Cold Case Review of Sophie Tuscan du Plantier murder to proceed. **Threadbans in OP**

Sorry I thought there was some connection, that the guy with the fake number plates and scratches was connected to those on the run.

But even more bizarrely... he is not. So wtf was he doing with fake number plates.

There's this pair:

"The pair were hiding out in the isolated rural area after receiving death threats from a French criminal gang. It is understood that Sophie had met the men while she was in Ireland and Gardai are investigating whether she was targeted because of her friendship with them."

Yes but it wasn’t the day of the murder was it?

im not saying there’s anything in this, but a 2.5 hour drive isn’t much, especially if someone wanted to get away from a scene.

the article is by John Kieran’s though, who gets most of his information from Bailey, so this could just be another of his attempts to send folk on a wild goose chase. Unless Kieran’s has a genuine Garda source who is giving much more away than the lads in the press conference. Who knows.

Yea a two hour drive is not far but it's far enough away for the presence of a French speaking European with scratches on his face to be totally irrelevant to the case.

If the person was seen in Goleen or Bantry or Schull it would be a very different story.

It was the night after according to the article.

why would you hang around locally if you murdered someone? I can’t see how a 2 hour drive makes someone irrelevant.

ah look, at least if Bailey did it, they can’t see this time they didn’t look at other suspects too. 26 years too late like.

What makes it irrelevant is that all it was was a person with scratches on his face who spoke French in a town two plus hours drive away from where a French woman was murdered a day earlier.

You might as well put a pin in Schull and draw a 80 mile radius and suspect every French speaking man with scratches on their face within that radius.

There's a motorway through the black valley now, and the jarveys have to use the hard shoulder. So that's at least 10 mins saved.

"Maybe he was a spotter for the hitman with the false number plates"

Boardsie`s Detective Agency will solve it in the end.

Yeah, it's probably best that you keep to your crime busting strategy of ignoring the facts while zooming around in your 1996 Ford Fiesta with the go faster stripes Fr. Ted. Interpol will be head hunting you soon.

That evidence when taken together is quite compelling - that being said the suspect is yet to be charged and if charged, will be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Agreed, I'd be taking anything Marie Farrell said with a pinch of salt. Or even a shovel full.

Agree, the killer knew Sophie, and most probably Sophie knew her killer. She pulled on her outdoor boots, suggesting she planned to go outside, not just answer the door to a visitor. I doubt she would have gone out to a stranger. I believe they met down by the gates and a confrontation ensued. . She felt the visitor was trespassing on her property and was perhaps in the habit of doing so when she was not there. So someone local who came and went at will? She had no right to object to anyone coming in through the gate in the lane, but the gate into her lawn from the lane was her property and that gate may have been the reason for the confrontation. That gate was open when Shirley Foster found the body in the morning.

Indeed, here's what I think, bear with me;

First 2 images are of the pumphouse some time before the murder, Sophie is filmed walking past the pumphouse. The block used is arrowed in the second image .The top course is loose laid and some gaps are left for ventilation. Note the open gap in the ditch into the bottom of Sophie's lawn, just visible in the video..

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Third image is of the pumphouse in the crime scene photos.

Note the felt roof is lifted from the walls of the pumphouse and the arrowed block is now missing.

.........

Fourth image is the route the attacker took to get the block from the pumphouse, across the lane and about 15 yds uphill.

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Fifth image is from the crime scene photos of the new gate in the gap into the bottom of Sophie's lawn. This gate closed onto the pumphouse, (I haven't established whether it was padlocked or not.)

Note this gate along with the gate in the lane is open. This is how Shirley Foster found them that morning.

...................

A few things I would take from these images;

It was probably a dawn/ daylight attack.

As Flannell said , it was probably someone who knew the pumphouse and Sophie's house and surrounds.

It was probably someone whom Sophie knew well enough to venture out and engage with, most likely local. so obviously not Bailey.

I don't believe her attacker arrived with sexual intent or with malice in mind. But the initial encounter, whether casual or confrontational escalated into a frenzied attack. In fact I don't think her attacker came there specifically to engage with Sophie, but for some mundane reason like maintenance or looking after animals or delivery, and Sophie objected to the incursion into her property.