TWO British divers were exploring the murky but beautiful waters of France’s Lake Annecy when they spotted something strange lurking in a crevice deep below.
What they discovered could help finally solve an infamous cold case and bring justice to two grieving Brit orphans who watched as their parents and grandmother were shot dead before their eyes.
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It is almost 14 years to the day since a quiet mountain camping site became a grisly crime scene – the haunting location of what became known as the Alps Murders.
British-Iraqi engineer Saad Al-Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal Al-Hilli, 47, and her mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were shot dead.
The Al-Hilli’s seven-year-old daughter Zainab was shot in the shoulder and beaten around the head with the same gun that had just slain her family.
Her sister Zeena, four, escaped by staying silent in the back of the family’s BMW what was parked in an isolated spot near the Alpine town of Chevaline on September 5, 2012.
Local French cyclist Sylvian Mollier, 45, was also found dead alongside the Al-Hilli family.
Hand-grip fragments of a pistol, specifically a Luger PO6/29 Parabellum 7.65, were found at the scene, leading forensics experts to conclude that it was the weapon used in the horrifying – and mysterious – mass murder.
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And in a bombshell twist, it emerged this week that tourist divers discovered exactly the same kind of rare Swiss Army sidearm at the bottom of Lake Annecy, which at its deepest is 269ft.
Now, The Sun can reveal that detectives are also set to re-interview a person of interest in connection with the notorious cold case.
A mysterious Danish man – who is not being named publicly – was traced to the area through his mobile phone signals.
And he was also linked to the scene of another brutal murder a year earlier using the same tracking technology.
An enquiry source told The Sun: “He was spoken to in the years after the murders, and claimed to be a routine holidaymaker enjoying the countryside.
“This does not mean he has been cleared – he is certainly still viewed as a mysterious Dane.
“What we can now say is that, following extensive enquiries, he will now certainly be re-interviewed.”
Forensics experts are currently examining the rusting firearm to try and establish a match with fragments of the murder weapon.
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Alps murder mystery timeline
September 5, 2012: Saad al-Hilli, Iqbal Al-Hilli, 47, Suhaila al-Allaf, 74 and Sylvain Mollier, 45 are all killed in a shooting in the French Alps. The al-Hilli’s two young daughters survive the attack.
September 14, 2012: The al-Hilli’s elder daughter, who suffered injuries in the attack, returns to the UK.
September 22, 2012: British and French police join forces to solve the case amid a lack of progress.
June 2013: A 54-year-old man widely reported to be Zaid al-Hilli, Saad’s brother, is arrested in connection with the attack. He is later released without charge and strongly maintains his innocence.
September 2017: French police admit to having ‘no working theory’ on the case and no suspects after five years of investigation.
January 2022: Nearly 10 years on, an unidentified man is arrested for the murders. He is later released without charge.
June 2022: Channel 4 airs a three-part true crime documentary on the killings titled Murder in the Alps.
May 2024: A French cold case unit orders the ‘unsealing of the fragments’ of the alleged murder weapon for further DNA testing
February 2025: Police narrow down profile of suspect, and believe they were a special forces soldier
It had been found by the two British tourist divers, who scooped the rusty relic out of a 6.5ft deep section of Lake Annecy by complete chance, before alerting authorities.
The lake sits near to the Solitaire du Lac – which chillingly translates to The Lake Loner – camping site where the Al-Hilli family were staying before their murders.
Investigators are looking into if the Luger could be linked to the Dane, who checked out of the same site, by the small town of Saint-Jorioz, on the day of the shootings.
Magistrates from France’s specialist cold case unit, the PCSNE, had grilled the Dane at length in the years after the Alps murders.
He never faced charges due to a lack of any usable evidence tying him to the tragedy.
A shock revelation from the investigations found the Dane stayed at another local campsite a year earlier – where another murder also took place.
In 2011, a 29-year-old Belgian laboratory technician called Xavier Baligant was shot dead at a motorway service station while his two young children slept in his car after a camping holiday.
The weapon used was another Swiss Army antique – this time a Schmidt-Rubin K31 rifle.
The slaying of the Al-Hilli family and Xavier had several other chilling similarities too.
The assassin executed his victims using a “double tap” technique favoured by special forces, a ballistics investigation revealed.
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This involves shooting each victim once in the head, and then following up with a second, downward shot in the same area to ensure a fatality.
Another investigating source said: “It’s a ruthlessly professional technique, and not many people beyond highly trained professionals know how to do it.
“Add the facts that both attacks were on tourists visiting France, and that children were involved in both cases, which involved very old Swiss military weapons, and there are certainly common threads.”
In the case of the Al-Hilli family, digital records obtained from their campsite confirm that the Dane checked in on September 3, and left on September 5 – the day of their deaths.
The Dane has strongly denied involvement in any of the murders despite his mobile phone records placing him close to them all.
He told the cold case specialists that this was “a matter of pure coincidence” and that he was a regular Scandinavian holidaymaker.
The Al-Hillis, of Claygate, Surrey, originally came from Iraq, and one theory was that their links to the regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein may have been a reason for their murders.
There were also claims that Saad was involved in a dispute over a family inheritance, but this has been discounted because of a complete lack of evidence.
Another theory is that the main target was the French cyclist, and that the Al-Hilli family ended up as collateral damage.
Sylvian Mollier was the first victim shot, suggesting somebody may have been lying in wait for him, before the Al-Hillis appeared by chance.
The investigation into the Alps murders continues.
Detectives hope the forensic results from the examination of the pistol found in Lake Annecy will be available by the end of September.
They, and the surviving Al-Hilli family, will hope it could finally be the beginning of the end of the Alps Murders mystery.