Murder at the Cottage | Sky

If Alfie Lyons killed her he wouldn't have had the foggiest notion she kept diaries. Seems to me like this person was acutely aware of how she worked. ie. Past romantic involvement. I think that eliminates AL and IB. More likely the Bantry detective or the young French student.

As does the full bottle of wine which is awfully hard to believe wasn't connected to the events that unfolded. If Daniel and herself were honestly getting on better perhaps she visited Ireland to sever ties with them before retuning to France. The fact she wanted company makes me think she knew the person was volatile.

And the doors clearly on the latch in the picture, it should open with a push.

Yes it is Drumm. There`s no denying that.

Who was the source for the stolen diaries?

The story of the 3 stolen diaries should be taken with the same pinch of salt as the 3 large suitcases,

the white lady at 3 castle head , Marie Farrell's 3 sightings of Ian Bailey and the third secret of Fatima.

A professional wouldn't have had the need for keys, a professional would have picked the lock with ease.

There are only a couple of imminent suspects who would have had a key:

The previous owner, the estate agent and the cleaning lady, - that is unless Sophie changed the locks when she bought the house.

Maybe the cleaning lady wasn't as thorough as she claimed to be and didn't clean the bath tub? It doesn't make much sense as Sophie would probably have paid her more than properly, but again, it could have easily been as well that way. Like she missed it once or twice?

Maybe the house was used to hide somebody and whoever was hiding whomever knew the house was not lived in.

If the house was cleaned on one day, the bathtub used the next, and then Sophie arrived, it would suggest very very local knowledge on who comes and goes and when....that is, if the cleaning lady really cleaned the bathtub.

The person using the bath would have had some understanding about the house. Where to switch on the electricity and the gas and even the water at the mains, I don't think one would consider a cold bath in a cold house and quite possibly in darkness.

I assume the gas and electricity would have been turned off at the mains during longer absences. Suppose the cleaning lady turned it on, just in time for Sophie to arrive, that would indicate that the one using the bath only had a very limited amount of time to do so, and would have had the house under observation and knowledge when who would be coming and going.

It's also possible, that the cleaning lady simply forgot to clean the bath tub.

Unless Alfie and Shirley or somebody known to them were the ones using it.

According to the pictures, Sophie kept little to no curtains in front of the windows. Anybody turning on the light would have been noticed even from quite a distance.

That is, if the bath was taken when it was dark outside.

Maybe Mrs. Hellen used the bath herself and forgot to clean it,

or maybe hubby used it , didn't they have horses close by?

They'd be most likely to be able to turn on the power and the hot water.

Changing the door locks appeared to stop the break-ins through the porch window?

The Guards took a black coat from Bailey's property for testing which came back negative.

In the Netflix documentary, Detective Dwyer said Bailey burned the coat. Didn't mention anything about the other coat.

The Guards seem to think that he burned the actual black coat, and this was a different black coat.

Without explaining why he would have multiple similar jackets, or where he got the other black coat after the murder.

At no point did they show the coat handed in to witnesses to see if people remembered Bailey wearing it, no mention of whether the coat looked new or old...

Oh and bonus points, during the GSOC investigation, the Guards lost \ lost track of the coat and don't know what happened to it.

I think it's entirely possible that someone was using the house when it was empty.. And that Sophie changed the locks because of it shows that she took this possibility very seriously.

This person (or persons) never came forward to rule themselves out.

It is strange that Alfie & Shirley wouldn't notice this happening.. I'd love to know what they thought of it.. Do they believe that someone was gaining access to Sophie's house in her absence? Did she discuss it with them? Presumably you would talk about this with your close neighbour?!

The black coat is a red herring I think.. Bailey was wearing it in the Christmas Day swim video two days later! They did take a black coat for testing.. If they had found a single speck of blood or anything on it we would all know about it.

The unopened bottle of red wine is a mystery.. The sort of person who might steal it would surely drink it too before discarding it? Who throws away a full bottle of wine... Maybe someone in a rage? Somewhere much earlier on this thread I posted a theory that her ex boyfriend Bruno (who had previously intimidated her and been violent towards her) may have turned up unexpectedly that night at the gate with the wine in hand to try and win her back - she told him to leave and it turned nasty. This is still possible.. But the wine bottle wasn't found until four months later? I know the Guards were poor in this case but surely they combed through every piece of land in the area?

Mrs Hellen had motive to be there as the housekeeper,

she would not need to hide her presence.