Experts are looking into a gun found by tourists to see if it might have been used in the 2012 killing of a British family in the French Alps. The victims were Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife, Ikbal, 47, and her mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, who were shot dead on a road near Chevaline, a quiet Alpine village near Lake Annecy in eastern France. The couple’s two young daughters, then aged four and seven, survived the attack, but a passing cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, 45, was also killed. French prosecutor Marie-Céline Lawrysz confirmed that a pistol, believed to be a Luger, was discovered on August 20 by two British tourists swimming in Lake Annecy. The weapon is now being analyzed by ballistics experts in France as part of the ongoing investigation into the cold case. During the original investigation into the killings, fragments of the butt of the weapon used were found near the British-registered BMW estate car the family had been driving at the time. The gun was identified as a vintage Luger P06-29 pistol, a model used by the Swiss army in the 1930s. However, its owner has never been identified. Lawrysz said the tourists found the semi-automatic pistol at a depth of about five feet, several dozen meters from the shore. After keeping the weapon for 24 hours and researching its type online, the tourists linked it to the suspected weapon from the 2012 Chevaline killings. They handed the gun over to local gendarmes on August 21, 2026. Detectives have ruled out the possibility of a contract killing, noting that a professional killer would not have used such an old weapon. The discovery of the pistol is the latest development in a long series of leads that have been pursued in an effort to solve the case. Previous suspects include an Iraqi prisoner known only as Mr. S, who reportedly claimed he was offered money to kill Iraqis in the UK. Zaid al-Hilli, Saad’s brother, was also arrested in 2013 on suspicion of murder but was later told there was not enough evidence to charge him. In 2022, another suspect was questioned but released without charges. In 2022, French cold case detectives ordered DNA analysis on the victims’ clothing, as well as on the gun fragments and cigarette butts found at the crime scene. However, no arrests were made following the tests. Despite multiple investigations and new leads, the case remains unsolved, and the identity of the person or people responsible for the killings has never been determined.