Cold Case Review of Sophie Tuscan du Plantier murder to proceed

I suspect this was a rage killing, a moment of complete madness.

Given the weapon of choice was a concrete block, and the body was left where it was (no attempt to conceal) it suggests that the killing was unplanned and unintentional.

The gate was fully drawn back with evidence of recent tyre marks at the scene, this would suggest a vehicle had entered the site. Given Sophie's penchant to insisting the gate be closed at all times, this was likely the flash point of the confrontation

So who would be opening the gate to drive into the site? One would suspect a visitor or a farm hand (especially given the time line - midnight to early morning).

If it was a visitor or farm hand, then they were likely known to Sophie. The rage would suggest past ill feelings towards her, or a past history of differing opinion that festered on and off for a long time.

In my opinion, it was a spur of the moment assault, the assailant lashed out in a split second of madness, there was no pre-meditated intention to kill.

A disturbed intruder would just high tail down the road as fast as he can, or may assault a person to make a speedy escape if the person was standing in the way, but the sheer brutality of the murder kinda rules that scenario out.

The killer came to visit Sophie or Alfie intentionally, or was leaving Alfie's residence, and that would involve a small pool of local people, and it is there where the killer can be found.

My reading of this within the context is that Harbison is proposing that there are two primary scenarios:

1. The stone provides the majority of the blunt force to the head, and the block provides the fractures to the skull
2. The stone provides the majority of the blunt force to the head, and the Doc marten boot stomp provides the fractures

There is also another lighter blunt weapon he refers to. I'm not sure if he is referring to the possibility of fists here, because surely she was struck by punches also, but that can really be ignored for the fractures. His wording also leaves open that the block could have provided all of the traumas, but I don't think this is practical given it's weight, and is likely why he didn't feel the need to specify. Harbison explicity said he didn't think the stone alone caused the traumas, because of the linear abrasions (as the stone has no linear feature, unlike the block, or doc marten). However @bjsc believes another sceanrio could explain it all

3. When the block is orientated closer to her head (as the blood pattern shows), then her head being against the block, while being hit with the stone would cause both the traumas/fractures, and the abrasions.

Scenario 2 & 3 doesn't require the block being lifted up per se, just being in proximity. It also means that it could have been there without having been brought specifically from the pump-house for the purpose. It would imply it was moved aside after the attack, but still not necessarily have had to be lifted, just pushed aside.

If I'm interpreting anything wrong here bjsc, please feel free to correct.

I agree with this, but would add two things.

1. The breakfast food suggests it happened later than the Gardai say - at or just before dawn.

2. It isnt necessarily someone who knew her. It could be someone up to no good e.g. opportunistic burgler on run up to christmas - who maybe wasnt planning on killing, but didnt figure on an altercation with STDP. People being injured/killed in aggrevated burgalries in rural locations wasnt uncommon during that era.

If the shoe print was related to the murder, a size 4 to 7 would be very small for a man's foot. Together with the possibility that the concrete block might not have been the murder weapon, it does raise the possibility that the murder was around breakfast time and the murderer was possibly a woman. It does make the bee in their bonnet the gardaí had to pin the murder on Bailey all the more bizarre.

It's fairly small but there were probably plenty of men in the area who were 5ft 8/9 or shorter, as well of course as the women. It would have ruled out Bailey, and perhaps a handful of other tall men, and that's probably why it was ultimately ignored.

I think for the gardai, it was fairly common at the time to just pick who you thought may have done it, and then bully your way to a conviction. When doing so it's easy to just dismiss things that don't fit, boot tracks, tyre tracks, food in the stomach etc. The most telling is that they went ahead with the arrest before the DNA results came back.

Jan Bartels the Martial Arts expert?

Wait is this for real, we actually know who Marie Farrell was with on the night, and he's actually fairly well known in his own regard? Has he ever been interviewed? This is such a strange case.

When MF was identified as the anonymous caller who had seen a man at Kealfadda Bridge in the early hours of 23rd December she dropped various clues as to the identity of the man she was with but wouldn't name him. She said he was an old boyfriend from when she lived in Longford, that he drove an Opel car and that he was into Tae Kwan Do. Based on this the police identified Jan Bartels who lived in Longford, drove an Opel and had had a relationship with MF. When he was contacted he denied being anywhere near Cork although he agreed he drove an Opel and new MF. He was alibied by his wife. Guards made enquiries in the martial arts community but no one knew of him. However we now have evidence of MF asking a senior Guard to get his officers to leave her "boyfriend" in Longford alone as he was never going to admit that he was with her that night. It also transpires that Jan Bartels, far from being unknown, is a big wheel in the Tae Kwan Do community.

None of this proves that he was the mystery man but it certainly raises more than a few questions.

The breeze block is lying almost at right angles to Sophie's left hip, between her body and the dry stone wall. It is on its side (as opposed to upright) and the two vents which run through it are horizontal to the ground. There is a roughly rectangular area of grass, which is free of blood, parallel to Sophie's left arm. In some of the photo's, after Sophie's body has been has been removed you can clearly see the blood free area of grass which has been protected by Sophie' body then a narrow line of blood stained grass and then a clear area surrounded by heavily blood stained grass with the breeze block at its lower edge. To me it looks as though the block has been in situ at the start of the attack and had then been pushed or fallen over during the struggle ending up on the edge of Sophie's dressing gown. The photos are freely available on the Koud Kass blog but I don't indeed posting them here

Should say "too" technical. Sorry.

Just going back to your thoughts here, as I've been trying myself to figure out the reason for the blocks placement, if any.

A thought that comes to mind, might be way off with this but, is it possible that it was used as a sort of mounting aid/step, either to get into/out of a tractor/van, or maybe even onto a horse. I don't know if they ever rode the horses there, or just used them to carry stuff or plough or whatever. The location just after the end of the gate might have been a frequent mounting/dismounting location, or getting in and out of a tractor/van etc.

Anyway, just a thought. I wouldn't be surprised if it was just left there with no purpose either, similar to the other scattered rocks

I know Sophie recently had the gate to her field installed, but do we know when the outer gate was installed? Perhaps @chooseusername you may know, it was probably mentioned before somewhere along this thread.

Just revisiting the home movie of Sophie walking down the lane towards the exit, and there was no outer gate at that point in time either (not the lack of metal gate post which came later, the wood is part of the fence). I believe this was within the previous couple of years.

Sophie I imagine was the onus to install all gates in the area as the rest of the owners/users didn't seem bothered about it. I can imagine they also didn't bother to close them when she wasn't around for 50 or so weeks of the year.