Police traced biker last month and say he has no connection to 2012 killings of Briton Saad al-Hilli, his wife and mother-in-law

A motorcyclist sought in connection with the murders of three members of a British family in the French Alps has been ruled out of the inquiry, according to reports, leaving police apparently no closer to a breakthrough more than two years after the killings.

Detectives had attempted to trace the biker since he was seen near the spot where engineer Saad al-Hilli, his wife Ikbal and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, were gunned down on a forest road in Chevaline in September 2012.

French media reported on Friday that the motorcyclist was finally traced last month. However, authorities have said the man, from Lyon, had no connection to the attack and was in the area “by accident”, according to France Info.

He was interviewed by detectives from Chambery and told them he had come to Chevaline to practice his passion for paragliding, the radio station said.

The motorcyclist was said to have been riding on the Combe d’Ire road around 3pm before he was stopped by two forest rangers who asked him to leave. He agreed, riding back down the path past the car park where the al-Hilli family and a cyclist were gunned down.

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According to sources close to the investigation, the man has not given any information that could lead to new witnesses. “His personal and professional profile exclude him 95% from the list of suspects but further inquiries are still required,” an investigator told France Info.

The motorcyclist said he did not “make the connection” between his presence near the scene of the killing and the identikit picture of him that was circulated in November 2013.

Friday’s reports are the latest twist in a mysterious case that has proved elusive to investigators on both sides of the Channel. Last year, detectives revealed that Mrs al-Hilli was previously married to a man who died on the same day as the shootings, although they stressed they were not connecting the deaths.

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It also emerged that police had questioned a 35-year-old Iraqi man following a tipoff from a former jailmate. The man, identified as Mr S, was traced following claims he once told a fellow prisoner he had been offered “a large sum of money” to kill Iraqis living in the UK. He was released without charge after it was established he was not in France on the day of the killings and there was no evidence linking him to the Hilli family.



Saad al-Hilli’s brother Zaid was arrested on suspicion of murder in June 2013 but was told in January last year that he would face no further action after police found there was insufficient evidence to charge him with a crime. In February last year a 48-year-old man was arrested and later released after investigators found no direct link between him and the killings.

The bodies of Iraqi-born Saad al-Hilli and his dentist wife Ikbal, who lived in Claygate, Surrey, were discovered along with that of Ikbal’s mother in their BMW on a remote forest route by cyclist Brett Martin. The couple’s two young daughters survived the attack, while a local cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, was murdered.

A spokesman for Surrey police said the force was continuing to provide support to the French investigation. He added: “As part of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which was established following the deaths, officers from the Surrey and Sussex major crime team have worked closely with the French authorities to progress a number of lines of inquiry in the UK.

“This is a complex inquiry, however Surrey police remains committed to helping find answers to what happened and continuing to assist the French investigation wherever possible.”