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The final glimpses of Paul on the video inside the hotel show him walking in the corridor, talking with Dodi's security guards and, at the end of the footage, waiting at the back entrance for the Mercedes S-280 to be driven to the door. French police now say it was Dodi's bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones who decided to switch drivers: to have Dourneau, who had driven the couple all day, take the wheel of the Range Rover to decoy the paparazzi and have Paul drive Dodi and Diana. It is impossible to judge from the jerky, heavily edited tape whether Paul was steady or wobbling as he prepared for his assignment. In the last image of him alive, Paul pulls away from the curb at a normal speed and heads down the rue Cambon.
Last week magistrates closed off the Place de l'Alma tunnel and led a grim procession of investigators along the 60 ft. of skid marks that end at the fateful 13th post, graphic proof of Paul's attempts to retake control of the Mercedes in its final seconds. The group stopped often, checking charts, trying to pin down the truth of what happened. There have been too many stories, some rash, some without substance.
Lawyers for al Fayed claim that film taken from the arrested paparazzi confirm reports that Paul was stunned by flashbulbs. But officials involved in the investigation are discounting the tales of blinding bulbs, weaving motorcycles and cars abruptly slowing down in front of Paul's Mercedes. Lawyers for the paparazzi also say the so-called pivotal photo was shot long before Paul reached the tunnel, a claim that appears to be true.
One report had Dodi thrown from the car as well as robbed of money; another said a sapphire-and-diamond necklace was ripped from Diana's throat. Both are wrong. Police recovered a thousand francs from Dodi's body, which was jammed between the front two seats, his broken leg hanging at a 90[degree] angle. A pearl bracelet, a diamond ring--not the Repossi ring--and size-8 Versace black heels were recovered from Diana. Paul had 12,000 francs on his body.
Meanwhile, the charge that photographers did not assist the dying seems to be withering away--though not entirely. While telephone records show that not one of them called emergency services, one photographer apparently tried but dialed a wrong number. He did not, however, bother to try again. Two paparazzi are singled out as interfering with and abusing police while continuing to snap the death scene.
TIME has discovered who did make the call for medical assistance. A 32-year-old man from a nearby apartment building heard the crash and raced to the tunnel. "I heard tires screeching and heard three crashes," he said. From his apartment, he saw no motorbikes in the wake of the crash, though. Still, when the witness got to the crash site, he found photographers taking pictures and people starting to approach the wreck. In the car he could see the three men but not Diana, who had been thrown to the floor behind the front passenger seat. The witness spoke to the only man moving, Rees-Jones. "He had half his face ripped off. He was conscious and looked at me," he says. The witness ran from the tunnel and borrowed a mobile phone to call for help.