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French police admit they contaminated vital evidence at Alps massacre crime scene as investigators say case could remain unsolved

French police contaminated vital evidence from the Alpine beauty spot where four people including members of a British family were gunned down in cold blood, it emerged today.
It is the latest in a catalogue of disastrous blunders which have prompted senior investigators to admit that the case may never be solved.
Detectives initially thought ‘mystery DNA’ found at the site of the quadruple murder might lead to the identification of the killer.
It was found in the isolated layby near Lake Annecy where Saad Al-Hilli, 50, died alongside his wife Ikbal, 47, and his mother-in-law Suhalia Al-Allaf, 74, in their BMW car on September 5th.
Sylvain Mollier, a 45-year-old French cyclist was also killed in the bloodbath, which is believed to have been carried out by at least one gunman brandishing a pistol.

But Eric Maillaud, the Annecy prosecutor who is leading the enquiry, now admits that an ‘expert’ working for a police forensics team ‘accidentally contaminated’ crime-scene material with his own DNA.
Highlighting the confusion involved, Mr Maillaud has nevertheless ordered DNA samples to be taken from up to 100 police and emergency workers who visited the murder scene, to make sure their DNA is potentially not confused with the killer’s.
The unidentified officer said to have contaminated the scene is attached to the gendarmes’ national criminal research institute, the IRCGN, near Paris.
Officers from the same institution were involved in one of the first disasters of the investigation.
It saw Zeena Al-Hilli, the Al-Hilli’s four year old daughter, left inside the BMW for some eight hours because police failed to spot her among the carnage.
The little girl spent a terrifying night surrounded by dead bodies, including her mother’s, before IRCGN officers finally arrived the next morning to rescue the traumatised youngster.
Grim: The scene of murder in the forrest near Chevaline and Lake Annecy in the French Alps is pictured
Grim: The scene of murder in the forest near Chevaline and Lake Annecy in the French Alps is pictured
Investigation: A truck transports the Al-Hilli family car from the road following the shooting
Investigation: A truck transports the Al-Hilli family car from the road following the shooting
Zeena was physically unscathed in the attack, but her seven-year-old sister, Zainab, suffered head injuries after being pistol whipped, and was also shot in the shoulder.

One of the excuses given for the mistake of leaving Zeena inside the car was that police wanted to make sure that evidence around the crime scene was not contaminated.
 

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Both little girls are now in the hands of social services in the UK, close to their original family home in Claygate, Surrey, with surviving members of the Al-Hilli family only allowed limited access to them.

Despite seven months of enquiries, French police have not made a single arrest, and Mr Maillaud has publicly admitted the case ‘may never be solved’.
Murder: The Al Hilli family home in Claygate, Esher, Surrey is pictured
Murder: The Al Hilli family home in Claygate, Esher, Surrey is pictured
Prayers: Saad Al-Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal, 47, and her 74-year-old mother Suhaila Al-Allaf, was laid to rest in the same grave last week
Prayers: Saad Al-Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal, 47, and her 74-year-old mother Suhaila Al-Allaf, was laid to rest in the same grave in November
Mr Maillaud has failed to publicly identify a number of key witnesses who were in the area at the time of the shootings, and has even withheld a colour photograph of the Al-Hillis taken minutes before the attack.
This would have been released as a matter of routine in the UK, as a way of jogging the memories of people who might have seen them, or their killer.
Now Mr Maillaud insists that no ‘significant’ DNA clues were left at the scene, despite work on samples still being carried out by the IRCGN, and by Christian Doutremepuich, a professor who runs a state-of-the-art laboratory in Bordeaux, in south west France.

Evidence being analysed by the scientists include bullet cartridges left at the scene, and a pistol which mysteriously appeared to ‘break’ into pieces.

Earlier this month, the prosecutor was forced to ‘freeze’ plans to travel to Iraq to probe the Al-Hilli’s background in the country, because of ‘security reasons’.
News of the Iraq setback followed revelations that Saad's 53-year old brother Zaid was interviewed by French detectives for the first time at a location close to his home in Chessington, Surrey.

Zaid, who lived close to his brother’s house in Claygate,  has denied having any links whatsoever to the crime.
The contamination is believed to have happened at the IRCGN headquarters at Rosny-sous-Bois, north of Paris.
This is where most of the crucial evidence, including the Al-Hilli’s BMW, is still being analysed.
An ‘expert’ was examining a ‘ballistics sample’, thought to be a spent cartridge or part of the broken gun, said Mr Maillaud.
The officer ‘used his bare hands’ as he tried to analyse the evidence, leaving his DNA imprint.
This error was finally picked up when the sample was sent to Professor Doutremepuich’s laboratory in Bordeaux, said Mr Maillaud.

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