France - Five shot, four dead in French Alps, may have int'l ramifications #1

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There was also something 3-10yrs ago in the same area,same sort of thing i think,ill try do search and find it..
 
wfgodot,the murders im talking about may be the same as youve mentioned above but i could swear it was more recent.It was on either a BBC or SKY news report earlier and it was the reporter that mentioned it..
 
I find it astonishing that the French gendarmes took 8 hours to even open the doors to the car. Granted, they wouldn't want to be too hasty, and would want the photographers and forensics there, but heck....8 hours!

It was found with the engine running, did they just let it carry on running?

The UK neighbour was just on the BBC 10.00pm news, I just caught the end of it, but the gist was that from knowing them for quite a while, he had no reason to believe that race/skin colour/religion played a part in this.

My thoughts are maybe not in the UK, but there could be payback for previous Muslim extremists going on killing sprees in France, but again this does not make sense, as it seemed so planned. It's easy to target a sitting duck, but a random family touring south east France???

I think the family were either targeted from afar (ie, history they have kept quiet about, and thought they had escaped), and catching them unaware and vulnerable on holiday would be far easier than doing so in the UK.

Sorry to the French Police, but they seem a lot more laissez faire than other Law Enforcement agencies, but it is a relatively free of crime of this nature, so maybe they are just not geared up on how to deal. Saying that, UK Police could have been deployed and arrived in the area within 2 hours, but the French gendarmes would not have wanted the Brits taking over the case.
 
I was going to stay out of this one since I know nothing about the area, or much else that's useful, but some things about it make it hard for me to leave it alone. It almost feels like they may have known the person/people who did it, but at the very least, they knew something was about to happen. I really hope the older girl will eventually be able to help clear things up, but it's hard to tell how much she'll remember with such a severe head injury.

The image I get of what happened is: a car blocks them so they have to stop, the parents see the "men", lock the doors and tell the girls to hide. The little one gets under her mother's legs/skirt, but the older one tries to run to find a place to hide. She is shot once she's out of the car, and falls to the ground, possibly knocking the door shut as she falls. The men approach the vehicle, and she is hit in the head because she's still alive and conscious. Because she's knocked out and the sound of fracturing her skull made it sound like a deadly blow, no more attention is paid to her. They then start shooting the 3 adults in the car until they're sure they're dead. I'm unclear about where the cyclist was found, so I'll just say that he either showed up before they got back to their car, or they passed him immediately after leaving the scene.

I don't believe it was a robbery since the doors were still locked. If they were going to kill the witness, why not at least grab something to make it worth it. Even more so if they hadn't even seen the cyclist yet. I most recently read that every shot hit one of the victims, which seems like a bit of overkill for a simple robbery. It also seems like they knew immediately that something was going to happen if the 4 year-old was able to hide completely before the men even had a glimpse of her. Since they did attack the 7 year-old, I think they would have at least tried to find the 4 year-old too if they had seen her.

Forensics officers found 15 spent bullet casings from at least one automatic weapon, and all of the bullets appeared to have found their targets, adding to the impression that the murders were the work of a “professional”, police said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9527036/Family-feud-may-have-led-to-executions-in-the-Alps.html

I know a lot of people don't see it as something a professional hit man would do, but even the most efficient of them had a "first time" and may not have chosen the most practical/efficient methods. MOO
 
And at this link,with a picture of the car,saying a family fued may be to blame?,that wouldnt surprise me,we had something similar happen between 2 brothers here..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...d-may-have-led-to-executions-in-the-Alps.html
Looking at the car it looks as though it reversed into where it is,hit the bank at the rear and the driver kept the throttle open as the rear wheel has sunk into the ground from the wheels spinning.
Im guessing he seen the gunman and reversed to get away,or was shot whilst reversing and thats why throttle stuck open.
 
Huge story, dominating many front pages; headlines, from Sky:

Sun: 'Where's mummy?' Plea of girl, 4, as family 'executed'

Independent: The horror and mystery of the Annency killings

Guardian: Girl left for eight hours in car with murdered family

Telegraph: Family feud may have led to execution in the Alps

Mirror: 'I'm scared': massacre victim told friend of worry before trip

Express: British family were executed

i: British Alps victims were shot in head

Mail: Executed: 3 members of British family each killed by single shot to head

Star: Executed: Alps hitman shot 3 members of British family in head at point-blank
 
The more I learn about this the more on the fence I get! I'm still not sure about a professional hit though, why would the whole family be targeted? Not that it isn't possible of course, I just think a professional hit would be about the dad most likely. Then again, I guess hitmen don't care much about life so killing an entire family to get one target probably wouldn't be anything to them. I do think this family was targeted now, rather than some kind of robbery gone wrong. It doesn't seem "messy" enough (as horrible as it is to say) to be a panicked killing IMO anymore. But what about the beating of the daughter? That throws me off.
 
Fascinating case, I'm addicted to it already.
Seems too extreme to be a robbery.
Answers I'd really like, was there no one in passenger seat because the 7 year old had been there.
I don't see her jumping out of car while shooting was happening, had they stopped because she was carsick or needed to go to bathroom.
Could there have been a sixth person in the car.
Would love to know what the father was worried about, according to the neighbour.
 
Any possibility the cyclist was the target, and this family was in the wrong place/wrong time, witnessed something, and were killed?

My condolences to all...what a horrific thing, any way you look at it.

Best-
Herding Cats
 
The position of the vehicle reminds me of the murder of the Iranian exile in Houston this January (Gelareh Bagherzadeh). She was ambushed near her home but her car was found pointing away from her house. I think in both cases the road was blocked somehow. In both cases, the victims were killed in their vehicles with single gunshots to the head. Both vehicles found with engines running. Not only is it a similar m.o., it might be the same assassin(s). In addition, Bagherzadeh had spent time in Paris, where Iran has a strong presence (http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/05/justice/texas-iranian-student-killing/index.html).
 
Any possibility the cyclist was the target, and this family was in the wrong place/wrong time, witnessed something, and were killed?

My condolences to all...what a horrific thing, any way you look at it.

Best-
Herding Cats

Interesting Herding Cats, that thought hadn't crossed my mind one bit! I know one theory also floating around is that they stumbled onto a drug deal or something for which they were silenced. Putting all of them in the wrong place at the wrong time :(. I don't know, if you look at the overhead pictures, it looks like he was reversing quickly as someone pointed out earlier( sorry I can't remember who exactly). The rear tire is dug into the dirt a bit like he was flooring it. So it seems like he either saw what was coming or knew the attacker(s) and had reason to know it was time to leave NOW. So awful, my heart breaks for these families and the terror they must have felt!
 
I saw it mentioned that the father has a brother. Has anyone found any comment from him yet, or any other member of his or his wife's family?
 
And at this link,with a picture of the car,saying a family fued may be to blame?,that wouldnt surprise me,we had something similar happen between 2 brothers here..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...d-may-have-led-to-executions-in-the-Alps.html
Looking at the car it looks as though it reversed into where it is,hit the bank at the rear and the driver kept the throttle open as the rear wheel has sunk into the ground from the wheels spinning.
Im guessing he seen the gunman and reversed to get away,or was shot whilst reversing and thats why throttle stuck open.
I'm leaning towards a family feud. Maybe something to do with money over the house. Seems he was worried about something to do with the house,
 
One linked article said the father earned 28 Pounds/Hour while they lived in a 1 Million Pound home. Something doesn't add up here unless he had money from other sources. This whole thing is looking more and more like he was targeted and you know, one other poster mentioned about them wanting to have it done in France without the maybe more apt British Police involved and it makes sense. Why not do it where there are few witnesses and it's out somewhere where the police don't have the experience. Good call.

What is up with the other family that they were supposedly camping with? And where is the bike that was on the roof as reported? I can see that they left their belongings at the campsite that day and were going out for a drive but then why were there travel bags in the car? The bikes would have been with them too or not? I'm confused. And why was he driving on that very deserted road? Did he know he was being followed? Crazy case, I find it creepy.
 
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