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

Skid marks on the lane by the gate into Sophie's lawn.

Gardaí attributed them to Shirley Foster when she first saw the body, but Shirley never mentions stopping at this point, She said she drove past the body and through the gate before she stopped. It's unlikely she would skid to a halt there and then continue on another 10-20 yards before stopping again to investigate. Those skid marks could as easily be accounted for by a car taking off at speed up the lane to turn, as skidding to a halt going down the lane.

Did someone, a regular visitor perhaps, open the gate in the lane, drive through and park where the tyre marks are and enter Sophie's lawn through the gate just visible on the right?

Edited to add 2 photos by @bjsc back in March.

The red circle in photo 2 below is roughly where Sophie's body was, edited out

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There wasn't really any "someone" TO drive down the lane, though; there was only one permanently occupied house up there.

I mean, obviously, there was a person there that night or early morning who committed a horrible crime; it might have been more than one, I suppose - a pair of criminals…even would-be burglars, perhaps. For the moment I'm going with the supposition that the criminal was NOT Alfie Lyons or Shirley Foster.

After all, two of the three houses were holiday homes, only occasionally used. Breaking into holiday homes was, and is, unfortunately quite common. (As I know to my cost - our own little holiday cottage, also down a remote lane but much nearer to Dublin, was repeatedly broken into until we put a solid steel door on it.)

Just as likely as any other theory.

I think Sophie intentionally went down to the gate…….the donning of the boots indicates that.

I cannot see any evidence that supports the sexual motive so that leaves the husband/hit theory and the sudden conflict proposition, as per your scenario. Of the two, the row at the gate is the more plausible.

Are they though? I know its been suggested that the focus remains on Bailey but, when they report, they will have to show that all possibilities were explored. I doubt that the case will ever be solved but something new may emerge.

I'm no Ms Vito but it looks to me like the skid mark in the mud and the mark on the gravel are too close to be made by the same car at the same time

Bsileys distancing himself from knowledge of Sophie was never convincing

I believe the most he acceded to was seeing her from Alfie's window ?

That never rang true and was suggestive of a stronger connection

Again all supposition on my part

That's the thing imo or one of them that leads me to suspect Bailey

I believe he's a liar and not a very convincing one

Again all speculation on my part

A few months or a couple of months ?

That's quite a long time for circumstances to have changed prior to murder

Also I didn't state that he physically knew her but that he may have had an emotional connection from knowing of her or seeing her.

Alternatively he may he have simply lied and been low balling his knowledge of Sophie which I believe he did anyway subsequent to the murder

Again all speculation and supposition

Worth noting that bjsc stated she believes a random caller to the house that morning is unlikely

If correct the killer would have known her or had some reason to drive there

If she walked to gate

The garda theory is that she was chased to the gate from the house and i believe this is the correct theory

Could be

One theory is as good as the next here in the absence of proof

What difference does it make whether they met at the gate or the house anyway?

I watched a Netflix series about the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that vanished a decade ago.

Even though the series was well made it were some crazy theories about what happened to the flight made by what I would describe as otherwise rational individuals who were experienced in aviation.

Stuff about spies getting into the comms cabinets under the floor of first class and turning off sat receivers, stuff like the Inmarsat data that was used to give an indication of where the plane might be being manipulated.

All making for interesting viewing, but equally far fetched rubbish.

I think anything that Sheridan does about this case will be the same.

And, critically, no one else claims that there was any association between them. Apart from Alfie, who was "90% sure that he had introduced them. But they were never seen together, there were no rumours of a connection, no records of any communications between them. In an environment like Schull/Toormore/Dunmanus, its hard to see how any type of relationship betwem them would go unnoticed.

There's nothing to suggest that his denial of an association with her is false.

No; there's absolutely no trace of this. A double set of running footprints from the house, down the field, and into the lane?

Not a sign, not a mark in the grass. Absolutely nothing to support this idea.