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?
Marc Dufour, the lawyer for Eric Devouassoux, is here:
http://www.boursojobs.com/service-marc-dufour-avocat-pourri-corruption-annecy-arval-piriou,00000243.html
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1d131b_l-avocat-marc-dufour-a-sa-sortie-du-tribunal-d-annecy_news
http://www.liberation.fr/france/1996/02/17/acquittement-surprise-des-amants-d-annecy-ils-comparaissaient-pour-le-meurtre-de-denis-chemel_162602
http://www.lexpress.fr/informations/les-assises-sont-le-receptacle-de-la-misere-humaine_722210.html
From the last link via Google Translate:
“What look like delinquency and crime in Annecy basin?
The area is not marked by a tradition of banditry or pimping. However, the location of the town – its proximity to Switzerland – in fact a transit point for drugs or for capital flight. Lately, many Spanish nationals fleeing the high tax burden of their country, are caught as they try to get their economies in Switzerland. In this litigation tax type, suspect can legally deal with the Ministry of Finance. However, the prosecuting authority was intractable: it systematically denounces made its foreign counterparts. In Europe, the Customs Cooperation works, which is not always the case in court cases. As for illegal immigration networks, they rather act from Italy using the most direct lines of communication, through the valleys of the Maurienne and Tarentaise.
The Assize Court of Haute-Savoie also had to judge crimes resounding blood, as the case Flactif or mare of Roberto Succo …
The same factors lead to murder or abuse: alcoholism, jealousy and behavioral disorders. This remains a constant. It is even the thread that connects man to his condition, regardless of changes in society. Mechanization has eased the tasks. We have access to recreation. We live better than our grandparents. But the man is still facing his troubles and his greatest fears. For so-called deviant, the situation became even more precarious. Moral frameworks have faded. The teacher who raises his hand against a student may be brought to justice. Constable is no longer feared. No more using the priest asks. The court and the court of assizes function as the receptacle, first and last, this human misery.
The increase in the number of sexual affairs, a clear trend at the national level, it is noticeable in Annecy?
Course. So much so that some sessions seats are no longer made as files of this type. I pleaded for nearly twenty years with victims to the general council. This represents on average between 30 and 60 cases each year. Should we conclude from this evolution that rape and sexual assault, including minors, are more numerous than in the past? Are they not more frequently reported? They are better taken into account by the courts? We lack objective data on the subject. It may have to put this in a broader context. I talk a lot with psychiatrists. The company has become ruthless with the two extremes of life. Getting old is no longer accepted. Similarly, it tends to explode the barriers of childhood that once needed a kid to build away from the adult world. Today, children are screened early, would that through the newspaper 20 hours. Interview by Eric Pelletier”
That’s interesting.
Tim V, the Timelord:
I need to go through the timings again in light of the times released by panorama (may be you already did before, in which case, sorry to bug you again):
Just this part: if the shots are at 3:40PM and WBM arrives at 3:45PM how does that sit with the timing given for Phillip Bossy’s arrival? the latter one – per his own words, not the earlier time ascribed to PD which was 4:10PM?
I seem to remember Bossy citing a time of before 4PM for his first encounter with WBM, contradicting that earlier 4;10PM time given by his alter-ego Philip Didiejean.. Yes, I know I can go back and check but may be you remember off the top of your head (hey, that’s what being Timelord is all about! don’t get that title for nothing, you know…).
So now we a long-serving criminal lawyer from Annecy telling us that the area is used as a transit point for moving money illegally/tax evasion and drug-running. Curiously, the Spanish are involved. As we know, Saad’s father lived in Costa del Sol. We know that Saad and Zaid al-Hilli were involved in a dispute over their father’s will. Suddenly, Saad and his family head to Annecy and soon the Chevaline massacre takes place.
Could it be that the Mastros chose the Annecy area for its “services”, rather than for its scenic beauty?
Some terms used by police to describe the al-Hilli killer/s sound like the ones found here:
http://www.murderpedia.org/male.S/s/succo-roberto.htm
This case is also mentioned by area lawyer Marc Dufour:
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_Flactif
http://quickstart.clari.net/qs_se/webnews/wed/bo/Qfrance-crime-murder.RZPV_DSH.html
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jun/13/france.mainsection1
to my own 3;31AM post:
Forgot to add disclaimer:
This post was not meant to be presented as an original. rather, i’ve used the many good insights provided by several others and cast them as a sequence to against a chess-like move/countermove framework, adding only my quality-of-move assessments.
I think it fits very well if we see it as a game. Even though we do not know the real players and don’t have the facts as they really are/were, we can still come to some conclusions just based on gamesmanship principles.
If this whole case did not involve some real tragedies, and like everyone else I’m aghast at the obvious intention by the powers behind to NOT serve justice, I can still appreciate the moves. Also I think that someone(s) way behind the scenes actually do care about what happened to this family. We can’t look at that “last” photo, on whatever day it was taken, and not be saddened for a family pulled asunder.
@Marlin
I am looking through any links I kept on timings here’s a link to what was said in LeParisien http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/la-tuerie-de-chevaline-a-l-epreuve-du-chronometre-13-09-2012-2162933.php
@Q + all
There is a interesting comment on this forum about Flactifs wife having 74 bank accounts http://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=p367430
An interesting comment from poster Shadwell on Deadzone61 (hope they don’t mind if brought here, if properly credited?):
“I was certainly surprised to see the markers where they were on the new aerial photo – was expecting a group at the other end of the parking area (not visible), then some five or six along the road and another group close to the right (in the photo) of the car.”
Any suggestions? I also noted the location of the markers,which are around and in front of the final location of the BMW. So just as an exercise, if the BMW was the one reversing as most recreations indicate, surely, the shots would have rung out when Saad was closer to the other end of the car park, and that must be when he was shot in the back, so where is a marker for the bullet casing on in the middle or close to the edge of the car park? In fact there should be more than one since the gunman also presumably shot at SM so where would he have been when pulling the trigger?
If, OTOH, the BMW was not the one making the backward maneuver (and frankly, the tracks don’t really match the final location of the car’s wheels – the arc is displaced by almost 1 m, anyway one looks at it), we can surmise that some of the shooting took place from somewhere in the vicinity of the BMW’s passenger side, then moving to the front of the car in an attempt to stop it, before going to the driver’s side.
What did people make of the markers’ positions? again I apologize if this was already discussed and done with – just point me to the approximate time on this blog and I’ll check there. was anyone surprised? or was it as expected?
An aside: regarding those circular tracks – these would seem to be quite consistent with a maneuver by another car that was aiming to block Assad’s escape route forward (at an angle), which is may be what caused Saad to go into a sudden hard reverse, trying to get out. One of the things I never understood about the idea that the BMW made those reverse marks is that if a driver was anxious to get out of the park area he would most likely reverse into the street rather than all the way back into a parking lot where a gunman was shooting left and right. Even if wounded and not thinking straight this would be the normal direction. Of course, as others have said many times over, he might have been trying to pick up Zainab who was still at the parking lot. Anyways, i didn’t necessarily want to go over this scenario again, just wanted to point the tracks do not match with the BMW (I said that BTW several times over at MZT and not once has anyone picked on that question or cared to answer. Always wondered about that).
@Marlin
Zainab being in or out of the car is another moving goalpost she may have been in the car and been trying to escape its like how many shots etc they can’t stick to one story .
Marlin,
I doubt Zeena was taken & returned to the car,that just sounds too bizarre & that someone thought to lock the doors after them.
Placing a living child under two dead bodies is just too grotesque to contemplate.
Shadwell is right about the tracks not lining up with the BMW, this was said months ago here.
What we don’t know is if in fact they were created by the rescuers who turned up in force. Somehow I doubt photos were taken of an untouched scene… as the bodies had been removed when that pic was first published.
Bleb
1 Mar, 2014 – 1:54 am sorry Bleb that’s just me playing Self-Editor with due deference to a standard comedic device in “Private Eye” for many years.
Marlin
28 Feb, 2014 – 10:54 pm Thanks for that BMFTV reference http://bcove.me/3x2dc8qs Marlin which I have just watched. Like you I can only make out the odd phrase I’m afraid. What we need is Mochyn69 to give us a translated summary. The gist I get is that a good deal of the ten minute discussion relates to the publication of those two moribund Mollier pictures and the issues it raises. Maybe the French media is catching up with us. I can only speak for myself, but they totally validate the line I have argued from the beginning, and in some quarters either derided or ignored, that Mollier led and bled on the near side of the car, not where all the French diagrams (police originated) placed him on the off side with bike. If the latter is correct and he was shot, fell and bled there, where is the blood evidence. If he fell there how did he get to the other side again with no blood trail? And perhaps most importantly, why did the police promote an interpretation that they must have known to be false. It undermines everything they said about the events doesn’t it? Note where they place the shooter on this one. Not as they have said previously at the top of the car park whilst a desperate SAH is carrying a sweeping reverse manoeuvre. How can this be made to fit the previous output that they were standing together BEFORE Mollier and SAH were shot? And how if this reconstruction is accurate would SM have got shot in the back? As I said, perhaps at long last French media is starting to discuss and challenge the “official version”?
BMFTV sorry
CORRECTION CORRECTED!!!!!!!!!!!! BFMTV I mean.
Good summary Marlin
1 Mar, 2014 – 3:31 am and I think we are pretty much in agreement. Just a couple of observations:
1. Even if we accept the Panorama WBM arrival time of 3.40, it means if as he says the journey took him half an hour, the BMW X5 MUST have passed him on the way up if it was witnessed at 3.20 one Kilometre in. Even if it was marginally ahead at that point its too early for them not to have seen one another just before.
2. When the X% has passed him it still has to come back. So if it went up it had to come back down unless it stayed at the lay-by until WBM arrived. Either way he would HAVE to have TWO sightings of the BMW x5 but as far as I am aware he doesn’t mention one!
3. Now, since the Panorama programme we have not one but TWO ONF trucks/4×4 going down whilst WBM was on the road. The first passes the X5 we are told at 3.20 one K up the combe. So this one must have passed WBM either marginally before or marginally after. This one doesn’t have the biker with him because we are told this was either still at the lay-by of on its way up the mountain to bump into
“ONF 2”.
4. So if ONF 2 escorted down and WBM says he was passed by a green 4×4 and motor bike it is reasonable to assume these are the same.
5. Now the difficult to explain bit: if these two pass him before he arrives there are only two options ONE the killings have happened and either the ONF2 and motor bike have passed them or involved in them or TWO the killings had not yet happened and only SM and WBM are available to do it. The fact that shots are heard at 3.30 tends to support the former which implicates ONF2 and motor cyclist in the killings (if they even existed!)
Marlin
1 Mar, 2014 – 8:10 am I discussed the implications of the bullet shells (to be distinguished from the bullets themselves of course) locations on the new photos at length in an earlier post. They confirm my view from the first that the shooting was done largely at the bottom of the car park NOT what the police said at the top. There appear to be no shells at the top marked and the number at the bottom don’t allow for many more. One cannot over emphasise the importance of this. It PROVES the police version was false. And whoever released the photo must have this to be the case. When you combine evidence from the car and position of the shell casings it absolutely fits a firing position either side of the car where it is shown NOT at the other end or in transit from one end to the other which was/is the police story line.
@Pink + all: Pink, I think that we may be moving closer to why there is an apparent lack of movement in this investigation. With all this money and merchandise moving through the Haute-Savoie, it is possible that some of it has been directed to those who look the other way, KWIM?
Are various departments in the Haute-Savoie looking the other way?
@Marlin: I think you have already answered your own question. We are not supposed to believe that there were any other vehicles at the scene, when obviously there were, as the vehicle impressions left in the wet ground reveal. One impression was a blockier vehicle, like you might expect from a 4X4.
As an aside, the news footage you posted yesterday revealed that the media outlet had taken photos with a helicopter and a drone.
@Tim V 3:27 pm: So this could be why Eric M. is so upset at the news outlet that took the photos with a helicopter and drone, aside from upsetting the family of SM. Over the past few days, I have noted many photos, much more graphic, in online articles from other European countries where mob hits take place in the street in broad daylight. They don’t blur the images, either, and zoom in for closeups of the victims’ faces. Is the real issue, as you say, that the official line is now me$3e?
@Tim V 2:26 pm: Of course there was DNA evidence at the scene. The DNA of the victims had to have been there, with all that blood. The DNA of WBM had to have been there, as he touched the victims and interfered with the crime scene. The DNA of PD should have been there.
After all, this was a beautiful, sunny day with no rain that could have washed DNA away! We know this to be the truth because of the al-Hilli family dressed for a sunny day in that “last photo”. It can’t be both: a sunny day that inspired the family to go for a spur-of-the moment picnic (one new report this week of dishes on their laps when they were found) and necessitated shorts for the al-Hilli girls, and a rainy day that carried away critical DNA evidence. We know that the ground was damp enough to leave impressions of the two other vehicles that weren’t there.
Sarcasm off: Ed.
Tim V, 3:27 PM – indeed, the shell markers are as good as telling us where the shooter was not, though it doesn’t totally pin point his movements. Which leaves indeed the question of why all the previous official recreations had him/her showing up from the top of the car park.
Oh wait, I know the answer, teacher, teacher!
If shooter was near the bottom of the car park, with Mollier and SAH standing just off the somewhere near the center of the car park, that leaves the top of the area free to accommodate another car? a motorcycle (as in the panorama recreation)?
But there’s more – please please, can I blurt it out?
If shooter is anywhere near the bottom, perhaps running towards the center, following SAH’s attempted escape, why on earth would SAH, having made it all the way to his driver seat, possibly with Zainab in tow (as she was suddenly placed in the car seat in some recent accounts – thanks for the remind, Pink) be foolish enough to back into the car park again?
Teacher: may be to run down the shooter, of course…
Teacher (now quite agitated): besides – who said Zainab was in the car anyways? you can’t believe everything you read in the press!
Student smarty-pants: but isn’t it a lot simpler to just assume the car was always at the bottom of the car park?
Teacher (really angry now, gesturing wildly): enough of that wild speculation! class dismissed!!
One more on bullet casings – I think this could well be one of those “gifts/hints” I was talking about.
Katie, 11:50AM
I don’t think it was shadwell who said that about the tracks, and I don’t think I’ve seen the name here on CM – am I wrong? has this poster come this way first before settling at Deadzone61? was he/she on MZT first?
Or, did you meant someone else Katie.
AS to the rescue vehicles making these tracks – yes, I know this was Marilyn’s favorite suggestion, but alas it makes very little sense to trample all over a crime scene like this – especially early on upon arrival! if the French pompiers did that, they should have either (a) be fired (b) never hired.
Also, why try so hard to posit anything other than the obvious – there was another car there!
Besides, we now have direct corroboration by ONF1 on the panorama – he saw a X5, silver-grey, one driver at about 3:20PM going up the Combe d”Ire. Must we dismiss this testimony, or, as max suggested, posit that ONF1 is both non-observant AND color blind!
More to Katie 11:30AM
On Zeena – it was Tim who suggested that she may have been removed, then placed back in only to be found in the nick of time near midnight. I don’t think he was too attached to that particular scenario though, and indeed there are many other possibilities.
The point is – was there ever anyone who actually thought that the idea of a 4 year old hiding for 8 hours under skirts in a car full of dead people made sense? Tim V merely suggested that the girl, at 4 may not even be small enough to so successfully hide, motionless between bags, skirts etc. certainly she doesn’t seem so small from the photo!
In any case, Zeena was always one of the elements of this story that did not make sense. We – amateur detectives presumably – may have forced ourselves to accept this official version, but have we really ever gotten over that funny little feeling that we may have been sold a bag of goods?
In fact, it was the Zeena story that caused the appearance of “extraction/kidnap” scenario in the first place. Some of us (and I never totally gave up on the partial extraction piste) simply had a hard time with story, realizing that the alternative is to accept that we, the public, were outright lied to from the onset. Alas, once you accept the police deliberately lied, anything becomes possible, because nothing can be believed. Isn’t that why we all keep going on this this much time later? because deep or not so deep at heart we find it abominable that the authorities deliberately mislead us?
I am only surprised that we haven’t had yet a UFO buff showing up here claiming an encounter and a cover-up by the lizard people.
Katie @ 1 Mar, 2014 – 11:50 am
re: “I doubt Zeena was taken & returned to the car,that just sounds too bizarre & that someone thought to lock the doors after them.
Placing a living child under two dead bodies is just too grotesque to contemplate. …”
I’m not sure anyone is suggesting she was returned and physically shoved under two dead bodies (as you say – grotesque). I think the suggestion is: returned to the scene by person(s) “in on the plan” and “found” when nobody else was looking. As in “Hey look what we just found …”, while carrying/leading her, supposedly from the BMW.
Marlin
1 Mar, 2014 – 8:10 am
‘An interesting comment from poster Shadwell on Deadzone61 (hope they don’t mind if brought here, if properly credited?)’
I was referring to that quote by you, but I now see further down that comment it was you who mentioned the tyre marks.
As for other vehicles, there were many,who ferried all the heavies from the embassy who were called in, then all the police vehicles, not to mention the mystery vehicles.What happened overnight ,did the police stay on guard all night, I very much doubt it.As they left the work until the next day I suspect they cordoned it off & left for the night forgetting there was another route to the site.
But my point is, that that photo was taken ‘after’ the bodies were removed,so the crime scene had been disturbed for that at least.
As for Zeena, I really cannot see how else she survived,yes there are lies upon lies in the whole scenario, but if the story of finding her in the locked car is true at all, it can only be that when it all went quiet she tried & failed to open the doors … because child locks were on & finally she did give up & fell asleep.
It would be interesting to know if she had any injuries, like a blow to her head,because I cannot see how a gunman …no matter how good,could have accurately issued two bullets to the foreheads of three people, through glass.
I suggest one door was open for Zainab to get in but he reached into the car instead.
For reason that an automatic human reaction would be to duck the minute one is startled…three people sitting upright staring directly at a gun & not taking evasive action is abnormal.
Yes Saad is said to have jumped into the car & started the engine, but then how did he get a bullet into the forehead without a hole in the windscreen ?
I have no idea what distance the gun used can hit it’s target accurately , but the women in the car would have seen him approaching, all the more time to duck down & shout to Zeena get down.
Surely as they didn’t, this means the gunman was known to them as friendly…at the time.
Sorry if this is repetition but it does no harm to replay .
re: recent photo with cartridge case markers
Looking at the photo again:
1) any suggestions of why some of the markers (I count 3, bottom left) appear to be outside the taped off area. Why place the tape there?
2) any suggestions as to what the two red objects are? (bottom left, other side of road from car park).
You got it Bleb
1 Mar, 2014 – 9:16 pm. Who was around at 12.00 mn when she was “discovered”. As far as I am aware, we only have EM’s word for it at about 3 in the morning. Do I need to say more? Its amazing the power of the “official announcement” (like a plane has flown into the Pentagon!) and the difficulty of dislodging it from the public mythology and discourse. We don’t as yet have proof it was a lie, just circumstantial evidence as to the total unlikelihood she would not be noticed, given her size in the family photo, the size of the car and the space available. What we do have now is PROOF that the police have lied on several counts, therefore EM’s word is no longer enough. When you remove official voracity, what is the balance of probabilities a large four year would have remained in the small space between front and back seats for EIGHT HOURS undetected, when droves of experienced professionals were all around? Pretty low I would suggest.
Hi Bleb.
Do we know what time police returned to the car, dawn ?
@Marlin 7:36 pm: Of course, if SM and Saad were in the middle of the carpark together, or anywhere together, that implies a meeting of some sort, and we are not supposed to think that there was a meeting of any kind, remember?
“Official voracity” a Freudian slip, Tim? 🙂
Where I think that theory falls down, of returning Zeena, to the car, is that a child of four can talk.
Also they didn’t take eight hours ‘to find her’ because they were not looking for her.
It was only when a woman at the campsite said there were TWO children that they started to look for her.
As for her size, with voluminous skirts & luggage she would be easily hidden,
Katie
1 Mar, 2014 – 9:23 pm your post appears very like an apologia for what remains of the tattered official story. I have to say I find it unconvincing.
Point by point:
Yes many vehicles but the aerial shots show them at the lay-by below. Of course this does not prove that Martinet was not used by the early responders who may or may not have left tyre marks. The reason why I doubt any of these left the distinct ones is that if they had EM would have claimed this immediately. It would be the perfect off the hook for a sinister cause. The fact that he didn’t is fairly convincing indicator that it wasn’t put there by a responder. However the bottom line is it WASN’T put there by SAD as EM claims.
Of course overnight is immaterial to the issue of Zeena as it is claimed she was “discovered” at midnight. Having said that there was activity and police presence right through the night and I think it’s inconceivable that the murder site would have been left unattended at any time until at least the vehicle was removed next day especially if bodies were left in situ. When they were removed is not altogether clear and has not been stated. We must assume no one was moved until at least 12 mn. The most likely time was late morning of the 6th. The recent photos therefore COULD have been taken the afternoon/evening of the 5th or the morning of the 6th. If the colour of the blood is genuine it would have to be same day.
BTW note no sign of SM’s bicycle in the location suggested by police. Even if WBM might have dragged the body to its shown location, he didn’t claim to move the bike.
It is certainly necessary to come up with some convincing explanation for a “traumatised” child of four remaining comatosed and silent for eight hole hours, in what must have been an incredibly uncomfortable position. Have you ever tried sleeping eight hours on the floor of a BMW complete with dead adult feet and legs? Would it be any more likely for frightened four year old? Sleep with all the voices and activity around? Eight hours for an intelligent child to realise the danger had passed?
You say “it can only be that when it all went quiet she tried & failed to open the doors”. When precisely between 4 and 12 are you suggesting “all went quiet”? Then if she “tried and failed to open the door” this rather defeats the argument that she remained from choice. It would also require noise and movement and surely led to someone seeing her. Or are you suggesting after trying to leave she somehow managed to resume her perfect hiding? Do you realise how difficult this would be with a dead mother and grandmother staring at her?
You say: “I cannot see how a gunman …no matter how good,could have accurately issued two bullets to the foreheads of three people, through glass.” etc. I don’t have the same problem with that. The bullet holes in the side glass or shattered window would allow the necessary shots. These, I have no doubt, were practised/trained killers for whom a sheet of glass would hardly be a huge obstacle.
You say: “It would be interesting to know if she had any injuries, like a blow to her head”. More significant question is how with so many bullets fired into the car with her in it, she managed to escape all injury. Don’t you find that a tad surprising?
Now as to the number of bullets and their locations inexplicably it has been a moveable feast. Was it one shot to the head or two? Three or more to each victim inside the car? In any event at least nine shots inside the car and not even a graze on Zeena?
You say “I suggest one door was open for Zainab to get in but he reached into the car instead.” So how do you explain at least 2/3 bullet holes in the passenger front door. And do you think he reached in when the car was at the top of the lay-by or at the bottom? Was the door opened before or after the shots penetrated the glass?
“For reason that an automatic human reaction would be to duck the minute one is startled…three people sitting upright staring directly at a gun & not taking evasive action is abnormal.” Oh really? The police estimated the shots lasted 30 seconds in total I believe. In that time frame Zeena is secreted away apparently. I would suggest that someone appearing at a car door the automatic reaction would be to look at him, maybe raising a hand but trying to duck on the back seat of a car in that timeframe? I don’t think so.
You say “Yes Saad is said to have jumped into the car & started the engine, but then how did he get a bullet into the forehead without a hole in the windscreen ?” There are tree bullet marks on the windscreen from what I believe were glancing impacts as SAH rushed back to the car and when he probly got the bullets in his back but as to the location of bullet wounds to his head we haven’t seen the post mortem photos or report. If indeed there was one in his forehead it is easily explained by him looking at his attacker when the trigger was pulled. As an objection your point has no weight.
As to “Surely as they didn’t, this means the gunman was known to them as friendly…at the time.” too many suppositions to be meaningful I suggest.
I was wondering how the now-unemployed Eric Devouassoux is going to pay for the services of a well-established and successful criminal lawyer, or who is paying that bill. I didn’t find any explanation, but I did notice that Marc Dufour is on the “comite” at this golf club:
http://www.golf-lacannecy.com/fr/articles.html?_rubId=2&_srubId=43