Murder at the Cottage | Sky

it would be easier to reverse into that spot, than reverse out.

there was/is a turning/parking space just across the lane;

That parking spot behind sophies house is a small triangle area see landdirect.ie and at the moment is being contested, reviewed, questioned on the web site...

A little over 500m... Looked at it with google road map... there's a couple of entrances on that road and just looks like a good hike to me..

Stone walls visible so I presume used for rough grazing/ herding.... 5 minutes tops for me, if scouted out a bit in daylight....

Perfect analysis of the most important considerations in the aftermath.

It got me thinking though, perhaps this wasn't actually a frenzied attack but a successful attempt to kill without any significant transfer of forensic material?

Hit victim with object, object is now bloodied so discard it and progress to a "clean" object, repeat as necessary.

This would give the impression of a frenzied attack but it's really an attempt at avoiding any transfer of material and would mean that there was no initial dragging or punching but obviously some means of control (threat of being hit by something?) would have been necessary.

Nevertheless, someone as calculated as this would still be very aware of all your considerations and would not allow themselves to be complacent.

Ther can be no innocuous reason for tampering with evidence. An entire investigation can be undermined if it can be shown that evidence has been tampered with.

In a regulated industry if a person wants to 'delete' something that was entered in error they don't simply remove pages. The error is marked with a strikethrough, dated, signed and annotated as to the reason for it being 'deleted'. what is 'deleted' remains on record and the date, person and reason for its deletion.

The integrity of records relating to a criminal investigation need to be treated with a similar strictness. Several pages of records relating to a critical point in a criminal investigation don't simply remove themselves. No stone should have gone unturned in identifying who had access to the jobs books in question, who removed the pages in question, and for what reason. I don't think too much significance can be attached to the deliberate tampering with evidence and records. It is central to the integrity of an investigation.

I think, I've wrote something similar before. This is why I think that the murder must have been coordinated and planned, rather than unplanned. This is also why I think that the murderer was most likely not a local, and if he was local and from that peninsula, he would have been single as he would have had to hide his emotions after the murder and anybody who knew him, must have noticed. I think that German musician would have been single? That "Frenchman" who apparently lived in the area, I don't know?

I am still mostly inclined to go with the "husband hiring a hitman" motive, as well as with the "drug ring police involvement" motive as a speculative theory rather than with Bailey.

The only place where Bailey could have washed up properly, changed clothes without being seen would have been his studio. He could also have disposed of his clothes, shoes, etc. Bailey also had family of Jules around later on that day as far as we know. Bailey would also have to have hiked, and not borrowed Jule's car. The only thing that bothers me here, is the fire Bailey had behind the studio. It's not any evidence, but an indication.

I strongly disagree with the statement that Sophie's house "was difficult to find for somebody who isn't local". This statement may only apply to somebody who doesn't know Ireland, never been to Ireland, and possibly only lived in the US for all of his life or has no sense of direction at all. Somebody who planned this murder would have found it with ease.

Could it have been contested at the time of the murder and still not resolved ?

The part with the shed is not part of Alfie's property on the map either,

He laid claim to it even though Sophie owned her house before Alfie bought his,

The estate agent told Sophie it was her property when he sold her the house .

I believe the state the front door lock was found in caused confusion, with some interpreting " on the latch" as locked.

The photo shows the keys in the lock with the latch pulled back i.e. in the unlocked position.

Which would be the state of the lock when the Gardaí arrived at the scene.

What sort of information did these "jobs" books normally contain, I wonder? Interviews with suspects or witnesses were transcribed or recorded separately. A "jobs" book, given it's title, might contain details of staff rosters and duties or names and addresses of callers to the station and details of their queries or business. If that were the case then, yes, I could see how crucial information pertaining to the investigation could be gleaned from perusing them.

"It's been established that the Gardaí reported that the front door was also locked." This sounds like a certainty. Where is the evidence for this assertion?

I had a thought about that house as well. Especially since Sophie complained somebody using the bathtub in her absence, chances are somebody had done the same in the house of the Richardson's? The locks of these doors are most likely not high security and can be picked with ease. However that's speculation as well. The killer would have had real balls to hide in the Richardson's house while the police where around the murder scene, him hoping that he doesn't get discovered.

I don't know if that house was searched, but I am sure, the police would have investigated, whether the house had been lived in or not during the time of the murder. That is, if the police can be trusted the way things went in this case......

I dont think they would have stayed in the house after the murder but they could have hid out there before the murder if it was planned. It also could have been used to clean themselves up before fleeing the seen.

In its report, GSOC says it is most concerned with pages that went missing from the original garda ‘jobs book’ while in the custody of gardaí.

Garda jobs books are meant to contain an entire record of the progress of a major investigation, outlining all actions undertaken by gardaí and the reasons that these actions were raised.

“This concern is compounded further by the fact that the specific pages missing are from an area of the book when Ian Bailey seems to have first been identified as a potential suspect in the murder by gardaí — and, as such, they are potentially very significant,” says the report.