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

[Zuckerschnecke]

He came on the scene apparently very quickly after it all happened, so it's no surprise the perpetrators might think he saw more than is being published. He had also reported a car or a bike or something too, so who knows what else he told the police.

It breaks my heart to read about the little girl. I certainly hope this is not the case and that they are feeding it as if she is not to be worried about (from the perps standpoint.) There was no doubt those girls were not meant to live and I also fear for the little one. Don't disregard what the younger one may have seen and repeated, they also very quickly said she had no information but I have a four year old and they are very very observant and remember the strangest things. These girls need protection for the rest of their lives and I hope they get it.

 

[rotterdam]

He can't be that worried about being identified - he has just done a TV interview for the BBC

Does the BBC pay for interviews?

 

[Clio]

Does the BBC pay for interviews?

No idea. But it's the BBC not the Sun. Just watching the interview again. Not sure what to think. Amazed he's done this interview tbh

ETA: Actually, given that he's supposedly under police protection, puzzled why police allowed him to give the interview.....

 

[Skigh]

No idea. But it's the BBC not the Sun. Just watching the interview again. Not sure what to think. Amazed he's done this interview tbh

ETA: Actually, given that he's supposedly under police protection, puzzled why police allowed him to give the interview.....

Like you I am not quite sure what to think of this interview.

Just watched the full interview on bbc,Sky interview was cut short.

Early news reports this morning stated he was terrified and did not want his name revealed and now he is appearing on television.

 

[Elley Mae]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-09-13-08-49-59

When he discovered the al-Hillis' car, its engine was still revving and its wheels were spinning.
He said he saw the family's eldest daughter, now identified as 7-year-old Zaina, stumbling around in front of the vehicle covered in blood.

 

[wfgodot]

Sky article with about three minutes of the interview here.

AP article:

Journalists have also raised the possibility of a hate crime or a robbery gone wrong, but Maillaud told reporters at a Surrey police station the fact that the al-Hillis died in Annecy was just a twist of fate.

"The cause and the explanation are here," he said.

 

[rotterdam]

Sky article with about three minutes of the interview here.

AP article:

Darn, I have seen more emotion in somebody reading the weather report. Guess nerves of steel. All very strange IMO. Nothing about turning engine off. Just the remark, "while I was doing other things".

 

[Clio]

Darn, I have seen more emotion in somebody reading the weather report. Guess nerves of steel. All very strange IMO. Nothing about turning engine off. Just the remark, "while I was doing other things".

The bit about turning engine off is in video clip at this link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19587311

 

[graceholl]

I don't actually have any suspicions about this guy at all. I think what you see is what you get.

Maybe he knows more than he is being allowed to say from what he saw/heard, but was probably asked to do the interview to satisfy the media and stop more speculation. I doubt he is in much danger - Eric Maillaud has said Annecy was merely the scenery for the crime - the family were the targets, Sylvain Mollier an unlucky passer by (don't know what I think of that just yet), and if anyone is in danger now it is the two young girls. I think whoever the perp/s of the crime is/are are probably pretty peed off that this guy turned up so quickly - but obviously the attackers had made off pretty sharpish as he was only a few minutes behind Mollier.

 

[Waddles]

Darn, I have seen more emotion in somebody reading the weather report. Guess nerves of steel. All very strange IMO. Nothing about turning engine off. Just the remark, "while I was doing other things".

Indeed, but then he's had time to gather himself. He was said to be extremely shocked and distraught at first. It's also a British culture thing, stereotypical "stiff upper lip" and all that.

 

[graceholl]

Indeed, but then he's had time to gather himself. He was said to be extremely shocked and distraught at first. It's also a British culture thing, stereotypical "stiff upper lip" and all that.

Think I'd have been more concerned if he was falling apart about it actually.

 

[Waddles]

Lola68 speculated the other day about the killer(s) having chosen a secluded spot with no cell phone coverage and I had replied that was rare in France which is extremely well covered but that there were coverage variations in providers depending on the area. It would seem that it really was a question of having no coverage from what the RAF man says...But then it worked for the man he found who called emergency services.

 

[Clio]

Like you I am not quite sure what to think of this interview.

Just watched the full interview on bbc,Sky interview was cut short.

Early news reports this morning stated he was terrified and did not want his name revealed and now he is appearing on television.

I was surprised he gave a TV interview and have been thinking about why.

There was a point in the interview where he was asked if he would be able to identify who/how many people were in the car and who was riding the motorcycle which passed him coming down the hill whilst he was going up the hill before he got to the lay-by.

He said no - definitely not. The motorcyclist wore a helmet and he didn't see anything remarkable about the car and couldn't say whether there was one person or ten people in the car.

Maybe this is why he did the interview. To send a message.

I don't know who you are - I cannot identify you - I am not a threat

 

[wfgodot]

Daily Mail, going with the low-key (cough-cough) headline approach:

'There was a lot of blood and heads with bullet holes in them': British cyclist
speaks of horror at discovering bodies of family shot dead in French Alps

---
He recalled moving the cyclist Sylvain Mollier away from the vehicle. 'It seemed to me like he was probably dead,' Mr Martin said.

'I could not feel a pulse and the most obvious thing was the totally inanimate body.'
---
He said: 'I've never seen people who have been shot before... it seemed to me just like a Hollywood scene and if someone had said "cut" and everyone had walked away, that would have been it.'
---
Mr Martin said he began to fear the killer or killers could still be nearby and he began to scour the woods, concerned he could be shot as well.
---

the rest at link above

 

[wfgodot]

o/t If anyone cares to comment on the Hillsborough disaster and the recent calls for a new inquest, that thread is here:

[ame="http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=184594"]The truth: the Hillsborough 1989 association football disaster revisited[/ame]

 

[wfgodot]

Guardian coverage:

French Alps shootings: British cyclist describes scene of murders
Girl was 'stumbling' around bleeding and BMW's engine was still revving when Brett Martin came across scene of carnage

 

[Sillybilly]

http://news.sky.com/story/984702/alps-murders-witness-talks-of-awful-dilemma

Brett Martin found members of the al Hilli family shot dead in their car and their seven-year-old daughter collapsed at the side of the road ...

"As I got a little bit closer a very young child stumbled out into the road. At first I thought she was just playing with a sibling, she was falling over and larking about like a child would ...

He said that he left the child in the recovery position and went for help ...

So, she was either collapsed at the side of the road, or she was ambulatory ... which one was it? I'm inclined to believe his "quoted" words as opposed to the article's summary, but if his relating of the incident is factual(?), how does one take a child who is ambulatory and place them in the recovery position and expect they would stay still while you scoured the woods, went for help, etc.

Sorry folks .. I'm skeptical of the story, but possibly this guy's pic and story have been put out there as a decoy because his identity became public.

ETA: From the pic in the above article, it appears from the tire tracks that the vehicle spun out immediately before it became stuck in the sand. There are no other tire impressions in front of the vehicle that would indicate there was anything other than one quick reverse before getting stuck.

JMO

 

[jjenny]

I don't see anything inconsistent in that statement. I interpret it-when he first saw this girl she was ambulatory and then collapsed.

 

[Skigh]

The hiker, who called the emergency services, then saw seven-year-old Zainab al-Hilli lying in the recovery position just yards from the BMW, where the British cyclist had placed her.

Philippe D said: “She was lying down and motionless, but she didn’t looked bashed up. I could see no blood, one couldn’t see where she had been hurt. She was a few yards in front of the car. “She didn’t respond to our calls. I clapped my hands but she didn’t react. I even said a few words in English as I saw the car was registered in Great Britain. But nothing happened. For me, she was dead.”

Once the police and medics arrived, Phillipe D and the British cyclist were taken to the gendarmerie for questioning.

While the unidentified RAF officer told police that he had seen a dark green four-wheel drive vehicle and a motorbike coming down the hill shortly before he arrived on the scene, the French hiker said was “totally sure” he had “heard nothing and passed nobody – not a car or a motorbike”.


The hiker's version of events still contradict what Mr Brett Martin has said.

 

[joe jones]

Brett Martin sounded like he had a slight Australian accent to me, I watched interview from start to finish, I think his RAF training and being a pilot meant that he did not run round like a headless chicken but assessed the scene, assisted where he could and then got help,

he revealed much more information than was previously given out, when he got to scene the 7 year old was stumbling round and moaning, he moved her to a place away from road and not in front of her parents car as the engine was still running, put her in recovery position she was slipping in and out of conscious eventually becoming unconscious, he then went to front of car to check cyclist moved him out of way of car, went to drivers door/window had to smash window which had bullet holes in to get access to car to turn off engine,

no signal on his mobile, maybe it was his UK phone, went down hill and flagged down French people who called 911

this interview throws up many questions, did he try the car door/s before he smashed window, he did not say, if he did and all doors were locked when and how did 7 year old get out of car, she could not have got out and locked door behind her as keys were in ignition, if all doors to car were locked then 7 year old for some reason was outside car when attack occurred, attacker/s may have run out of bullets which is why she was beaten

this throws up another anomaly was she attacked after cyclist, as there were enough bullets to kill him not her, and she was the only one not shot in the head possibly showing she was moving too much for a clean shot