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

I believe the French investigators found a substance on her left boot near the lower lace holes- not blood- that proved to be male. Ian Bailey made a big thing of it at the time, calling for a new investigation ;

Ian Bailey, completely drunk? Ian Bailey who while out of it with drink was able to write an article which was published the following week in the Sunday Tribune? After driving himself home from the pub? That Ian Bailey?

OK - next question - keys.

JP Twomey states that when he arrived on scene on the morning of 23rd December both doors were locked and police were unable to gain entry. The keys were in the back of the front door and the back door was secured with a yale lock. There is a directional smear of blood, subsequently identified as Sophie's, above the handle on the back door which may indicate that someone with her blood on their hands pulled the door closed.

Unfortunately no-one thought to ask, either at the time or subsequently, what Sophie's normal routine was. This means that, without knowing what is normal, we have no way of knowing what isn't. She may have only used the yale on the back door but we can't know this for certain so can't interpret her movements.

To a certain extent it is irrelevant which door she left through although anything that helps to build up a picture of what happened is undoubtedly useful. Other than the small stone with a drop of her blood on it just inside the gateway to the field in front of the house there is no evidence as to which route she took and this blood may have been transferred from the offender rather than originating directly from Sophie. I imagine the police looked extremely hard to find trace evidence on both potential routes but came up empty handed.

Finally with regards to the breeze block. Blood behaves in different ways depending on how it is deposited on a surface. Expirated blood, which I think is what you are referring to, contains air as well as blood and forms a distinctive fine spray pattern with the blood/air bubbles bursting on contact with a solid surface.

The breeze block shows a pattern of clear and blood stained areas on certain of its aspects which is more consistent with direct transfer from a bloody object. The clear areas being those which were "protected" when the blood was deposited.

Hope this makes sense.

Further confirmation comes in a statement from Sgt John Healy who arrived at the scene at @14.15 on 23rd. He states - "I recalled seeing a vehicle a Peugeot 305 estate parked within the crime scene area on the road leading away from the scene. It was faced away from the scene and had black plastic bags in the boot area. The bags were full. I attended the scene and spoke to members there. This may have taken 5 to 10 minutes. I then noticed the female from the neighbouring house. This person who I now know to be Shirley Foster go through the field from her house towards the Peugeot. I spoke to Ms. Foster and informed her that nothing could be removed from the crime scene without investigation. She agreed to a search of the vehicle and the removal of the bags for further examination. She then drove off in the direction of Schull"

The bags weren't searched at that point. They were removed from the car and left on the side of the road. There is a scenes of crime photo clearly showing this.

Unfortunately there is no further info that I can find about what happened to them subsequently so we don't know if or when they were searched and what was found in them.

If Healy arrived at 14.15 and Shirley arrived 5-10 mins later, that’s 14.20 at least. Shirley met Bailey and Jules out the boreen at 14.20, so car would not have been searched at all. Also Alfie and Shirley were confined to their house for 5 or 6 days after the murder according to Leo Bolger, as he had to bring them supplies. Bailey went with him up to Alfie’s house and this was when Bailey was supposed to have seen the bottle of Champagne.

I haven't read anything indicating the bottle of wine was champagne. So doesn't seem much of a gotcha - the opposite could more easily be argued. Just as likely used because Sophie was French.

Seems like one journalist (Senan Maloney) reading way too much into a comment

If we brought the same suspicious eye to articles about the murder by other journalists, what sort of cryptic leaps could we make to think they know more than they should?

Self discrediting isn't it?

No idea, especially as all we have is this reference from another article, and not the phrase used in context - at least I've never seen the article it supposedly came from here or elsewhere on social media.

Am I right in thinking that the bag seen on top of Sophie’s trolley at the airport was a duty free bag containing alcohol? I wonder if the Gardai checked the receipts in Sophie’s wallet against what was found in the house? I imagine the alcohol was intended for her own consumption but possibly as a gift/gifts as well.

Bailey wrote about the Champagne himself in one of his articles for the Tribune or Star. But he couldn't see into Sophie's kitchen on their way up to Alfie's, so probably made it up.

I find it strange that the gate was fully open. As you say, Sophie was obsessive about having them closed and Shirley also said she thought it very unusual when she saw the gate opened that morning she found the body.

Also, was there another piece of a block taken off the pumphouse? In the photo, it looks like it may be sitting beside the roof of the pumphouse, though it looks like it may have been sitting there for some time.

I'm just reading back through the statements so forgive me if this is a bit hit and miss.

The first officers on scene were Prenderville and Byrne who arrived at 10.38. Prenderville went to Alf Lyons house whilst Byrne stayed by the gate to preserve the scene. Byrne keeps an unofficial scene log which he references in his statement. Dr O'connor arrived at 10.55 and left at 11.10. Garda Joy arrived at 11.55 as did Father Cashman who left at 12.00 noon. JP Twomey arrived at 12.05 and Garda Malone arrived at the same time. Finbar arrived at 12.35 and identified the body. There is no mention of Josie's arrival time but Finbar says, in his statement, that she left home @ 30 mins before he did and that when he arrived he saw her talking to gardai. It occurs to me that she may not have had keys with her as she was coming to meet Sophie so would have had no need of then. Certainly there is no mention of them and, at this stage, no mention of anyone attempting to access the property. To be continued......

I don’t know, it looks like the top course or two may have been loose laid and it wouldn’t be unusual to leave a few gaps for ventilation, like 1/2 or 1/4 blocks.