Experts are currently examining a gun found by tourists in Lake Annecy to determine if it might have been used in the 2012 killings of a British family and a passing cyclist in the French Alps.
The French prosecutor, Marie-Céline Lawrysz, confirmed that a pistol, believed to be a Luger, was discovered on 20 August by two tourists swimming in the lake. The weapon is now undergoing analysis by ballistics experts in France in connection with the unsolved al-Hilli case.
Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife Ikbal, 47, and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were shot dead on a road near Annecy in September 2012. A 45-year-old cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, was also killed. The al-Hilli couple's two young daughters, then aged four and seven, survived the attack.
During the initial investigation, pieces from the butt of the weapon used in the killings, identified as a vintage Luger P06-29 pistol, were found near the family's British-registered BMW estate car. The gun was identified as a model used by the Swiss army in the 1930s, but its owner has never been traced.
Lawrysz stated that the semi-automatic pistol was found by the tourists, reported to be British, at a depth of about five feet, a few dozen metres from the shore. The tourists kept the weapon for 24 hours, conducted online research, and subsequently linked it to the 2012 Chevaline killing before handing it over to gendarmes on 21 August 2026.