3 people shot dead in british registered car, near Lake Annecy in France

[RedBeret]

Unbelievable. such a beautiful and peaceful area.

here, so sad

Until the French authorities release information from the post mortem, we cannot know the detail of the deaths.

And I think "whisperings" should also be ignored, as Le Monde reports that at least half an hour between the overtaking and the discovery by the other cyclist, an official account is not available, and insinuations about involvement seem just plain wrong at this stage.

Really Tired - from the sounds of it the bullet holes in the heads were fairly conclusive :(

It is a really horrible thing to happen to anyone. Ghastly. And the poor bloke who was just happening to cycle by... And the chap who found them, too. It must be hideous.

Yes, the failure to check the car for any survivors was incompetent, especially as the cyclist found one child outside so it was a possibility that there might be another. It'd be a bit Inspector Clouseau if it weren't so serious.

A quick check of t'internet shows I'm not the only onw who thinks this bears the hallmarks of Mossad....

However, I can't see how the British cyclist could have been involved as he saved the 7 yr old's life, surely he wouldn't have wanted her to live? Also, why would he have called the police? I guess he could have been one of the "good guys" trying to stop it but then surely he wouldn't have been on a bicycle - unless he was in disguise???

It really is more perplexing than a badly written movie. We need the Bletchley Circle to solve this one!

Personally, I find it very upsetting as the girls are the exact same ages as my two and I keep thinking about how that little one should be starting school - now her parents will never get that opportunity to wave her off on her first day

So, the French cyclist overtook the British cyclist?
Then either the French cyclist witnessed the attack of the British family or vice versa.
The positioning of the British car looks like it was reversing back to turn round and head rapidly the other way to me. So wonder if they came acroos the french cyclist being shot and tried to get away. Anyone who was a hitman, on a job, would surely know the numbers of the people in the car. i.e a family of 5 people. If they had known the family were on holiday.
None of it makes sense, cos they are unlikely to have been parted from the children at any stage of the holiday.

Glad they have some family coming over, I hope it's someone close to them not some distant aunty they don't really know-although I guess at this stage any familiar friendly English face would be welcome.

Poor little girls

I think the idea of having a teacher or someone who knew them well coming over is a good one, at least that way it would be someone they felt able to talk to and someone "safe" as far as the police are concerned...(although if this really were a movie/drama series, that teacher would then turn out to be part of it...)

Is it their teacher? No relatives?

This gets more & more odd.

all this speculation about "what if" is just horrible.

I had read somewhere that the police had gone over the car with heat-seeking equipment but hadn't found the little girl who was hiding underneath her mum. it's very easy for us to sit here and say "oh x should have done y and z" but in truth we none of us know any of the details other than what we've read in the press.

The fact that this has happened at all is tragic beyond words. However on some levels the thought of it being a planned attack, while no less awful for the people involved, is perhaps preferable to the idea that there are gunmen travelling around the french countryside who are prepared to randomly murder innocent passers by. I don't imagine the residents of the camp sight are sleeping very easily atm.

bossybritches - sorry, no, it was just a comment someone made further down the thread before it was announced family had come forward. I think it would be better for the girls to see an adult they knew well and trusted than some distant relative. At the moment the French police say they don't even know which of the couple that have come to see the girls is directly related to them. Or at least that was what I read this morning. Anyway, hopefully they will have someone with them they know well.

Is see stranded yes agree a familar face would be conforting.

On the 3pom news it said they were searching their home for clues.

wannabe unfortunately you can't stop speculation, I think too the plight of the 2 little ones in all this and the thoughts of "what if" are because it seems close to home, seemingly random killings of family holidaying in well known ourist spot .....

according to bbc breaking news on twitter french prosecutor says that all four were shot twice in the head. That sounds like an execution tbh not a random shooting.

Oh god yes you're right wannabe how chilling......there's got to be more to the quiet family man image then. Maybe he was a spook?

You'd have thought though that a paid hitman would know how many he had on his list?

Even more worrying for the little ones then as they are going to have to be guarded poor loves.

But who could afford a hit man to kill an entire family? Why have them killed during a holiday rather than in the UK? Surely that's really difficult to arrange.

"But who could afford a hit man to kill an entire family? Why have them killed during a holiday rather than in the UK? Surely that's really difficult to arrange?" Well, arranging a hit in this country would be more likely to draw attention to the possible suspects than say, abroad where there is known to be robberts etc.. if you made it look like a robbery on a deserted road in a foreign country more chance of getting away with it.

As for money, obviously there are people who do have that kind of money or the kinds of people who do those kinds of jobs wouldn't exist.

I've wondered from the beginning if the target was the French cyclist and the family were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Oh you're right wannabe, I suppose I was thinking of the brother. If the feud is over money then would he be able to afford a hit man? (I have no idea how much they'd cost).

I could understand the family stumbling across something happening with the cyclist more easily.

Although that maybe that's just that I'd rather believe the family were in the wrong place/wrong time rather than specifically targeted.

Just heard on the news that the police are going to question the father's brother. I do hope it's not some sort of family dispute that's escalated to such a tragic level.

It seems a bizarre outcome but I did think it was odd that the brother went to the police station when he heard about the shooting beore there were any names mentioned.

I don't if you have family that fit the description in that area where would you go on hearing the news?The police would be my first port of call.

Maybe the whole family could potentially be targets, if it's professionals (and particularly an organisation like Mossad) involved? Maybe the brother went for information and to seek help too???

Personally the fact that the cold-blooded executions have been carried out abroad would lend credence to the idea of some type of secret service involvement....

Maybe the family were there on holiday for a reason - maybe they thought they would be safe, high up in the mountains in the middle of nowhere in France???

The police will be pursuing investigations into the background and activities of all those in the car, trying to make sense of what is such a bizarre and horrendous crime. They aren't releasing details of when each individual came forward, so speculation on sequence of events could be totally misplaced, and even if there were family feuds about an inheritance that doesn't mean they spilled out into bloodshed of this kind.

And they may be investigating one line hard and early simply to ensure that those family members (relationship not described) they introduce to the children at this stage are so unlikely to be connected to the crime as to remove the possibility that they then compound the distress for the children by having to arrest those who are caring for them in the aftermath.

Though I suppose it's human nature to hope that there is a reason why this family (because of a fact or within this family or that of the cyclist, or discovering a reason for 'wrong place wrong time') because otherwise it means we are left with the chilling possibility at there is a person (or people) on the loose who are shooting up cars at random.

I'm assuming the car had a child sear and a booster at least in the back for the two girls. Did the police not look and wonder who the other seat was for? I assume the older child wasn't able to speak at that stage. Those poor kids - I hope they have family with them now, but these have a question mark over them now, don't they? Have they identified the older woman yet? They didn't seem 100% earlier who she was.

It sounds like a plot from some movie, doesn't it? The french police must be under pressure to look for 'sinister' causes rather than a botched carjack - tourism will be in their minds. I suspect this is one of those crimes that they won't ever get to the bottom of satisfactorily. There will be conspracy theories for years.

Frontpaw - I agree, I fear we will never know what happened, especially if secret services are involved.
It has also occured to me that we all think the target was the father, Maybe it was actually the Swedish woman thought to be the grandmother - we don't know who she was. Or the mother. Perhaps she's a spy - who knows!

It sees the two sides of the family are getting together to plan the girls future, I hope they don't fight over who gets guardianship.

Totally off topic but it reminds me that we should all have clear instructions in place for care of our DC's if something tragic happens resulting in both parents dying -plain old car crash for example- so that the wider family & authorities know what was wanted.

Not something any if us want to contemplate but......

This is so sad :(

With regards to BMWs, old models dont automatically lock the doors. My 08 mini does when the car reaches 10mph.

Some of the words the four year old is said to have used - like fear and terror - bother me. She was so young.