Murder in the Alps

:00:10. > :00:18.A family from Britain on holiday in the French Alps, brutally murdered.

:00:19. > :00:24.A father, mother and grandmother, shot at point-blank range in their

:00:25. > :00:29.car. They were killed in that way with their kids around and the

:00:30. > :00:33.mother in the car. They think it is disastrous, unimaginable. A

:00:34. > :00:41.seven-year-old girl is shot and left for dead. The cyclist is killed.

:00:42. > :00:46.Another has a narrow escape. I was thinking to myself, I wonder if this

:00:47. > :00:50.will be painful when I get shot. The British former RAF pilot who

:00:51. > :00:56.discovered the crime takes us back to the scene. It is a mystery.

:00:57. > :01:03.Complex, unsolved, and Agatha Christie whodunnit type of scenario.

:01:04. > :01:07.The murder mystery sparked a huge police investigation in 15

:01:08. > :01:14.countries. Now a witness speaks for the first time about the British car

:01:15. > :01:20.that he saw just before the murders. The car was a BMW 4x4, X5, metallic

:01:21. > :01:26.grey. It was right-hand drive, English. We investigate the murder

:01:27. > :01:34.weapon and ask if the killer was a professional. Whilst the family the

:01:35. > :01:42.target of an intelligence agency because the father worked for a

:01:43. > :01:48.high-tech company in Britain? -- was the family? Or was the target the

:01:49. > :01:52.cyclist? Is the Anza to the murder mystery closer to home? We seek

:01:53. > :01:57.extraordinary online conversations with the dead man. I am shocked by

:01:58. > :02:02.the information I have gathered. Can you really be my brother? The

:02:03. > :02:09.brother suspected by the police were being behind the murders defends

:02:10. > :02:12.himself on Panorama, his first television interview. Did you kill

:02:13. > :02:22.your brother? Of course not. It is ridiculous, the whole thing.

:02:23. > :02:30.A late summer afternoon in the Alps a year ago. The al-Hilli family from

:02:31. > :02:38.England are on holiday by Lake Annecy in France. They set out for a

:02:39. > :02:45.local beauty spot. In the car, a father, mother, grandmother and two

:02:46. > :02:53.little girls. They drive through a village and up a narrow road that

:02:54. > :02:58.leads high into the mountains. That day, an Englishman sets off for a

:02:59. > :03:05.bike ride up the same road. Brett Martin, a former RAF pilot, has a

:03:06. > :03:09.holiday home in the area. I had no fixed route in my mind where I was

:03:10. > :03:17.going to go. Either the house at 2:30pm. It was sunny, fine, no wind,

:03:18. > :03:21.a peaceful and pleasant afternoon. In the village of Chevaline, Brett

:03:22. > :03:28.first notices another cyclist ahead of him, a Frenchman. It was a bit

:03:29. > :03:33.surprising to see someone on a racing bike because racing cyclists

:03:34. > :03:37.tend to look after their bikes. Wheels are easily damaged on

:03:38. > :03:44.potholes and links. Brett starts with three mile climb up the road

:03:45. > :03:49.from the village. Aslan climbing up the hill at a relatively slow pace,

:03:50. > :03:56.a relatively slow pace, vehicle passes me. -- as I am climbing. I am

:03:57. > :04:00.pretty sure the car contained the al-Hilli family. Nestling in the

:04:01. > :04:03.French Alps, the village of Chevaline, which Brett Martin has

:04:04. > :04:10.just driven through. Sylvain Mollier, the French cyclist, is

:04:11. > :04:23.ahead of him. Around 3:30pm, Brett is overtaken by the al-Hillis's car.

:04:24. > :04:26.They continue up the steep road to Le Martinet. It is only a few

:04:27. > :04:34.minutes drive to this parking spot, but it will take Brett another ten

:04:35. > :04:39.minutes to cycle there. At about 3:40pm, the al-Hillis reach Le

:04:40. > :04:45.Martinet. According to the French police, this is what then happens.

:04:46. > :04:49.Saad al-Hilli gets out of the car with his seven-year-old daughter,

:04:50. > :04:57.Zainab. In less than a minute, four people will be dead. As soon as Saad

:04:58. > :05:01.and Zainab get out of the car, the gunman fires on them. Sylvain

:05:02. > :05:07.Mollier arrives and is shot fatally. Saad, wounded, gets in the car and

:05:08. > :05:14.tries to escape, but the car gets stuck on a bank. The gunman keeps

:05:15. > :05:18.firing. Saad, his wife and mother-in-law reach shot at least

:05:19. > :05:25.twice at close range. Zainab has been shot but the gunman has run out

:05:26. > :05:28.of bullets, so the clubs. Her sister, four -year-old Zeena, is

:05:29. > :05:30.hiding under her dead mother's skirt in the back of the car. She sees

:05:31. > :05:44.nothing. A year ago in this beautiful spot,

:05:45. > :05:49.four people were brutally murdered and a little girl was shot and left

:05:50. > :05:54.for dead. No culprit has yet been found. Tonight we will be

:05:55. > :06:00.investigating what really happened here and why. The investigation is

:06:01. > :06:08.being run by the French authorities in the nearby town of Annecy. The

:06:09. > :06:11.prosecutor has given us new details about the murders and watch the only

:06:12. > :06:18.eyewitness to the shootings, seven-year-old Zainab, has been able

:06:19. > :06:22.to tell them. She has given us very little information. She is obviously

:06:23. > :06:27.badly traumatised by what she has been proved. According to the

:06:28. > :06:34.doctors, she has blocked it out. Zainab has only been able to tell

:06:35. > :06:39.the police there was one bad man. She can't identify the killer. She

:06:40. > :06:43.did not really see him. She cannot give us any information about him.

:06:44. > :06:52.What remains in her mind is fear, terror, gunfire, her father

:06:53. > :06:56.screaming. We have gone over with key witnesses what they saw that

:06:57. > :07:05.afternoon. And tries to piece together what happened. Brett Martin

:07:06. > :07:14.coming up the hill at about 3:45pm saw the man we now know to be the

:07:15. > :07:20.gunman escaping. He was going very slowly, abnormally slowly. At that

:07:21. > :07:24.time, it seemed odd. Tell me what happened when you came round the

:07:25. > :07:29.corner. As I came round the corner behind us, the first thing I could

:07:30. > :07:34.see was the French cyclist's bicycle lying on its side in the middle of

:07:35. > :07:38.the road, quite a way out. I then saw a young child stumble from left

:07:39. > :07:43.to right towards the middle of the road and then fall down. Brett,

:07:44. > :08:02.thinking it was a traffic accident, went to help Zainab. He pulled her

:08:03. > :08:05.to one side of the road. She had quite a bad fleshy injury to her

:08:06. > :08:07.right forehead. Her eyes were rolling and she was in and out of

:08:08. > :08:10.consciousness. I could actually then see and hear the car. Its engine was

:08:11. > :08:12.revving at full revs. Brett went over to the cyclist, Sylvain

:08:13. > :08:17.Mollier, who was clearly dead. He pulled him clear of the revving car.

:08:18. > :08:24.As you can see by the real ruts, the car had reversed into this location.

:08:25. > :08:29.I am presuming that it got grounded in the gravel with the wheels

:08:30. > :08:33.spinning. I looked at the driver and it became immediately obvious that

:08:34. > :08:41.he had been shot. There was nothing to be done for him. Where was he

:08:42. > :08:44.shot? Shot in the head. I then circled around to the other side of

:08:45. > :08:49.the car to see whether anybody in the back was alive and therefore

:08:50. > :08:57.needed help. As I look into the back of the car, it is very obvious that

:08:58. > :09:02.the two ladies in the back had been shot, murdered. Where had they been

:09:03. > :09:06.shot? The older lady in the forehead and I could not see the face of the

:09:07. > :09:12.younger lady, but she was very evidently dead.

:09:13. > :09:20.Then I was thinking, is there a hunter, a sniper type of character

:09:21. > :09:25.hiding in the trees, maybe shooting from a covered position or something

:09:26. > :09:33.like that? I was thinking to myself, I wonder if this is going to be

:09:34. > :09:36.painful when I get shot? Brett tried to call the emergency services but

:09:37. > :09:42.could not get the signal. After checking on the little girl, he went

:09:43. > :09:47.for help. Murdered in France, three members of

:09:48. > :09:53.a British family... A major investigation is under way...

:09:54. > :09:57.Zainab was rushed to hospital and survived. The French forensic team

:09:58. > :10:01.were at the murder spot for eight hours before they made an

:10:02. > :10:07.astonishing discovery. Four -year-old Zeena, frozen with fear,

:10:08. > :10:12.in the back of the car. Somehow the child had hidden under Iqbal's skirt

:10:13. > :10:17.in her mother's last moments of life. There was only one child seat

:10:18. > :10:22.in the car and we had found one child. A helicopter with a heat

:10:23. > :10:26.sensor flew over the car but as the bodies were warm, just recently

:10:27. > :10:34.deceased, they did not detect the little girl. From the start, the

:10:35. > :10:39.murders in the Alps in treat the world. Few clues and no obvious

:10:40. > :10:46.motive for killing a family and a cyclist. The case sparked an

:10:47. > :10:51.international manhunt involving forces in France, Switzerland, Spain

:10:52. > :10:55.and a dozen other countries. Investigators here in France have

:10:56. > :11:00.been working on a number of theories involving the al-Hilli family. Was

:11:01. > :11:05.it a disputed inheritance? Or something to do with the family's

:11:06. > :11:17.background in Iraq? Or could it be best be an arch because of Saad's

:11:18. > :11:26.work as a satellite engineer? -- espionage. The media descended on

:11:27. > :11:30.the al-Hillis' house in Claygate. The Surrey police began to help the

:11:31. > :11:40.French investigates just who this family really were. The al-Hillis

:11:41. > :11:46.seemed a normal family, living a quiet life in the Home Counties.

:11:47. > :11:50.Saad al-Hilli's parents fled to England from Iraq when he was a

:11:51. > :12:00.child. His father was a businessman. His mother was a

:12:01. > :12:12.teacher. He had an older brother, Zaid. Our relationship was very

:12:13. > :12:19.close. We looked after each other. Saad had a close friend, also

:12:20. > :12:23.originally from Iraq. Saad was an extremely genuine person, very

:12:24. > :12:30.likeable. A very decent person, very honest. Saad and his brother Zaid

:12:31. > :12:37.lived together in the family home in Claygate. Always joking, almost too

:12:38. > :12:45.much, but that was his way of doing things. Ten years ago, Saad married

:12:46. > :12:49.Iqbal, who trained as a dentist in Iraq with Dr Alabdi. She really was

:12:50. > :12:55.very keen to start working as a dentist in the UK and she spent a

:12:56. > :13:00.very long time studying. The al-Hillis had two little girls,

:13:01. > :13:04.Zeena and Zainab. Their father became firm friends with another

:13:05. > :13:10.parent at the playgroup. He was very much a family man and loved both his

:13:11. > :13:20.children very expressively, always hugging and kissing and cuddling and

:13:21. > :13:22.chasing around. The girls were everything to him. He always wanted

:13:23. > :13:27.children and he loved them lots. You know, they were very close family.

:13:28. > :13:34.Saad treasured his BMW and loved to take his family on holiday in their

:13:35. > :13:39.caravan. The girls called it Spotty. The caravan was his escape. It was

:13:40. > :13:45.always ready to go places on the front drive. Then a more complex

:13:46. > :13:52.picture of the loving family man began to emerge. Saad al-Hilli was a

:13:53. > :13:58.freelance industrial designer. An expert computer draughtsman. He had

:13:59. > :14:05.tens of old computers in his garage. And he had a full work set up in his

:14:06. > :14:12.study with large screens attached to laptops and desktops and things.

:14:13. > :14:17.Yes, he liked computers. Saad often worked for SSTL, a satellite

:14:18. > :14:23.engineering firm in Guildford. With his technical know-how and Middle

:14:24. > :14:29.East background, investigators still wondered if Saad was a target for

:14:30. > :14:33.foreign intelligence agencies. We found on Saad al-Hilli's computer is

:14:34. > :14:38.extremely important data that went well beyond anything he needed for

:14:39. > :14:44.his work. Was it merely professional curiosity or was he trying to sell

:14:45. > :14:49.it? That is what makes this part of the investigation so complex. If he

:14:50. > :14:53.was seeking to sell information to foreign powers, we would be dealing

:14:54. > :14:59.with intelligence agencies, which could provide an explanation for the

:15:00. > :15:05.murders. The police will not say what the data on the computer was.

:15:06. > :15:12.We understand that it was not defence-related and his friends and

:15:13. > :15:16.family say he only worked on basic industrial designs. I often joked

:15:17. > :15:20.that he was making death rays in Guildford because I knew he would

:15:21. > :15:27.never get clearance to do anything secret. He did not have top security

:15:28. > :15:31.clearance? None at all. He was a contractor brought in to solve small

:15:32. > :15:44.problems. He was very efficient at it. I never thought his work was

:15:45. > :15:48.anything sensitive. I doubt if Saad is involved in espionage. I would

:15:49. > :15:54.not think he would let his company and colleagues down. Saad's work

:15:55. > :15:59.meant the family living in a quiet Surrey suburb have been the subject

:16:00. > :16:05.of wild speculation. Could Iraq key agents, the Israeli Mossad or the

:16:06. > :16:09.CIA have targeted Saad al-Hilli? So you don't think he was a target

:16:10. > :16:23.of an intelligence agency because of the nature of his work? No. He is

:16:24. > :16:26.just a normal person. The mystery of whether spies were involved in the

:16:27. > :16:31.murders in the Alps deepened when the identity of the fourth victim

:16:32. > :16:37.was revealed. The French cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, lived just up the

:16:38. > :16:40.valley, ten miles from where he was killed. To this day, is relatives

:16:41. > :16:49.have not allowed a photograph of him to be seen. TRANSLATION: We wondered

:16:50. > :16:55.what the French cyclist was doing there. He was in the mountains on a

:16:56. > :17:01.racing bike, quite unsuitable for the road leading up to the parking

:17:02. > :17:05.spot. It is a poor road, with lots of potholes. It seemed odd that

:17:06. > :17:16.Sylvain Mollier should be there on a racing bike. Sylvain Mollier worked

:17:17. > :17:20.in Ugine at a factory involved in the nuclear industry, which raised

:17:21. > :17:25.the question of whether he was the target because of what he knew. Some

:17:26. > :17:30.people have wondered if Sylvain Mollier's work provided a motive for

:17:31. > :17:35.the killings. But although he worked as a technician at a nuclear related

:17:36. > :17:41.plant here in Ugine, we understand he did not work on only thing

:17:42. > :17:45.top-secret. The police checked out if there was any link between

:17:46. > :17:52.Sylvain Mollier and Saad, who worked on satellites, or even the former

:17:53. > :17:58.RAF pilot, Brett Martin. What Mollier riding on that road to some

:17:59. > :18:02.secret assignation? TRANSLATION: Today, we are not certain, but we

:18:03. > :18:08.believe he just got lost and kept going. We are now pretty sure he was

:18:09. > :18:17.there by mistake, and not for a meeting. French investigators may

:18:18. > :18:22.have dismissed the theory that the French cyclist was killed because he

:18:23. > :18:29.was involved in espionage. But in Ugine, where Sylvain Mollier came

:18:30. > :18:33.from, there is another angle. Mollier had two children and was

:18:34. > :18:38.divorced from his wife. He had a new partner from a wealthy family, who

:18:39. > :18:42.some think disapproved of him. There have been reports that it was his

:18:43. > :18:48.partner's father who suggested that Mollier take that route that day.

:18:49. > :18:51.When the information started coming out that Sylvain Mollier was

:18:52. > :19:00.involved in family disputes and he was an outsider to this rich family,

:19:01. > :19:04.I think that focused attention that there is something more to it

:19:05. > :19:12.locally, because most crime has local routes. TRANSLATION: Some

:19:13. > :19:16.claimed there was a conflict between him and his future father-in-law.

:19:17. > :19:22.But if all disagreements ended in murder, there would be a lot more of

:19:23. > :19:29.them. Sylvain Mollier was shot up to five times. Some people think the

:19:30. > :19:32.investigators closed off the local avenue of enquiry to quickly and

:19:33. > :19:40.focused wrongly on the al-Hilli family as the intended victims. I

:19:41. > :19:43.don't think Saad was the target. He was on holiday. The target was

:19:44. > :19:54.Sylvain Mollier, and the origins of this crime are in Annecy or that

:19:55. > :19:57.region. TRANSLATION: Today we are convinced that Sylvain Mollier

:19:58. > :20:02.happened to be there. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, as

:20:03. > :20:07.they say. Unfortunately, he was a collateral victim of the murder.

:20:08. > :20:11.What is the proof to say he was at the wrong place at the wrong time?

:20:12. > :20:20.They have shown no proof. I think it is a cover-up. They know exactly who

:20:21. > :20:25.did it. The forensic investigation has not yielded any DNA evidence as

:20:26. > :20:30.to the murderer or the motive. But it has provided some vital clues

:20:31. > :20:33.about the type of weapon used - lit casings and a fragment of the gun

:20:34. > :20:43.handle broken when Zainab was clubbed. The police have established

:20:44. > :20:50.that the gun was a Swiss model, standard issue to army officers in

:20:51. > :20:59.the past. This is a Swiss Army Luger. It is 1906 and calibre run

:21:00. > :21:07.thee. So it is a very old gun? Yes, it is a very old gun, more than 100

:21:08. > :21:12.years old. Jean Robert Consolini, Switzerland's for most gun dealer,

:21:13. > :21:18.worked with the police and army. He sells many Lugers. It may be an old

:21:19. > :21:23.model, but it is an accurate weapon. This pistol is like a Swiss watch.

:21:24. > :21:33.It is very nice, made of steel without screws. You can disassemble

:21:34. > :21:37.it very easy. It is very good. There are 30,000 of these guns in

:21:38. > :21:47.Switzerland alone. You can buy one for about ?1500. You can put seven

:21:48. > :21:53.cartridges in the magazines, just one in the barrel. So eight in

:21:54. > :21:59.total? Eight in total. But this weapon is not what a professional

:22:00. > :22:03.hit man would normally choose. We know 21 rounds were fired from the

:22:04. > :22:10.gun used in the murders, so they must have had... The shooter had to

:22:11. > :22:15.reload two times. And yet we understand it was all done in a

:22:16. > :22:21.matter of 20 or 30 seconds. Yes. It is not easy to do it quickly. So

:22:22. > :22:30.what does that tell you about him? It must be a good shooter. The

:22:31. > :22:37.murder weapon was Swiss, and the Swiss border is just 30 miles from

:22:38. > :22:43.the murder scene. So the authorities in Geneva have been tasked by the

:22:44. > :22:48.French to investigate the gun. TRANSLATION: We were not expecting

:22:49. > :22:55.the weapon in such a crime to be a P06. You find this type of gun in a

:22:56. > :23:00.museum or a private collection. It is a weapon that is recognised by

:23:01. > :23:05.Colette does as being very precise, very reliable. But it would seem the

:23:06. > :23:12.weapon was used by chance. I would imagine because he found it on the

:23:13. > :23:15.black market. So what does the type of gun and the way it was used to

:23:16. > :23:25.tell investigators about the likely killer? TRANSLATION: There were 21

:23:26. > :23:30.shots. 17 hit targets. The bodywork of the car was untouched. The car

:23:31. > :23:35.was moving all the time and he had to reload as he was firing. So we

:23:36. > :23:38.are obviously dealing with someone highly experienced, a professional,

:23:39. > :23:49.maybe but he could also be a former soldier, a mercenary. We are certain

:23:50. > :23:53.he was the only gunman. The French police have investigated the theory

:23:54. > :23:57.that the gunman was a deranged individual looking for any target.

:23:58. > :24:02.TRANSLATION: The police checked all the databases in Switzerland and

:24:03. > :24:07.France of mentally unstable people, former soldiers who might have been

:24:08. > :24:11.thrown out of the army, people known for violence and for liking guns.

:24:12. > :24:24.But they have not led us to identify a lone gunman. Brett Martin was

:24:25. > :24:30.taken back to the scene a week later to retrace his route and try and

:24:31. > :24:33.reveal more about the gunman. With a skilled marksman on the loose,

:24:34. > :24:39.whoever he was, the police were nervous. I had body armour and a

:24:40. > :24:45.fully armed protection squad, which was slightly disturbing. I was

:24:46. > :24:50.thinking, is there something you are not telling me that I need to know?

:24:51. > :24:56.But on mature reflection, it would not look good if something had

:24:57. > :25:00.happened to me. The French investigators wanted to understand

:25:01. > :25:03.why Brett and others nearby had not heard the gunfire. They stationed

:25:04. > :25:14.police along the route and fired test shots from up at the parking

:25:15. > :25:17.area. They have done trials at a location where they estimate I would

:25:18. > :25:23.have been at the time the shootings took place. Even listening with

:25:24. > :25:29.technical microphones, you could not hear any gunfire at that point. If

:25:30. > :25:33.you are located in an area clear of the river, a much quieter area, you

:25:34. > :25:39.would probably hear the echo through the valley, but the rushing water

:25:40. > :25:46.noise has that masking effect. The killer had picked just the right

:25:47. > :25:50.spot. So was he hired by someone to get rid of the victims? And if so,

:25:51. > :25:56.how did he know they would be in such a place and that day at that

:25:57. > :26:03.time? We have found a witness who suggests that the murders were not

:26:04. > :26:07.carried out by one man acting alone. TRANSLATION: It was a beautiful

:26:08. > :26:12.autumn day. The tourist season had ended, and it was very calm. This

:26:13. > :26:16.witness, a forestry worker, has never spoken publicly before and

:26:17. > :26:23.does not want to be identified for fear of the killer still at large.

:26:24. > :26:26.Just minutes before the shooting, this man was coming down the road

:26:27. > :26:29.when something caught his eye. When I arrived, there was a motorbike

:26:30. > :26:35.pulling into the parking area. I passed the parking spot and the

:26:36. > :26:39.motorbike was on the left here. I remember it well. It was white and

:26:40. > :26:46.black, with panniers on either side, and the rider was all in

:26:47. > :26:54.black. Could you see his face? No, his visor was completely closed and

:26:55. > :26:58.he was all in black. So it seems the forestry worker saw the killer just

:26:59. > :27:02.minutes before the al-Hillis arrived. And for the first time, he

:27:03. > :27:06.has described another vehicle he saw, and the driver. This car was

:27:07. > :27:15.British and driven by someone who seems to have been an accomplice. It

:27:16. > :27:18.was there that I passed him, on this side. He was coming really fast. He

:27:19. > :27:35.arrived on the left and passed really quickly here. The car was a

:27:36. > :27:39.BMW 4x4, grey metallic, in good condition. Clean, it looked pretty

:27:40. > :27:44.new. It was right-hand drive, English. I did not get much of a

:27:45. > :27:56.look at the driver, but he was slightly bald and had dark skin, no

:27:57. > :27:59.glasses. So the Forrester had seen the black-and-white motorbike at the

:28:00. > :28:04.parking spot, and only a couple of minutes later passed the grey BMW

:28:05. > :28:09.racing up the mountains. His account gave the investigators a new lead,

:28:10. > :28:14.and it is backed up by two of his colleagues. Ten minutes later, they

:28:15. > :28:18.drove down the same road. They saw the motorbike above the parking area

:28:19. > :28:23.at Le Martinet, be and which motor vehicles are not allowed to go. They

:28:24. > :28:30.told me they passed the motorbike I had passed at Place Martinet, two

:28:31. > :28:34.bends further up. So they had words with him because motor vehicles are

:28:35. > :28:38.not allowed. So they called out to him and asked him to drive down.

:28:39. > :28:46.They saw his face because he lifted his helmet, so they saw him. He had

:28:47. > :28:49.a bit of a beard. The police have yet to issue this first brief

:28:50. > :28:54.description of the gunman. It seems he was working with an accomplice to

:28:55. > :29:01.do the surveillance. So was this the work of some security agency? The

:29:02. > :29:07.hit man may have been a good marksman, but killing a family,

:29:08. > :29:10.including women, and a cyclist, and shooting a child does not bear the

:29:11. > :29:19.hallmarks of a carefully planned, state sponsors and -- assassination.

:29:20. > :29:21.If you look at assassinations, if the CIA or Mossad want to

:29:22. > :29:25.assassinate someone they usually assassinate them near work or

:29:26. > :29:29.leaving their work. They don't follow them 1000 miles and

:29:30. > :29:35.assassinate them. The whole thing just doesn't make sense. So if it

:29:36. > :29:39.was not an intelligence agency, could it have been a contract

:29:40. > :29:46.killing carried out by someone in the criminal underworld? Either

:29:47. > :29:50.way, the murder spot at Le Martinet was perfectly placed for a quick

:29:51. > :29:55.getaway. As well as the road back down, which it seems the motorbike

:29:56. > :30:00.took, the BMW could have taken one of several forest routes over the

:30:01. > :30:08.mountains. It is only a short distance to Italy and Switzerland. A

:30:09. > :30:12.small car could not make it. The road is too bad. But the guy with

:30:13. > :30:16.the 4x4, he could have. If he had looked at a map, there was a

:30:17. > :30:25.motorway about an hour and a half away that takes you straight to

:30:26. > :30:31.Italy. French police have traced all the vehicles in the area that day

:30:32. > :30:35.except two. They are still looking for the white motorbike and the

:30:36. > :30:42.grave 4x4. Was this British car known to the al-Hilli family? This

:30:43. > :30:53.is the first time here that, OK? Now where did this British cars go? Did

:30:54. > :30:58.it cross borders? Where is it? Do you know anything about this British

:30:59. > :31:09.car? I don't know anything about this British car. The family had

:31:10. > :31:18.been staying on this campsite... Search of the caravan may have

:31:19. > :31:23.produced clues... Investigators soon made a surprising discovery in the

:31:24. > :31:27.campsite where the al-Hillis had been staying, in their caravan. As

:31:28. > :31:30.well as the children's bicycles, there was something else in the

:31:31. > :31:39.caravan that would lead quickly to Britain. In his caravan, Saad

:31:40. > :31:45.al-Hilli had a number of computers, software, hard disks, USB memory

:31:46. > :31:47.sticks, paper documents, in which we found a huge amount of information

:31:48. > :32:02.on every aspect of his life. Today the family house in Claygate

:32:03. > :32:06.is locked up and deserted. But it did hear that investigators have

:32:07. > :32:12.discovered a web of complex family relations. -- it is here. It all

:32:13. > :32:17.centres around property. As well as this house, there were other flats

:32:18. > :32:27.in England and other places abroad. This property portfolio had been put

:32:28. > :32:33.together by card al-Hilli, Saad and Zaid's father who died in 2007. --

:32:34. > :32:37.Kadhem al-Hilli. He had fled to Britain from Iraq in the 1970s.

:32:38. > :32:42.Investigators have tried to get to the bottom of the family history in

:32:43. > :32:46.Iraq to see if there was a motive here for the murders. Kadhem

:32:47. > :32:51.al-Hilli once had factories and a farm. Afraid of Saddam Hussein's

:32:52. > :32:58.regime, he had sold some businesses that capped a house in Baghdad.

:32:59. > :33:03.After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the area was tense and lawless. The

:33:04. > :33:08.family's old home had been taken over by squatters but the youngest

:33:09. > :33:12.son, Saad, went to try and take it back. It was shortly after the fall

:33:13. > :33:19.of the regime. He didn't feel very safe and it did not go that well.

:33:20. > :33:25.The people who used to occupy the house threatened him and he just

:33:26. > :33:28.came back. Although he had been threatened and beaten up, Saad

:33:29. > :33:35.continued to try and resolve the problem in Iraq. Could the murders

:33:36. > :33:39.have been linked to the dispute over the property here? Shortly before

:33:40. > :33:42.the killing, I asked him what was happening with the house and his

:33:43. > :33:52.answer was very brief and cheerful. He said it had been sorted. Why did

:33:53. > :33:59.know any more, I don't know how it was sorted. -- I don't know any

:34:00. > :34:03.more. We have encountered a problem with regards to Iraq. The situation

:34:04. > :34:07.in the country makes it difficult for investigators to travel there so

:34:08. > :34:16.it is difficult to get precise information. In Spain however,

:34:17. > :34:21.investigators would find more revealing information about the

:34:22. > :34:27.al-Hilli family. Kadhem retired there when his wife died about ten

:34:28. > :34:31.years ago. He bought a small flat in the village of Mijas and his sons

:34:32. > :34:37.would visit him there while he was still alive. Who was a charming

:34:38. > :34:42.gentleman, very dapper, very well-dressed. -- he was. The flat

:34:43. > :34:47.was sold to Kadhem by a British estate agent in the village. He did

:34:48. > :34:52.not speak very much English but he had a twinkle in his eye and he was

:34:53. > :35:05.always charming and polite. I had no idea from what I have read that he

:35:06. > :35:08.had any wealth. He lived very modestly. He was nothing out of the

:35:09. > :35:10.ordinary, just a sweet little old man. To people here, there did not

:35:11. > :35:16.seem to be any problems in the family or between the two brothers.

:35:17. > :35:23.The sons were fine. I knew Zaid better. Why got the impression that

:35:24. > :35:33.he was a bit of a loner, -- I got. Very charming, very sweet. But under

:35:34. > :35:41.the surface, there were tensions over the al-Hilli property in Spain.

:35:42. > :35:46.We know that Saad was troubled by what he discovered his brother Zaid

:35:47. > :35:53.had done about the ownership of the flat in Mijas. We understand that

:35:54. > :35:57.Zaid had tried to put the property in his name alone. When his father

:35:58. > :36:05.objected he changed it to his own and his father's name, that Saad's

:36:06. > :36:09.name was not on the deeds. Zaid agreed to his first television

:36:10. > :36:14.interview, saying he wanted to set the record straight. It was Saad's

:36:15. > :36:23.name on those steeds? No, because he was not with us. Why not if he was

:36:24. > :36:30.stood to inherit at some point? I don't know that. Ask my father. He

:36:31. > :36:41.is not here, unfortunately. The house in Claygate was left to Saad

:36:42. > :36:50.and Zaid after their father died. Zaid continued to live there even

:36:51. > :36:56.after Saad married. There were no tensions? No. It was a very good

:36:57. > :37:06.brotherly relationship. No attention at all. But we understand that their

:37:07. > :37:10.relationship had begun to turn sour. The year before the killings, Kadhem

:37:11. > :37:16.came here to Claygate to visit. We have learned that his father made

:37:17. > :37:21.Saad worried when he told him that Zaid had got him to sign a blank

:37:22. > :37:29.world. Saad found the will in the house. This was December 2011. Saad

:37:30. > :37:36.told his friend James Mathews about the will in an extraordinary online

:37:37. > :37:43.exchange. What does he say? He did not tell me about the will. Saad

:37:44. > :37:48.used the word fraud. Saad thought his brother was trying to exclude

:37:49. > :37:54.him from the inheritance. He thought that Will was fraudulent? Yes, that

:37:55. > :37:58.was his opinion. When my father came here last year he asked me where is

:37:59. > :38:04.the paper that I signed and I did not know what my dad was talking

:38:05. > :38:13.about. So Zaid had made him sign a blank paper. Saad said that to you?

:38:14. > :38:19.That is what he typed. His words. He says, in the end we found it and I

:38:20. > :38:28.was not mentioned. We understand that Saad challenged Zaid who then

:38:29. > :38:33.produced a different world. -- a different will. We found two draft

:38:34. > :38:37.wills, one in which the older brother was left all of the

:38:38. > :38:42.father's assets, and one where they were divided equally between the

:38:43. > :38:47.sons. So that is when we realised there was a problem between the

:38:48. > :38:51.brothers. Zaid claimed they had always got on well. The French

:38:52. > :38:54.investigators believe that at the heart of this is the disputed

:38:55. > :39:01.inheritance between you and your brother. Did you help your father

:39:02. > :39:07.make the will and what was in it? I think this would not be appropriate

:39:08. > :39:11.for legal reasons to talk about. We know your brother was talking about

:39:12. > :39:14.this online with a friend. He talked about it being fraud against him and

:39:15. > :39:22.he was not mentioned in the world. He felt that you were to blame.

:39:23. > :39:28.Again, I go back to the same point. For legal reasons, it would not be

:39:29. > :39:34.appropriate. They'd al-Hilli had warned us that he could not talk

:39:35. > :39:40.about certain matters as the British police are investigating him over

:39:41. > :39:45.possible fraud. After finding the will, Saad began to investigate

:39:46. > :39:49.every aspect of the family properties and the brothers'

:39:50. > :39:53.inheritance. Relations quickly deteriorated and things came to a

:39:54. > :39:58.head later that year after their father died. Did he talk about rows

:39:59. > :40:22.that he had had with his brother? No. It was very much silence. They

:40:23. > :40:25.ended up communicating by lawyer. He was writing to his lawyer, who was

:40:26. > :40:28.writing to his brother, which I thought was a shame. I had hoped

:40:29. > :40:30.that blood was thicker than money. I have not spoken to Saad since

:40:31. > :40:32.October 2011. So there were problems between you? Differences? Yes,

:40:33. > :40:37.tensions. Every family has disagreements, but we must not

:40:38. > :40:42.exaggerate them. If you involve a solicitor, what does that mean?

:40:43. > :40:47.Something bad? On the contrary. I think we did the right thing to

:40:48. > :40:51.involve a solicitor, to have somebody who would do everything

:40:52. > :40:56.professionally. The French investigators have told us that the

:40:57. > :41:02.lawyer could be a key witness. Though Zaid was still living there,

:41:03. > :41:06.by October 2011 there was open conflict in the Claygate house. We

:41:07. > :41:15.have discovered that the police were even called one night. I wanted

:41:16. > :41:23.something from him and he would not give me a copy, or return my copy,

:41:24. > :41:29.rather. It was not really... It was more of a heated discussion. It must

:41:30. > :41:34.have been quite heated if the police were called. Well, he calls them. I

:41:35. > :41:43.don't know why he had to call them and they were not interested. The

:41:44. > :41:46.following month, Zaid moved out into another flat that his brother and

:41:47. > :41:54.father had partly financed in nearby Chessington. This one, Saad

:41:55. > :42:01.discovered, had been registered in Zaid's name alone. Well, it is a

:42:02. > :42:06.combination of people. Saad had to share and my father gave me the

:42:07. > :42:13.money towards the flat and I had my money in it as well. But Saad's name

:42:14. > :42:20.was not on the deeds of the flat? Yes, he never wanted his name to be

:42:21. > :42:25.on the deeds of the flat. Saad was getting angry, as he made clear in

:42:26. > :42:29.his online messages. I have been gathering information on my brother

:42:30. > :42:36.and I am shocked. Can he really be my brother? We also know that one

:42:37. > :42:40.month after his brother left Claygate, Saad changed the locks on

:42:41. > :42:47.the house and he installed security cameras. He also had a Taser, an

:42:48. > :42:53.electric stun gun. Saad now thought that Zaid wanted half the value of

:42:54. > :42:58.the Claygate house, ?400,000, and he was worried he would have to sell

:42:59. > :43:02.the family home. He was talking about the house. He said all the

:43:03. > :43:08.work and earnings had gone into it and I knew how hard he had worked.

:43:09. > :43:15.And he said he would pay for none of it. Zaid? Yes. I said to be there in

:43:16. > :43:20.court to tell them when I need you because I think that is where it

:43:21. > :43:24.will end up, in court. So he was asking you to be a witness for him

:43:25. > :43:30.if necessary, if it came to a showdown with the brother? This is

:43:31. > :43:34.why I have given the logs to the police. He thinks I should give him

:43:35. > :43:40.the house. Everything emanates from that. I have never really wanted the

:43:41. > :44:06.Claygate house. I knew that Saad liked it, he loved it and wanted to

:44:07. > :44:09.stay there. I would not dream of asking him to get a mortgage just on

:44:10. > :44:12.my account. He obviously felt under enormous pressure from you, pressure

:44:13. > :44:14.over money and half of the house. I did not bring up the problem...

:44:15. > :44:17.Anything about the house. The police then made a fresh discovery in

:44:18. > :44:20.Switzerland. Their father had money here in a private bank account, too.

:44:21. > :44:32.There would be another twist in this complicated tale. We discovered that

:44:33. > :44:42.Kadhem, Zaid and Saad's father, set up an account in this Geneva bank in

:44:43. > :44:46.1988, depositing ?690,000. He hardly touched it after that. So a year

:44:47. > :44:50.before Kadhem died, the bank was surprised to get a request from

:44:51. > :45:00.England, not Spain where he was living. A request for a credit card

:45:01. > :45:03.to take money from his account. It was a bank employee who saw this

:45:04. > :45:06.strange request and noticed that the signature was peculiar. He rang the

:45:07. > :45:13.father who said that he did not want a credit card, cancel it. And we

:45:14. > :45:18.found out afterwards that it was Zaid trying to falsify his father's

:45:19. > :45:26.signature to obtain two credit cards. So it was fraud by Zaid? Yes,

:45:27. > :45:31.it was clearly a fraudulent attempt. Did you try to get a credit card in

:45:32. > :45:36.your father's name to withdraw money from that account? Again it would

:45:37. > :45:41.not be appropriate for me to discuss that for legal reasons, as you

:45:42. > :45:44.understand. With the money in Switzerland and the properties,

:45:45. > :45:52.investigators believe the al-Hilli assets were worth over ?2 million.

:45:53. > :45:58.TRANSLATION: The investigators have become convinced that Zaid tried to

:45:59. > :46:03.steal from his father, one way or another, and that there was a very

:46:04. > :46:07.serious feud between the two brothers, so serious that Saad

:46:08. > :46:10.al-Hilli was afraid of his brother. As you know, he had changed the

:46:11. > :46:16.locks at the house and fitted a new alarm. The French investigators are

:46:17. > :46:20.convinced that you had a motive for killing your brother and his family.

:46:21. > :46:26.A lot of money was basically at stake, perhaps ?2 million or more.

:46:27. > :46:32.This is a complete to live by the French investigators. The French

:46:33. > :46:41.investigators have used Saad and I to divert attention from the origins

:46:42. > :46:45.of this crime. By the end of August last year, Saad had had enough of

:46:46. > :46:50.the legal wrangling. The family went off to the Alps, taking the records

:46:51. > :46:56.of the disputed inheritance with them. Saad had taken out a legal

:46:57. > :46:58.block on his father's will and registered his interest in the

:46:59. > :47:07.Chessington flat to stop his brother selling it. When the family reached

:47:08. > :47:11.the Alps, Saad plant to go to the bank in nearby Geneva. Investigators

:47:12. > :47:18.say each brother had told the Swiss bank not to release any money to the

:47:19. > :47:23.other. He called the bank on Monday afternoon to say, I am going to pop

:47:24. > :47:30.round to the bank, and he was dead on Wednesday. What does that tell

:47:31. > :47:34.you? It is disturbing. You can't draw any conclusions today, but it

:47:35. > :47:46.is just the thing. There is a closeness about the dates that is

:47:47. > :47:52.disturbing. Within those two days, the killer struck not just at Saad,

:47:53. > :48:00.but his wife, mother-in-law and children, too.

:48:01. > :48:05.Did you kill your brother? Of course not. Did you arrange for anyone else

:48:06. > :48:12.to kill the family, your brother and relatives? No. The people who killed

:48:13. > :48:16.my brother are the French. So you are saying it is because the French

:48:17. > :48:20.cyclist was the target that your brother was caught up in this? Yes.

:48:21. > :48:26.We are dealing with probably very powerful people, powerful local

:48:27. > :48:33.people. They know each other. They are in each other's pockets. That is

:48:34. > :48:38.what we need to find out. You seem to be saying that the French don't

:48:39. > :48:44.want to find a French cup it? Yes. -- a French culprit. They focused

:48:45. > :48:53.the attention onto us. I have to be blunt. It has a racist background to

:48:54. > :48:59.it. Our background is Middle Eastern, Arab, Muslim, and that is

:49:00. > :49:04.very convenient. Why did you shut down that line of enquiry? People in

:49:05. > :49:09.Britain, particularly in the al-Hilli family, believed the

:49:10. > :49:12.cyclist is the key to this murder. TRANSLATION: I can't prevent anyone

:49:13. > :49:18.interested in this story from having an opinion. The police have

:49:19. > :49:25.investigated First Minister's family as far as they could. There is

:49:26. > :49:28.nothing to link Mollier's family to this murder. The police are

:49:29. > :49:39.convinced of it. People can think anything they like.

:49:40. > :49:45.From the start, the French investigators wanted Zaid-al-Hilli

:49:46. > :49:52.to come to Annecy. But he has refused to be interviewed in France.

:49:53. > :49:59.Why did you not agree to go to France and be questioned there? I

:50:00. > :50:03.don't trust the French. I do not trust the investigators. Remember,

:50:04. > :50:09.Saad was killed, and his wife and her mother and Sylvain Mollier, in

:50:10. > :50:17.that region. I am not going to risk it. You would be worried about your

:50:18. > :50:25.end safety? Yes. Why? Anything can happen.

:50:26. > :50:27.But even before the funerals were held back home, Zaid-al-Hilli went

:50:28. > :50:31.voluntarily to the police in Surrey. He would tell them he was in England

:50:32. > :50:39.with a friend at the time of the murders, and that he and his brother

:50:40. > :50:46.got on fine. I said to them that there were not any trouble is

:50:47. > :50:52.between us. From the way I look at it, I do not have any issues with

:50:53. > :50:59.Saad. But that is not strictly true, because there are serious issues or

:51:00. > :51:04.were serious issues between you. Not really, no. Saad had issues, but I

:51:05. > :51:12.did not have issues. TRANSLATION: We know that when Zaid says he got on

:51:13. > :51:17.with his brother, he is lying. I was not lying. That was how I looked at

:51:18. > :51:32.it. I didn't raise any issues with Saad about anything.

:51:33. > :51:36.In June this year, Zaid's flat in Chessington was searched. He was

:51:37. > :51:42.arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder and later bailed. He has

:51:43. > :51:46.never been charged. But the brothers' falling out over the

:51:47. > :51:49.alleged fraud involving the will and the Swiss bank account had been

:51:50. > :51:56.discovered soon after the murders, nine months earlier. So why the

:51:57. > :52:00.delay? TRANSLATION: We, the Swiss authorities, immediately passed on

:52:01. > :52:03.these documents. After that, I don't know what happened. When we met up

:52:04. > :52:07.in May with the British authorities, I passed the documents on again. So

:52:08. > :52:14.why didn't the British police act sooner? I have no idea. That is

:52:15. > :52:19.their choice. Why did it take so long to arrest Zaid-al-Hilli and

:52:20. > :52:25.search his home nine months from the start the investigation? It is

:52:26. > :52:29.difficult, even impossible to answer that question. You would have to ask

:52:30. > :52:34.the British investigators, because that is one of the problems with an

:52:35. > :52:37.international investigation. French law is different from British law,

:52:38. > :52:43.so the way of conducting an investigation is different. Surrey

:52:44. > :52:47.and Sussex police told us that as this is an ongoing investigation,

:52:48. > :52:53.they cannot comment on operational matters. They say they continue to

:52:54. > :52:59.work closely with the French. Are you worried that evidence has

:53:00. > :53:05.been lost - phone records, financial records that Zaid had, because of

:53:06. > :53:10.this delay? Yes, it is a possibility, obviously. But every

:53:11. > :53:19.country feels that its own way of doing things is the right one.

:53:20. > :53:24.A year after the al-Hillis made that fateful journey, there is still no

:53:25. > :53:28.evidence of who the gunman and his accomplices were. A possible link to

:53:29. > :53:37.Romania has been discounted. There is no DNA, no increment dating phone

:53:38. > :53:41.calls. Do you have any information about

:53:42. > :53:50.the possible hit man, any leads as to who that person was? No.

:53:51. > :53:54.Absolutely nothing. It is just someone who was a highly experienced

:53:55. > :53:58.gunman with a very cool head, who could kill several people in cold

:53:59. > :54:03.blood, who could even consider killing a little girl with no

:54:04. > :54:06.problem. So we have got a psychological profile.

:54:07. > :54:14.Unfortunately, we have no precise information about the killer. The

:54:15. > :54:18.French investigators say they will solve the mystery of the murders in

:54:19. > :54:21.the Alps, however long it takes. They have enough to keep 40

:54:22. > :54:27.detectives busy for another year at least, tracking thousands of phone

:54:28. > :54:33.calls made in the area and hundreds of e-mails. But so far, they only

:54:34. > :54:40.have one suspect. So Zaid-al-Hilli is your number one suspect?

:54:41. > :54:44.TRANSLATION: I have always refused to refer to him as our number one

:54:45. > :54:49.suspect. But he is indeed the only person we know that we have

:54:50. > :54:55.identified to whom we can put a face and who has a motive for the murder.

:54:56. > :54:59.But what is certain, whether it is in France or Britain, if he was

:55:00. > :55:03.judged in court tomorrow, he would be acquitted both here and in

:55:04. > :55:10.Britain. He has a motive, but the fact that he has a motive does not

:55:11. > :55:14.make him the killer. You were the only one with a motive for killing

:55:15. > :55:17.your brother that has been established so far, and the

:55:18. > :55:29.suspicion rests on you. What is the motive? Prove it, I said to them.

:55:30. > :55:34.And they are wrong, because they are covering up. They are covering up

:55:35. > :55:41.for someone in France in that region, and they know it. That is

:55:42. > :55:49.why I offered to do a polygraph test. A lie detector test? Yes. The

:55:50. > :55:55.French are not interested in a polygraph. Zaid-al-Hilli also wants

:55:56. > :56:02.a judicial enquiry, and says he will put up a reward for information

:56:03. > :56:06.leading to the killers. Brett Martin, the man who discovered

:56:07. > :56:14.the murders, still rides his bike up the mountain road to Le Martinet. I

:56:15. > :56:18.have intentionally gone back there so that it now is a normal thing to

:56:19. > :56:22.do to ride up that road without fear of what went on in the past, because

:56:23. > :56:34.I think you can't live your life in permanent fear of what might be in

:56:35. > :56:42.the shadows. Saad's friends fear that whoever is behind the murders

:56:43. > :56:46.may never be held accountable. I hope the people responsible will be

:56:47. > :56:52.caught and brought to justice, but it does not seem as if we know

:56:53. > :56:57.enough to even get near them. You think they will ever solve this

:56:58. > :57:03.crime? I would hope so, but I don't hold much hope. Without DNA

:57:04. > :57:13.evidence, I don't think there is any way of solving it. The two little

:57:14. > :57:18.girls who survived the killings in the Alps spent months under the

:57:19. > :57:20.protection of social services. Zainab and Xena have now been

:57:21. > :57:27.allowed to live with one of their mother's relatives, but have not

:57:28. > :57:33.seen their uncle. Life will be difficult for them, wanted? Yes, of

:57:34. > :57:38.course. It is a tragedy for the whole family. They are flesh and

:57:39. > :57:42.blood. They are my nieces, and I lived with them, I know them. I

:57:43. > :57:50.bought them presents. We used to read together, play together. The

:57:51. > :57:53.Zaid-al-Hilli, whose brother was murdered, and whose reputation has

:57:54. > :58:00.been damaged, the last year has been very painful. This does not leave me

:58:01. > :58:06.for a minute. It is with me 24/7, every minute of the day. And you are

:58:07. > :58:13.dealing with lots of emotions, emotions of bereavement, anger,

:58:14. > :58:21.emotions of being let down by a system. The horror of what happened

:58:22. > :58:26.in the Alps is still all too real for everyone involved. The relatives

:58:27. > :58:30.of Sylvain Mollier. For the girls whose parents and grandmother were

:58:31. > :58:31.Ruta Lee murdered. And for the brother who is still under

:58:32. > :58:37.suspicion.