Murder at the Cottage | Sky

I'm beginning to believe, that in all probability, the chances of Marie Farrell and the invisible man driving around the vicinity of the murder scene at 3am that morning, is at best a long shot. (In all probability it didn't happen).

Why do I think this?

Logic really.. One of the most brutal murders in recent Irish history occurred in a sleepy coastal region of West Cork, the national, international, and world press are all over it. The story was white hot.

A witness is found, that reports seeing a figure dressed in black near the crime scene in the early hours of the morning before the body is found.

A witness that was allegedly accompanied by a mystery man that was actually driving the car that night, so must have been paying attention to the road(s), and any night time murderers wandering around at that hour...

Yet the mystery man was never tracked down and interviewed.. The second eye witness to verify the man in the long black coat, simply wasn't followed up.. Really????

If my memory serves me correctly, Farrell went on to give three different names to identify the invisible man, all of whom were already dead.

Now.. That should have been a red flag straight away, the bells should be deafening... In fact, Big Ben would be quiet in comparison...

Yet the Gards made her their star witness?? In fact, the case was underpinned by her revelation.

Ok.. So lets assume the investigation was tainted, and Farrell was coerced to continue with the charade, we need the testimony..

Two points cross my mind (this is assuming the investigation and Farrell are as bent as each other at this stage)

1) With such a spot light on the case nationwide, why did the invisible man not present himself to a Garda Station just to eliminate himself from further interest..?? I'm sure having an uncomfortable interview about his sordid double life, could be no more embarrassing than being caught with his pants down with Marie Farrell being made public across the RTE news at 6... How was he to know she wouldn't break, give his name up??

2) Farrell's Husband stayed loyal..? Realistically, could any marriage withstand that? Every person in the country was listening to his Wife meeting a mystery man and zipping around the coast line and having romantic walks on the beach at 4am in the morning.... Yeah right!! He already had form for violence, taking a knife to another fellow.. Doesn't strike me as the understanding, forgiving type of person...

I'm not a detective, nor do I have all the interview manuscripts, but from sitting in my armchair, I read it like this..

Marie Farrell was a fantasist, an ambulance chaser... Liked to be on the fringes of the latest drama. She inbedded herself into the investigation by making hoax calls to the Garda hotline.

Her lack of brain cells would be her downfall (in many incidences yet to unfold), her first brain fart was using her own household phone to contact the hotline again, this resulted in her 'capture' so to speak.. The Guards had already placed all their chips in her basket, and must have been horrified to find she was a total Loo Lah of the highest order..

But without Farrell the Guards had nothing. Hence the cooking of the books (or the statements in this case). I believe Farrell was threatened with severe punishment for wasting police time, and was probably made aware that she, her husband and family would be finished in Cork forever, and their name the laughing stock of Ireland...

Unless....

We know it was Bailey 100%. He needs to be locked away before he does it again, and he will do it again, and their blood will be on your hands forever.. Help us out, and we will look after you, your family will be safe.... Blah, blah, blah..

This theory works well with my two points...

1) No need for the invisible man to present himself, simply because he doesn't exist. Also, no need to waste Garda resources chasing shadows, this explains why they never pushed (too hard) to find this man / shadow. They knew he was just a figment of Marie Farrell's mind.

2) The Husband knew she never left the house that night.. She had five kids, where was she going?? Sounds like she was suffering a bit with the nerves, the hubby probably felt sorry for her.. No way did he stay with her if her own account was true.. He knew it was all BS.

Fast forward a few years from the murder... Mr & Mrs Farrell and their brood (expensive brood) have gone from modest market traders to owning a half million property, thanks to the assistance of the Guards.....

Marie became locked to the Gards, they had her bang to rights. When it got real, she had to protect her family...

In later years when it went bad, the Gards couldn't have a loose cannon walking around, they needed her to stay on side.. Hence the friendly word in the right ear to get them the dream house as hush hush reward.

Excuse the long post... I enjoy breaking down and dissecting each and every piece of this puzzle.. A rubiks cube would be easier.

The point is that any of this hearsay 'evidence' would never make it to trial, regardless of how convinced different people are of its veracity. That's not saying that hearsay is not a factor in prosecutions, the conviction of some Limerick criminals proves it is, but that hearsay evidence must be incontrovertible in the context of other indisputable facts (or at least the 'courts' must accept something which unsurprisingly is very much not accepted by some people presently behind bars)

So worse than useless🙂?

Really does get you thinking about how they couldn't find a shred of forensic evidence at the scene despite their prime suspect offering samples to match with anything they might uncover

The problem is, who'd believe Marie Farrell? She lied, in court. walked out of a court proceeding and was also either coerced or otherwise blackmailed to make wrong statements. There is no clarity if she'd ever seen that man, if she was really in the car with another man other than her husband, nor if she'd really been out and about at this time of the night. And even if the man was Bailey she'd seen, it certainly doesn't prove he's the murderer, just by being out at night, at a considerable distance from Sophie's house. I'd say, anything regarding Marie Farrell can be excluded with utter certainty.

Remember, back then, you could bring wine or liquids in you hand luggage. It was pre-islamic terrorism times back then. Also airlines were less picky if you had more than one suitcases, - at least an extra suitcase wasn't the price it's now. And then there is the possibility she brought something with her, with intention to leave it at the cottage, clothes for the spring, summer or some later trip during the year.

Ok but still it would be strange to put it in your packed hand luggage. Also why buy wine in the supermarket if you had some with you already?

My quess is that it was someone(s) she knew and expected to have an argument with on her visit.

What I find interesting, and hadn't realized until I listened to the West Cork podcast, is that Farrell had already made a statement describing a man wearing a black coat outside her shop when Sophie was in there before her anonymous phone calls. My take is that she presumed that she'd be 'hot property' after that initial statement (which could well be a pack of lies - was there any verification that Sophie was in her shop?) and when that didn't happen, decided to make an anonymous phone call describing a similar man near the crime scene in order that she might receive the attention she felt she deserved for her original statement.

The Guard first on the scene reported that the blood on Sophie's face / head, was still wet (not congealed yet). This indicates a recent death of no more than a few hours.

Blood begins to congeal more or less straight away, otherwise the body would just bleed out.

So the multiple traumas to Sophie's head would have produced many deep cuts and plenty of blood (as seen in pictures a few posts back).

The Guard stated that the blood around the nose and mouth was still visibly wet, he made a note of this in his book.

Assuming that Sophie had no medical disorder that prevented her blood from congealing, it points towards a morning murder.

If this is the case, and I suspect it is.. How does that change things?

Who would be roaming around West Cork in the middle of a winters night? In all probability they were driving a car (gate was open). There's not many horney Romeo's that chance their arm with a dame whilst she's eating her breakfast.. Like, would a man get a notion in the morning to take a spin over to that foreign birds house, see if he can charm the knickers off her... I know its West Cork, but even they have their limits.

So who was in the vicinity, and what business had they around them parts that night? (basically the backend of nowhere).

The only known people around that night were Alfie Lyons, Shirley Foster, Marie Farrell (allegedly), and The Invisible Man (allegedly).

So what could have been going on around there?? It was Christmas time, was there a session going on in somebody's house nearby? Did one of the guests leave the party the following morning the worst for weir..??

If there was a party going on at Alfie's house (which Bailey stated he seen lights on there after leaving the pub), would the revellers not have to pass Sophie's windows to get to the lane?

The morning time window for the murder is relevant if correct.. It changes things significantly.

After all that I've read, it's also my gut feeling that the murder took place in the early hours of the morning while it was still dark. Sophie had a reason for the trip, apparently to fix something in the house / the heating? Sophie's mind was probably still used to the time zone in France, so 6am in Ireland could easily have been 7am for Sophie, and she was probably up early. She could easily have finished breakfast by 6.45 am.

If it was the horny Guard from Bantry, than a 7am visit to Sophie's house would not have been unusual, if the meeting was pre-aranged, and the Guard would have justified the time of the visit, that it was before his shift would start, - a credible excuse for Sophie to buy into..... It would also still have been under the cover of darkness, sunrise can be very slow in this latitude and would probably not come before 8.30 or 8.45 at the earliest.....

Also, if the murder really took place in the morning, I'd suggest the reason for killing was not any form of sexual rejection. I also don't think that sex was on anybody's mind on that morning, and certainly the Guard couldn't suggest that, if he was at the beginning of his shift.....or let's say, it seems not very likely.

So the motive to go to Sophie's was most likely not sex, but rather to talk to her about drug trafficking, - that is, if we're considering the horny Guard from Bantry in this theory..... And if the horny Guard from Bantry was in on the drug trafficking and didn't respond to Sophie's continued questions and statements, the conversation could easily have turned into an argument, resulting in the Guard losing his mind and grabbing a cavity block.....

And before anybody goes again, yes, this one mentioned above is just a theory.