Mystery In The Details

By Thomas Sancton and Scott Macleod/Paris

The crash is part of popular legend now. The 13th pillar in the Alma tunnel has become a place of morbid pilgrimage: a way station in the re-enactment of Diana's life and death. But a thousand imponderables lie behind the tragic tale of that car accident on Aug. 31, 1997, that also killed her lover Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul. French authorities still have no clear answers to many vexing questions. They say they have definitively ruled out the possibility of a conspiracy, and now consider the crash an accident owing mainly to drunk driving, excessive speed and a dangerous stretch of road. Yet many of the key mysteries are far from solved--and some troubling facts have emerged. Among them: the hastily rented black Mercedes S-280 may have had serious mechanical failures; and driver Paul's blood, apart from a high alcohol content, showed an abnormally high--and yet unexplained--level of carbon monoxide. A summary of TIME's findings:

--THE MERCEDES The gendarmes' specialized research unit will hand over its technical report on the Mercedes in late September, and sources close to the investigation indicate that they have found no major problems. That is surprising, because certain items in the dossier, and the analysis of outside experts, point to some potentially serious malfunctions.

The front air bags, which probably saved bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones' life, may also have provoked the final crash. According to the report of a trauma expert at La Pitie-Salpetriere hospital, the nature of Rees-Jones' facial injuries suggests that the air bags may have inflated with explosive force before the Mercedes struck the 13th pillar. That raises the possibility that the initial brush with another car, the mysterious Fiat Uno, may have triggered the deployment of the air bags, stunning and blinding Paul at a critical moment. At the request of Rees-Jones' French attorney, investigating Judge Herve Stephan ordered a technical report on the air bags last December. The resulting document is inconclusive but does not rule out this hypothesis. Sources close to Rees-Jones say his lawyers may be preparing a damage suit against Mercedes-Benz based on this possible malfunction.

The car may have had other major flaws. The regular chauffeur of the Mercedes, Olivier Lafaye, testified that a persistent warning light on the dashboard indicated a problem with the antilock braking system and the brake linings. The manager of the Etoile rental company, Jean-Francois Musa, told investigators that he had checked with a Mercedes dealer and was told that it was a false alert due to "air bubbles" in the hydraulic-brake circuit. But the claim of air in the brake system, if true, is itself worrisome: automotive experts consulted by TIME say this could reduce the efficiency of the brakes.

Investigators have discovered another anomaly: the brake fluid contained 7.5% water. Since water is not normally present in the system, Judge Stephan has requested an expert report on how it got there and whether it could have caused the brakes to malfunction. Experts consulted by TIME say this amount of water could cause corrosion and rust that might impair or even disable the brakes.

According to chauffeur Lafaye's deposition, Musa also knew that the car was unstable and tended to "skate out at the rear end." Lafaye told the judge that the Mercedes "did not hold the road. You had to know this car to drive it safely, and Henri Paul had never driven it." This claim is backed up by Jean Pietri, a veteran French automotive engineer who has independently analyzed the physical phenomena surrounding the accident. By comparing the mathematical curve of the Mercedes' trajectory with the actual tire marks left on the road surface, Pietri concludes that the car "tended systematically to veer to the right." That would help explain why Paul was unable to avoid hitting the Fiat Uno in the right lane as he tried to steer around it. The inherent instability of the vehicle, says Pietri, could be due to faulty shock absorbers or, more likely, to a misalignment of the wheels.

There was reason to believe that the Mercedes had mechanical problems before Paul ever took the wheel. The car had been stolen in April 1997, stripped for parts and repaired at a cost of more than $20,000. Though the Mercedes passed a police inspection on July 7, 1997, Lafaye's testimony indicates that there were still some doubts about its roadworthiness. Thus the question arises: Why was that particular car chosen to take Dodi Fayed and the Princess of Wales on a high-speed drive?

At least a dozen cars and chauffeurs from a different rental company, International Limousine, were available at the Ritz that night. Another car was also available to Dodi: his father Mohammed al Fayed's green bulletproof Mercedes 500 SEL with sophisticated security features, which was sitting at its usual spot in the underground Vendome parking garage. "I don't understand why this car was not used that night," a senior Ritz official told TIME. "Especially since Dodi had taken it on other occasions."

--THE DRIVER Postmortem tests showed that Paul was legally drunk and under the influence of two prescription drugs on the night of the accident. Less known is the fact that Paul's blood contained an abnormally high level of carbon monoxide (CO): 20.7%, enough to provoke somnolence, severe dizziness or even put some people in a coma. "I don't see how he could walk in that state, much less take the wheel," says the head of the antipoison center at a major Paris hospital.

How Paul's CO level got so high remains a mystery. He could not have breathed exhaust fumes in the tunnel, since he died instantly of a severed spinal cord. If exhaust had leaked into the car's interior en route to the tunnel, all passengers would have been affected. But Dodi's autopsy showed no significant trace of CO. One possible source might be a faulty heater. But the heating systems in Paul's apartment and office, unused in August, were found to function normally. Experts say a "massive" exposure to certain industrial products, like the solvent dichloromethane, could produce elevated CO levels, as could heavy cigarette smoking. Paul did not smoke cigarettes and only occasionally puffed on a cigar. Judge Stephan has ordered a special investigation into this enigma.

--THE CHANGING OF THE GUARDS On April 20, Trevor Rees-Jones quit his $37,000-a-year job with Mohammed al Fayed's security force, saying he had to "move forward" with his life. Fellow bodyguard Alexander ("Kes") Wingfield followed suit in June. Since then, the two bodyguards and their lawyers have adopted a more aggressive stance toward the Ritz-Fayed side, giving the impression that Rees-Jones, a civil plaintiff in the investigation, may be preparing a damage suit against al Fayed's hotel.

On June 30, Rees-Jones' lawyer Christian Curtil wrote to Stephan asking him to re-examine the Ritz's responsibility in the accident, specifically requesting new interrogations of senior hotel officials and a manager of Etoile Limousine. The lawyer's move could lead the judge to widen the probe and put Ritz and Etoile officials under formal criminal investigation along with the paparazzi. Though Rees-Jones' amnesia makes it difficult for him to testify, he has a powerful ally in Wingfield. On July 3, at his own initiative, Wingfield met with Stephan and delivered a potentially incriminating account of the role of al Fayed's organization. Though he made no mention of this in his initial testimony of Sept. 2, 1997, Wingfield now claims that he considered the security arrangements inadequate that night and requested six additional bodyguards from al Fayed's headquarters. Wingfield says the request was ignored, but senior al Fayed security officials deny that he ever raised the issue with them.

The bodyguard further claims that he protested against the single-car, rear-door getaway scheme but that Dodi had told him, "I just spoke to my father on the phone. He approved the plan." Wingfield also told the judge that he had quit because Mohammed al Fayed was pressing him to support his conspiracy theories. Al Fayed has turned angrily against the two men, whom he now blames for losing his son and Diana. "I am not on good terms with them," he told TIME. "I didn't want them to leave, because the investigation is still running and I need them. But they are the people who caused the devastation and the accident through their incompetence and unprofessional practices. They had rules, and they moved away from the rules. They let me down."

Al Fayed lawyers say the two men erred by not insisting on a backup car, by allowing Paul to take an indirect route down a dangerous stretch of road, and in Rees-Jones' case, by putting on his own seat belt without insisting that the others do the same. Should one or both bodyguards decide to take legal action against the Fayed camp, they can expect to face some severe countercharges.

--THE FIAT UNO Investigators have no doubt that a white Fiat Uno collided with the Mercedes near the tunnel entrance and thus played a role in the accident. Despite an intensive 10-month search for the Fiat, however, they have basically given up hope of finding it. The failure to identify the now legendary "second car" makes it impossible for investigators to establish its precise role--or definitively rule out the possibility that its driver was a photographer.

There have been some intriguing leads. One person was arrested Nov. 13 and interrogated for several hours before being released. On the face of it, the man and his car seemed to match an eyewitness description of a damaged white Uno fleeing the tunnel with a large dog in the rear compartment. The suspect, an employee of a private security firm, regularly carried dogs in his car and had had his white Uno repainted red shortly after the accident. But investigators declared him "cleared of suspicion" after determining that the car did not match the physical evidence found at the accident site.

Did the investigators let their man go too hastily? The gendarmes' technical report, a copy of which has been obtained by TIME, declares that "the initial coat is compatible with the white traces visible on the Mercedes" and that the plastic bumper had a "composition compatible with the transparent, blackish traces visible on the Mercedes." The report said the left rear light did not appear to have been damaged (the mystery Fiat had left taillight fragments on the road), but that the body of the car had been repaired at the precise spot where the Mercedes would have clipped it.

--THE PAPARAZZI Nine photographers and one photo-agency motorcycle driver remain under investigation for involuntary homicide and nonassistance to persons in danger. They have consistently claimed that the Mercedes left them far behind and that they had no role in the accident. Though only one of them tried to call the emergency services, they all claim to have assumed help was on the way.

Eyewitness testimony conflicts sharply on the question of how close they were in pursuit of the Mercedes. But most witnesses, including the first two policemen on the scene, paint an unflattering picture of their antics in the wake of the accident, when they hovered around the car, insulted one another and vied for the best photo angles. Stephan confronted them with eight witnesses on June 5, but many discrepancies remain. Road tests last May proved that all the motorcycles and scooters involved in the chase were powerful enough to keep up with the Mercedes. Lawyers for the photographers argue that Paul's drunkenness and reckless driving caused the accident, and point to the Ritz's responsibility in allowing Paul to take the wheel. Lawyers for the Ritz-Fayed camp claim that the aggressive pursuit by the paparazzi was the main "causal factor" behind the speed and choice of itinerary leading to the notoriously dangerous Alma tunnel.

Sources close to the investigation say prosecutor Maude Coujard is not convinced that there is sufficient evidence to try any of the paparazzi, especially on the involuntary homicide charge. Stephan and fellow Judge Marie-Christine Devidal, however, appear to be considering charges against some of the photographers for involuntary homicide or the lesser charge of reckless endangerment.

Stephan may also widen the investigative net to include other paparazzi. He has requisitioned the mobile-phone records of all the defendants to see if they were in contact with other photographers who may have been on the scene that night. The judge also suspects that some of the paparazzi may know more about the Fiat Uno than they let on, and that its driver could possibly have been a photographer.

Stephan is expected to wind up his investigation this fall, but a trial, if it occurs, is not likely to take place until at least mid-1999. The civil phase, which will almost certainly spill over into the next century, is apt to wind up in an unseemly brawl involving the Ritz, al Fayed, the bodyguards, the paparazzi, Etoile Limousine and, of course, the insurance companies. Meanwhile, al Fayed continues to pursue his own investigation and to defend his son's reputation, keeping his London and Paris apartments eerily intact. "It is like the Egyptian pyramids," he says. "When you die, everything that belongs to you is put around--everything that you love, your things, food. From time to time I go to Dodi's apartment. I sit there. I listen to prayers. I feel he is there."

Sancton and MacLeod are authors of Death of a Princess: The Investigation (St. Martin's Press).