Sophie: A Murder in West Cork - Netflix.

The Axe/ Poker;

Some reports say an axe, some call it a small kindling axe, some say a poker, some say kept by the fire, some say outside the back door.

The French newspaper 'Liberation' report on 30th;

“Quickly, we brought in Josephine Helen, her housekeeper for five years, ......... “Nothing was missing except a candle snuffer and some sort of cymbal."

I can't tell if they took her into the house,(Which would would have been very strange), or just interviewed her, as she was the one the Gardai took around the house on the 24th to see if anything was out of place. Remember Josie's words were interpreted by the reporter and in turn re-interpreted by Google, so if you want, hunt around an English- French/French-English dictionary and figure out what she said. Also this was 6/7 days after the murder, so forensics may have started bagging up stuff in the house. I believe they took the kitchen table, her diaries, her bags and other stuff eventually.

The diaries,

were not diaries as in "dear diary" daily musings type diaries. The French called them journals, basically a Filofax (for those old enough to remember) Dates, times, appointments, flights etc . Nothing about Ian Bailey in there. The Gardai did not hand them over to the French investigators hence, "missing". (suited their agenda ?) They did resurface later, about 2010 I think, re-examined and nothing was found to point to any suspect.

The wine bottle;

If it's the expensive bottle of wine found in the ditch a km. away 3 months after the murder, like the gate and other stuff missing it's a shambles alright.

If it's the bottle of Champagne Bailey says was on the kitchen table, I believe he's the only one mentions this. He was allowed up to Alfie's on the 26th but he was not allowed anywhere near the house, the photos of him peering through the window were much later. As a journalist he would have quized Alfie. Alfie had gone to Sophie's house to check on her or alert her before he even rang the Gardai, so you'd assume he would have peered through the windows when he got no answer, so maybe there was a Champagne bottle that later was missing.

All the above is from other reports and articles I've read, I don't have links other than the French 'Liberation' ;

The translation is a bit iffy and a strange bit of duplication in a place.

The "special correspondent " appears to be a German woman .

I would not consider Marie Farrell serious. However if she would name the name of the man she was with, and he would corroborate the story of having seen a man at a certain time at Kaelfada bridge, than I would say, we have at least something. But I do not think Bailey could ever have been identified in darkness from a car at that time of the night, nor would it prove Bailey was the murderer or at the murder site. It would only prove that Bailey was out and not at the studio.

Regarding Kaelfada bridge, besides Marie Farrell, wasn`t there another man stating he heard noises coming potentially from Sophie`s house?.

As far as I know he stated the noise was possibly foxes or animals, but could also be human?

The time was sometime at night, or in the early morning? This also raises the question, if this guy did hear something, why didn`t Alfie and Shirley?

Do we know why she wanted the gates to be closed? Was ist about animals coming in?

Yes, but neither a killer nor a rapist or a burglar would ever be put off by such a gate. And even if it was closed, he would have opened it up.

2 gardai at the scene looked at Alfie's wound, they also asked Dr O'Connor to check it and they agreed it was an old wound.

There were horses next door, it was reported. If there was a dog next doorit would probably bark. I know that a neighbours farm dog always barks when I open my gate. I am about 250M away too.

What if a drunk Bailey showed up to her house. She answered the door and asked him to leave. Being a drunken' fool he started blathering on and taunting about not leaving, he asks for a drink she gives him the bottle of wine on condition that he leave now then he went down to the end of the driveway but wouldn't leave from there either so she got pissed off, possibly grabbed something to intimidate him with and in a huff marched down with the door open behind her because her only intention was to clear him off. She tells him to f*ck off home. He gets furious and swings at her, she tries to avoid it but got caught in the brambles to the side and got scratched up, he finds the stone and bashes her while she's struggling to free herself from the brambles.

She may not have even screamed loudly if it was someone known to her who was drunk. She may not have seen the blow with the stone coming if she was preoccupied freeing herself from the bramble. She may have been annoyed rather than scared not expecting this person to be so violent. He gets the bottle of wine and anything she may have brought out and maybe even goes back up to the house trying to figure out if there was anything he did by the doorway that could trace him back but then gets out of there, throws the bottle away.

IB is a text book narcist with an alcohol problem and an anger problem. He had been to Alfie's before. He definitely saw her (though he goes back and forth on ever seeing her in the flesh), he definitely would have at least heard about her. Narcists have a tendency to want to be in circles with people perceived as accomplished. The wife of a French producer. A woman who was considered artistic while Bailey considered himself artistic. Jules was a victim of his. Many abused spouses are manipulated by abusive partners. She didn't remove herself from the relationship with him for so long but that doesn't mean she really believed he was innocent. She clearly tried to cover for him and they got caught out re: her not actually seeing him until he arrived back to the main house in the morning.

Anyone else notice throughout the documentary, when IB was out and about he was usually wearing gloves...he also seemed to have numerous coats.

All this thread is, is speculation because there is no evidence other than circumstantial and the circumstantial evidence points to IB more than anyone...at least for now. The one thing we can all agree on is that Marie Farrell is a f'kin wagon!

It could have happened this way, especially the fighting scene you have described here. However I would not agree that there is more pointing to Bailey than to anybody else. If Bailey showed up at Sophie's door it would not have been a quiet encounter. His breath of alcohol would have caused most certainly a reaction from Sophie. This would mean that Alfie and Shirley heard something, that is if they were telling the truth.

Bailey could of course have done it, but I don't think that there is more circumstantial evidence pointing to him, than to anybody else in the theories which have been mentioned here. And then there is the open and unanswered question why none of Bailey's DNA was ever found at the crime scene or on the body, especially as his cuts are supposed to have happened during the murder? Also, could Bailey cleaned up the crime scene after having had so many drinks and not missing anything at all?

Just getting to and from Sophie's would have been a challenge for Bailey, considering how much alcohol he had before, and what was his motivation for doing so? Sex? or companionship? money? maybe some freelance work? and that to be discussed at 2 or 3 or 4am in the morning? I honestly don't think that that's realistic at any stage that night, even a narcissist like Bailey would have known that this would have no real results in his favour....

😂😂 Very good. I think you are probably too artistically talented though for AGS.

@tinytobe I don't think anyone cleaned up the crime scene. There was blood splatter from the rock, if the marks on Sophie came from the briars there would be no skin under the nails. The only thing possibly cleaned up would be the bottle which someone f*cked into a field fairly far away from the house. I would suggest if the bottle was present and discarded by the killer then the killer was most likely local and not an assassin. Otherwise, would you hold onto the bottle and get rid of it much further away from the crime scene? Unless you were frantic, your safe house was somewhere in the area and you knew you had to get rid of it before you get home in-case the Gardai come knocking at your door.

@flanna01 Nah, I just threw those in as my observations. The circumstantial evidence has been detailed by the podcast, documentaries and others on here.

I am often at odds to understand why there was no DNA and no further evidence found at the crime scene?

Either the killer knew that the police were so incompetent they would never collect any useable evidence or the killer was really that careful during the murder and the possible later clean up of the crime scene? In the end, I think it's unlikely the police didn't collect or were not able to collect anything in evidence at all, they must have had something, albeit very little.

However since they sent some samples over to the UK for examination, as far as I know, and still didn't find anything they could match to the killer, I would be inclined to say, it was the killer's accomplishment not to leave any evidence at all rather than the police not collecting any evidence. This would imply the killer acted carefully, experienced, and would also imply that the killing was planned, rather than unplanned, and that one regardless if the beatings to Sophie's head look unprofessional or not.

Also, Bailey would have known that at some point DNA evidence would be sent over to the UK, - he covered crime as well, and he would have known that in the UK dealing with DNA evidence was far more advanced than in Ireland.

One also needs to take into account that Bailey would have to have hiked for nearly 1 hour to get to Sophie's, and that in pretty drunken condition, and either murdered Sophie without leaving any evidence, or cleaning up the crime scene carefully, still under the influence of alcohol and then hike back and clean himself up.

It's a scenario which I see as highly unlikely and then all that effort for a murder he had nothing to gain from and a woman who was barely at her home in Ireland.