The same type of gun used in the murder of a British family on holiday in the Alps was found at the home of an ex-policeman arrested as a suspect, it emerged today.
Eric Devouassoux, 48, was held yesterday by police investigating the killing of Surrey engineer Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal, 47, and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, 74. They were all shot dead as they sat in their BMW.
French cyclist Sylvain Mollier, 45, who is thought to have come across the murder scene, was also killed on the remote forest road near Lake Annecy in September 2012.
Searches of two properties linked to father-of-three Devouassoux produced more than 10 weapons including a pistol similar to the 7.65mm Luger P06 used in the bloodbath.
The handgun found in Devouassoux’s house in the village of Talloires is a different calibre. But detectives said a user’s manual of the P06 type, which was widely used by the Swiss army in the 1920s and 30s, was found. Devouassoux, who was sacked from the police last June for misconduct, was identified as a suspect because he looks like a man on a motorbike spotted at the scene. The property is less than two miles from the site of the murders.
A “light grey motorbike” was removed from his property by police, who were seen digging up the garden and using metal detectors.
Devouassoux is a trained marksman, an amateur gun collector, and an enthusiastic hunter, who “knows the mountains inside out,” said a police source.
The al-Hilli’s daughters, Zainab, then aged seven, and Zeena, four at the time, survived the attack. Zainab was shot and clubbed and Zeena escaped by hiding under her dead mother’s skirts for several hours. It is claimed that mobile phone data indicates Devouassoux was close to the scene.
Until now, the focus of the inquiry has been on the al-Hilli family being the principal target of the attack. Their caravan was at a nearby campsite.
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Mr al-Hilli’s brother, Zaid al-Hilli, 54, was arrested in Britain, mainly because he was involved in a dispute over a will. But Zaid, who has a cast iron alibi, has now been cleared by Surrey police and last night spoke of his delight that the Anglo-French investigation was finally moving away from him.
“Yes I am happy, but I don’t know anything about it, apart from what I read in the papers,” he said from his home in Chessington.
Mr al-Hilli is convinced that cyclist Mr Mollier was the main target and the family murdered because the gunman feared they could identify him.
French prosecutor Eric Maillaud said that more arrests are likely in France.
