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

As far as I know, yes she is still living.

You would hardly murder somebody over retrieving a bag of drugs..?

1. Regardless if seen or not, your word against theirs… It was a bag of knock off ciggies I bought down the pub. You'd be long gone with the 'ciggies' before the Plod turned up, then its all hearsay.

2. If it was a genuine drug collection point, could anything be worse than leaving a blood splattered corpse on the driveway.. Nothing like drawing attention to yourselves.

3. The remote location that it was, there would be plenty of abandoned outbuildings dotted along the Peninsula, would you really select a pumphouse in view of several properties?? And also risk the 'who the f*ck are you' by inquisitive neighbours.

Main reason a criminal would murder, and not just scarper, is if they could be ID'd by the victim, meaning she knew who they were. If there were criminal activity going on in the vicinity it would have to be someone connected to the area. A randomer wouldn't just roll on up to an unknown location leaving drugs about. The list of suspects wouldn't change very much in this case imo. Wouldn't have to just be drugs either. All sorts of shenanigans can go on, smuggling, backhanders, money laundering etc. Don't think it was criminal activity though imo.

Still not buying it…..

Sophie was bludgeoned until death was achieved (at least until deemed dead so by the murderer)

I am fully convinced the murder was not planned or intentional.

I also believe, that Sophie made her way to her death voluntary, and did not fear for her safety on-route.

We know the gate was open, and we know there was unidentified tire marks left in the area.

Realistically, somebody was either leaving the properties, or somebody was entering it?

Now, did Bailey not suggest their was a party going on at Alfie's that fateful night? Could there have been 'guests' coming and going that night / early morning? (Note: Alfie said they both went to bed early and heard nothing else all night)

Could Bailey have arrived late on and tried to gatecrash the alleged party? If he did, he didn't leave a trace of himself anywhere, not even in the car he was using (Jules car).

Personally, I think somebody came to the properties for a reason, this was no random opportunist.

The truth is too be found in the location. The killer had dealings with either Sophie or Alfie that night, he arrived to meet with one of them, and he was known to them.

I think the nature of the death is likely the biggest “clue” as to the sort of person who killed her and the reasons why. It was beyond brutal - there’s now certainly a vast collection of criminal knowledge worldwide and held by police forces that could be interrogated by AI in order to produce a profile of the killer and the potential reasons why a person might be killed in such a manner.

While it wouldn’t be definitive and indeed may well be wrong, it would certainly be a lead to be considered.

Maybe Bailey fits such a profile - maybe right profile wrong guy? Or right profile and right guy, who knows.

Leaving aside a mad lunatic who escaped from an asylum for the criminally insane, I’d agree, in all likelihood the person was known to Sophie in some way- this wasn’t a first meeting.

I’m skeptical it was a drug dealer not known to Sophie- they would tend to flee if came across by a random member of the public - and even if she uncovered his stash of drugs, it’s not like she would have known his name and address- if she confronted him, a quick shove aside or knock over to the ground as he made his escape would have been the most she would have experienced in my view.

I believe in the past that Gardai have said that the motive of her attack that night/morning was sexual. I wonder do they still believe that.

As for a “hitman” theory- I don’t think you could possibly rule it out- was it a sophisticated murder, made to look spontaneous? Well there doesn’t appear to be a hint of forensic evidence of the killer left at the scene - I don’t believe that’s an easy thing to achieve . A hitman using a gun would obviously lead to a path in France so for that reason alone, if it was a hitman ,they had to do the killing in such a manner that would not lead back to there.

Would Sophie have pulled her boots on and venture out to a stranger?

I believe she knew her attacker(s) and once the decision was made that she had to be killed to prevent her from identifying them, it was always going to be a brutal killing, using what was to hand. They didn't come prepared for a confrontation.

What a ridiculous comment.

Was the brutal murder a 'knee jerk reaction'?

Element of victim blaming here also - 'we know Sophie had a hot temper' - who knew that GBH might upset someone eh?

Just odd, and not constructive.

The injuries on her body will have given investigating officers a sense of how the attack began and then how it progressed. If defensive wounds exist, which is likely, they may potentially indicate how the physical altercation began and potentially indicate a motive- the more extensive wounds will then show how the assault escalated - the Gardai’s stated motive as being sexual must have come about from the analysis of physical injuries - they will certainly tell a “story”

Given the conduct of the original investigation I would say it is a very large presumption to assume the Gardai's stated motive came about from any analysis or deductive process.

One would hope the current cold case review has learned from past institutional mistakes and is looking at things with fresh unbiased minds, not jumping to any conclusions that are not fully supported by evidence.