Experts are examining a gun found by tourists to determine whether it might have been used to kill a British family in the French Alps 14 years ago. In what remains an unsolved murder case, Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife, Ikbal, 47, and her mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were shot dead on a road near Chevaline, a remote Alpine village near Lake Annecy, in eastern France, in September 2012. The couple’s two young daughters, then four and seven, survived, but a passing cyclist, 45-year-old Sylvain Mollier, was also killed.
Discovery of the Weapon
The French prosecutor Marie-Céline Lawrysz confirmed that a pistol, thought to be a Luger, was uncovered on 20 August by two tourists swimming in Lake Annecy. The weapon is currently being analysed by ballistics experts in France in connection with the al-Hilli cold case.
During the initial investigation, pieces from the butt of the weapon used in the killings, a vintage Luger P06-29 pistol, were found on the ground near the British-registered BMW estate car that the family had been driving at the time of the attack. The gun was identified as a model used by the Swiss army in the 1930s, but its owner has never been traced.
