the times | Thursday January 13 2022 2GM 17
News
potential primary target because of his
involvement in a family dispute, having
fathered a child with an heiress 16 years
his junior, and his specialist work in the
nuclear industry.
Zaid al-Hilli was arrested for
conspiracy to murder in 2013 but was
later told he would face no further
action after police found there was
insufficient evidence to charge him
with a crime. He said that his nieces
knew about developments in the
investigation but were focusing on
rebuilding their lives.
The man arrested at 8am yesterday is
from Lyons, about 70 miles from Lake
Annecy, where the al-Hillis were killed.
In March 2015 prosecutors said the
motorcyclist had been identified as an
innocent businessman from Lyons whoHunt for the killer
June 24, 2013 Saad al-Hilli’s brother
Zaid is held on suspicion of
conspiracy to commit murder but is
later released.
February 18, 2014 Eric
Devouassoux, an ex-police officer, is
arrested but not charged.
March 6, 2015 A motorcyclist seen
close to the scene is ruled out of the
inquiry as an innocent passer-by.
May 2015 The prime suspect is
named as Patrice Menegaldo, who
had killed himself the previous year.
September 5, 2017 Police say they
have ruled out all possibilities
except a random killer.had been in the mountains paragliding.
French media reported at the time that
the motorcyclist’s profile “95 per cent
excludes him from the list of suspects”
but that “further verifications” had to
be carried out.
The al-Hillis, from Claygate, Surrey,
had travelled to France for a camping
trip. The murders have given rise to
numerous lines of inquiry. One was
that the family was targeted by a profes-
sional killer because of the father’s busi-
ness interests, or because of a dispute
relating to assets in Iraq. A second was
that they had fallen victim to a random
killing, possibly by a local person.
One of the few facts made public was
that the killer had used a Luger PO
7.65 pistol made for the Swiss army
between 1909 and 1947.US spelling
triggers first
Wo r d l e w a r
Jack BlackburnA popular online word game did no
favour to Atlantic relations yesterday.
British players of Wordle were
incensed after the American spelling of
“favour” was revealed as the answer to
the daily puzzle. Mild-mannered users
of the game called for a “stewards’
inquiry” and more outraged players
described it as a diplomatic incident.
The game, which has exploded from
300,000 users in November to more
than two million last weekend, found
itself the subject of social media ire after
people started the day being told that
the word they had just failed to guess
was “favor” — note the American spell-
ing without the letter u.
In Wordle players have six guesses to
find a five-letter word. They are given
no initial clues. After each guess, the
game tells you if the letters you used are
in the word your looking for. If they are,
they flash up yellow and if they are in
the right position they appear green.
In a rare moment of unity, Australian
users joined Britons in their horror at
the missing vowel, while yet more dis-
cord arose when Americans started re-
ferring to English as “British English”.
The historian Guy Walters branded
the incident “a disgrace” and the BBC
sports commentator Andrew Cotter
referred to the puzzle as “Wourdle ”.
The anger was perhaps all the more
intense because the designer of the
game is British. Josh Wardle, Welsh
born, lives in Brooklyn and has admit-
ted to being overwhelmed by the
success of his creation. He built it for his
partner, who is a fan of puzzles, and
they used to play it together on the sofa.
“It going viral doesn’t feel great to be
honest,” he told The Guardian. “I feel a
sense of responsibility for the players.”
On the other hand, he has been
touched by messages from people say-
ing that the game has helped them keep
in touch with family and friends.
There is no word as to whether he is
planning to monetise his creation.
“I need to be really thoughtful,” he
said. “If I do make any changes, I would
like to think they are changes I would
have made even if it was just [my part-
ner and me] playing.”
Our American cousins enrich our common
tongue, leading article, page 31Motorcyclist held over murder
of British family in the Alps
Adam Sage Paris
David Brown
The brother of a British businessman
who was shot dead alongside his wife
and mother-in-law in the French Alps
hopes that an arrest made yesterday
will solve the mystery of the murders.
Zaid al-Hilli, 61, was speaking after a
breakthrough in the investigation into
the killings in September 2012 of Saad
al-Hilli, 50, his dentist wife, Iqbal, 47,
and Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, who were
killed in their BMW car. The couple’s
daughters, aged four and seven, survived
the attack in which a French cyclist,
Sylvain Mollier, 45, was also killed.
Last night the arrested suspect was
confirmed to be the motorcyclist seen
close to the scene of the shootings.
The suspect had previously been in-
terrogated by police but insisted he had
an alibi for being in the mountains, his
lawyer said. Jean-Christophe Basson-
Larbi told France 3 television: “The
position of this man is still the same —
‘I went to this region for a precise rea-
son’. The weather was good and he took
some roads that he didn’t know because
he didn’t use a satnav. He perhaps
crossed the paths of some motorists but
he didn’t cross the path of this poor
family [the al-Hillis].”
Le Parisien reported that the motor-
cyclist had been brought to the scene of
the crime during a reconstruction of
the killings. The newspaper said police
had uncovered “incoherences” in the
account of the motorcyclist at that time.
Basson-Larbi said his client was “in
the middle of a nightmare” and accused
investigators of “fabricating’’ a case. In
a potentially significant development
last night, a magistrate agreed to extend
the suspect’s custody period.
Saad al-Hilli’s brother said: “I hope
this helps finally solve who murdered
my brother and his family. I believe
Sylvain Mollier was the target. I think
my brother and his family were killed to
cover up the real target.
“The French authorities said at the
start they believed the answer lay in the
UK so they ignored the evidence in
France. I hope they’re now following up
the clues that have always been there.”
Mollier had been investigated as the
DOUG SEEBURG/THE SUN; PETER NICHOLLS FOR THE TIMESSaad al-Hilli was on a camping holiday
with his family when they were shot.
Below, police searching the sceneAnnecyChevalineFive milesLe Solitaire
du Lac
campsite
Four people
found dead
in a lay-by