Fyra ihjälskjutna i brittisk bil vid fransk sjö (2012-09-05)

As police launched an international manhunt for the assassin, it emerged that:
■ British intelligence officers were sent to the scene within hours as they urgently re-examined their files on Baghdad-born Mr Al-Hilli;
■ Neighbours said he was grappling with a 'problem' and went on holiday despite Zainab missing the start of the school term;
■ A friend of Mr Al-Hilli spoke of a rumbling inheritance dispute within the family;
■ Police said clinical shots to the centre of the foreheads bore the hallmarks of a professional assassination.

Mr Al-Hilli lived with his 47-year-old wife and daughters in a £1million home in Claygate, Surrey.
He earned up to £28 an hour as a freelance engineer and his CV reveals he worked on projects including designing a 'plasma generator' for a company called Surrey NanoSystems Ltd.
Before that he helped design a satellite for Surrey Satellite Technology, based in Guildford, and ten years ago he worked for another company engineering parts for the 'aircraft, military and medical industries'.
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It is understood that Mr Al-Hilli has been known to British intelligence officials for around 20 years.
In 2003, during the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq, officers working with the intelligence services mounted a surveillance operation on his home for several weeks, a neighbour who hosted them told the Mail.
The internet is awash with speculation – impossible to verify – that Mr Al-Hilli may have been working in some capacity in the spy world. He arrived in Britain in the late 1970s and was educated to degree level.
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Intelligence officers from the British Embassy in Paris are said to have been at the scene of the murder hours after it happened at 4pm (3pm UK time) on Wednesday.
They were tipped off by contacts in the French Interior Ministry as soon as the identity of the car's owner was confirmed. According to the French TV station Demain, locals described embassy staff as being 'military type' and numbering around 20.

A family friend, Zaid Alabdi, 48, said there was a row centred around money and properties in the UK, Spain and France following the death of Mr Al-Hilli's father a year ago.
'They're a lovely family who worked hard and had no enemies. This may well not be relevant but it is the only problem I can think of in their lives.'

James Matthews, 53, describes himself as Saad al-Hilli's friend and said that he'd come down to Claygate to dispel some rumours that had cropped up about the Hillis.

Matthews, who currently lives in Kingston-upon-Thames, said the two had met through their children, who had gone to playgroup together.

Hilli was a British engineer who had lived in the well-heeled Surrey village for over 20 years, said Matthews. This length of residency was confirmed by a local shopkeeper, who said that the Iraqi-born engineer had been a customer of his since his shop opened 21 years ago.

Matthews said that although he was born in Iraq, he'd gone to school in Pimlico in London, and had gone on to become a computer aided design (CAD) engineer.

He said Hiili had worked for the firm Surrey Satellites, adding: “I knew he worked on [designing] the kitchen of the European Airbus.”

Matthews said his friend would holiday in France or sometimes in a nearby camp site. “He'd just get in the caravan and go ten miles down the road.”

He described Hilli as a very loving father, and said his wife was born in Baghdad. Matthew believed that she had worked in dentistry in Abu Dhabi at some point.

Matthews said he had talked to the police but didn't want to comment on what he'd told them. “I think if there had been something bubbling up like that [a conspiracy] I would have known about it.”

The two, he said, had spent time together during their free-time between work as engineers. He said that Hilli had helped him fix his car to pass its MOT and that they had both built the workshop in Hilli's garden.

“He'd have an idea and then design it,” Matthews said. “He designed a trailer for his tandem so he could tow both his kids."