Cold Case Review of Sophie Tuscan du Plantier murder to proceed

It's amazing alright, thanks @bjsc for everything!

It was a calm and dry night. I doubt if the entrance gate needed propping with a block to keep it open and you certainly wouldn't require a step to get in or out of a van or car on that laneway. As for tractors or horses who would be riding either of those in the middle of the night ?

The killer came and left on foot. There's no evidence to suggest he used a vehicle.

I mean there are multiple tire tracks, and it's miles from anywhere. What evidence could there possibly be that they walked, the single boot print perhaps? 😂

Absolutely none. The killer could just as easily have been a female. Particularly if the block wasn't carried from the pumphouse but was in situ all along.

I was wondering if the shoe sizes of various people are recorded in the files for example Leo and Sally Bolger?

I think they did take a number of shoe samples (or maybe only sizes) from some of the original suspects, maybe 6-10 people total. Leo Bolger was considered a suspect, and in fact talked about feeling like they were seriously considering him, so I'm sure they must have taken his and Sally's shoe size also. I'm not sure whether the questionnaire they sent around asked about shoe size, but you would think they should have included it there, although with this investigation it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't.

Bailey was size 11 FWIW

you mean there is no existing record of who the shoes belonged to or we just don’t have access to it?

Here's one from presumably years later. No sheep wire, and no block, although there does seem to be some sort of large flat stone right at the edge, not sure if it's holding it or not. The grass looks like it could probably hold the gate most of the time if it's long, although perhaps not in the middle of winter.

From the pics above it looked like there is no wire on it now, so what was stopping it from swinging open when you went there do you know?

That's a really good point about the discolouration. I took a look at KoudeKaas, and there doesn't appear to be a significant difference in discolouration where the block may have lain vs the surrounding, although most of the grass all over the area has a yellowish tint.

• If the block wasn't in the pump house it would have had to have lain somewhere on the ground, and that place was not the final resting place, because it is lying on top of something that was placed during the attack (dressing gown). There should be a discoloured patch somewhere unless the block was recently removed (within a couple of days).
• In addition in one of the photos they actually show the rock raised vertically up, and there is not much of the ground visible, but of what you can see there doesn't appear to be a significant discolouration under it either. Not sure whether we can take anything from that but it certainly could be the case that neither were there for too long, perhaps though a few days is still reasonable.
• Harbison specifically mentioned the area under the stone being depressed, which could indicate it was there for a while, but he associated it with being bashed into the ground during the attack. Since he considered it a weapon, perhaps he thought it had been brought there also.
• For the half block missing from the pump-house, I posted a while back but that was missing a long time before, as can be seen in Sophie's home video. I think someone mentioned that the gap could have been there to enable to access/reach in on occasion without dismantling everything. It may never have been in place to begin with.
• The pump house roof was lifted up also to remove the block, so it absolutely had recently been moved, but perhaps not during course of the attack/escalation.
• After the murder it seems they took apart the top layer of the pump house and removed most of the blocks from that layer. The later roof was much more ramshackle for some reason, probably because the rest of the users didn't care so much about aesthetics.

You know I had a slightly different interpretation of how things may have occurred which is why I wrote it that way, but in re-reading I understand how I may be incorrect. I'll just throw out there what I was thinking though as it may have been part of the assault. In general I think people would agree that perhaps the above scenario that @bjsc had mentioned:

The rock was to hand and used as a weapon to bash Sophie. In doing so Sophie's head was pushed up against the block and abraised on that side of her head.

I had also considered the following, and I'll update my potential interpretation from above to reflect this:

The rock was on the ground and Sophie's head was bashed against the rock from above, it being used as a hard surface. So perhaps her torso lifted and whacked down onto it, or punched with it behind her head, and ultimately stomped with the aforementioned Doc marten boots.

In this reading I was thinking maybe she was pushed/punched and fell and her head hit onto the rock before being further attacked. This is often what happens in fights outside a bar for example when someone loses the rag.

What scenario could have caused this. Well perhaps she went down to the open gate and pushed it out so it swung closed, then was pushed/punched back and away and fell on the rock. Then further attacked. Then the perpetrator went back and pulled open the gate with the blood still all over their hands. Then they went up through the field, checked the house, came back to their vehicle and left.