France - 5 shot, 4 dead in French Alps, may have int'l ramifications, 2012 #2

Not much news, except that Sylvain Mollier has now been depicted as a welder. Was a metallurgist before.

Police are unconvinced by suggestions the real target may have been Mollier, a local father of three said to have worked for the French nuclear giant Areva. Mollier, they say, worked as a welder in a workshop at a subsidiary of Areva. "He doesn't appear to have been exposed to nuclear secrets," said a source.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/12/french-alps-shooting-photographs-taken?newsfeed=true

And of course The Daily mail takes rumors to a new level.
About Mollier:
Mollier was not merely a keen mountain bike rider. He held a senior post with Cezus, a company based in the nearby small town of Ugine and owned by Areva, the giant multi-national that leads the way in the research and development of nuclear power.

A spokesman told us he had been employed for many years as a senior production manager specialising in nuclear fuel cladding made from zirconium — one of the metals Iran wishes to amass for its feared nuclear programme.

And Kadhim Al-Hilli's Iraq business has now morphed into a Gypsum factory:.
Once a wealthy gypsum factory owner and privileged member of the Iraqi elite, family patriarch Kadhim al-Hilli fled to Britain in the early Seventies to escape Saddam Hussein’s purge of prominent Shia Muslims.

And the bros fight now also include a cemetery marker for their parents:
Until a few days ago, when cemetery workers were told to scrawl their names on scraps of paper nailed to wooden stakes, their graves remained anonymous.

Why had they been treated with such indignity? Quite simply, I am told by a well-placed source, the brothers couldn’t agree on who should pay for the memorial stones, which can be bought for as little as £300.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...y-business-deal-But-sinister-explanation.html
 
I guess he could have used more than one phone
snipped:
Friday, October 12: The unfathomable mobile phone Saad Al-Hilli

This is a new element that thicken a little more mystery to the killing of Horses. According to our information, the survey on the mobile phone of Saad Al-Hilli, shot dead with two other members of his family, did not identify any suspicious call the day of the incident or the previous day. Marking one call at this time on the device: a message from her daughter's school Zainab al-Hilli, 7 who survived this tragedy. A call completely innocuous as investigators quickly dismissed their investigation.

http://translate.google.com/transla...a=X&ei=cvB4UPLNJPDE0AGAjIGYCQ&ved=0CFQQ7gEwBQ
 

It's a good theory. I doubt Mossad assassins would have any qualms about killing the girls, given the stories I've heard about IDF border guards shooting Muslim kids for sport. It's also quite possible the Israelis or whoever (Iranians? US?) contracted the hit out to another country or to a private group.
 
What motive could Mossad possibly have to kill this guy and his family?
I don't believe that one at all.
 
From the above article from joe jones..It was previously believed French cyclist Sylvain Mollier, 45, who worked at factory that supplies equipment to nuclear power plants, had stumbled on the murder scene.

I wonder if it had something to do with nuclear power plant supplies or was it personal? The article suggests Sylvain was shot first. The father and oldest daughter were outside the car during this time. They ran back into the car and tried to flee but the car got stuck in the mud. The lone killer then shoots the family in their locked car, then returns to shot Sylvain some more. He was shot 5 times. This really makes sense. Now they need to focus on who and why Sylvain was targeted.
 
All of it is just speculation. How could they possibly know if the cyclist was shot first? Autopsies aren't that accurate.
In addition the scene was altered by the second cyclist who came upon it.
The father could have been shot first. Then the cyclist. That would give the father time to get into the car and tried to get away.
Could the father and the cyclist have been meeting about something? Is there any evidence they knew each other?
 
If the family was the target then they would have to have been followed through their entire vacation and killed when they just happened to stop for a scenic view. My guess is the cyclist probably rode in that area using the same routes and would be easier to target at that location.
 
If the family was the target then they would have to have been followed through their entire vacation and killed when they just happened to stop for a scenic view. My guess is the cyclist probably rode in that area using the same routes and would be easier to target at that location.

Why kill him in the presence of all these other people (the family)?
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-massacre-standing-father-killer-struck.html

This article today suggests:

the cyclist was shot first, his bike equipment was found in the bushes
the elder daughter was standing outside the car with her father
the father was shot, got back into the car, locked the door and tried to drive away (leaving the daughter outside the car) but reversed into the bank
this allowed the gunman/men to shoot the adults inside the car

how accurate it all is who knows but it seems that the daughter is now outlining events for the police and it may be that the suggestion that the cyclist was shot first has come from her account rather than the autopsy.

Was the cyclist the target or did he interrupt some thing happening between the family and the gunman... robbery? a meeting?
 
Why kill him in the presence of all these other people (the family)?

Maybe the plan was to kill him in that spot and he didn't see the family until after he started the killing or moving the body.


From catoswyn's link from UK daily mail,


Mr Mollier’s glasses and bicycle pump were also found ‘a fair distance’ from where his lifeless body was found lying next to the car, said the source, suggesting it had been moved.
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-massacre-standing-father-killer-struck.html

This article today suggests:

the cyclist was shot first, his bike equipment was found in the bushes
the elder daughter was standing outside the car with her father
the father was shot, got back into the car, locked the door and tried to drive away (leaving the daughter outside the car) but reversed into the bank
this allowed the gunman/men to shoot the adults inside the car

how accurate it all is who knows but it seems that the daughter is now outlining events for the police and it may be that the suggestion that the cyclist was shot first has come from her account rather than the autopsy.

Was the cyclist the target or did he interrupt some thing happening between the family and the gunman... robbery? a meeting?

Thank You and Welcome to Websleuths!
 
I would imagine whoever is looking after the girls are pretty annoyed at the supposed leaks about what the 7 year old may or may not be saying

the killer/s are still out there, and if they are now being told that the 7 year old remembers more than was previously revealed then she may be in danger,

we all would like the killers caught and to know what happened but speculation such as this does nothing but mean the girls safety is compromised,
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...h-police-concentrating-family-feud-leads.html

More from the Daily Mail today who seem to be the main newspaper still running articles on the case. Now the police are said to have denied they can tell who was shot first and that the original suggestion by 'The Parisian' newspaper that BALLISTIC TESTS showed the cyclist was shot first is inaccurate.

Personally though I do think that the family have a point in that the police have seemed to have concentrated primarily on them rather than any other lines of enquiry.

The usual muddle of information though is emerging in this case yet again which means drawing any conclusion is very difficult!
 
Still am thinking family were the target. It's a messy assassin who fails to notice a vehicle with a family on-board, then shoots the bike guy. True, even pros have their off-days, but really - the collateral damage was so much worse than the allegedly intended victim that it would be the mark of a rank amateur to inflict it by shooting three people dead and wounding a little girl who survived to talk.

As for the gendarmerie, they failed to notice a living little girl inside the car for eight hours. Enough said about their handling of this case.

And hello and welcome to WS, catoswyn!
 
All of it is just speculation. How could they possibly know if the cyclist was shot first? Autopsies aren't that accurate.

Could the father and the cyclist have been meeting about something? Is there any evidence they knew each other?


The 7-year old girl may have given her first-hand account of the scenario. Autopsies show the angels of each projectile and apparently the cyclist was shot at short range as well as from an angel which could indicate the shot was fired by the shooter standing next to the car. The amount of empty shells could assist in making the determination as well.

I believe the father and the cyclist may have known each other but have not seen anything in support of it. I do find it interesting, however, that the cyclist held a supervisory position at a nuclear power plant and that the initial reporting indicated he was "a welder" or machinist. Sylvain Mollier (the cyclist) didn't leave many footprints in the cyber sphere and is family has released zero information, not even his photo, after his murder.
 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/12/french-alps-shooting-photographs-taken?newsfeed=true

And Kadhim Al-Hilli's Iraq business has now morphed into a Gypsum factory:.
Once a wealthy gypsum factory owner and privileged member of the Iraqi elite, family patriarch Kadhim al-Hilli fled to Britain in the early Seventies to escape Saddam Hussein ....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...y-business-deal-But-sinister-explanation.html

Al-Hilli lived in Surrey which has a large population of Iraqis. Many of them came in the 70' and 80's and who were loyal to the late President. Some of them were even members of the Ba'ath party. I think the common excuse was "to escape..."
 

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