorious figure in France who is believed to have been involved with several African and Middle Eastern dictatorships as a ‘security consultant’. His involvement in France during the course of
the imprisonment of Mary and her comrades is often described as ‘farcical’ because of his penchant for publicity, however his role in this specific affair was an extremely dangerous one because of his use of
several agents provocateur and the willingness of the then Mitterand regime to employ suspect methods against Irish revolutionaries.”
Well done Intp1
19 Feb, 2014 – 7:42 pm. As some of us have always argued the 3.15 photo and the French construction based upon it is as reliable as the the photo fit and the story built on that. Of course they could present their evidence and argument properly and clear the matter up as with a lot of things. Their refusal to do so has always been deeply suspect in my book.
Q
19 Feb, 2014 – 6:56 pm
Now that there is an Eric D Alexis who worked as a waiter, it might make more sense.
You misread that sentence. Eric D. is just Eric D.
Then there is a dot (they forgot one dot).
The next sentence is starting with: “Alexis ……”
The name of the waiter they had interviewed is Alexis.
Eric never was a waiter and he never got the name “Alexis”. 🙂
Bb
OK here we go again. What did we say? http://www.ledauphine.com/haute-savoie/2014/02/19/tuerie-de-chevaline-la-justice-prudente-sur-la-garde-a-vue-d-un-ancien-policier
“The killing of Chevaline, which killed four September 5, 2012, “is unclear,” announced Wednesday Eric Maillaud, the prosecutor of Annecy, at a press conference on the second day of custody of a former municipal police officer.”
“19 h 10: a search was conducted on Tuesday in a second home in Indre former municipal policeman arrested. The search took place in Neuvy-Saint-Sepulchre (Indre) on the letter rogatory judge Annecy charge of the case of the killing of Chevaline, said the prosecutor Châteauroux, Christian Mercuri.
A scooter is located in the house was entered. The magistrate did not give more details on the results of the search, which lasted five hours.
The large deployment of police and investigators had not gone unnoticed in the small town of Berry.
17 H 50: the DNA ex-policeman in custody in the case of the killing of Chevaline finally suspected of arms trafficking, is not found at the crime scene profiles. A source close to the investigation said that his DNA did not “match” with two profiles found at the scene of the quadruple murder. This information was confirmed by the prosecutor in Annecy, Eric Maillaud.
14 H 56: “The second person was arrested in late night press conference is over.”.
SO NOW GET THIS!!! Weren’t we told that the only DNA from the murder scene was CORRUPTED by one of the investigators not following procedures and NO OTHER DNA WAS ISOLATED? What the hell are these people playing at? You couldn’t even make it up for a French Farce could you?
Latest news
He lost his job because he paid the petrol for his private car with petrol vouchers of the municipality police.
http://m.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/tuerie-de-chevaline-le-suspect-en-garde-a-vue-est-aussi-gendarme-reserviste-19-02-2014-3605113.php
Selon un enquêteur, «celui-ci aurait pu notamment user de ce véhicule de fonction à des fins personnelles, voir de payer le carburant de son véhicule personnel avec un moyen de paiement de la police municipale», et a dû s’engager à rembourser à la mairie les sommes détournées.
Selon nos informations, celui-ci aurait été suspendu par le maire de la commune le 19 juin, «suite à une consommation d’essence anormalement élevée» du véhicule de police qui lui était attribué dans le cadre de sa mission.
The comments there are pretty intetesting:
One in particular:
Simple question if possible simple answer: it is a killer helmeted motorcyclist armed … and a portrait robot is used very detailed to conduct the investigation and this is normal. for a similar case, killing three soldiers in Montauban, there is evidence and a clear picture: killer also helmeted and armed motorcyclist (like horses) … yet everyone, political, press included, n ‘ almost never addresses the subject of the portrait robot Montauban (large, well-built, blue eyes, tattoo under the left eye, etc …) which curiously does not correspond at all to mohamed merah. two similar situations and two radically different surveys. unclear, would there be two assassins, one in Mautauban, the other in Toulouse (merah) … or is that you walk us?
Is this the second arrested guy? Good chance:
H.Jarry
http://www.delcampe.net/page/item/id,0211982356,language,E.html
Not H.Jarry but Franck Jarry (ONF )
Franck Jarry, directeur de l’Office national des forêts de l’Indre, revient sur l’actualité de la semaine pour la NR.
Did they finally arrest an ONF guy and a police guy???????
http://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/Indre/Actualite/24-Heures/n/Contenus/Articles/2012/09/30/La-foret-est-un-espace-qu-il-faut-preserver
More on Paul Barril, from an article published a week ago:
http://www.mintpressnews.com/french-secret-agent-heart-investigation-rwandan-genocide/179440/
Yet more on Paul Barril:
http://www.dawn.com/news/916069/thirty-years-on-mecca-mosque-siege-reverberates
Barril:
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/27/world/paris-indicts-4-for-revealing-secrets-of-greenpeace-affair.html
This is an interesting GIGN connection to the Haute Savoie:
http://www.ledauphine.com/france-monde/2012/05/21/le-general-denis-favier-nomme-conseiller-de-manuel-valls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Favier
Mentioning this because it involved a cache in a forest of the Dordogne (but nothing that a metal detector would reveal:
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2008/11/02/01011-20081102FILWWW00071-dordogne-une-cache-de-l-eta-decouverte.php
“Chiaberge, a retired electrical engineer, said that about 20 to 30 gendarmes arrived at the former policeman’s house on Tuesday morning. “They had dogs. They took out a Geiger counter and marked the garden, then they dug the marked spots with a spade.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/19/alps-murders-french-police-motorcycle-arrested-man-al-hilli
Possibly he meant a metal detector, but you’d think a retired electrical engineer would know the difference.
@NR 19 Feb, 2014 – 11:59 pm
A retired electrical engineer would know the difference, but this is the Grauniad and they wouldn’t.
But then maybe the prosecuter needs to sex-up the arms trafficing indictment. He clearly is going to hold this guy until he confesses and the weapons charges are his means of doing so.
There are currently some screenshots from the (now deleted) BMFTV video
on the Daily Mail website:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2561919/Man-arrested-France-connection-murder-British-family-French-Alps.html
This time I have taken copies of a few, in case the DM ones disappear.
I’m less convinced by the tyre tracks looking at the screenshots today (last night I was convinced they did show a clear arc leading back from the BMW) now I’m not so sure. The tracks to the right look wider than those to the left.
What is the circular object to the left of the BMW abaft the drivers door mirror?
Bleb, in the closeup image of the van, investigators can be seen with a stretcher off in the bushes. Is the object you are referring to a man wearing one of those white hooded suits, like the investigators in the other image? The man’s torso seems to be dark. Maybe it’s one of the navy-suited investigators whose white coveralls aren’t done up in the front. There are yellow evidence markers on the ground, so the scene has already been altered by the police.
The ground was damp at the time of the murders. There are other impressions. It looks like two other vehicles could have been parked at the layby. There are two sets of tracks: one that leads to the van, and a couple of short marks. In front of SM’s body there is another impression. Again, the scene was already altered by the time these images were taken.
Here’s a place an Eric Devouassoux has been renting since at least 2004:
http://www.villegiatures.com/location-vacances,saint-gervais-les-bains-appartement-4-personnes,M0797401.html
Image #17 seems to show a bicycle on the ground under the shot-out window of the van.
@Q – the photo is the one titled:
“Murder: A crime scene image shows the al-Hilli family’s maroon BMW with its windows shot out, and the body of French murder victim Sylvain Mollier lying next to it”
on the DM website
And, yes, it could be a dark haired person in white overalls shot from dead overhead.
I’m wouldn’t trust my own judgement, which seems to get worse the harder and longer I look at the photos.
It almost seems like the story is being sculpted to fit the possibilities discussed here:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/french-alps-murders-al-hilli-killings-3164354
He is being described as a “racist gun nut” with a collection of WWII weapons, and a “cowboy” now.
Could this go to explain why SAH had to be “neutralised”?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhMPlJ9C__Q Watch and judge.
Bluebird
19 Feb, 2014 – 9:29 pm if this is true it validates what I suggested might be a possibility from the very beginning! Well I never! On the other hand it might just be another ruse. The story has suddenly got very interesting. But why the top forestry guy and not the men on the ground that have been presented as the good guys up to now? Is the French side just falling apart and looking for scapegoats? Anyone? Anywhere?