Cold Case Review of Sophie Tuscan du Plantier murder to proceed. **Threadbans lifted - see OP**

Looks like the DNA testing has not yielded anything new, but checks are continuing.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/rte-witness-who-got-phone-tip-off-on-sophie-toscan-du-plantier-murder-has-not-been-approached-by-gardai-in-cold-case-review/a1719427089.html

Oh, and some filler from Molony about someone from West Cork, who didn't sound Irish, phoning a Janet Martin RTE newsdesk before 1pm about the murder in Schull. They gave a name but she "didn't retain it"

 a man claiming to be a journalist in West Cork who said a body had been found. Ms Martin did not know the regional reporters around the country, and did not know — or retain — the name given.

The caller definitely identified himself as local stringer,” she said. She added that she was struck by the voice, which was unusual, and which could have had, in retrospect, an English accent. More than that, “it was the breeziness of the way he talked, which is not customary for Irish people.”

Really? Molony has definitely reached the bottom of the barrell now.

I think the cut briars are a red herring.

The cuts themselves look clean, as if done by a pair of shears or something similar.

I can't see the killer had a reason to do it. The suggestion that he may have done so to remove any thorns on which his clothing had snagged is a possibility, but a very remote one, imo.

I still have a feeling this all happened in the morning and if they did cut the briars, they returned to the cottage to find something to cut the them with - maybe that’s where the blood mark on the door came from? As ever, none of this happened quickly and I wonder how could the killer be so sure no one would interrupt them?

Yes, I have to agree.

I cannot see a rational reason for the killer to cut the briars, let alone to go up to and into the house, find a pair of shears or secateurs, go back down, cut the briars, and take them away with him.

Its much more likely that your explanation is right.

Hypothetically, I think that the likelyhood was way stronger that either Alfie and Shirley or the husband sending a killer, than Bailey. All hypothetically based on what I have read, no proof about anything.

For Bailey it would have to have been a spur of the moment and impulse driven murder with an unclear time frame, a longer hike and unclarity if Sophie would open up the door to him at all.

Alfie and Shirley were the only ones alone that night with Sophie or at least alone within short proximity. They would also have had some sort of security that they would have been undisturbed. Only a surprise visit of the Richardsons would have crossed their plans. I also don't think Alfie could have slipped out of the house, without Shirley noticing, that is if he did it.

And the husband knew she was alone as well, knew exactly where, and when she'd go to bed, most likely when she'd be getting up, plus the exact location of the house and how to get there, together with a strong motive.

Of course none of this is proof beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law.

I would sort of agree that the briars being cut by the killer is somewhat extraordinary, I wouldn't say it is totally daft as such. Sophie was in and on top of the briars, that is certain. If not the murderer, they were cut by someone even for a trivial reason, and we should be able to identify who. It's literally only possible to be 4 or 5 people who did it, Alfie, Mr Richardson, Finbar, Leo maybe, or Sophie herself. Nobody else would have any reason to do it at all. Far less than the number of murder suspects. It could easily have been asked and answered, but just another clearly overlooked piece of evidence in a story sorely lacking anything tangible.

Many of the pieces of evidence in this case could be red herrings (boot prints, tire tracks, fingermarks, poker etc.), but they should still be attempted to be explained if nothing else but to eliminate them from a line of enquiry. Many probably had a simple explanation which could have been asked and answered on day 1.

It is possible that many were asked and answered, but then those answers were destroyed/lost when those first few pages of the log book were ripped out. It's also possible that those answers wouldn't hold up to further scrutiny.

I haven't seen any of Alfie's police statements about what he did or didn't hear. But he did say in a video interview I saw that he heard "no human sound". Alfie was cagey with his statements. For instance his 80-90% sure that he may have introduced Bailey and Sophie. While he doesn't corroborate Leo's account, neither does he call his friend a liar.

A light sleeper, could he have heard the iron gate rattling against the steel gate-post? Whatever about not hearing a car the headlights of an approaching car would be visible from here.

Another thing I found odd was the fact he didn't accompany Shirley to the dump that morning. There was 5 or 6 black bin-bags of rubbish, I know if mrs Choosy is going to the recycling centre with that amount of rubbish I'd be going with her.

Did he hear something and suspect who might be involved and felt responsible for the fact that that person or persons were there? Was he callous enough to send, or allow, Shirley to go down on her own in case something untoward had happened, and didn't want to be the first to discover it, whatever it may have been?

His account of what happened immediately after Shirley discovered the body is odd. He said he went down the lane to see for himself but stayed about 20 yards away from the body, but was able to call it over to the Gardaí as a murder. Did he go down alone, leaving Shirley alone in the house? As someone earlier in the thread said they must have felt quite sure they were safe. Two hours after the discovery of the body according to Shirley he acted surprised when told the murdered woman was Sophie. This in spite of him getting no response from her house when he tried to alert her. There were no lights on in her house, and her car was still parked up beside the house, all the coming and going, Gardaí, Doctor, Priest, more Gardaí, Josie Hellen and Finbarr Hellen on his tractor? I reckon he knew it was Sophie when he called it in.

While I think, although he played no part in the actual attack, he felt a bit responsible for who was there that morning.

Edit;

I'm assuming Alfie wasn't told the body was that of Sophie until Finbarr Hellen identified her formally around noon.

Edit2;

I just looked a bit closer at the Google map I linked above and there is a horse grazing in Alfie's field in 2009. So it looks like life just goes on.

…wouldnt the photos be taken before doing that?

The original reddit article makes that point iirc

"wouldnt the photos be taken before doing that?"

You would hope so, but there there was a lot mistakes made early on.

I did read it at the time, I'll have to go back and re-read it.

Well observed!

This also shows that Sophie put on her outdoor boots - which really must mean that she went outdoors voluntarily.

Sophie had bedroom slippers in the house. These soft ankle boots were left downstairs, outdoor shoes were not allowed upstairs.

Therefore, we're not looking at a sleepy person answering the front door at dead of night: we are looking at someone who decided to go outdoors; apparently in haste because she didn't get fully dressed, but she pulled on her boots and left the door on the latch (probably)

And out she went, across the little patch of field and down to the entrance lane, to the gate where she died.

It's been my understanding that those boots were always worn downstairs. Regardless of whether she was stepping outside. The moccasin slippers were never brought downstairs and the boots were never brought upstairs. She wore the boots to protect her bare feet from the cold, tiled flooring.

If this scenario is accurate, then it would suggest that she need not necessarily have put the boots on to step outside as she was already wearing them and would imply early morning as the time of assault with Sophie already being up and about.

The only thing about this is I'm not sure she is the kind of person that would leave muck caked on an indoor boot, regardless if the downstairs floors were stone. She had rugs etc. and seemed to keep the place clean enough. It seems to me that the boots would have been left by the door similar to the wellingtons, ready to slip on to go outside for a few minutes, collecting things from the car, or checking a gutter leak, or the pump etc. There were many pairs of wellingtons, indicating that she used them regularly enough too, probably for longer stints outside, walking in the rain, puddles or into her fields etc. A video shows her wearing wellies at the sea.

It could be, but it looks like the briars were taken away.

If something, perhaps the original weapon or something like a piece of clothing, a cap, a glove ended up in the briars I find it hard to believe the attacker would not only take the time to cut the briars but to take them away as well?

Only if they had the time and it was important enough.