A Garda cold case team reviewing the investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier (39) have begun taking DNA samples from retired gardaí and others to try to identify unknown DNA found on one of murdered woman’s boots.
Officers from the Garda Serious Crime Review team have drawn up a list of approximately 12 people who could have come in contact with Ms Toscan du Plantier’s body following its discovery by neighbour Shirley Foster at her home at Toormore, near Schull, Co Cork, on December 23rd, 1996.
Ms Foster alerted her partner, the late Alfie Lyons, and he notified gardaí and Sgt Gerard Prendeville and the late Garda Billy Byrne proceeded to the scene and cordoned off the area pending the arrival of colleagues from Garda District HQ in Bantry.
Garda technical experts took swab samples from Ms Toscan du Plantier’s body and clothing as well as from a rock and concrete block used to bludgeon her to death, but forensic scientists were unable to find any DNA on the exhibits other than Ms Toscan du Plantier’s own DNA.
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But in October 2011, a team of French forensic scientists from the Institute de Recherche Criminelle de la Gendarmerie Nationale came to Ireland as part of a police team dispatched by investigating magistrate, Judge Patrick Gachon to examine the case.
The French scientists were given access to the exhibits including the clothing Ms Toscan du Plantier was wearing on the night of her murder which included a short cotton top, long-John style underpants, boot-like shoes with socks sewn in the top and a blue dressing gown.
The French police did not disclose whether they found anything in their forensic examination but in May 2018, chief suspect in the case, English journalist Ian Bailey revealed the French scientists had found what they described as “alien DNA” on one of the victim’s boots.
Mr Bailey made the discovery that the French scientists had found the “alien DNA” around some lace eyelets in one of the boots when he and his lawyers were given access to the French file when the French authorities decided to charge him with the voluntary homicide.
Mr Bailey repeatedly denied any involvement in the killing and on May 8th, 2018, he told The Opinion Line on Cork’s 96FM that “my hope, my prayer if you will, is that the identity of the real murderer is revealed” before disclosing what he had found in the French file.
“I got all the forensic details. There were over 100 different blood samples collected at the scene – the vast majority of these were from Ms du Plantier (but) there was, apparently, according to the file, what was known as alien DNA – not her DNA.
“Quite clearly that did not match my DNA because I had given samples (to gardaí on New Year’s Eve 1996) and they could check it against it,” said Mr Bailey, adding that he was astounded by the revelation that French had found DNA that the gardaí had missed.
But now the Garda Serious Crime Review Team have begun gathering DNA samples from retired members of the force who served as either scenes-of-crime examiners or exhibits officers or were present at Ms Toscan du Plantier’s postmortem on December 24th, 1996.
In cases where the officers are deceased, they have made contact with family members to obtain samples while they have also made contact with the family of the late State Pathologist, Prof John Harbison to obtain a sample as they try to identify the alien DNA.
“We don’t know where this DNA came from but we are going through the file rigorously, so we have started with the more obvious possible sources, those who were in contact with Ms Toscan du Plantier’s body, gardaí, the pathologist, mortuary staff in a bid to identify it.
“The team are currently about halfway through the process in terms of the people they want to test so they will see what that yields but if they don’t get a match, then they will review where they will go in terms of broadening out their inquiries,” said an informed source.
