Murder at the Cottage | Sky

There would have been very little comings and goings .

There was only Alfie and Shirley in permanent residence.

There was no Amazon and couriers racing around in white vans then.

Wouldn't have to be Amazon or white vans

That's a very good speculation.

However, I don't think that Bailey would have had any success chasing after Sophie. Sophie was by far younger and most likely not drunk that evening.

The thing is that Alfie and Shirley were the only ones who lived there permanently, that means that they knew what was going on in the neighbourhood. They could have been an indication if it's about something Sophie has seen, but should not have, if that's what the motive for murder was.

What about the other neighbours further to the east of Sophie's house? They were not there at the night of the murder, right? But did they ever complain somebody using their house in their absence, like the bathtub? Did they ever notice some drug activity going on when they were there? It would have been an enquiry to follow up upon as well.

A moment of silence for Detective Moonunit at this difficult time…

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/serving-garda%C3%AD-targeted-for-searches-in-dublin-drugs-gang-investigation-1.4688182

though on a serious note it is a shocking development; there is little doubt left in my mind that a deeper Garda corruption element will eventually come to light in Sophie’s case too

Thanks for that. I was not aware of the birth dates. I guess in the pictures of Sophie used in the media she appeared to be rather young.

Was there blood found around the area near the back door? I know of the mark on the door itself.

I found it odd that Shirley noticed that Sophie's light by the backdoor was on when she was going to bed, yet in the morning it was off. When Sophie was disturbed, she surely turns the light on to see who is there regardless of how afraid she might have been. The back door was closed and the light off, did the killer return and do that?

Statements

Does anybody have a link or know where to get the transcripts from the police interviews? Screenshots below are hard to make out but from Shirley's statement below is it indicating that Alfie and Shirley were still walking around the crimescene later in the day when he pointed out the blood?

And something about the perpetrator falling over a dustbin by the backdoor? Why on earth is that in a statement - was Shirley now part of the investigation team? I can't beleive for a second that Shirley would be talking about the dustbin. Impossible to seperate fact from fiction with all of these statements.

Tyre tracks

Does anybody know what side of the gate were the tyre tracks? You can only surmise that these tracks were from a stationary vehicle that put the pedal to the metal and thus spun the wheels as driving down this laneway and bend is hardly a place for quickly accelerating. The vehicle that left the tyre tracks had also obviously come down the laneway from Sophies or Alphies house as that's the only place you could turn around. Also interesting that initially the Guards thought it was a hit and run which would explain how she ended up in the ditch and then was she finished off?

Yes there was a small/medium blood stain on the ground at the back door.

Can’t delete comment

The thing is that it's been 25 years and that's a long time.

Unless there is compelling new evidence or a deathbed confession we won't unfortunately learn nothing new.

I am also inclined to think that in the possibility of the "drug-gang-corrupt-guard" theory, Alfie and Shirley had a role to play, - probably not voluntarily, but quite possibly coerced. The thing is, that both of them were considerably older than Sophie? So Sophie would have outrun them, if she was chased that night? They were both way to close to the murder scene for not having heard or noticed absolutely anything, regardless how deep they slept, or what they did all day and evening, they must have noticed something.

There is not much one can find about the deceased detective from Bantry. Evidence has most likely been destroyed a while ago. In his lifestyle probably everything was abnormal, but I would have looked at anything sticking out? But what? Maybe old bank statements and unusual transactions, which most likely don't exist anymore. Is his wife still alive? or any of his kids?

what, like

Connecting the dots is one thing, the problem is, we're not getting any proof of what happened, and we most likely never will.

Apart from new and compelling evidence turning up or a deathbed confession there is also the possibility that somebody out there still alive knows something as well. One of these "somewhere-somebody-knows-people" could in my opinion be Shirley and the reasons she won't talk is that she was herself somehow involved. That doesn't mean Alfie and herself did the killing, but their sheer presence in the night of the murder was simply to close that they noticed nothing at all.

Naturally none of us can prove any of Shirley's involvement, so police also can't pull her in and grill her for hours. However it could be possible that if there ever is a deathbed confession in the Sophy Toscan du Plantier murder case, it would with a strong likelihood come from Shirley.

Other than that we have to stick with what we have, and it'll be most likely unsolved forever.

I didn't know how much the Gards questioned Alfie and Shirley and what kind of evidence they looked at to eliminate both of them. Nor did I know of Alfie's health situation. Things are only a speculation here, but I think I mentioned that in nearly every post to this subject.

One other reason why Alfie and Shirley didn't hear anything that night might also have been that if there was a lot of wind that night which is not uncommon for this part or any part of Ireland, and the wind would have carried sounds eastward, - away from their house.

It's just a bit odd that no one was closer to the murder scene and lived there all year round but them, and they heard nothing at all or seen nothing unusual at all.