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

Not particularly.....

Wasn't somebody using Sophie's cottage to have a bath in.. probably sleep over too....?

What if this individual wasn't expecting Sophie to be at home?

Even in the 1970ies forensics would have had the capability of narrowing the time of death to at least plus or minus 3 hours. I know this first hand from somebody who studied medicine in the 70ies in a mainland European university.

The temperature at night time and during the day until forensics was at the scene was known and could have been factored in with ease. A time frame from 2am to 7am would have been to wide as a serious answer. That's a whole 5 hours.

Harbison should have been able to give a time frame of 3 hours at least. If he was unable to do that, he would have either ben incompetent or lazy, or both.

The two Gardaí first on the scene, Prendiville and Byrne reported lighter coloured fresher blood around the face and neck. Doctor O'Connor arrived about 11am, he reported "Her nose and nostrils were covered in bloodstaining which to me appeared lighter in colour than the rest of the blood staining.” Nothing about "observing" rigor mortis. Dr O'Connor did not take the temperature of the body. Harbison arrived 24 hours later and he could only go on what he found.

He started the autopsy at 2pm in Cork hospital, so death could have been anytime from 38 to 28 hours beforehand. If he was able to establish the time of the murder to within a couple of hours between midnight and 10am I'm sure Marie Farrell would have "seen" Bailey on the road at that particular time.

As for Harbison driving down on Monday, one of the shortest days of the year, he would not have arrived till well after dark. Indeed the forensics team from Dublin did not arrive in Schull until 10pm, and they got lost trying to find the place. Calling Harbison incompetent or lazy or both or even drunk on his arrival is scurrilous, imo.

Unlikely, and he would know that the darker drier blood around the site was older than the lighter coloured blood that "impressed" him. Garda Prendiville called it "wet" and Byrne called it "fresh". If Harbison was aware that there was wet fresh blood on the body 24 hours before he got to examine it, it's unlikely he would have considered the previous evening as his favoured time of death.

Surprise surprise

I wouldn't pay much notice to contradictions at this stage. It's a quarter of a century since the murder. Easy to make errors after all that time.

Add in alcohol and tiredness and even less reliable.

It’s easier to remember the truth.

The blood from the back door handle was tested again in 2002 in the UK after that DPP report and I believe the phrase the scientist used was "“very strong support” that the blood came from Sophie. The sample was not given to the French to test in 2011.

It was always going to be odds on Sophie's blood..

The question was did Sophie deposit it there herself - Maybe suggesting attack started at the cottage?

Or was the blood deposited there when the murderer pulled the door to / pushed the door to open it (Sophies blood on his sleeves / cuffs)?

I would suggest the latter.

I believe the key was still inserted inside the internal lock of the door (bloodied door).

This would be common enough practice for somebody retiring for the night, lock the door, leave the key in the lock.

This may suggest that that Sophie had retired for the night, and headed to bed to take her last phone call from her Husband..

Did Sophie open the door to an unexpected caller?

Did she open the door to a know caller?

Did she hear a noise down by the gate?

Logically, one would assume that she opened the door with the intention of venturing out (dressed in boots). A caller to the door would not justify lacing up a pair of boots to be honest?? Would you not just invite them in out of the cold..?

Everything pinpoints to the gate area - It all went down there... What brought her down there is the question?

Do you agree that she was probably drawn there by a disturbance of some sort?

If you do agree - Does that not suggest somebody within the locality? (Talking probabilities here.. Obviously figuratively speaking, it could have been Priscilla Presley, Kevin Keegan or Myself that did it, we were all capable of travelling to East Cork at the time.. Alas, realistically there's a good chance none of us did it).

So following the line of probabilities... What would draw Sophie to the gate?

Somebody cranking open or shutting the gate? An unruly party guest leaving Alfie Lyons house? An unplanned visitor making a call?

I think either of the above would suggest a person within the locality, that's before we consider the randy guards of the Parish, or the peeping toms etc..

It would appear that the initial assault taken place within the vicinity of the gate / lane way.. This is were most of the blood is lost. It is suggested that there were two blunt instruments used on Sophie, one being a rock or large pebble type weapon, the other being the concrete block.

In my opinion, the smaller rock was used in the initial attack, it was a frenzied attack and probably caught Sophie off guard... She probably received a volley of rapid blows that dazed her, probably brought her to her knees.. I strongly suspect she knew who the attacker was, she would have to be silenced,

The attacker knew she could identify him and panicked.

He needed something heavier to finish her off.. Did he already know the top course of concrete blocks was loose on the pump house??? The soon to be murderer walked up to the bend with the sole intention of retrieving a heavier block, how did he know they were loose?

Upon seeing this, did Sophie try to make her escape through the briars?? Was that her last option?

So when the deed was done.. Why would the killer walk back up to the house to check the property or close the door?

To enter the property increases the risk of detection.. He would have been bloodied and not thinking clearly, why would he bother if the door was open or shut? Why bother going back up the hill again anyway? Just get the hell out of there...