Murder at the Cottage | Sky

Xander10

This thread is BONKERS and has been for a long while with people coming up up with farcical stuff.

Surprised it is still open.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117972330#Comment_117972330

Sophie was on the phone with ex-husband until near midnight? I can't see Alfie calling round at that late hour to have that kind of discussion.

mamboozle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117972363#Comment_117972363

Just mention Alfie they descend

tinytobe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117972369#Comment_117972369

Me neither, this scenario was meant as a joke.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117972363#Comment_117972363

No one has anything to fear from the bonkers and farcical...

When we start getting close to the truth...

mamboozle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117972493#Comment_117972493

It fell flat, maybe humour isn't your forte. The whole problem when you look at the sexual obsession/repression thing is that one of the keenest supporters of that theory was Detective Dwyer. Now if one had compared him to Ian Bailey around the time as regards the likelihood of 'success' in this area, who do you think would have come a distant second?

That kind of realisation can inspire deep animosity.

tibruit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117972155#Comment_117972155

This is up there with the photographer taking the pic of the door on the latch, so therefore the door couldn`t have been locked episode.

drumm23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117973638#Comment_117973638

It was on the latch. It wasn't locked.

What you are implying is that the Gards entered the house to take crime-scene photos, they then put it on the latch and took a picture of it: you can't put the door on the latch from the outside you can only open it.

tibruit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117973717#Comment_117973717

I do understand that Drumm. But the Gardaí said the doors were locked. It`s not rocket science to work out what`s happened here. You clearly hadn`t worked it out which is why you raised it in the first place.

tinytobe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117973370#Comment_117973370

There is nothing to fall flat about anymore in our times.

The thing is, in the Toscan du Plantier murder case, we have absolutely no evidence to tie anybody to the murder. Not the unsympathetic Englishman Bailey, not Alfie, not the cheating husband, the hired hitman, the corrupt guard, none.

I think I have written this multiple times here. We only have a couple of theories as to the motive. It's actually a case of gross judicial misconduct on behalf of the French authorities to convict somebody without evidence.

However if we had DNA, or Fingerprint evidence it'll be different, but that's highly unlikely that something comes up at this stage.

robwen

Latest Big Issue is out, featuring Part 2 of Ian Bailey: In His Own Words

https://irelandsbigissuemagazine.com/

tibruit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117974038#Comment_117974038

There is evidence. For starters the main suspect has confessed a number of times. It is not complicated to work out what happened here. Boundary, right of way or closed gate disputes are almost exclusively daylight events when one party does something that pisses the other off. They are almost always territorial, primitive, spur of the moment, male on male confrontations. That is not what happened here. Sophie opened her door to someone during the night. Rigor Mortis implies she was dead before 6-30 am. The locked door implies she was dragged from her doorway against her will. No evidence that the killer was in the house either before or after the murder.

leath_dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117974268#Comment_117974268

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117867269#Comment_117867269

Just reading the firsrt instalment of that article. Talk about a puff piece! It was also quite unnerving the way he had to shoehorn the "flirty" Proncess Diana and the "Very Beautifull" Nigella Lawson into his life story. He's a strange character, Ian Bailey

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117974391#Comment_117974391

There's no evidence afaik of her being dragged from the doorway - absence of any such evidence along the path was noted in the forensics report. If you have contrary information please share.

Could Sophie have left by the back door, with the front door locked?

Rigor mortis can start within 2 hours. 'Violent exercise' can cause a more rapid onset of rigor mortis. If we assume Sophie was fighting for her life, I'm not sure how much that would affect onset v the cold temperatures. The body was found at 10am but I think local doctor wasn't there until near 11. So couldn't rule out a later time.

mamboozle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117974391#Comment_117974391

We have plenty evidence of your slightly twisted belief in fantasy

mamboozle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117974391#Comment_117974391

"This is not what happened here"? You are completely wrong

drumm23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117974391#Comment_117974391

lol 🤣

sure

drumm23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117974482#Comment_117974482

there's confusion on the back door front door thing ... the door that is toward the front of the house (though is referred to in some places as the back door) is the door with the keys in it - and the Gardai say it was locked; the other door has the blood stains at the handle and Sheridan says it was locked in his documentary

MrMischief

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117974400#Comment_117974400

I'd love to hear more about the car theory and if it could be definitively ruled out. She could have got into a car willingly (boots and dressing gown on and door locked) and then subsequently been pushed or jumped from the car and finished off with the block? Killer could have returned to lock or close the door or turn lights off to not attract immediate attention. The injuries to her hands as per pics (badly bruised and broken fingers) either indicate a struggle and her blocking a heavy instrument or could the injuries be perhaps from falling from a car and impact in hitting the ground and into the briars/ditch etc. That would explain the tyre tracks and Doc Marten footprints (if there was a chase down the grass surely there would have been footprints the whole way down at that time of year) close to her body. Ties in with the hearing of a car early morning (3.30am) and thene the speeding car at ~ 7.30am was it?

Like the footprints are fairly obvious even to an untrained eye and only these ones are mentioned ;

tibruit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117974482#Comment_117974482

I never said she was dragged along the path. The most logical explanation as to why both doors were locked is that she was pulled through the doorway against her will. There probably came a point when she broke free. She may have run around the house and tried to open the back door, hence the blood behind the handle. She also had her own hair in her hand which implies she was defensively holding her hair as the killer dragged her or hit her. This could have been in the doorway or where the body was found.

crackcrack30

Re spot the difference on the last page.....

I always held the belief that Sophie was supposed to have made her way down thru her front garden away from the killer/house /Alphies leaving one trace of blood on her way.... But if you are to look at the photo a crime scene area shielded from the rain/elements appears to be in the field (not Sophies field) to the left of the lane on the way down...... Am I the only one that got this wrong?

Therefore it is possible that Sophie either climbed or was thrown from this field into the lane which would explain her leggings being snagged on the fence...

mamboozle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117975251#Comment_117975251

That is simply not logical, it's along the lines of what very bad investigators wanted people to believe. She went out, voluntarily, pulling the door on the latch behind her. To confront somebody, very likely Alfie and Shirley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117975506#Comment_117975506

I did wonder how she came to be snagged so tightly on that fence near the gate. Thinking either she was thrown against it or she tried to get over it into the next field, was snagged and dragged back perhaps.

chooseusername

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117975506#Comment_117975506

Yes, there appears to be interest in that area by the detectives in this photo;

field1.jpg

but that would be expected I suppose.

Maybe the tarpaulin covering the area by the gate was discarded here in your photo .

tibruit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117975514#Comment_117975514

You see I don`t think that`s logical. How often do you lock yourself out? It`s years since I did it. But lets allow it to happen once a year. How many times a day do you walk out a door? Let`s say five times a day. 5 X 365 = 1825. Those are the odds that Sophie locked herself out on the night that a killer was waiting outside....1 in 1825. And that is even if she had a key stashed away outside somewhere. Why go rooting around for the spare when you can just take the regular key with you? The locked door requires an explanation other than accidentally locking herself. I think the one I`ve given is the most likely. But it is possible that the killer came back to the door after the murder, found it open, thought about going inside, then decided not to and closed the door and left. The other alternative is a gust of wind slammed it shut, but then it wasn`t a windy night.

chooseusername

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117972009#Comment_117972009

I think this is the same car parked up by the gate, note the roof rack.

It could belong to the Guard in your picture,

or if it's Alfie's car it looks like it is still parked where Shirley abandoned it when she found the body.

car.jpg

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117975902#Comment_117975902

Thats Shirleys car parked at the scene.

mamboozle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117975887#Comment_117975887

On Dec 30th 1996 the Irish Times said that the front And back doors were closed and latched at the time the body was found. At least the front was as that's what the Guard's photos prove.

It says there was a lot of blood around the body and further drops in the surrounding area TOWARDS the house.

At first they thought she had been dragged from the house to the gate but that doesn't seem logical. I believe she walked or ran down to confront some person or people, and if you've been following this thread you know who I believe the most likely. There is no forensic evidence pointing to other people that wouldn't have normally been there and there is a simple explanation for that.

OwlsZat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117974038#Comment_117974038

There is evidence of a garda cover-up. People go down the negligence route but that's massively overstating garda incompetence. You really have to wonder why. I can't see an outcome which doesn't involve a member of AGS. Who was MF with? Maybe the murderer himself.

FishOnABike

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117976379#Comment_117976379

I don't think cutting pages from a critical period of investigation job books can be put down to negligence or incompetence. That's nothing short of criminal malpractice. It should have been investigated as a crime in itself.