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

That's all circumstantial and hearsay. That's the problem. It's about conversations which took place nearly 30 years ago. But good points nevertheless.

However what I would like to understand about the whole trip is, how long ahead did Sophie plan her flights? This would be important to know because first, she never visited around Christmas before and second, how did the killer know that she was at the cottage? The fact that she was murdered on the day she was due to leave also could give a bit of indication, as to the time frame the killer had to either confront her with something or to kill her. It's my guess the killer didn't have a lot of time in planning as well? That is if he planned at all?

If the Frenchman in the dark coat and the black beret is one of the possible suspects he would have had to book flights himself, for the same time Sophie was there. How did he get that information?

And did the Frenchman fly to Ireland just to confront Sophie or fly to Ireland with intent to kill? - that is if he did it? What would have been so important to justify the flight to Ireland to confront her with something? and even kill her?

All unanswered questions but worth examining.

Interesting, is this why Baby John in the Kerry Babies case had to be exhumed?

I think you're giving us valuable insight but you're also overthinking this.

Overall the general public had a very negative impression on the work and the investigation of the Gardai in this case.

Some things were simply mishandled or not very elegantly expressed and stated. Regarding Dwyer, he isn't exactly the lowest rank, he was Chief Superintendent of West Cork, so he had responsibility of the men working for him and the mistakes they made, - at least in the eyes of most.

Either Dwyer is the boss or he isn't, and if he's the boss he's got responsability and others reporting to him, and him directing others. However by the sounds of it he wasn't much in control for whatever reason. The case must have had his top priority, murders in West Cork are very rare.

Stating that the killer must have been local, just because the house is remote and "difficult to find" was a bad joke for many, or a lame excuse to zoom in on Bailey and forget everyone else. It may not have been but it sounded very much like it.

Bailey had scratches, but he must have gotten them somewhere. If his DNA wasn't to be found at the scene, he couldn't have gotten them there, thus it won't hold up in court, that's the logic most people would think of. Also Bailey volunteered his DNA early on.

Losing evidence, the size of a gate? Giving drugs to transients to get close to Bailey or coercing a witness to tell lies under oath in a court of law because the investigation goes nowhere? This all under Dwyer doesn't really go down lightly for the general population and the taxpayer, thus a certain level of discontent. Nobody get's fired, or get's disciplined?

Other than that, it's entirely possible that back in the days the Gardai didn't get everything they asked for by the French police, financial statements, phone records, etc… So in the end, the information the Irish side was rather limited at a certain point. The Gardai probably did a lot of investigating into a lot of other directions which the public wasn't aware of before zooming in on Bailey as the pressure grew and they didn't deliver any results.

That's an interesting tool, it does have that sort of shape. Whatever it is, it does seem to have disappeared from the after-photos as far as I can tell. Speculating of course but perhaps the perpetrator got it to try and hack Sophie out of the briars after she got trapped, if those pictures of the cut briars from earlier were accurate.

With the time difference between the two pictures it's difficult to attach any significance to what is in one picture and no in the other. e.g. the board shovel in the second is not in the first.

An axe type implement would not make as clean a cut of brambles as was visible in the picture of the cut bramble near the gate.

Was it ever proven or known, what the real murder weapon was? Was she hit with the poker axe/hatchet and later on finished off with the cavity block? I think this was one possibility often mentioned.

That's what I understood.

As far as I know the axe / hatched / poke is still missing, and never turned up.

Thus it is suspected that the murderer took it with him. This could be an indication that this was also used in the murder and could implicate him? It's probably easier to carry than a cavity block?

If the axe could implicate the murderer he must have disposed of it at some point somewhere? ( if the Gardai found that at Bailey's studio or Jule's or Alfie and Shirley's it'll be a bit of a problem and a good amount of explaining for them…)

“The Gardai asked for various phone records from France and didn't get them, presumably because it is not so easy to gather such information without a warrant, and a warrant needs a judge etc.”

Do you know if the Irish phone records they got showed any correspondence with Sophie before she phoned Josie Hellen about her trip? Maybe Sophie was tipped off about someone abusing her property, someone other than Alfie using her lane along the back of her house by her back door, or the lawn in front of her house to access Alfie’s shed and field?

"Mrs Hellen told detectives that Sophie's manner on the telephone seemed unrelaxed and hurried."

If I'm not mistaken Daniel talked to her right after Josie and I believe he mentioned she was tired, but there was nothing out of the ordinary, and didn't say anything about being unrelaxed etc., is that correct?

Baily reported that "she was repeatedly struck from behind with what was suspected to be a poker, before her skull was crushed with a massive stone"

See Attachment, save it and you can enlarge it on your PC

Do you have a date for this article?

I didn't know Jules went with Bailey to visit Alfie, I thought it was just Leo Bolger.