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The afternoon of Wednesday September 5 2012 was a pleasant one in Chervaline, a small wooded community located in the French Alps region of Haute-Savoie. Sharing nearby borders with Switzerland and Italy, the area is known for its mountain landscapes and the medieval towns that dot Lake Annecy, a sparkling body of water considered to be the cleanest lake in Europe.
In the warmer months, visitors from all over flock to the region to bask in the tranquil surroundings, swim in the clear waters, and enjoy everything that Lake Annecy has to offer. British retiree Brett Martin had a holiday house not far from Chervaline. He took advantage of the sunny weather and took off on his mountain bike for a leisurely ride through the village of roughly 207 residents.
He passed by the sprinkling of old country homes and pastures before the only thing on either side of him was woodland. About ten minutes outside of Chervelin, Brett turned onto Coombe Deer, a steep, uneven road that wound uphill through dense, uninhabited forest and past rushing streams.
Brad had done the trip before. He knew that there were no other turn-offs until the 3km mark when the public road gave way to a clearing called Le Martinet. This served as a small secluded parking area and was typically used as a starting point for visitors to explore the surrounding walking tracks and hiking trails. It also signalled the end of the public road. From Le Martinet, Combe d'Ire became a restricted route marked with a no-entry sign.
Although hikers commonly used the route, the only vehicles with authorization to access it were forestry workers. Brett powered on until Le Martinet clearing was in sight. By this point, it was roughly 3:55 PM. He looked ahead and noticed something in the middle of the road, a lightweight racing bicycle.
Brett wondered why its owner would have left it there, but his thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a young, dark-haired girl stumbled out onto the road. She was covered in blood, her head and shoulder clearly injured. Brett watched her sway from side to side before she collapsed face first onto the ground. Brett rushed to the girl's aid. Her eyes were rolling around as though she was about to lose consciousness.
Brett was a former Royal Air Force pilot and he used his first aid knowledge to gently move the girl off the road and place her in the recovery position. That's when he noticed a maroon BMW Series 5 station wagon stopped to the left of the parking area, facing the road. The same vehicle had passed Brett just a few minutes earlier. He'd remembered it because it had British license plates and it was right-hand drive.
Now its engine was revving as one of its rear wheels spun in a mound of gravel. On the ground in front of the BMW, a middle-aged man was lying in a pool of blood. Brett recognized the man as the owner of the discarded bicycle. The two had passed one another towards the start of Coombe Deer. Brett had initially tried to keep up with the other cyclist, but had given up and lingered back at his own pace.
Thinking that the cyclist and car must have collided, Brett's immediate thought was that the revving BMW could lurch forward at any moment and cause further injury to the cyclist. He rushed to move the man out of the way, only to realize that he hadn't been hit by the car at all. He'd been shot multiple times in the head. Brett realized that the BMW's windows were riddled with bullet holes. He moved closer, only to see that the interior of the vehicle was covered with blood.
Inside, a middle-aged male was slumped over in the driver's seat. In the backseat was a middle-aged woman with an elderly woman beside her. All three had been shot in the head. Brett smashed the bullet-ridden driver's side window and reached in to turn off the ignition. He took out his mobile phone to call for help, but there was no reception. He faced a dilemma.
Did he leave the wounded girl there or did he attempt to take her with him and risk worsening her injuries? Scared that the shooter was still in the area and could target him next, Brett got back on his bike and rode for help, leaving the injured girl by the side of the road. Within minutes, Brett Martin encountered a car full of French hikers who were able to get a mobile signal and summon emergency services. Paramedics, rescue personnel, and teams of police sped to the area.
The wounded girl was airlifted to hospital in a critical condition. As doctors assessed her injuries, they realized that she'd received a gunshot wound to the shoulder before being brutally beaten in the head. Her orbital bone was fractured and her skull was cracked, resulting in a traumatic brain injury. The girl was put into an induced coma while surgeons tried desperately to save her life. But there was nothing to be done for the cyclist or those inside the BMW.
All four were pronounced dead at the scene. A cursory search of the woods surrounding the crime scene was conducted, with a helicopter passing overhead. Nothing was found to indicate the shooter was still in the area. Police at the scene decided it was best to wait for the specialist forensic team to arrive from Paris before examining the interior of the vehicle.
The car windows were so badly cracked by bullet holes that a single movement could cause one to collapse, thus damaging crucial evidence. The deceased cyclist still had his wallet on him, which led to him being identified as 45-year-old Sylvain Moliere. The quiet and reserved father of three lived just 20 kilometers east of Chervaline in the small town of Eugène. Sylvain's partner Claire had recently given birth to a baby boy.
A dedicated father, Sylvain had taken extended paternity leave from his job as a production worker to take care of his young son and two teenage children from a previous marriage. Sylvain was a keen cyclist who enjoyed riding the local trails. That afternoon, he'd wanted to try a new route, so he headed up the Comdeer Road at the recommendation of Claire's father.
The British-registered BMW was traced back to Les Solitaires du Lac, a campsite roughly 14 kilometres north of Combe d'Ire. The occupants of the BMW were identified as 50-year-old Saad al-Hilly, an Iraqi-born British citizen who lived in the English village of Claygate. The two women in the back seat were his wife, 47-year-old Iraqi-born Iqbal al-Hilly, and Iqbal's 74-year-old mother, Suhaila al-Alaf.
The injured girl was the couple's seven-year-old daughter, Zainab. A caravan registered to Saad al-Hili remained exactly where the family had left it, parked alongside their tent. The owner of the campsite told the police that the al-Hili family had checked in the previous day of Tuesday, September 4. They'd actually arrived in the area on Saturday, but had stayed at a different campsite for two nights before moving to La Solitaire du Lac.
The owner recalled nothing unusual about the family's behaviour. Saad had asked about good walking trails in the area, to which the owner had recommended the general area around Sher-Valeen but hadn't signalled out a specific location. Other guests told the police that the Al-Hillis seemed like an ordinary family on vacation. The guests who were camping next to them recalled the two little girls playing happily. When the questioning officers heard this, they froze.
Two little girls. There had only been one young girl found at the crime scene, seven-year-old Zainab. There was only one child seat inside the BMW, so investigators hadn't even thought to check the vehicle for a second child. Cursory searches of the area hadn't revealed any sign of another victim. This left two possibilities: either the second Al-Hili daughter had run into the woods to escape the shooter and was still out there somewhere, or she'd been abducted.
By this point it was nearing midnight. Authorities had been gathered at the crime scene for close to eight hours. The specialist forensic team had just arrived from Paris and one officer finally opened the back door of the BMW. There, cowering silently underneath Iqbal al-Hili's skirt, was her four-year-old daughter, Zina. The young girl was terrified but unharmed.
For eight hours she'd been frozen in fear, unable to grasp the carnage that had taken place around her. Smiling with relief at finally being found, Zena looked up and said, "Where's mummy? I want my mummy." At no point during the attack had Zena exited the car, so she couldn't tell the investigators much. All she remembered was hearing loud noises before quickly hiding on the floor.
Investigators hoped her older sister would be more helpful, but whether Zainab would recover remained to be seen. In the meantime, the priority remained on catching the killer. If the shooting was a random attack conducted by a deranged individual, a quick arrest was needed to stop them from striking again. The deceased inside the BMW were still in possession of their wallets, mobile phones, and a digital camera.
This ruled out robbery as a motive for the killings. But strangely, their passports were nowhere to be found either in their car or at their campsite. A forensic search for fingerprints, DNA, or any other clues came up empty. All the police had to go by were the spent bullet casings, 21 of which were found at the scene.
Using the ballistics and limited physical evidence, investigators deduced that after arriving at Le Martinet, Saad and seven-year-old Zainab likely got out of the car, perhaps to examine a map of the area that was posted to the side of the parking spot. At the same time, Sylvain Moliere cycled up. Unbeknownst to all of them, the shooter was hiding nearby, likely in a nearby gully or the surrounding trees.
Suddenly, the shots began. It was unclear who was shot first, but one bullet struck Saad in the back while another knocked Sylvain to the ground. Saad then ran back to his BMW, yelling at little Zainab to do the same. Slamming and locking the door, he reversed in a semicircle direction, trying desperately to escape the onslaught. In the process, he clipped Sylvain Moliere,
Saad's rear tire got stuck in a mound of dirt, leaving his family stranded. The shooter then approached the vehicle from their hiding place. With careful, callous precision, they shot Saad, Iqbal, and Suhaila through the side windows. Both Saad and Iqbal were shot four times, while Suhaila sustained three gunshots. All three of them were shot twice directly in the middle of the forehead.
The killer then returned their attention to Sylvain Moliere, pulling the trigger four more times. They stood over his body, shooting him execution-style directly between the eyes. Investigators weren't sure at what point seven-year-old Zainab was shot. Judging by the injuries to her head, the killer had likely either run out of bullets or their gun had jammed before they were able to finish what they started.
Instead, they used the barrel of the gun to bash the child over the head. The entire ambush likely lasted less than 60 seconds. Of the 21 shots fired during that time, 17 of them had hit the victims. In the attack on Zainab, a piece of grip from the gun handle had broken off. Coupled with the bullet casings, this allowed investigators to identify the murder weapon as a semi-automatic Luger P06.
The Swiss Model Service Pistol had been a standard issue to members of the Swiss Army and police in the 1920s and 30s. It was an odd choice for a shooting spree, the kind of gun more likely to be found in a museum or private collection rather than used to commit a brutal crime. Despite its age, it was still considered to be an incredibly accurate and reliable weapon, allowing up to 48 shots to be fired in under 30 seconds.
Only eight cartridges could be loaded at once. With 21 shots fired, this meant that the Le Martinet shooter had reloaded twice during the attack. Given that they'd managed to do so while hitting all of their targets and without hitting the body of the moving BMW, police were certain of one thing: whoever was responsible was an experienced and skilled shooter who fully intended to hit each one of their victims.
News of the slaying spread throughout the Annecy region, where violent crimes were mostly unheard of. Chervaline and its surroundings were considered incredibly safe, the type of place where residents didn't bother to lock their doors. There were only 70 homes in Chervaline, making it easy for police to question every household.
Other than Brett Martin, nobody had witnessed anything that could be of use to the investigation or had suspicions about who the perpetrator might be, except for a trio of forestry workers. As reported exclusively by BBC's Panorama program, one forestry worker was driving down Coombe Deer Road shortly before the shootings when they passed Le Martinet parking area. To the left of the clearing, they saw a large motorcycle pulled over on the side of the road.
It was black and white with panniers on the side. The driver was dressed all in black, including a distinct dark helmet with a visor that was pulled down, covering their face completely. As the forestry worker continued down the public portion of the road, they soon passed another vehicle, a metallic grey BMW four-wheel drive. They believed it to be British as it was right-hand drive.
The car was in good, clean condition and was being driven by a slightly balding male with dark skin. The forestry worker was taken aback by how fast the car was driving on the narrow road. Ten minutes later, two other forestry workers were coming down the restricted road above Le Martinet when they too crossed paths with the large black and white motorcycle.
Given that public vehicles were forbidden from entering this section of the road, they waved the motorcyclist down. The rider's helmet was distinct in that it had a hinged visor that could be opened sideways to allow the wearer to hold a conversation without having to remove their helmet. The rider pulled the visor across, revealing he was a white male with a goatee and heavy brow. He said nothing as the forestry workers told him to turn around and drive back down.
Brett Martin, the cyclist who discovered the bodies, had also seen this motorcycle coming down the Coombe Deer Road as he struggled up the hill just before 3:55pm. Brett didn't recall seeing the metallic grey BMW, but he did have a vague recollection of a large four-wheel drive passing him at some point along his journey. Based on these timings, it was deduced that Brett had stumbled upon the crime scene within a mere minute of the shootings.
He hadn't heard any of the gunshots because the sound had been masked by the white noise of the rushing river. The only people who had heard the shots were a local father and son, but they hadn't given it much thought. Hunting season was coming up, so they just assumed hunters were out testing their rifles. Neither Brett nor the trio of French hikers who arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting recalled seeing anyone pass them down the hill. This presented two possibilities.
Either the man on the motorcycle was the killer and he'd brazenly fled via the public road even after knowing he'd been spotted in the area, or the killer was someone else entirely and they'd fled via the woods, or the restricted route just around the bend from Le Martinet. Although the rough, narrow road was clearly marked with a no entry sign, it was still easily accessible.
A person on foot, motorcycle, bike or four-wheel drive could have made their way down the rugged terrain to the other side of the mountain within an hour. Even a regular car could have made the journey if the driver was willing to accept pothole damage to their vehicle. From there, there were plenty of possible escape routes with Italy and Switzerland just a short distance away. Police considered whether the motorcyclist could have been working in conjunction with the metallic grey four-wheel drive.
A suspect sketch was drawn up based on the forestry worker's recollection, but police decided to withhold the image out of fear that it could spook the motorcyclist and sent him on the run. Less than 48 hours after the shooting, the crime scene was teeming with local and international media. This was a major news story and the public were hungry for information.
Local police had been sworn to silence, and the only individual involved with the French investigation who was allowed to speak publicly about the case was Annecy prosecutor Eric Mayour. Mayour confirmed to the press that the police were working hard to determine a motive. All they knew for certain was that, quote, "...it was clearly an act of extreme savagery, and it was obvious that who did this wanted to kill."
The French president vowed that everything would be done to find the person responsible. Given that the crime was committed on French soil against British citizens, French authorities joined investigators from the UK to try and answer the prevailing question. Was this a random attack or did someone want the Al-Hilly family dead? Case file will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors.
Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. For Saad Al-Hilly, one of life's greatest pleasures was spending quality time with his family. He'd met his wife Iqbal nine years prior in Abu Dhabi, where Iqbal had been living at the time. They married quickly and moved into Saad's childhood home in the British village of Claygate, where they settled down to raise a family.
Iqbal put her career as a dentist on hold to be a stay-at-home mum to their two young daughters. The trip to the French Alps had been a spur-of-the-moment decision. Saad had business to tend to in the Swiss city of Geneva, which was just across the border from Annecy. Even though Zainab and Zeina were due to return to school after summer holidays, Saad recognised it as an opportunity for a short family getaway.
He adored France and had stayed in the Alps region a few times before. It also gave him an opportunity to take his beloved caravan out on the road. Saad worked as a freelance engineer and he had a hobby for tinkering with mechanical parts. He developed a passion for caravanning after he restored a damaged caravan to its former glory. He'd since purchased a new one and jumped at any chance to use it.
Sometimes he'd take his family to stay at the local campsite just 10 miles from their home, just to enjoy a change of scenery. The family invited Iqbal's mother, Suhaila Al-Alaf, to join them on their last-minute French getaway. The 74-year-old lived in Sweden but was staying with her other daughter who lived an hour away from the Al-Hillys in southern England. Once word got out that the victims lived in Claygate, the media attention in Britain was immense.
Claygate was an affluent, family-oriented suburb 14 miles southwest of London. A local family being the targets of an international shooting was sensational news. Both of Saad's parents had passed away in recent years, but reporters gathered outside the flat of his only sibling, older brother Zayed Al-Hili. Zayed couldn't think of anyone who would want to harm Saad or his family.
Likewise, other friends of the family confirmed there was nothing untoward in the Al-Hili household. Saad and Iqbal were both kind and gentle and their children were happy and well-adjusted. However, there was one family member who raised some red flags. Iqbal's brother, Haydar, lived in Sweden with their mother, Suheyla, and was schizophrenic.
As a result of his mental illness, reports revealed that Haydar had a history of threatening and beating Suheyla and that she lived in constant fear of him. Investigators considered whether Haydar's mental instability could have led him to orchestrate the shootings. They looked into his whereabouts at the time of the crime, only to learn that he'd been receiving psychiatric treatment in England when the murders occurred, giving him an airtight alibi.
Although Saad had been living in the UK since he was a young boy and was legally considered a British citizen, his ethnic origins were examined in detail. Annecy prosecutor Eric Mayew told reporters, "The fact that he was born in Iraq, that he had family in Iraq, of course that's something that is of interest and we are asking ourselves if there is a link between that and his death."
A search of the Alhiles Caravan at Les Solitaires du Lac campsite revealed that Saad had been travelling with a laptop and several thumb drives. When investigators checked the contents, they found numerous files filled with technical data and sensitive information relating to some freelance work Saad had been doing for a British company that sold satellites. The data he'd saved went well beyond what was required for his job.
His laptop also had tracking software installed on it, which meant anyone with access to it could trace his movements. Given his connections with Iraq, investigators considered whether Saad could have been selling the satellite technology and other industry secrets to countries who wanted to use them against the West. Perhaps he'd traded secrets and been killed to ensure his silence, or he'd refused to hand the information over and had been targeted as a result.
Saad's employers denied that he was involved with any confidential projects. There was nothing in his job that carried any risk, nor did it require him to sign the Official Secrets Act. Those who knew Saad were incredulous at the suggestion that he could be involved with industrial espionage. He was a hard-working, devoted father who enjoyed cycling and playing badminton in his spare time and was always willing to help out a friend or neighbour in need.
Saad was also outspoken and enjoyed debating his socio-political views, so he would have made a lousy spy. There was no way he was involved in top secret work. But for Saad's neighbour, Philip, news of Saad's death immediately brought him back to 2003. At the time, the US and British armed forces had just invaded Iraq. The police had approached Philip and asked if they could use his driveway to keep watch of the Al-Hillis home.
They spent all day parked there, watching the house where Saad and his brother Zaid were living together at the time. Anytime Saad drove away, the undercover police followed him. Philip never knew why they were watching the brothers, nor did he ever warn them that they were being spied on, but it left him curious.
On Saturday September 8 2012, three days after the shootings, officers made their way inside the two-story mock Tudor home belonging to the Alhilli family. They confiscated various items of computer equipment. Saad had converted the garden shed behind the house into a makeshift office, and several potentially hazardous items were found inside that made officers nervous.
The bomb squad was called in as a precautionary measure and the property was cordoned off while nearby residents were forced to evacuate. It was a false alarm. None of the items turned out to be dangerous. However, there were a couple of other things that raised suspicion. Inside the house, police found a taser. The weapon was illegal and it seemed strange that a quiet family with no enemies would be armed with such a protective item.
Furthermore, the locks on the house had recently been changed and a new security alarm system had been installed. Whatever the reason, it appeared that Saad al-Hilly was nervous about something. As investigators hustled to piece together a clear picture of Saad and his background, seven-year-old Zainab al-Hilly woke up from her induced coma. The young girl was making a strong recovery but was still in a very delicate state.
Investigators had to tread carefully when questioning her. Zainab recalled that on the day of the murders, her father had asked what she'd rather do that day, go shopping in town or go for a walk in the woods. Zainab chose the latter. Beyond arriving at Le Martinet and getting out of the car with her father, Zainab didn't remember anything except seeing, quote, "...one bad man."
Although she couldn't be sure, Zainab also thought she might have seen a silhouette. Zainab was given the green light to return to the UK. Both she and her younger sister Zeena were held at a secret location and placed under strict police protection. Psychologists believed that Zainab likely remembered more about the attack but had been so traumatised that her brain couldn't yet process the information.
Investigators had to accept that their star witness didn't hold the key to solving the crime. Instead, they sourced archive images of the Chervaline region from every satellite company in Europe and studied the stills from the day of the shootings.
They obtained CCTV footage from the route the Alhilli family would have taken from Claygate to their campsite in France, combing through footage captured from gas stations, toll roads and ferry terminals for a glimpse of the family's maroon BMW. They compared still images to see if the BMW was being tailed, but at no point did the same vehicle appear behind the family twice.
That didn't rule out the possibility that someone had tracked their movements and followed them from their campsite up the Khum Deir Road. But had they done so, they would have had to have sound local knowledge of the area to be able to facilitate a quick getaway without being seen. Either the killer was a local, which also explained their use of a local firearm, or they'd done extensive research of the area beforehand.
Eight days into the investigation, French prosecutor Eric Mayou told reporters that although the motive and perpetrator's identity remained unclear, there was no doubt that the reasons for the crime originated in England. The theory that Saad was involved with industrial espionage gained traction and became a goldmine for the British tabloids. While the authorities continued to follow this as a genuine possibility, another, more plausible lead emerged.
The previous September, Saad had written a letter to a childhood friend following the death of his father. In it, he talked about his relationship with his older brother, Zaid. Saad wrote: "Zaid and I do not communicate anymore as he is another control freak and tried a lot of underhanded things even when my father was alive. He tried to take control of father's assets and demanded control.
It's a long story and I have just had to wipe him out of my life. Sad, but I need to concentrate now on my wife and two lovely girls." In contrast, Zaid Al-Hilly told the British investigators that he and his brother had a good relationship. After Zaid's wife passed away from ovarian cancer in 2007, Saad invited Zaid to temporarily move in with his wife and daughters in Claygate.
Zayed's adult son had left home and Saad thought it would do his brother good to be surrounded by loved ones during his time of grief. Zayed ended up staying for over a year, during which he cherished getting to bond with Zainab and Zina. The brothers falling out was confirmed by other friends of Saad's. It all started when their father Khadim al-Hili passed away in August 2011. At the time of his death, Khadim lived in Spain.
He left his estate to his two sons who would receive a 50/50 split of the Claygate home as well as Cardim's Spanish flat. Given that Saad and his family were already living in the Claygate property which was valued at around 800,000 pounds, Zayed wanted Saad to buy him out. Zayed also wanted to increase his share of the Spanish flat to 75%. Saad felt this was totally unfair and refused to accept Zayed's demands.
Tensions escalated and things came to a head in October of 2011. Zaid was still living in the Claygate home at the time but was looking for his own place to move into. A physical altercation broke out between the two brothers that resulted in Saad calling the police. Shortly after, Saad changed the locks. The brothers both obtained lawyers to represent their interests in their father's estate and all future contact was handled by mediators.
Saad ordered a freeze on his father's will, ensuring that Zaid couldn't claim any of the money until the dispute was resolved. In an online chat with his friend James, Saad called Zaid an arsehole who was motivated by greed. He said he had reason to believe Zaid was involved in tax evasion and fraud, and was prepared to use the information against Zaid if need be.
Saad also told James that some valuable items went missing from his home while Zaid was living there, which is why he changed the locks. When Saad was killed, he hadn't spoken to his brother in almost a year. The fact that Zaid had initially told police that the two had a good relationship raised major red flags for investigators.
When confronted with the evidence that indicated otherwise, Zaid conceded that there were financial disputes but maintained that the two were otherwise close. He denied being involved in a feud with his brother, saying that their disagreement regarding money wasn't personal. Zaid had a verified alibi for the day of the murders. He had been at the seaside with a friend, eating ice cream and browsing the local shops.
While this proved Zayed wasn't the one who pulled the trigger, it led police to question whether he could have organised someone else to carry out the attack on his behalf. The slayings had all the hallmarks of a professional hit, a precise, experienced gunman firing rounds into the foreheads of each of his victims. But if Zayed and Saad weren't talking, how would a hired killer know to find the al-Hillis in that secluded part of the French Alps?
The Luger pistol was the only tangible clue, but there were roughly 30,000 of these weapons in Switzerland alone. Given that the murder scene was 30 miles from the Swiss border and the gun used was Swiss, authorities in Geneva were also brought in to assist. They discovered that the business Saad al-Hilly intended to take care of in Switzerland related to a private bank account held in his father's name.
Saad had called the bank on Monday, two days before his death, and spoke of his intentions to visit. This was noteworthy given there had been questionable activity on the account in the past. Saad's father, Khadim al-Hili, had set up the account in 1988, making a sizeable deposit that was now worth close to 1 million euros.
The account had barely been touched since, which is why one bank employee flagged it as strange when someone in England applied for a credit card linked to the account just one year before Khadim passed away. The employee examined the application form and noticed that the applicant's signature differed from the one they had on file. The bank contacted Khadim, who denied ever making the request.
A Swiss prosecutor publicly stated that the person who fraudulently tried to acquire the credit card was none other than Zayed Al-Hilly. He claimed that Zayed had forged his father's signature in an attempt to gain access to the money in the Geneva account. Speaking to journalist Tom Parry for his book The Perfect Crime, Zayed strongly denied this allegation, maintaining that his father had been the one who applied for the credit card.
Regardless, the revelation that the Alhillies had a so-called "secret bank account" in Switzerland immediately added to the speculation surrounding the case. If the family had nothing to hide, some wondered why they were squirrelling money away in an offshore account.
Six and a half weeks after the shootings, Saad, Iqbal and Suhaila were laid to rest in a private ceremony held in the Shia Muslim section of Brookwood Cemetery, 20 miles north of Claygate, with armed guards keeping watch. Days later, readers of French newspaper Le Monde opened their papers to find the sensational headline, The Potential Links Between the Al-Hillis and Saddam Hussein.
According to the article, the Swiss bank account had led the German secret service to uncover a link between Khadim al-Hilly and the former Iraqi dictator. Shortly before Saddam Hussein's execution in 2006, he reportedly withdrew over 600 million pounds from the Iraqi central bank and deposited in secret bank accounts around the world, including Switzerland.
The money smuggling was thought to be assisted by Iraqi nationals who lived abroad. Lamond theorised that Khadim could have worked as one of Saddam Hussein's conduits and Assad had gotten himself killed by trying to access the money. Those close to the al-Hilly family scoffed at what they saw to be malicious rumours. It was because of Saddam Hussein's regime that the al-Hillys had been forced to flee Iraq in the first place.
Khadim had been a successful lawyer turned businessman. He'd amassed a healthy profit selling tissue paper and poultry. Any money he'd hidden away was well and truly earned. To suggest he'd helped launder money for the dictator was hurtful to the surviving relatives. This wild theory quickly disappeared from the headlines, but it contributed to the growing narrative that Saad was involved in some kind of nefarious activity that had contributed to the murders.
It was also revealed that he'd held some radical political beliefs which he'd shared online in various Arabic chat forums. This led to public speculation that Saad could have been the victim of a state-sponsored assassination, a theory fuelled by the fact that both Saad and Iqbal's passports were still nowhere to be found.
Police had searched their home, car and caravan, as well as police stations lost and found officers and hotels along the route the Alhilli family had taken on their holiday. But the passports had mysteriously disappeared. Some speculated that the killer could have taken them as some kind of trophy or proof of their hit.
Similar assassinations had been carried out in the past, but those involved had been associated with weaponry development or the military and were deemed to be a threat to national security. There was nothing in Saad's background to indicate he fit this bill. Furthermore, if a hitman really did want Saad dead, it didn't make sense that they would also attack his wife, mother-in-law, and children.
While some investigators were convinced that the crime had the hallmarks of a contract killing, others thought otherwise. If the killer was a professional, sceptics to the hitman theory wondered why the shooter had used such an antiquated weapon. The fact that they'd managed not to hit the moving BMW proved their proficiency as a shooter, but their first shots had missed Saad when he was standing outside of the vehicle.
If Saad really was the intended target, the shooter had botched the hit from the very beginning. Also, Saad, Iqbal, and Suheyla had all been stuck in the car, making them easy targets for the gunmen standing directly outside. Anyone with decent firearm proficiency was capable of shooting them at such close range. Investigators considered whether Saad could have been lured to Le Martinet by someone under false pretenses.
His phone and email's records were checked, but nothing was found to indicate a pre-planned meeting. A guest who was staying at the same campsite as the Alhillies recalled seeing Saad having a heated exchange with a man of Balkan appearance. Although this interaction couldn't be verified, it fuelled speculation that a contract killer could have travelled from the former Yugoslavia.
It was rumoured that Eastern European hitmen could reportedly be hired on the dark web for as little as a few hundred pounds. These men had been hardened during armed conflicts and some were willing to use their lethal expertise for financial gain. It was possible that a master contract killer could have travelled to France via road, executed the hit, and then disappeared back into their home country as quickly as they came without drawing any attention to themselves.
For investigators, the financial dispute between the Al-Hili brothers gave Zayed a compelling motive to want Saad and his family out of the picture. But if Zayed had hired someone to perform the hit, why hadn't the gunmen completed the job by killing Zainab and Zina? The surviving daughters would inherit Saad's estate, meaning Zayed had very little to gain. While all of these theories were compelling, none of them quite added up.
This left investigators with no choice but to consider another possibility entirely. What if SARD wasn't the intended target after all?
Iqbal al-Hili had become a secondary player in this giant media story that centred mostly around her husband. At first glance, she was a quiet, reserved, stay-at-home mother who put great importance on her Muslim faith. But as police looked into Iqbal's background, they discovered she harboured a secret. On Saad and Iqbal's marriage certificate, Iqbal listed herself as previously unmarried. But this wasn't true.
Not only had Iqbal been married before, she was still legally married at the time that she and Saad tied the knot in 2003. In 1999, Iqbal had moved to the United States to pursue a dentistry job. Before long, a friend introduced her to a man named Jimmy Thompson, an oil worker and Harley Davidson enthusiast 20 years her senior. The two hit it off and married quickly.
Iqbal moved into Jimmy's house in Louisiana where she embraced a western lifestyle. She went by the name Kelly and spent her spare time running and barbecuing with Jimmy's family by the pool. Iqbal and Jimmy were happily married for 18 months, after which Iqbal suddenly left the US and returned to Abu Dhabi.
Some believe she was simply homesick, while others think she was under pressure from her family to marry a Muslim man and take on a more traditional role. It has also been speculated that her marriage to Jimmy was purely one of convenience, so that Iqbal could obtain a US green card. Whatever the reason, it wasn't long before Iqbal and Saad were reportedly introduced by family members as part of a mutually agreed upon arranged marriage.
As far as any of the Al-Hillies friends in England were aware, Saad had no idea that he was Iqbal's second husband. They were shocked to learn that Iqbal had lived a westernised, somewhat outgoing life in the United States, as this was completely out of character for the conservative woman they knew. In England, she mostly kept to herself and was incredibly shy. She didn't even drive or go out to do the shopping.
Investigators were curious to learn why Iqbal had suddenly departed from the United States. They attempted to make contact with the Jimmy Thompson in Louisiana, only to make another shocking discovery. Jimmy had passed away on the very same day that Iqbal had been killed.
Medical records stated that the overweight Jimmy had died of a heart attack while driving. But when his family learned that Iqbal had been murdered just hours beforehand, they began to ask questions. An official autopsy had never been conducted on Jimmy, so what if he hadn't died of natural causes after all? As reported in the book The Perfect Crime, Jimmy's sister Judy was aware that Iqbal and Jimmy had kept in touch via email.
This contradicted reports from the Alhilly's friends in England who said Iqbal was a technophobe who refused to let Saad set her up with an email address. According to Judy, when she went to check Jimmy's email, all of his messages had been erased. The FBI got involved to explore the possibility that Jimmy Thompson's death was somehow linked to his ex-wife's murder.
They even considered exhuming his body to conduct an official autopsy. But ultimately, there was nothing to support the theory that Jimmy's death was connected to the French shooting. The fact that both he and his ex-wife had both died on the same day was deemed a mere coincidence. Regardless, the fact that Iqbal had managed to conceal a secret marriage left some wondering what other secrets she might be hiding.
Very little was known about Iqbal's mother, Suhaila al-Alaf. The 74-year-old widowed mother of four lived in the suburbs of Stockholm, having moved to Sweden from Iraq in the mid-1980s with her husband Abdul and their son Haidar. She was reportedly a quiet and private person. Investigators hadn't been able to ascertain the exact reason why she had decided to join the Al-Hillis on their last-minute French holiday.
Due to her age and the limited background information about her, Suheyla wasn't an obvious choice when it came to investigators trying to determine which one of the victims had been the intended target. But some suspicious elements quickly emerged that meant she couldn't be crossed off entirely. According to the book The Perfect Crime, a search of Suheyla's personal computer revealed that it was fitted with spyware.
This meant that whoever had access to the spyware was able to remotely view every move that Suheila made on the computer. Installing the software would have required technological skills that Suheila wasn't known to possess. This raised the question of why anyone would want to keep tabs on the elderly woman's online movements. Bank records didn't reveal her to be a wealthy woman, which made it even more confusing when Suheila's home in Sweden was ransacked in the aftermath of the shootings.
Several items were stolen, including an assortment of personal documents and bank records. Investigators weren't prepared to close the door on any lines of inquiry, but the possibility that Suheyla was the target and her daughter's family somehow got tied up in it went to the bottom of the list. Another possibility was much more plausible.
From the outset of the investigation, the family of the murdered cyclist Sylvain Moliere had requested complete privacy to mourn his loss in peace. Because of this, very little was known about him. French investigators were confident that Sylvain had just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Others weren't so sure.
Sylvain had sustained more gunshots than any other victim, five in total, and he was the only victim who lived locally. For British investigators, it therefore made sense to consider that Sylvain could have been the target while the Alhilles were collateral damage instead of the other way around.
Until having recently taken an extended period of paternity leave, Sylvain Moliere worked at Sezeus, a factory just outside of Annecy that produced nuclear components. Some wondered whether Sylvain could have been selling nuclear secrets to other nations and had gotten in over his head, or angered an enemy who wanted to put a stop to his involvement.
It was even speculated that Sylvain knew Sade and the two were conspiring together to solve both their satellite and nuclear secrets. But Sylvain simply worked as a welder for Sezeus. He wasn't privy to any classified information. There was nothing in his phone or email records to indicate that he'd arranged to meet anyone at Le Martinet, nor was there any evidence that he and Sade had ever crossed paths before.
It also turned out that Saad wasn't the only one allegedly embroiled in a bitter feud over money. The Sunday Times newspaper looked into Sylvain's background and discovered that his partner Claire was from a wealthy local family. Claire had recently received ownership of her father's pharmacy, which was valued at just over 1 million pounds. According to the newspaper, Claire's family felt that Sylvain was taking advantage of their wealth and sponging off their daughter.
When Sylvain announced he was going to be taking up to three years off work and effectively living off Claire's income, tensions reached a boiling point. On the day of the shooting, Claire's father recommended Sylvain take the route up Combe d'Ile. French investigators considered the possibility that this could have been part of an intentional plan to rid Sylvain of any claim to the family fortune. But Claire's family weren't nearly as well off as reporters had claimed.
Claire hadn't been given the pharmacy. She had taken a loan out from her father and was paying it back slowly. Furthermore, she and Sylvain weren't married, meaning he wouldn't have been legally entitled to any of her money. The theory was ruled out. It was impossible for forensic investigators to determine which of the four victims had been shot first. But in one interpretation, Sylvain had sustained the first bullet.
If true, it was logical to assume that he could have been the intended target. But if money wasn't the issue, what was? A friend of Sylvain's spoke to French newspaper Le Sceau Savoyard on the condition of anonymity. They claimed that Sylvain was known to be a bit of a ladies' man. According to the friend, Sylvain had once confided that, quote: "He felt he had to be careful while walking down the street because he feared he would be shot.
French investigators considered whether Sylvain could have been killed by a jealous spouse in a crime of passion, but there was no evidence to indicate that his behaviour extended beyond harmless flirtation. Annecy prosecutor Eric Mayu told journalist Tom Parry, "...we have examined his life from every possible angle, in every aspect, and we have found nothing which explains to us why anyone would want to get at this man."
The French remained convinced that the answer to all their questions most likely lay with the British victims, but after extensive investigations, another credible theory started to gain serious traction. What if no one had been targeted and all of the victims had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time?
It was entirely possible that a lone, mentally ill gunman familiar with the area might have been lurking in wait, ready to launch an attack on whoever was unfortunate enough to stumble upon Le Martinet first. It might have been entirely coincidental that a carload of people and a lone cyclist just so happened to arrive at the same time.
If the murders were the result of a random opportunistic attack, the perpetrator's firearm proficiency indicated they might have been ex-military or a member of law enforcement and legally licensed to own a gun. Investigators in both France and Switzerland examined psychiatric records on the lookout for anyone with a military background who also displayed homicidal tendencies.
They tracked down recently released patients with prior convictions for gun violence or access to weapons, but didn't find anyone who fit the bill. Police also considered the possibility that the motorcyclist and the occupant of the mysterious four-wheel drive had met at Le Martinet to complete a drug deal or other illegal handover. Both Sylvain and the Alhillies might have unexpectedly disturbed the transaction and been killed as a result.
This theory was quickly ruled out as the sleepy, remote town of Chervaline was a highly unlikely place for a serious drug deal. In France, there were ongoing tensions between the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities which led to speculation that the murders were an Islamophobic hate crime.
Some theorise that a local racist experienced with firearms might have simply spotted the Al-Hili family holidaying in Lake Annecy and singled them out due to their Middle Eastern background. But if this was the case, it didn't fit the typical bill for this type of attack. If the gunman was motivated by race or religion, investigators expected that they would have taken credit for the shootings in some capacity.
Whatever the truth, prosecutor Mayu concluded to GQ magazine that the target, quote, "was one, the other, or neither." Months passed with over 40 officers dedicated to the case. Despite the thorough investigation, all police had were unsubstantiated theories.
The public remained gripped, with all the wild stories about spies, assassinations and foreign secrets becoming the perfect fodder for tabloid headlines. By April 2013, seven months had passed with no breakthroughs in the case. French investigators remained convinced that the Al-Hilly connection held the key to solving the crime.
Zayed Al-Hili was re-interviewed. He maintained that the fallout with his brother had been nothing more than a financial discrepancy for which he held no significant grudge. He said he loved Saad and was heartbroken by the tragedy, which he wanted solved as much as anyone. But when Zayed was summoned to France to act as a witness, he flat out refused. Zayed was vocal about his distrust for the French authorities.
He felt they were using the financial matters between himself and Saad to deflect from the truth - that the crime had its origins in France. If Zaid travelled across the English Channel, he feared the authorities would find a way to plant his DNA at the crime scene. Zaid told GQ magazine: "To be honest with you, if the French authorities told me the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, I would think they were lying."
Zaid wasn't legally obligated to obey the French summons unless they had compelling evidence against him, so at the advice of his lawyer, he ignored it completely. This did nothing but add weight to the suspicion against him. If Zaid had nothing to hide, the belief was that he'd do anything to assist with the investigation. Police obtained Zaid's phone records from 2012 and noticed something out of the ordinary.
In the three weeks leading up to the Anasi shootings, numerous phone calls had been made to and received from five different numbers in Romania. The calls had stopped abruptly after the murders. The numbers couldn't be immediately traced, leading investigators to wonder what reason Zaid had to be calling the Balkan country. Zaid flat out denied making the calls and had no explanation for them.
This, coupled with his initial denial that there was any conflict between himself and Assad, along with his refusal to cooperate with the French investigation, brought things to a crescendo. On Monday June 24 2013, nine months after the shootings, two British detectives visited Zayed at his flat and placed him under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder. A team of police searched his flat but found nothing to link him to the crime.
Zaid was released on bail the following day, which under UK law didn't require a monetary bond. It simply required Zaid to continue living at his current address and stay away from any other potential witnesses. Zaid maintained that he never called anyone in Romania. French investigators looked back over their records and realised he was right. The unexplained calls had actually been made by Saad himself.
But months of investigation failed to uncover a single shred of evidence linking Zayed Al-Hilly to the murders. His bail conditions were lifted with a spokesperson for the British police announcing: "At this stage there is insufficient evidence to charge him with any criminal offence and no further police action is being taken at this time." French prosecutor Eric Mayu clarified: "This does not mean that we're finished with Zayed Al-Hilly, nor that he is innocent.
By the one-year anniversary of the shootings, more than 3,500 statements had been taken, with lines of inquiry being followed in 23 different countries. With the investigation back to square one, in early November 2013, French authorities finally decided to release the suspect sketch of the motorcyclist the forestry workers had seen near Le Martinet right before the shootings.
They'd been working hard behind the scenes to identify the distinct, dark-coloured helmet the rider had been wearing in the hopes this could lead them to its owner. The unusual style of helmet had been produced by a French company called GPA, and there were only 8,000 of the dark-coloured models in circulation. Detectives attempted to track each and every one of them down.
They spoke to retailers and motorcycle clubs, monitored online sales, and searched the homes of people who were known to own such helmets. But nothing led them to the mysterious Le Martinet motorcyclist. The decision to release the suspect's sketch paid off.
A local who saw the image thought the motorcyclist bore a strong physical resemblance to 48-year-old Eric Dervoisou, a married father of three who lived just a few miles north of the crime scene. Known as an eccentric outdoorsman, Dervoisou had strong knowledge of the woods surrounding the murder scene and was familiar with the local mountain routes.
Police looked into Eric Devoisou and discovered that his was one of 4,000 mobile phones that had pinged off the nearest phone tower on the day of the murders. Not only did that put him in the area at the time of the shootings, a background check revealed that in the weeks leading up to the crime, Devoisou had applied for a firearm permit.
He'd previously received combat training as part of his role as a French military reserve and had recently been fired from his job as a municipal police officer due to alleged misconduct. It was also reported that he held racist views. On Tuesday February 18 2014, a team of police officers aided by members of an elite tactical unit raided Eric Dervoisu's home as well as a property owned by his in-laws.
They discovered a collection of approximately 40 weapons, most of which were related to the Second World War and some which hadn't been obtained legally. They also uncovered similar ammunition to that used in the Luger pistol. Outside Devoisou's home, a yellow tarpaulin was draped over a large item. Police lifted it up to reveal an old black and grey motorcycle.
Both the bike and Dervoisou's helmet were taken away for further examination while officers searched his back garden with a metal detector. Eric Dervoisou was taken into police custody and questioned for four days, but he didn't reveal anything that linked him to the Annecy shootings, nor was anything discovered in the search to connect him to the crimes.
Witnesses who had seen the motorcycle near Le Martinet on the day of the murders were shown Dervoisou's motorbike and concluded it wasn't the same one. He was released without charge. Six months later, the clothing Saad al-Hilly had been wearing at the time he was killed was re-examined. In his jacket pocket, investigators made an unexpected discovery. There, they found the missing passports belonging to Saad and Iqbal.
Zayed Al-Hilly accused the police of incompetence, telling the BBC: "It seems that the jacket has been in the lab for a year and a half and no one bothered to search it. So what other evidence have they missed?" It was a sentiment echoed by others. With almost two years passing and no significant developments in the case, some questioned whether the police had blundered the investigation from the get-go.
When members of the media had first arrived at the crime scene, the police cordon had been temporarily brought down so that camera operators and news reporters could wander throughout the parking area and capture their desired footage. This led to accusations that vital evidence could have been missed or compromised. Furthermore, Brett Martin, the witness who discovered the shootings, wasn't even interviewed when police arrived at Le Martinet, despite being covered in blood.
By the time police asked to take Brett's clothing as evidence, several days had passed and he'd already washed it. While Brett wasn't involved in any way, it added weight to criticisms that a thorough job hadn't been done from the start. GQ journalist Sean Flynn remarked, "...you would think that quadruple homicides, particularly those involving middle-class professionals on vacation, would get sorted out fairly quickly."
That scores of detectives hadn't managed to do so suggested either epic incompetence or criminal brilliance. The British investigation team started to grow weary of the French investigation, which had seemingly gone nowhere. The more time that passed, the more convinced they became that Saad and his family had nothing to do with it. By focusing unnecessarily on Zaid al-Hilly, alternative lines of inquiry had gone cold.
For the British investigators, all of the theories involving inheritance disputes, industrial espionage, state-sponsored assassinations and spies were just distractions from the truth: that the crime had its origins in France. Earlier in 2014, French detectives revisited the possibility that Sylvain Molière was the intended target.
They compiled a list of anyone acquainted with Sylvain or his partner Claire and set up routine interviews with each individual. Among them was 50-year-old Patrice Menegaldo, an Eugene firefighter who had previously served as a paratrooper for the French Foreign Legion. He was questioned for under an hour, but it was clear he had nothing to add. Police sent him on his way with no further thought. Two months later, Patrice took his own life.
He left behind a letter that included a surprising explanation for his abrupt suicide. He couldn't handle being considered a suspect for the Annecy shootings. Investigators were stunned. They'd never considered Patrice to be a person of interest, nor was he ever held in custody. But now they were left wondering whether Patrice Menegaldo had killed himself because he was in fact involved with the crime and was consumed by guilt.
It seemed so illogical that a hardened soldier who had first-hand experience in foreign conflicts would be driven to the brink by something as minor as a cursory police interview, unless he had something to hide. An examination of Patrice's life revealed he suffered psychological problems from his 20 years in the Foreign Legion. He was also proficient with firearms and had local knowledge of the Chervelin area.
All of these factors fit the profile for the Annecy shooter, but they didn't explain why Patrice waited two months after being interviewed by police to end his life. And if he was responsible, why had it taken almost two years since the crime for the guilt to finally become unbearable? Patrice Manigaldo quickly rose to the top of the suspect list, but an in-depth inquiry failed to find any evidence to link him to the crime.
September 2014 came and went, marking a bitter two-year anniversary of the unsolved crime. In a bid to identify the mysterious motorcyclist seen near the crime scene, police continued to cross-check mobile phone records with motorcycle license data. In February 2015, their hard work finally paid off.
The rider was identified as a 57-year-old man from the city of Lyon, located roughly 150 kilometres west of Chervaline. He explained that he'd been in the Annecy region on the day of the shootings by accident. He was an enthusiastic paraglider and the particularly nice weather that day had inspired him to ride the hills above Lake Annecy to scope the area for potential paragliding spots.
He recalled having a brief encounter with the two forestry workers but said he left the area after they warned him about the restricted road. He hadn't noticed anything suspicious and hadn't been following the story of the murders in the media, so it never even occurred to him to come forward to clear himself as a witness. Police had no reason to doubt this man's story. He was a reputable businessman with a wife and children and no criminal record.
Nothing about him fit the profile of the killer, nor was there any evidence to link him to the crime. He was released without charge, with his name suppressed from the media. Identifying the motorcyclist after all this time was a significant development, but all it did was rule out the possibility that the motorcyclist was involved. If anything, it was a case of one step forward, two steps back.
As the years continued to pass with no breakthroughs, a new French prosecutor and lead British detective were eventually assigned to the case. They revisited the evidence from scratch in the hopes that fresh eyes might uncover new leads. The British team officially cleared Zayed Al-Hilly from their list of suspects. Zayed told the Channel 4 documentary Murder in the Alps that the whole falling out with his brother was, quote,
Zaid believes the investigation was thwarted from the beginning, and that French investigators were blindsided by racism. They didn't want the crime to have originated in their country, so they saw the Middle Eastern family as the perfect cover-up. Zaid told GQ magazine,
"To be honest with you, I don't think there was an investigation. I think this was a declaration of war against us. I think they hoped these Arabs would be terrorists or drug dealers. I think we were manna from heaven for them." The former lead investigator for the British team, Mark Preston, appeared on the same Channel 4 documentary to reveal some new information for the first time.
He said that just before the shootings, Sylvain Moliere's bicycle chain had come loose. Ballistic evidence indicated that Sylvain had been shot when he was slightly bent over. Preston hypothesised that the killer could have been hiding in some nearby trees and pulled the trigger when Sylvain stopped to check his bike chain. He stated:
"You don't need to be a seasoned investigator to realize that the person who is shot first, last, and most is not going to be the witness. It is going to be the intended target. To me, it was very clear the killer wanted Moliere dead. The French investigation team disputed this as it was scientifically impossible to determine the order in which the victims were shot.
By 2021, three French investigators continued to work on the case full-time. They trawled through the files, starting from scratch, to see if anything had been missed. A full reconstruction of the crime scene was done, complete with witnesses. In February, the new lead prosecutor, Lynne Bonnet, told Swiss reporters: "I think we're nearly there. We'll succeed thanks to scientific evidence. This is not a cold case at all."
Four months later, the unnamed motorcyclist who had previously been cleared from the investigation was placed under arrest. It's unclear if this was based on the revelation of any new evidence. The man was questioned in custody but released shortly after, with his lawyer stating, "...I hope that those guilty will be found and I hope my client will never be considered a suspect again."
This man's position is still the same - he did not cross paths with this poor family. According to some reports, he remains a suspect. With nothing to link either the Alhillies or Sylvain Moliere to the motive for the crime, the prevailing theory for French investigators is that the Annecy shootings were most likely a random attack committed by a lone gunman with no ties to the victims.
The unsolved case has piqued the interest of many online sleuths. They continue to discuss possible theories, including that the victims could have been targeted by one of several serial killers who were active around France and Switzerland. Investigators have considered this theory too, but ultimately ruled it out. Zainab and Zeena Al-Hilly are now teenagers and have since been given new identities.
In June 2022, British investigators interviewed Zainab one more time to see if she could offer any further insight almost a decade after the fact. According to Le Parisien newspaper, Zainab's recollection was now clearer. After arriving at Le Martinet, Zainab and Saad got out of the car. She remembered seeing Sylvain Moliere on his bicycle. As the rest of her family were about to get out, gunshots suddenly rang out.
Zainab's parents ordered her back into the vehicle, but as she tried to get back in, she was grabbed from behind. She first thought the person who grabbed her was her father, until she caught a glimpse of their bare hands and realised they were white. Zainab struggled but was unable to free herself from their grip. All she could remember before losing consciousness was that the killer was wearing long trousers and a leather jacket.
With the ongoing conjecture, many who have worked on the case describe it as one of the most difficult they've ever been involved with. As prosecutor Eric Mayu remarked to journalist Tom Parry, we have tried everything possible, but perhaps we're in the presence of the perfect crime.