February 24, 2025 • 48 mins
Sophie Toscan Du Plantier took a brief getaway to her vacation home just days before Christmas. When she was found dead at the end of her driveway, it shook the small town where she was visiting as she wasn't from the area and only knew a few people. Suspicion fell on a reporter, but a lack of evidence made the case difficult.
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Music by:Kai Engel"Daemones"Blooper music by:Art of Escapism"Coal Miners"
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
Sources:
To access earlier episodes of Corpus Delicti and to help support the show, please visit patreon.com/corpusdelicti
Our merch store can be found at teepublic.com/stores/corpus-delicti-podcast
Music by:Kai Engel"Daemones"Blooper music by:Art of Escapism"Coal Miners"
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
Sources:
- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5168r5zj83o
- https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/world/sophie-toscan-du-plantier-s-family-call-for-official-inquest-following-tanaiste-s-comments/ar-AA1qFiNi?apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1
- Netflix Documentary - Murder in West Cork
- https://www.thetimes.com/world/ireland-world/article/sophie-toscan-du-plantier-murder-case-cork-ian-bailey-dna-gzfsqq7c6
- https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41475160.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sophie_Toscan_du_Plantier
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Hey, everyone is still and this is Linden and welcome
back to Corpus SLICHTAI the podcast. We are still in
our true crime Theater series and this time we're going
to hop the pod and go over to Ireland.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And this one. We said when we started doing this
series true Crime Theater too, that it was going to
be TV movies and documentaries, and documentaries is where this
one comes in. So this one, we'll talk a little
bit about the documentary at the end, but you can
find this one on Netflix.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So this one on Netflix is actually called Murder and West.
It is a little remote village where Sophie de Plantier
was murdered brutally outside of one of her homes. Just
a little bit about Sophie. She is a thirty nine
year old French television producer. She was known for her intelligence.
She was so elegant, and she was creative and she
(01:19):
had a passion for storytelling, which translated into her work
for film and documentaries. She loved books and art. But
she was very quiet, very reserved. She was very much
an introvert. She did not like flashy or a loud
social gathering. She much preferred to be quiet and on
her own and she was married to Daniel de Plantier.
(01:43):
He was a renowned film producer as well, and they
shared a life that from the outside seemed very glamorous
and very successful. She had a son, Pierre Louis, from
her first marriage, who lived with her and Daniel.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So Daniel is a little bit of the opposite of
Sophie in that he's a very social person. He always
has friends and an out of the home. He's entertaining,
working on his next big project. Working in this industry,
there was a part of him that had to be
but as we know, Sophie was much more introverted, more private.
(02:20):
So to balance this. In the small village of tour Moore,
which was near shall and West Cork, she found her
dream place. She bought a holiday home of aactation home
which was on this rugged cliff side. It's overlooking the ocean.
It's in a very remote and isolated area and you
(02:41):
have to drive down a one lane road deep into
the country of Ireland and you're probably thinking, wow, that
sounds amazing. There's a few little caveats here that are
important to know. It was so remote that it actually
did not have electricity. There's no heat the heat came
from a wood burning fireplace, and there were candles and
(03:04):
oil lamps for light. Now keep in mind this is
on the coastline, so the wind, the breeze and all
that is making it very cold, but it's quiet, it's peaceful.
She didn't get that in Paris. She is a producer
and Daniel's job, he's a producer. So this is that
(03:24):
piece that she is looking for. So her bed in
West Cork faced the window. Now, this window did not
have curtains because she wanted to hear the waves hitting
that coastline every night and in the mornings, and she
loved to watch the lighthouse off the coast. And again
this is her escape. It's quiet, it's simple, and she
(03:45):
would often go here alone in Ireland just for that serenity.
So when she's visiting this home, she would go into
town and there's a little local pub with an owner
who she would talk to in French so that he
could practice the language. But again keep in mind, she's
not a super social person. This is her outlet, so
(04:08):
she's not really getting involved with life in the village
to an extreme extent. It's just enough to go, oh,
I need to go out and go grab a few
things if you supplies, maybe grab a bite to eat
here and there. But mostly she kept to herself and
she would be seen taking long walks on those one
lane roads, just taking it all in. But this upcoming
(04:30):
trip that she's about to go on, she didn't want
to be alone. She called around to some of her friends,
some of her family, saying, anybody want to come with me. Unfortunately,
no one was able to go with her, and this
would end up being a very faithful trip that she took.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
This trip that she took, it was in December on
the twentieth and she was only going to spend a
few days in Ireland before returning back to Paris for Christmas.
On the morning of December twenty third, nineteen ninety six,
Sophie's lifeless body was discovered by a neighbor at ten am.
The night before was a full moon, which is going
(05:06):
to come back and play if you believe one of
the theories. Later on, the local police were called in
and immediately they called Dublin, which is the biggest city
near them. They called the Dublin police to come and help.
It took Dublin police five hours to drive to the scene.
This is how remote it is now. Ian Bailey was
the first reporter to the scene when the police arrived,
(05:29):
so he was already there. He didn't ask any questions
and did not stay long. It's really interesting, if you will,
that a reporter is there when the police arrived, but
as soon as the police show up, he's like, now,
I'm good, I'll see you later and just leaves. Sophie
was laid at the end of her driveway near a
(05:51):
metal gate. She was dressed in her night clothes and
unfortunately her head had been battered in by a concrete
block which laid near her body, making her face unrecognizable.
There is a few bloodstains that were found on the
gate as well. The scene depicted science of a violent
struggle and her nightgown getting tangled in the bob wire
(06:14):
fence that lined the property.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So her body was left outside until the state pathologist,
who was doctor John Harbison, arrived twenty eight hours later,
so she is laying there outside exposed to the elements
that entire time. He found quote laceration and swelling of
the brain, fracture of the skull, and multiple blunt head injuries.
(06:41):
The facial injuries were so bad that her neighbor couldn't
formally identify her. That was the first person who they said,
can you tell us who this is? And she was like,
I think it's her, but I can't tell you one
hundred percent. Also, there was evidence on the body that
looked to be defensive wounds. She had been there at
least twelve hours before the neighbor discovered her that morning.
(07:05):
Remember this is outdoors, it's wintery, it's cold, it's right
before Christmas. The only thing they found was a bootprint
in the dirt, but that could only give the approximate size.
And that is even if this footprint belonged to the killer,
it could have been from Sophie, or someone who worked
on the grounds, or one of the many people who
(07:27):
was on the scene. They don't know for sure at
this point. So they go inside the house and everything
inside looks pristine, everything's clean, it's all in order. The
only thing they noticed is there were two wineglasses on
the side of the sink, which looked clean, So the
police take them just in case they're able to uncover
a fingerprint. Unfortunately, they did not find any. Her keys
(07:51):
to the house were hanging in the lock of her
back door. This made the police think that someone had
come to her back door and she unlocked it to
see who it was. So did she need those keys
to unlock it from the inside.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
It's the dead bolt situation that you had to unlock
it with the key because it's a key entry on
both sides, so she had to unlock it to turn
the knob to get.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
The door open from the inside.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
From the inside. So the news broke in Paris and
it was big news that a frenchwoman had been found
murdered in West Cork, Ireland. Sophie's brother called Sophie's home
with no answer because he's thinking, how many French people
are there in this town? It is really tiny, and
it was pretty repeatedly like he couldn't get an answer.
(08:41):
But when he finally did get her to answer, it
was hard for him to understand the neighbor because the
neighbor was crying so hard and she has a very
thick accent that he had to really work through to understand.
But he did get confirmation it was Sophie. Now, Sophie's
son was with Daniel and Pierre was just fifteen years
(09:04):
old when he heard that his mom had been murdered.
Now a side note, Daniel and Pierre had a really
good relationship. Now her murder would cause years of unanswered questions,
loss of suspicion, and leave her family into years worth
of court cases and hearings. We're not talking five years,
We're talking ten, fifteen years of nothing but court systems.
(09:29):
West Cork is a place that's ultimately known for tranquility
and is now investigating a horrific murder. And it was
the first murder in living memory of the entire town.
That's how long it's been sin save. This is one
of the reasons they called Dublin in. It's a coastal
port which attracted people from all areas and nationalities. Think
(09:49):
of it as a very hippie, artsy area. And it
was first believed that maybe it was someone like one
of the blow ins. Now when we say blow insus
with the local call them like anyone who blows in
from the sea, So anyone who came into the port.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
So the police first set up an incident room with
about fifty policemen and women and they start going house
to house within a ten mile area. They're knocking on
doors trying to get whatever information they can. It was
close to one thousand people in those first few days, which,
again with this being a remote area, shows you that
(10:27):
they did go pretty far and they're doing their footwork.
One witness did report hearing screams the night Sophie was murdered,
but no one came forward saying they saw anything. And
this person who reported the screams, it wasn't a ton
to go off on. What time was it, where was it,
don't really know. So the family traveled to West Cork
(10:48):
to identify her remains, and unfortunately they had to do
this on Christmas. That's how they spent their Christmas holiday. Again,
though she had been beaten so bad that they couldn't
really recognize her, so they're having to rely on other clues, marking, scars,
all of that to confirm that it was her. So
(11:09):
let's go back for just a second and let's talk
about one of the first people on the scene. And
Jen already mentioned this. This was Ian Bailey, who was
a freelance reporter who lived in the area, and he
broke the story. Now he's the one who was there,
but at first the police showed up and he was like,
all right, I'm gonna get out of here. He was
(11:30):
a British journalist living in West Cork with his partner,
Catherine Jules Thomas. He also owned a small farm located
about two miles away from Sophie's property. Now, he was
known for his erratic behavior, and when we say erratic behavior,
particularly he was known for baying at a full moon
(11:52):
in the middle of the nights. Remember Jen mentioned that
full moon earlier. And here's where this kind of comes
into play. And he does have a history of violent behavior.
He had beaten Jewles, his partner, which resulted in her
having to go to the hospital for treatment. When his
first reporting about the murder came out, it shocked the locals.
(12:12):
We know that, right, It's a small town, very tight knit,
lots of people coming in to visit. And the thing
about this report that was on is it had information
that was not released to the public. He claims that
he had an insider that provided that information, but the
police are like, wait a minute, how did you know that?
(12:33):
We didn't tell anyone. And this is when Ian Bailey
first becomes a suspect.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Witnesses reported seeing him with scratches and injuries shortly after
the murder, He claims those injuries came from cutting down
a Christmas tree. There are four parallel scratches on his
hands that look very uniform. He also had an injury
to his forehead and he says it was from killing
a turkey. Now, to be fair, there is a tree
(13:00):
that was recently cut down on his property. It does
appear that he did cut down a tree, but for
a tree to leave four very parallel, identical marks is
very coincidental, to say the least. Some of the locals
claimed that Ian was at the pub and overheard him
(13:22):
confess to the murder multiple times, and to his partner.
When he got a lot to drink, he would come
out and say that he was the one who did it.
He later denied all of this and said that he
never did and he would often claim that it was
just his dark sense of humor and that to him,
was a joke. He thought he was kidding about this. Now,
(13:45):
there is no forensic evidence recovered from the scene, because
I remember, it's outdoors, it's winnery, it's on the coast,
so you have the coastal spray that's coming off the ocean,
and there was nothing to link him to the murder.
To top this off, the police actually lost the gate
that had her blood stains on it. Remember when he
said that there was a gate at the entrance of
(14:07):
the driveway sort of thing like down at the property
next to the road. It's a small iron gate. They
took it in for evidence and blood testing, but they
lost it and the police, to be.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Fair, you don't even know that was her blood. It
could have been someone else's.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Too, absolutely, and there was In the documentary they do
say that there was blood on the concrete, on the ground,
on the vegetation like weeds and stuff around, but they
collected that gate specifically. Now people think they got rid
of the gate. The police say they didn't get rid
of it, They just didn't keep it because it didn't
(14:45):
have any evidentiary value.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
How does it not have evidentiary value? If there's blood
on it, that's evidentiary Pretty sure. That's the epitome of evidendiary.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
You have a cop who's never worked a crime scene
except maybe someone she went missing, or someone got too
rowdy at a pub. It is are a very small town,
so this is a first murder scene. I guess they
just wanted to get it out of the way.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
That is a fair point, but it's blood. It can't
get much more evidence than that unless they're saying it's
got to just be her blood and we don't need
her blood, we need the killer's blood.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I don't know, but the inexperience really shows yes.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
But Ian claimed that the police were just out to
get him, and he says, they're coercing me, They're making
up stories, they're coercing all these people they're talking to
who are saying that I was talking in the bar
and you can't trust them. So as we were just saying,
we know that these police are not used to handling
(15:50):
murder cases. There's not a lot of crime in general
around here. So this leads the police to be very
heavily criticized for mishandling what evidence they did have. And
then now they've got these accusations of misconduct from Ian,
and it's who do we trust what's going on here?
We know they don't really know what they're doing because
they're not experienced in this. So there is a witness
(16:14):
who on December twenty seventh, Marie Farrell claimed that on
the day of the murder, Sophie came into her shop
that afternoon Marie Farrell says that when Sophie left, there
was a man in a long coat watching Sophie as
she left, and then that man in the long coat
(16:35):
followed Sophie. Now we know that Ian is out there
saying I didn't do this. They're trying to pen this
on me. But Ian's a reporter. He's out there in
the field. What does Ian think happen? He is saying,
y'all need to be looking at her husband, Daniel. He
probably hired a hit on her. So Daniel had been
(16:56):
the director at the biggest French studio for movies. He's
a very public figure, and some of the public speculated
that due to the location here. Maybe he's right, it
had to have been a hit. It's this off the
beaten path, not very populated area. Maybe there's something to this,
but Daniel and Daniel turned from the extrovert who always
(17:19):
had people around him to silent and anxious. So anytime
a journalist approached him, he didn't want to talk. And
his family he's saying, don't talk to my family either.
Now we've talked.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
To be fair, he's grieving. He just lost his wife,
his stepson just lost his mother, and you could see
him in the documentary go like videos where he's out
and about with her by him side. Before she was murdered,
he was just the light of the party. And then
afterwards you could see how the grief had really taken
(17:54):
a toll on him too, and he want to talk
about her death. He wanted to grieve privately.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
And it makes me think of going back to the
Scott Peterson case when we were like, oh, he wasn't
talking to the press either. I think the difference to
keep in mind here is that was when she was
missing and they were trying to find Lacey, whereas this
he is actively grieving because he knows that Sophie is
dead and has been murdered, and in a very brutal way. However,
(18:21):
to some people that was a tough look and they're like, eh,
I don't know how I feel about that. Add to that,
they find out that Daniel was having money troubles and
her side of the family went to Ireland, remember, on Christmas,
to identify the body. He didn't go. He was not there.
(18:42):
He was not a part of that, and that is
making a lot of people look at him under a microscope.
But the idea of the hit man. Other people are saying, no,
this place is so remote even locals have trouble finding
some of the place here, and her place is not
in the center of town. We know that there's no electricity.
(19:06):
Daniel rarely ever even came with her to the house.
How did he know to tell someone else to get there.
It's not likely, not only that someone is going to
go out there with a planned hit, but use items
from outside, not carrying a weapon, counting on there to
be something there to beat her to death with. Other
(19:27):
people are saying this just does not seem likely, and
the police agree with this. They do not support the
theory of a hitman at this point.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
All right, So let's go back to Ian, because now
he is unintentionally made himself the prime suspect. He's in
those pubs spouting nonsense and saying he did it. He's
telling Julesus, he's telling everyone else, But now he's trying
to point the finger to Daniel. Three days after the murder,
I sneaks into Sophie's land under their visiting her neighbor
(20:01):
who lived in the house behind Sophie. He was seen
photographing and looking into her windows and trying to obtain
information that he could use when he wrote the article
to the Star, gotta think this is a big news story.
This is a very famous French lady. He's got the
most information. So he is monetizing all of this, all
(20:25):
of his articles because he was struggling before. He was, yes,
a freelance journalist, but he wasn't making a lot of money,
all right. So he provided details that the police had
not released, like the blunt force trauma, the two wine glasses,
and the fact that Sophie had not been sexually assaulted.
(20:45):
This was three days after the murder. The imports had
not been released. How would he know those intimate details
unless and this is what the police are thinking, unless
you were there and you did it, you would You
don't know all of this, and seems like he did.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
And add to that, he says, I had an inside source.
But if the reports are not released yet, if they
don't even have those reports yet, who is his inside source.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, it can't be someone at the medical examiners because
they're still doing the exact exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
There was a major break in the case on January eleventh,
so keep in mind were several weeks later now when
the police received a call from a public phone with
a tip. This caller only identified herself as Fiona. She
told police that she saw a man at Kilfodda Bridge
sometime around three am, the same night that Sophie was murdered.
(21:40):
Now they want to talk to Fiona so that they
can get more details, because there's not a whole lot
to go on right now. Luckily for them, the next
day Fiona called again from another public phone. Of course
they're having trouble tracking that because it's a public phone.
But the third time Fiona calls, which, by the way,
that's a lot of times for someone to call. If
you've got information and you're calling three times, you feel
(22:04):
pretty confident that you know something, and it's weighing on
you heavily to call back a third time. But this
third time she called, this time from her home phone
and skull which does allow police to locate her through tracing,
so they get her. They talk to Fiona and she
gives her full statement. Now she's still going under the
(22:25):
alias of Fiona at this point. And Fiona was driving
home when she saw a drunk man waving his arms,
but not towards passing cars, so it's not like he's
in the middle of the road looking I have a
flat tire. Come help me. Know he was in a
long dark coat. Okay, so there's our long coat with
his back to the street, looking up to the moon,
(22:49):
with his arms raised high above his head. Now it's
a very cold, very windy night, which makes it a
little strange that a man would be there unless you
are stranded on the side of the road or something
like that, which he was not. Now, later that same
week she saw the same man in a local market
and it was Ian Bailey. So here what we are
(23:10):
seeing is we're seeing the mention of the long dark coat.
Now we have also heard a long coat mentioned. When
that witness said that Sophie was in her store, there
was a man in a long coat watching her, and
the man followed her. But what else is weird here
is this Fiona is specifically saying, he is standing out
at the moon with his hands or his arms raised
(23:33):
high above his head. They are only one person who's
got a reputation for helen at the moon, because that's
not exactly something everybody does on the weekends. But of
course they ask Ian about it and he says, nope,
I was home asleep.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Another strange thing that happened is that the local film
crew was filming a crime reconstruction show that walks the
viewers through the murdered night. So they're trying to do
this reenactment to help get the word out. Maybe you'll
trigger someone's memory and also to help the investigators. During
the filming, a man with a long dark coat ran
(24:07):
up to the film crew telling him that how he
saw Sophie. One of the people recognized that man as
Ian Bailey. What he said about this trip, this walking
with her was really weird now. He said that he
took a walk with Sophie that took them to the
three Castle Head and it scared her and she wanted
to go to a nearby home. Something happened there that
(24:30):
scared her that she really wanted to get to a
neighbor to talk about. She never said what it was
and didn't mention that she saw Ian there. But there's
rumors that there's a ghost of a woman wearing a
white outfit, but that's really for a different podcast. People
are saying that she saw this ghost and that's what
(24:52):
scared her, or she could have been there and she
saw Ian there and that's what scared her, but we
don't know that for sure. Now the film crew told
Ian thanks, but no thanks. They have everything they need.
So he is trying to insert himself into this investigation
any way he can. Now we are going to get
(25:14):
back to the story and tell you what happens next
right after the break.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
All right, guys, welcome back. So let's jump back in.
We are going to February tenth of nineteen ninety seven.
This is about seven weeks after Sophie was murdered. Two
police came to visit Ian Bailey. They are there for
a very particular reason. They are arresting him for Sophie's murder.
Ian said that the police who sat next to him
(25:44):
in the back of the police car were harassing him,
there being aggressive towards him. The police deny this, so
we don't know what really happened, but he's saying that
they are basically bullying him. So Irish law could only
hold him in jail for two twelve hours for questioning.
They either have to charge him or release him after
(26:04):
that time. So while the police are holding Ian, they
are also searching his home. They're looking for clothes that
the witnesses say they saw by the bridge, so that coat,
all the other things that were described by various witnesses.
So at the back of the house, they did notice
that there was a burn pit that had been recently used.
(26:28):
A local was walking and confirmed that she did see
a fire behind that house on December twenty sixth. Ian
does say, yes, I do burn trash back there, and
I have done it recently, but it was earlier in December,
but they're going to go through it just to be
on the safe side. They did find coat, buttons, and
(26:50):
burnt boots in the remaining ash, along with a mattress
and other betting items. Now, if there was any DNA
or blood evidence, it would have been gone at this
point because it was pretty burnt. But let's remember he
the witness said that they saw a fire behind that
house on December twenty sixth. She was found on December
(27:10):
twenty third. Let's just say hypothetically at this point that
it was Ian and she's found on the twenty third.
Things are heating up. On the twenty six is he
disposing of evidence three days later? Would he have done
it on the twenty third? Did he wait? Did he not?
How would that have played out, let's talk about jewels,
because remember that's Ian's partner. What does she have to
(27:31):
say about it? Because Ian said he was home asleep
that night, right, she is brought in for questioning the
same day that Ian was brought in, and she says, yeah,
he was home, we were asleep. Now she did later
change that story and she's like, you know what, he
did actually get out of bed in the middle of
the nights. Don't know where he went. I did not
(27:51):
see him again until I got up in the morning.
He was making coffee around nine a m. So there
is a gap a time where she's like, you know what,
he did get at and I fell back asleep. I
don't know where he was after that. Jules also said
that she noticed a wound on his forehead for the
first time that morning, which contradicts his turkey story. And
(28:13):
now his alibi is gone. So when he came to bed,
there was no scratch on his head. But then she's, oh,
he got up in the middle of the night and
now he's got scratches. So unless he's fighting turkeys in
the middle of the night, which I mean he howls
up the moon, I don't know. But he woke up
with scratches.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
The police could not get a confession out of him,
and because of the lack of physical evidence, they had
to let him go. Ian Bailey is now the center
of all the new stories and all of his strange
quirks are now in print.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Him bang at the.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Moon, and he was known to have a large walking stick.
One day, a friend came over to check on him
and told him that people are saying that you're the murderer,
and Iana gets pissed. Now, to be fair, his friend
did claim that there was alcohol everywhere and Ian was
a tad drunk. When his friend was like, look, people
(29:06):
are saying you did it, Ian stands up and yells,
you saw her in Spa that day before she was
killed and saw that tid ass and wanted to give
her one. When you went up to her house at
two in the morning, she ran away screaming because you
scared her. You chased her, threw something out her head,
and you realized you went too far. Sounds like a confession,
(29:30):
and it was like Ian is projecting you did this
is how you did it, and you went too far.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
And it sounds very specific because we know that there's
this story about her getting spooked, and then here it's
saying you scared her she ran away through something at
her head. But let's be clear, because her injuries do
not sound like it was just you threw something out
(30:01):
her head and accidentally killed her. It does not sounds
like that. It sounds like.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
The evidence suggests someone goes up and knocks on the
door and she freaks, tries to run, and then she
was attacked.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah, she did not have just one injury. So if
he thinks that his friend did this and he's saying
you threw something out her head, that's not how she died.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Exactly as you can guess. This freaks out Ian's friend
and he hide tells it out of the house. Now,
remember how we mentioned earlier that Ian also confessed in
a pub. It was New Year's Eve and it was
when Ian and Jules they went to a pub and skull.
Ian started talking about Sophie and he began crying. He
(30:51):
told the couple that they were sitting with I did it.
I went too far. That killed the New Year's Eve buzz,
as you can imagine, and the couple pay their tap
and quickly left.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Which let's just pause there for one second, because the
people with him in the pub are saying this that
he said, I did it, I did it, I went
too far. Where have we heard those words before? When
he was talking to his friend and he said, you
saw and spar the day before she was killed, saw
the tight ass and wanted to give her one. When
you went up to her house at two in the morning,
(31:24):
she ran away screaming because you scared her. You chased her,
threw something at her head and realized you went too far.
Those words just line up very perfectly. We'll just say
it that way. He later claimed, as Jen alluded to
you earlier that well, you confessed in the bar. Why'd
you do that? Well, it's just my dark humor. It
wasn't a real confession. I was just messing around. Keep
(31:47):
in mind they say that he was crying when the
topic of Sophie came up. He started crying thirteen months
after her murder. On January twenty seventh of nineteen ninety eight,
Ian Bailey is arrested again by the Irish police. But
again we've still I've got this twelve hour rule. You've
got twelve hours to question them, either charge them, or
they got to go by this time they're bringing up
(32:08):
the confessions that he made. Now this is the second
time he's been held in this case, and Irish law
says that he cannot be held for a third time
for this charge. So they've got to get it done
if they're going to do it right again, he's released
without a charge. Keep in mind, there's not a lot
of evidence. They're going on hearsay in bars. They could
not get him to confess. Seven years go by and
(32:32):
Ian is back in the papers. He is suing the
seven Irish papers on their coverage of the case, but
the Irish papers are not having it. They filed a
petition to get all the police notes on the case
and they got them. So the case the police had
created around Ian, obviously, as we know, it's hugely circumstantial,
(32:55):
but it did make sense because Ian, according to this paperwork,
thought that he was going to get a huge payday
from the papers because he's going on the property, he's
taking the pictures, he's the first one at the scene.
But the papers released the notes and witness statements, so
everything people are saying about him, all the howling at
the moon and all that, it's all coming out. All
(33:16):
the witness statements. So now the public is turning on
Ian again. So he goes after the papers. Papers say no,
you're not coming at us. They get all the documents,
all of the police files. They release that, and now
the papers are like, oh wait, they do have a
lot on you. This isn't looking good. So Ian starts
harassing witnesses. He's verbally going after them. This is going
on for months. He's trying to get them to turn
(33:39):
Now the suit against the Papers is in the trial
phase and it comes out that Ian had beat Jules,
his partner, and the night that she went to the
hospital she almost lost her eye. And this was not
the only time it was common to see her with
black eyes and bruises. Now, Ian claims that she the
(34:00):
abuser and he only put his hands on her in
self defense. His self defense led to six stitches in
her lip. Now there's not really a report of any
injuries on him or any medical care that he received
as a result of this alleged abuse. Now, after all
this came out, and there's all the notes from the
(34:20):
police and all this, the judge ruled against Ian, but
Ireland is not going to try to arrest him or
try him in a court of law.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yeah, that's tough, isn't it. Yeah, everything points to Ian
back under Irish law, they cannot arrest him, they cannot
put him on trial. So the papers did something funny.
They put him on public trial. Now everyone's turning against him.
So in two thousand and seven, the family created a
committee that meant once a month to talk about the
(34:52):
case and what they could do in Paris. Now, the
Irish justice system and the French justice system is very,
very different, so the family and the legal team worked
to try Ian and absenteeism or at absentia. This just
means that he could be tried in their courts and
he doesn't have to be there. He was notified and
(35:15):
subpoena to appear. Ian and his lawyer disagreed on the
validity of the court and Ian was like, you know what,
I'm not even going to have representation at the track.
He honestly, he probably couldn't afford the lawyer to go
to Paris to represent him. In May twenty nineteen, the
courts in Paris convicted Ian in absentia for the murder.
(35:36):
He was sentenced to twenty five years in prison, but
he has to be in Paris to be arrested. This
only works in the French system, so he cannot step
foot inside French territory. Now. He denies any involvement in
the murder, of course, and he was not president in
(35:56):
the court for the French proceedings, which means he cannot
appeal the verdict. Since he wasn't there, he cannot appeal.
Now the Ireland's High Court blocked his extradition to France.
The Irish were like, you can't have our citizen. We
have to keep him. There are laws that allow suspects
(36:17):
to be tried for murdering French citizens abroad, and this
has happened on multiple occasions. Two decades later, Sophie's murder
still remains officially unsold. Now this is in Ireland, not
in Paris. Her family continues to fight for justice.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
But wait.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
June twenty twenty two, we have DNA and it is now.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
At its height.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
An investigation team in Dublin recently came to the US
and met with the FBI. Turns out that some of
the forensic evidence from over twenty eight years ago can
still be tested.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Now.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
The team will test Sophie's close and boots along with
the concrete block and male DNA profile was uncovered in
the testing, but it was just a speck on her boot,
which is not enough to create a DNA profile. We'll
just have to wait until science gets better where they
can multiply that out and get that profile. Unfortunately, Ian
(37:12):
Bailey dies in January twenty twenty four. He collapses in
his home in West Cork. He had a severe heart
condition and he was a candidate for heart surgery. But
the case, you can't imagine the huge impact this has
on that community. It's still highly talked about. It's still
something that sparks national debate. In the documentary which I
(37:37):
highly suggest that you go watch on Netflix called Murder
in West Cork, it really goes into Ian's life about
his whole story about killing the chicken and doing the
Christmas tree. And you see the marks on a drawing
where they were on his hands and it really looks
like nail marks that went down for yeah, and the
(37:59):
fact he said it, yeah, they're just straight and it's
on his hands. Yeah, there's some of them on his hands.
There's a big cut on his forehead where it looks
like a slashing motion. Now, could it have been from
a turkey.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Probably not interesting, And it's also possible, we talked about
before and again going under the assumption that it was
him for a moment. We have heard again referencing the
Scott Peterson case. A lot of times when you are
lying about something, you do sprinkle in some of the
truth just to that's just what your brain goes to.
So is it possible he fought with a turkey at
(38:33):
some point? Maybe? Is it possible he did cut down
a Christmas tree? Maybe? And that's why when he was questioned,
that was the first thing that came to his mind.
Because those things really did happen, That's just not where
those particular marks came from. Perhaps. But I do find
it interesting that they found the buttons in the fireplace
(38:54):
because you hear about that long coat multiple times. That's
not just a one time thing. What I want to know,
did it talk about this whole howling at the moon thing?
What's the deal there?
Speaker 1 (39:08):
It did talk a little bit about it. He pretty
much just threw it around as a joke. Yeah, I
go out there and I howl at the moon. He's
a very he was a very quirky guy. Yeah, he
just his quirks were very strange, and the level of
harassment he did to those witnesses were unheard of. Fiona.
He finds out who Fiona is, and he would stand
(39:31):
outside her shop dragging his finger across his throats or
her throughout the day, like several times, over and over.
And the reason why she didn't go forward is because
she was cheating on her husband and she didn't want
that to come to light. Now, she eventually did reveal
her name, which I'm not we're not going to in
this series just because it has nothing to do with
(39:53):
the murder, but he did ultimately harass her. She ended
up changing her statement saying it wasn't Ian, and then
going back and changing it again because she was just
tired of the harassment.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Wow. And so he's out there threatening people by saying
by doing the hand across the throat thing, that's not
a good look either, my dude. If you're trying to
convince someone you didn't commit a violent crime, maybe you
don't threaten someone with a violent crime.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
And the whole town turned against him, so you know,
he had him. And I feel bad for Jewels, yeah,
because having to live through all of this. But she
was a very quiet, very meek person in the documentary.
Now that the documentary, you can either they can portray
you as anything, right, so they can portray you as
(40:38):
a loud spoken person when when you're quite the opposite.
But I think they pretty much nailed her personality. She
was the very quiet She didn't really look up a lot.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Where does her family stand? Do they feel like it
was Ian?
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Her son is a huge believer it was Ian. Daniel
was not a part of the documentary, so he did
not speak to the documentary. He's very much not talking
about the murder. But they all believe it was Ay
because in French, I think what they call it is
a preponderance of evidence or a bouquet of evidence. Where
(41:13):
the US it is.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Without a doubt, yeah, be on a shadow of a.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Doult be convicted with beyond a shadow of a doubt.
But in in France and in Paris, it is a bouquet.
If you have a bouquet of evidence is how they
explain it. That's how they convict, if you have overwhelming
evidence that you committed the crime.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Interesting, it's a.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Very yeah, it's a very sliding scale. It sounds like
from how their legal system is. It's not beyond a
shadow of a doubt. It's just a you got all
this stacked against you, you probably did it right. It's
more like common sense type of law.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Yeah, if the shoe fits kind of thing. That's interesting,
And it's also interesting too that France is like, this
was one of our citizens, so we're going to charge you.
They went through the whole entire process, but he's not
a French citizen. He's an iron in Ireland's not turning
him over to you because here we don't have the
evidence that we need. Y'all may have it, you can
go about your process, but we're not going to turn
(42:09):
him over because in our book we don't know, so
we're not going to turn over someone that we're not
sure has done this legally exactly. That's very interesting.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
He could never leave Ireland. He could never leave. If
he were to cross over, he could be arrested. He
would Oh if to watch the pod or the documentary
only for this, he's trying to sell himself as a poet.
The entire time and the entire documentary he is writing
out all of the like he has such seriousness when
(42:43):
it comes to his poetry, and it's so bad. It
is so bad, and you could tell the people who
are filming this were like, I'm gonna have to sit
through another way, boy, because he's always bringing this up.
He like he carries around a little book and he's
writing and rewriting, so I have to memorize it.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
So out of curiosity in the documentary, is there or
anywhere rather, is there a motive presented for if it
was Ian?
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Why no, there's not.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
It didn't go motive.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
It almost feels like it is like he thought that
this was going to be his big money ticket and
to add into his quirks where maybe he did like
her and he wanted something and she was not reciprocating
the theme that.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Thing that he projected on his friend, that whole scenario
that he projected on his friend.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
But now that it happened, he was like, Oh, I
can cash in on this, right, I'm a journalist. This
is the biggest story that's going to hit so I
can't get all the exclusive rights to it.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Got it? That is definitely interesting. So if you have
some time, check that out and let us know what
you think. Unfortunately, this successful, wonderful woman lost her life
and they don't know who did it and that is
a huge open wound for the family I can only imagine.
So let us know your thoughts. We do have reminder
(44:11):
Patreon this week this Thursday, the twenty seventh Patreon Live,
so hop on with us. We'll post the link about
thirty minutes beforehand. We'll have a story for thirty minutes.
Hang out for thirty minutes. If you are not on Patreon,
go on Patreon search for Corbus Tilikti. A dollar and
up gets you ad free episodes. Sometimes we post them
(44:32):
early for you guys. Sometimes we don't. Just depends. That
also gets you on these monthly live episodes that we do.
Three dollars in up gets you on the Discord server
where we have a lot of fun. Ten dollars and
up gets you a quarterly gift. So come join us,
come hang out. All that to say, it's a fun time.
If you are in the group or on Discord, you
(44:56):
may have seen we just posted an update about Rocky.
It is not the update we wanted. The Alabama courts.
That's part of what's been going on in the background
here is the courts have been going back and forth
about whether or not they can or should proceed with
setting an execution date, and Rocky's team wrote up this
(45:20):
whole argument, presented it, and they actually followed an extension
and said, hey, we need more time to look at this.
And I will admit I was a little naive in
thinking that maybe that was a good thing. But they
did come back on Friday and said that they can
proceed with setting a date. Now, there is not a
date right now, but that means that there could be
(45:43):
literally any second. That's where we stand within. This was it.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
This was the last hope.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
Pretty much, unless our governor decides that she wants to
step in a grant clemency. For me personally, I feel
like she's going to say, the courts just looked at it.
That's what the courts are for. If they don't think
there's anything there, then you do I technically speaking, could
she could somebody present the case to her and she
could grant the clemency. Could be but that's it, that's it.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
She's not known to go against that war.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
No, she's not. And just to reiterate, because it's been gosh,
it's been almost exactly four years since we covered his case.
When we say grant clemency, Rocky Myers cannot be freed.
He will not ever get out of jail unless Alabama
change is a law. So when we say clemency, that
is just giving him that original sentence. Remember how the
(46:34):
jury said we want him to have life in prison.
The judge invoked judicial override, which is now illegal, not
even allowed, can't do it now. All that means she
can give him that original sentence. The best this man
can hope for is life in prison. That's all we're
asking at this point. It's not even like we're saying, oh,
just let him free, No, just don't kill him, because
(46:57):
that's not even what the jury wanted. That's where we stand.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
And it doesn't even scrape the surface. So that entire
trial was a sham. The legal representation was a shamp.
The appeals that never got filed because the lawyer just
quitted and didn't file them and got slapped on the hand.
There's just so much.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
It is the poster child for every single thing that
is wrong in the system, just all of it. And
God bless Maypucket. If you remember Maypucket, she was the
juror who has been outspoken on the case and talked
about how the jurors who voted for guilty were very
biased in using the racial slurs. And she's the one
who talked about how upset they were when the judge
(47:43):
overrode their sentence because they were like, then why are
we here? She is still to this day out there.
She went to Alabama Capitol Hill with Rocky's son and
is pushing for this bill to make the judicial override retroactive.
And she is still out there to this day. What
does that say that this woman who was on a
(48:06):
jury is still no, this is wrong. I was there,
I was in the seat, I heard every word of it,
and I am still out here saying this is wrong.
That says a lot. It says a lot. God bless her.
But anyway, that's where we stand on that. We will
keep you guys updated. If you want to send a letter,
email it to us at Corpus Delicti at yahoo dot
(48:27):
com and we will get it where it needs to go.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
Yeah, anything at this point, yep, But okay, we for
our patriots. We will see in a few days and
if not, you'll hear us hopefully in a couple of weeks.
But until then, you know what they said to plea
Bye bye,
Hey, everyone is still and this is Linden and welcome
back to Corpus SLICHTAI the podcast. We are still in
our true crime Theater series and this time we're going
to hop the pod and go over to Ireland.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And this one. We said when we started doing this
series true Crime Theater too, that it was going to
be TV movies and documentaries, and documentaries is where this
one comes in. So this one, we'll talk a little
bit about the documentary at the end, but you can
find this one on Netflix.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So this one on Netflix is actually called Murder and West.
It is a little remote village where Sophie de Plantier
was murdered brutally outside of one of her homes. Just
a little bit about Sophie. She is a thirty nine
year old French television producer. She was known for her intelligence.
She was so elegant, and she was creative and she
(01:19):
had a passion for storytelling, which translated into her work
for film and documentaries. She loved books and art. But
she was very quiet, very reserved. She was very much
an introvert. She did not like flashy or a loud
social gathering. She much preferred to be quiet and on
her own and she was married to Daniel de Plantier.
(01:43):
He was a renowned film producer as well, and they
shared a life that from the outside seemed very glamorous
and very successful. She had a son, Pierre Louis, from
her first marriage, who lived with her and Daniel.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So Daniel is a little bit of the opposite of
Sophie in that he's a very social person. He always
has friends and an out of the home. He's entertaining,
working on his next big project. Working in this industry,
there was a part of him that had to be
but as we know, Sophie was much more introverted, more private.
(02:20):
So to balance this. In the small village of tour Moore,
which was near shall and West Cork, she found her
dream place. She bought a holiday home of aactation home
which was on this rugged cliff side. It's overlooking the ocean.
It's in a very remote and isolated area and you
(02:41):
have to drive down a one lane road deep into
the country of Ireland and you're probably thinking, wow, that
sounds amazing. There's a few little caveats here that are
important to know. It was so remote that it actually
did not have electricity. There's no heat the heat came
from a wood burning fireplace, and there were candles and
(03:04):
oil lamps for light. Now keep in mind this is
on the coastline, so the wind, the breeze and all
that is making it very cold, but it's quiet, it's peaceful.
She didn't get that in Paris. She is a producer
and Daniel's job, he's a producer. So this is that
(03:24):
piece that she is looking for. So her bed in
West Cork faced the window. Now, this window did not
have curtains because she wanted to hear the waves hitting
that coastline every night and in the mornings, and she
loved to watch the lighthouse off the coast. And again
this is her escape. It's quiet, it's simple, and she
(03:45):
would often go here alone in Ireland just for that serenity.
So when she's visiting this home, she would go into
town and there's a little local pub with an owner
who she would talk to in French so that he
could practice the language. But again keep in mind, she's
not a super social person. This is her outlet, so
(04:08):
she's not really getting involved with life in the village
to an extreme extent. It's just enough to go, oh,
I need to go out and go grab a few
things if you supplies, maybe grab a bite to eat
here and there. But mostly she kept to herself and
she would be seen taking long walks on those one
lane roads, just taking it all in. But this upcoming
(04:30):
trip that she's about to go on, she didn't want
to be alone. She called around to some of her friends,
some of her family, saying, anybody want to come with me. Unfortunately,
no one was able to go with her, and this
would end up being a very faithful trip that she took.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
This trip that she took, it was in December on
the twentieth and she was only going to spend a
few days in Ireland before returning back to Paris for Christmas.
On the morning of December twenty third, nineteen ninety six,
Sophie's lifeless body was discovered by a neighbor at ten am.
The night before was a full moon, which is going
(05:06):
to come back and play if you believe one of
the theories. Later on, the local police were called in
and immediately they called Dublin, which is the biggest city
near them. They called the Dublin police to come and help.
It took Dublin police five hours to drive to the scene.
This is how remote it is now. Ian Bailey was
the first reporter to the scene when the police arrived,
(05:29):
so he was already there. He didn't ask any questions
and did not stay long. It's really interesting, if you will,
that a reporter is there when the police arrived, but
as soon as the police show up, he's like, now,
I'm good, I'll see you later and just leaves. Sophie
was laid at the end of her driveway near a
(05:51):
metal gate. She was dressed in her night clothes and
unfortunately her head had been battered in by a concrete
block which laid near her body, making her face unrecognizable.
There is a few bloodstains that were found on the
gate as well. The scene depicted science of a violent
struggle and her nightgown getting tangled in the bob wire
(06:14):
fence that lined the property.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So her body was left outside until the state pathologist,
who was doctor John Harbison, arrived twenty eight hours later,
so she is laying there outside exposed to the elements
that entire time. He found quote laceration and swelling of
the brain, fracture of the skull, and multiple blunt head injuries.
(06:41):
The facial injuries were so bad that her neighbor couldn't
formally identify her. That was the first person who they said,
can you tell us who this is? And she was like,
I think it's her, but I can't tell you one
hundred percent. Also, there was evidence on the body that
looked to be defensive wounds. She had been there at
least twelve hours before the neighbor discovered her that morning.
(07:05):
Remember this is outdoors, it's wintery, it's cold, it's right
before Christmas. The only thing they found was a bootprint
in the dirt, but that could only give the approximate size.
And that is even if this footprint belonged to the killer,
it could have been from Sophie, or someone who worked
on the grounds, or one of the many people who
(07:27):
was on the scene. They don't know for sure at
this point. So they go inside the house and everything
inside looks pristine, everything's clean, it's all in order. The
only thing they noticed is there were two wineglasses on
the side of the sink, which looked clean, So the
police take them just in case they're able to uncover
a fingerprint. Unfortunately, they did not find any. Her keys
(07:51):
to the house were hanging in the lock of her
back door. This made the police think that someone had
come to her back door and she unlocked it to
see who it was. So did she need those keys
to unlock it from the inside.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
It's the dead bolt situation that you had to unlock
it with the key because it's a key entry on
both sides, so she had to unlock it to turn
the knob to get.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
The door open from the inside.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
From the inside. So the news broke in Paris and
it was big news that a frenchwoman had been found
murdered in West Cork, Ireland. Sophie's brother called Sophie's home
with no answer because he's thinking, how many French people
are there in this town? It is really tiny, and
it was pretty repeatedly like he couldn't get an answer.
(08:41):
But when he finally did get her to answer, it
was hard for him to understand the neighbor because the
neighbor was crying so hard and she has a very
thick accent that he had to really work through to understand.
But he did get confirmation it was Sophie. Now, Sophie's
son was with Daniel and Pierre was just fifteen years
(09:04):
old when he heard that his mom had been murdered.
Now a side note, Daniel and Pierre had a really
good relationship. Now her murder would cause years of unanswered questions,
loss of suspicion, and leave her family into years worth
of court cases and hearings. We're not talking five years,
We're talking ten, fifteen years of nothing but court systems.
(09:29):
West Cork is a place that's ultimately known for tranquility
and is now investigating a horrific murder. And it was
the first murder in living memory of the entire town.
That's how long it's been sin save. This is one
of the reasons they called Dublin in. It's a coastal
port which attracted people from all areas and nationalities. Think
(09:49):
of it as a very hippie, artsy area. And it
was first believed that maybe it was someone like one
of the blow ins. Now when we say blow insus
with the local call them like anyone who blows in
from the sea, So anyone who came into the port.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
So the police first set up an incident room with
about fifty policemen and women and they start going house
to house within a ten mile area. They're knocking on
doors trying to get whatever information they can. It was
close to one thousand people in those first few days, which,
again with this being a remote area, shows you that
(10:27):
they did go pretty far and they're doing their footwork.
One witness did report hearing screams the night Sophie was murdered,
but no one came forward saying they saw anything. And
this person who reported the screams, it wasn't a ton
to go off on. What time was it, where was it,
don't really know. So the family traveled to West Cork
(10:48):
to identify her remains, and unfortunately they had to do
this on Christmas. That's how they spent their Christmas holiday. Again,
though she had been beaten so bad that they couldn't
really recognize her, so they're having to rely on other clues, marking, scars,
all of that to confirm that it was her. So
(11:09):
let's go back for just a second and let's talk
about one of the first people on the scene. And
Jen already mentioned this. This was Ian Bailey, who was
a freelance reporter who lived in the area, and he
broke the story. Now he's the one who was there,
but at first the police showed up and he was like,
all right, I'm gonna get out of here. He was
(11:30):
a British journalist living in West Cork with his partner,
Catherine Jules Thomas. He also owned a small farm located
about two miles away from Sophie's property. Now, he was
known for his erratic behavior, and when we say erratic behavior,
particularly he was known for baying at a full moon
(11:52):
in the middle of the nights. Remember Jen mentioned that
full moon earlier. And here's where this kind of comes
into play. And he does have a history of violent behavior.
He had beaten Jewles, his partner, which resulted in her
having to go to the hospital for treatment. When his
first reporting about the murder came out, it shocked the locals.
(12:12):
We know that, right, It's a small town, very tight knit,
lots of people coming in to visit. And the thing
about this report that was on is it had information
that was not released to the public. He claims that
he had an insider that provided that information, but the
police are like, wait a minute, how did you know that?
(12:33):
We didn't tell anyone. And this is when Ian Bailey
first becomes a suspect.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Witnesses reported seeing him with scratches and injuries shortly after
the murder, He claims those injuries came from cutting down
a Christmas tree. There are four parallel scratches on his
hands that look very uniform. He also had an injury
to his forehead and he says it was from killing
a turkey. Now, to be fair, there is a tree
(13:00):
that was recently cut down on his property. It does
appear that he did cut down a tree, but for
a tree to leave four very parallel, identical marks is
very coincidental, to say the least. Some of the locals
claimed that Ian was at the pub and overheard him
(13:22):
confess to the murder multiple times, and to his partner.
When he got a lot to drink, he would come
out and say that he was the one who did it.
He later denied all of this and said that he
never did and he would often claim that it was
just his dark sense of humor and that to him,
was a joke. He thought he was kidding about this. Now,
(13:45):
there is no forensic evidence recovered from the scene, because
I remember, it's outdoors, it's winnery, it's on the coast,
so you have the coastal spray that's coming off the ocean,
and there was nothing to link him to the murder.
To top this off, the police actually lost the gate
that had her blood stains on it. Remember when he
said that there was a gate at the entrance of
(14:07):
the driveway sort of thing like down at the property
next to the road. It's a small iron gate. They
took it in for evidence and blood testing, but they
lost it and the police, to be.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Fair, you don't even know that was her blood. It
could have been someone else's.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Too, absolutely, and there was In the documentary they do
say that there was blood on the concrete, on the ground,
on the vegetation like weeds and stuff around, but they
collected that gate specifically. Now people think they got rid
of the gate. The police say they didn't get rid
of it, They just didn't keep it because it didn't
(14:45):
have any evidentiary value.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
How does it not have evidentiary value? If there's blood
on it, that's evidentiary Pretty sure. That's the epitome of evidendiary.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
You have a cop who's never worked a crime scene
except maybe someone she went missing, or someone got too
rowdy at a pub. It is are a very small town,
so this is a first murder scene. I guess they
just wanted to get it out of the way.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
That is a fair point, but it's blood. It can't
get much more evidence than that unless they're saying it's
got to just be her blood and we don't need
her blood, we need the killer's blood.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I don't know, but the inexperience really shows yes.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
But Ian claimed that the police were just out to
get him, and he says, they're coercing me, They're making
up stories, they're coercing all these people they're talking to
who are saying that I was talking in the bar
and you can't trust them. So as we were just saying,
we know that these police are not used to handling
(15:50):
murder cases. There's not a lot of crime in general
around here. So this leads the police to be very
heavily criticized for mishandling what evidence they did have. And
then now they've got these accusations of misconduct from Ian,
and it's who do we trust what's going on here?
We know they don't really know what they're doing because
they're not experienced in this. So there is a witness
(16:14):
who on December twenty seventh, Marie Farrell claimed that on
the day of the murder, Sophie came into her shop
that afternoon Marie Farrell says that when Sophie left, there
was a man in a long coat watching Sophie as
she left, and then that man in the long coat
(16:35):
followed Sophie. Now we know that Ian is out there
saying I didn't do this. They're trying to pen this
on me. But Ian's a reporter. He's out there in
the field. What does Ian think happen? He is saying,
y'all need to be looking at her husband, Daniel. He
probably hired a hit on her. So Daniel had been
(16:56):
the director at the biggest French studio for movies. He's
a very public figure, and some of the public speculated
that due to the location here. Maybe he's right, it
had to have been a hit. It's this off the
beaten path, not very populated area. Maybe there's something to this,
but Daniel and Daniel turned from the extrovert who always
(17:19):
had people around him to silent and anxious. So anytime
a journalist approached him, he didn't want to talk. And
his family he's saying, don't talk to my family either.
Now we've talked.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
To be fair, he's grieving. He just lost his wife,
his stepson just lost his mother, and you could see
him in the documentary go like videos where he's out
and about with her by him side. Before she was murdered,
he was just the light of the party. And then
afterwards you could see how the grief had really taken
(17:54):
a toll on him too, and he want to talk
about her death. He wanted to grieve privately.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
And it makes me think of going back to the
Scott Peterson case when we were like, oh, he wasn't
talking to the press either. I think the difference to
keep in mind here is that was when she was
missing and they were trying to find Lacey, whereas this
he is actively grieving because he knows that Sophie is
dead and has been murdered, and in a very brutal way. However,
(18:21):
to some people that was a tough look and they're like, eh,
I don't know how I feel about that. Add to that,
they find out that Daniel was having money troubles and
her side of the family went to Ireland, remember, on Christmas,
to identify the body. He didn't go. He was not there.
(18:42):
He was not a part of that, and that is
making a lot of people look at him under a microscope.
But the idea of the hit man. Other people are saying, no,
this place is so remote even locals have trouble finding
some of the place here, and her place is not
in the center of town. We know that there's no electricity.
(19:06):
Daniel rarely ever even came with her to the house.
How did he know to tell someone else to get there.
It's not likely, not only that someone is going to
go out there with a planned hit, but use items
from outside, not carrying a weapon, counting on there to
be something there to beat her to death with. Other
(19:27):
people are saying this just does not seem likely, and
the police agree with this. They do not support the
theory of a hitman at this point.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
All right, So let's go back to Ian, because now
he is unintentionally made himself the prime suspect. He's in
those pubs spouting nonsense and saying he did it. He's
telling Julesus, he's telling everyone else, But now he's trying
to point the finger to Daniel. Three days after the murder,
I sneaks into Sophie's land under their visiting her neighbor
(20:01):
who lived in the house behind Sophie. He was seen
photographing and looking into her windows and trying to obtain
information that he could use when he wrote the article
to the Star, gotta think this is a big news story.
This is a very famous French lady. He's got the
most information. So he is monetizing all of this, all
(20:25):
of his articles because he was struggling before. He was, yes,
a freelance journalist, but he wasn't making a lot of money,
all right. So he provided details that the police had
not released, like the blunt force trauma, the two wine glasses,
and the fact that Sophie had not been sexually assaulted.
(20:45):
This was three days after the murder. The imports had
not been released. How would he know those intimate details
unless and this is what the police are thinking, unless
you were there and you did it, you would You
don't know all of this, and seems like he did.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
And add to that, he says, I had an inside source.
But if the reports are not released yet, if they
don't even have those reports yet, who is his inside source.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, it can't be someone at the medical examiners because
they're still doing the exact exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
There was a major break in the case on January eleventh,
so keep in mind were several weeks later now when
the police received a call from a public phone with
a tip. This caller only identified herself as Fiona. She
told police that she saw a man at Kilfodda Bridge
sometime around three am, the same night that Sophie was murdered.
(21:40):
Now they want to talk to Fiona so that they
can get more details, because there's not a whole lot
to go on right now. Luckily for them, the next
day Fiona called again from another public phone. Of course
they're having trouble tracking that because it's a public phone.
But the third time Fiona calls, which, by the way,
that's a lot of times for someone to call. If
you've got information and you're calling three times, you feel
(22:04):
pretty confident that you know something, and it's weighing on
you heavily to call back a third time. But this
third time she called, this time from her home phone
and skull which does allow police to locate her through tracing,
so they get her. They talk to Fiona and she
gives her full statement. Now she's still going under the
(22:25):
alias of Fiona at this point. And Fiona was driving
home when she saw a drunk man waving his arms,
but not towards passing cars, so it's not like he's
in the middle of the road looking I have a
flat tire. Come help me. Know he was in a
long dark coat. Okay, so there's our long coat with
his back to the street, looking up to the moon,
(22:49):
with his arms raised high above his head. Now it's
a very cold, very windy night, which makes it a
little strange that a man would be there unless you
are stranded on the side of the road or something
like that, which he was not. Now, later that same
week she saw the same man in a local market
and it was Ian Bailey. So here what we are
(23:10):
seeing is we're seeing the mention of the long dark coat.
Now we have also heard a long coat mentioned. When
that witness said that Sophie was in her store, there
was a man in a long coat watching her, and
the man followed her. But what else is weird here
is this Fiona is specifically saying, he is standing out
at the moon with his hands or his arms raised
(23:33):
high above his head. They are only one person who's
got a reputation for helen at the moon, because that's
not exactly something everybody does on the weekends. But of
course they ask Ian about it and he says, nope,
I was home asleep.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Another strange thing that happened is that the local film
crew was filming a crime reconstruction show that walks the
viewers through the murdered night. So they're trying to do
this reenactment to help get the word out. Maybe you'll
trigger someone's memory and also to help the investigators. During
the filming, a man with a long dark coat ran
(24:07):
up to the film crew telling him that how he
saw Sophie. One of the people recognized that man as
Ian Bailey. What he said about this trip, this walking
with her was really weird now. He said that he
took a walk with Sophie that took them to the
three Castle Head and it scared her and she wanted
to go to a nearby home. Something happened there that
(24:30):
scared her that she really wanted to get to a
neighbor to talk about. She never said what it was
and didn't mention that she saw Ian there. But there's
rumors that there's a ghost of a woman wearing a
white outfit, but that's really for a different podcast. People
are saying that she saw this ghost and that's what
(24:52):
scared her, or she could have been there and she
saw Ian there and that's what scared her, but we
don't know that for sure. Now the film crew told
Ian thanks, but no thanks. They have everything they need.
So he is trying to insert himself into this investigation
any way he can. Now we are going to get
(25:14):
back to the story and tell you what happens next
right after the break.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
All right, guys, welcome back. So let's jump back in.
We are going to February tenth of nineteen ninety seven.
This is about seven weeks after Sophie was murdered. Two
police came to visit Ian Bailey. They are there for
a very particular reason. They are arresting him for Sophie's murder.
Ian said that the police who sat next to him
(25:44):
in the back of the police car were harassing him,
there being aggressive towards him. The police deny this, so
we don't know what really happened, but he's saying that
they are basically bullying him. So Irish law could only
hold him in jail for two twelve hours for questioning.
They either have to charge him or release him after
(26:04):
that time. So while the police are holding Ian, they
are also searching his home. They're looking for clothes that
the witnesses say they saw by the bridge, so that coat,
all the other things that were described by various witnesses.
So at the back of the house, they did notice
that there was a burn pit that had been recently used.
(26:28):
A local was walking and confirmed that she did see
a fire behind that house on December twenty sixth. Ian
does say, yes, I do burn trash back there, and
I have done it recently, but it was earlier in December,
but they're going to go through it just to be
on the safe side. They did find coat, buttons, and
(26:50):
burnt boots in the remaining ash, along with a mattress
and other betting items. Now, if there was any DNA
or blood evidence, it would have been gone at this
point because it was pretty burnt. But let's remember he
the witness said that they saw a fire behind that
house on December twenty sixth. She was found on December
(27:10):
twenty third. Let's just say hypothetically at this point that
it was Ian and she's found on the twenty third.
Things are heating up. On the twenty six is he
disposing of evidence three days later? Would he have done
it on the twenty third? Did he wait? Did he not?
How would that have played out, let's talk about jewels,
because remember that's Ian's partner. What does she have to
(27:31):
say about it? Because Ian said he was home asleep
that night, right, she is brought in for questioning the
same day that Ian was brought in, and she says, yeah,
he was home, we were asleep. Now she did later
change that story and she's like, you know what, he
did actually get out of bed in the middle of
the nights. Don't know where he went. I did not
(27:51):
see him again until I got up in the morning.
He was making coffee around nine a m. So there
is a gap a time where she's like, you know what,
he did get at and I fell back asleep. I
don't know where he was after that. Jules also said
that she noticed a wound on his forehead for the
first time that morning, which contradicts his turkey story. And
(28:13):
now his alibi is gone. So when he came to bed,
there was no scratch on his head. But then she's, oh,
he got up in the middle of the night and
now he's got scratches. So unless he's fighting turkeys in
the middle of the night, which I mean he howls
up the moon, I don't know. But he woke up
with scratches.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
The police could not get a confession out of him,
and because of the lack of physical evidence, they had
to let him go. Ian Bailey is now the center
of all the new stories and all of his strange
quirks are now in print.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Him bang at the.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Moon, and he was known to have a large walking stick.
One day, a friend came over to check on him
and told him that people are saying that you're the murderer,
and Iana gets pissed. Now, to be fair, his friend
did claim that there was alcohol everywhere and Ian was
a tad drunk. When his friend was like, look, people
(29:06):
are saying you did it, Ian stands up and yells,
you saw her in Spa that day before she was
killed and saw that tid ass and wanted to give
her one. When you went up to her house at
two in the morning, she ran away screaming because you
scared her. You chased her, threw something out her head,
and you realized you went too far. Sounds like a confession,
(29:30):
and it was like Ian is projecting you did this
is how you did it, and you went too far.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
And it sounds very specific because we know that there's
this story about her getting spooked, and then here it's
saying you scared her she ran away through something at
her head. But let's be clear, because her injuries do
not sound like it was just you threw something out
(30:01):
her head and accidentally killed her. It does not sounds
like that. It sounds like.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
The evidence suggests someone goes up and knocks on the
door and she freaks, tries to run, and then she
was attacked.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah, she did not have just one injury. So if
he thinks that his friend did this and he's saying
you threw something out her head, that's not how she died.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Exactly as you can guess. This freaks out Ian's friend
and he hide tells it out of the house. Now,
remember how we mentioned earlier that Ian also confessed in
a pub. It was New Year's Eve and it was
when Ian and Jules they went to a pub and skull.
Ian started talking about Sophie and he began crying. He
(30:51):
told the couple that they were sitting with I did it.
I went too far. That killed the New Year's Eve buzz,
as you can imagine, and the couple pay their tap
and quickly left.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Which let's just pause there for one second, because the
people with him in the pub are saying this that
he said, I did it, I did it, I went
too far. Where have we heard those words before? When
he was talking to his friend and he said, you
saw and spar the day before she was killed, saw
the tight ass and wanted to give her one. When
you went up to her house at two in the morning,
(31:24):
she ran away screaming because you scared her. You chased her,
threw something at her head and realized you went too far.
Those words just line up very perfectly. We'll just say
it that way. He later claimed, as Jen alluded to
you earlier that well, you confessed in the bar. Why'd
you do that? Well, it's just my dark humor. It
wasn't a real confession. I was just messing around. Keep
(31:47):
in mind they say that he was crying when the
topic of Sophie came up. He started crying thirteen months
after her murder. On January twenty seventh of nineteen ninety eight,
Ian Bailey is arrested again by the Irish police. But
again we've still I've got this twelve hour rule. You've
got twelve hours to question them, either charge them, or
they got to go by this time they're bringing up
(32:08):
the confessions that he made. Now this is the second
time he's been held in this case, and Irish law
says that he cannot be held for a third time
for this charge. So they've got to get it done
if they're going to do it right again, he's released
without a charge. Keep in mind, there's not a lot
of evidence. They're going on hearsay in bars. They could
not get him to confess. Seven years go by and
(32:32):
Ian is back in the papers. He is suing the
seven Irish papers on their coverage of the case, but
the Irish papers are not having it. They filed a
petition to get all the police notes on the case
and they got them. So the case the police had
created around Ian, obviously, as we know, it's hugely circumstantial,
(32:55):
but it did make sense because Ian, according to this paperwork,
thought that he was going to get a huge payday
from the papers because he's going on the property, he's
taking the pictures, he's the first one at the scene.
But the papers released the notes and witness statements, so
everything people are saying about him, all the howling at
the moon and all that, it's all coming out. All
(33:16):
the witness statements. So now the public is turning on
Ian again. So he goes after the papers. Papers say no,
you're not coming at us. They get all the documents,
all of the police files. They release that, and now
the papers are like, oh wait, they do have a
lot on you. This isn't looking good. So Ian starts
harassing witnesses. He's verbally going after them. This is going
on for months. He's trying to get them to turn
(33:39):
Now the suit against the Papers is in the trial
phase and it comes out that Ian had beat Jules,
his partner, and the night that she went to the
hospital she almost lost her eye. And this was not
the only time it was common to see her with
black eyes and bruises. Now, Ian claims that she the
(34:00):
abuser and he only put his hands on her in
self defense. His self defense led to six stitches in
her lip. Now there's not really a report of any
injuries on him or any medical care that he received
as a result of this alleged abuse. Now, after all
this came out, and there's all the notes from the
(34:20):
police and all this, the judge ruled against Ian, but
Ireland is not going to try to arrest him or
try him in a court of law.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yeah, that's tough, isn't it. Yeah, everything points to Ian
back under Irish law, they cannot arrest him, they cannot
put him on trial. So the papers did something funny.
They put him on public trial. Now everyone's turning against him.
So in two thousand and seven, the family created a
committee that meant once a month to talk about the
(34:52):
case and what they could do in Paris. Now, the
Irish justice system and the French justice system is very,
very different, so the family and the legal team worked
to try Ian and absenteeism or at absentia. This just
means that he could be tried in their courts and
he doesn't have to be there. He was notified and
(35:15):
subpoena to appear. Ian and his lawyer disagreed on the
validity of the court and Ian was like, you know what,
I'm not even going to have representation at the track.
He honestly, he probably couldn't afford the lawyer to go
to Paris to represent him. In May twenty nineteen, the
courts in Paris convicted Ian in absentia for the murder.
(35:36):
He was sentenced to twenty five years in prison, but
he has to be in Paris to be arrested. This
only works in the French system, so he cannot step
foot inside French territory. Now. He denies any involvement in
the murder, of course, and he was not president in
(35:56):
the court for the French proceedings, which means he cannot
appeal the verdict. Since he wasn't there, he cannot appeal.
Now the Ireland's High Court blocked his extradition to France.
The Irish were like, you can't have our citizen. We
have to keep him. There are laws that allow suspects
(36:17):
to be tried for murdering French citizens abroad, and this
has happened on multiple occasions. Two decades later, Sophie's murder
still remains officially unsold. Now this is in Ireland, not
in Paris. Her family continues to fight for justice.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
But wait.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
June twenty twenty two, we have DNA and it is now.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
At its height.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
An investigation team in Dublin recently came to the US
and met with the FBI. Turns out that some of
the forensic evidence from over twenty eight years ago can
still be tested.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Now.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
The team will test Sophie's close and boots along with
the concrete block and male DNA profile was uncovered in
the testing, but it was just a speck on her boot,
which is not enough to create a DNA profile. We'll
just have to wait until science gets better where they
can multiply that out and get that profile. Unfortunately, Ian
(37:12):
Bailey dies in January twenty twenty four. He collapses in
his home in West Cork. He had a severe heart
condition and he was a candidate for heart surgery. But
the case, you can't imagine the huge impact this has
on that community. It's still highly talked about. It's still
something that sparks national debate. In the documentary which I
(37:37):
highly suggest that you go watch on Netflix called Murder
in West Cork, it really goes into Ian's life about
his whole story about killing the chicken and doing the
Christmas tree. And you see the marks on a drawing
where they were on his hands and it really looks
like nail marks that went down for yeah, and the
(37:59):
fact he said it, yeah, they're just straight and it's
on his hands. Yeah, there's some of them on his hands.
There's a big cut on his forehead where it looks
like a slashing motion. Now, could it have been from
a turkey.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Probably not interesting, And it's also possible, we talked about
before and again going under the assumption that it was
him for a moment. We have heard again referencing the
Scott Peterson case. A lot of times when you are
lying about something, you do sprinkle in some of the
truth just to that's just what your brain goes to.
So is it possible he fought with a turkey at
(38:33):
some point? Maybe? Is it possible he did cut down
a Christmas tree? Maybe? And that's why when he was questioned,
that was the first thing that came to his mind.
Because those things really did happen, That's just not where
those particular marks came from. Perhaps. But I do find
it interesting that they found the buttons in the fireplace
(38:54):
because you hear about that long coat multiple times. That's
not just a one time thing. What I want to know,
did it talk about this whole howling at the moon thing?
What's the deal there?
Speaker 1 (39:08):
It did talk a little bit about it. He pretty
much just threw it around as a joke. Yeah, I
go out there and I howl at the moon. He's
a very he was a very quirky guy. Yeah, he
just his quirks were very strange, and the level of
harassment he did to those witnesses were unheard of. Fiona.
He finds out who Fiona is, and he would stand
(39:31):
outside her shop dragging his finger across his throats or
her throughout the day, like several times, over and over.
And the reason why she didn't go forward is because
she was cheating on her husband and she didn't want
that to come to light. Now, she eventually did reveal
her name, which I'm not we're not going to in
this series just because it has nothing to do with
(39:53):
the murder, but he did ultimately harass her. She ended
up changing her statement saying it wasn't Ian, and then
going back and changing it again because she was just
tired of the harassment.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Wow. And so he's out there threatening people by saying
by doing the hand across the throat thing, that's not
a good look either, my dude. If you're trying to
convince someone you didn't commit a violent crime, maybe you
don't threaten someone with a violent crime.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
And the whole town turned against him, so you know,
he had him. And I feel bad for Jewels, yeah,
because having to live through all of this. But she
was a very quiet, very meek person in the documentary.
Now that the documentary, you can either they can portray
you as anything, right, so they can portray you as
(40:38):
a loud spoken person when when you're quite the opposite.
But I think they pretty much nailed her personality. She
was the very quiet She didn't really look up a lot.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Where does her family stand? Do they feel like it
was Ian?
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Her son is a huge believer it was Ian. Daniel
was not a part of the documentary, so he did
not speak to the documentary. He's very much not talking
about the murder. But they all believe it was Ay
because in French, I think what they call it is
a preponderance of evidence or a bouquet of evidence. Where
(41:13):
the US it is.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Without a doubt, yeah, be on a shadow of a.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Doult be convicted with beyond a shadow of a doubt.
But in in France and in Paris, it is a bouquet.
If you have a bouquet of evidence is how they
explain it. That's how they convict, if you have overwhelming
evidence that you committed the crime.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Interesting, it's a.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Very yeah, it's a very sliding scale. It sounds like
from how their legal system is. It's not beyond a
shadow of a doubt. It's just a you got all
this stacked against you, you probably did it right. It's
more like common sense type of law.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Yeah, if the shoe fits kind of thing. That's interesting,
And it's also interesting too that France is like, this
was one of our citizens, so we're going to charge you.
They went through the whole entire process, but he's not
a French citizen. He's an iron in Ireland's not turning
him over to you because here we don't have the
evidence that we need. Y'all may have it, you can
go about your process, but we're not going to turn
(42:09):
him over because in our book we don't know, so
we're not going to turn over someone that we're not
sure has done this legally exactly. That's very interesting.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
He could never leave Ireland. He could never leave. If
he were to cross over, he could be arrested. He
would Oh if to watch the pod or the documentary
only for this, he's trying to sell himself as a poet.
The entire time and the entire documentary he is writing
out all of the like he has such seriousness when
(42:43):
it comes to his poetry, and it's so bad. It
is so bad, and you could tell the people who
are filming this were like, I'm gonna have to sit
through another way, boy, because he's always bringing this up.
He like he carries around a little book and he's
writing and rewriting, so I have to memorize it.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
So out of curiosity in the documentary, is there or
anywhere rather, is there a motive presented for if it
was Ian?
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Why no, there's not.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
It didn't go motive.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
It almost feels like it is like he thought that
this was going to be his big money ticket and
to add into his quirks where maybe he did like
her and he wanted something and she was not reciprocating
the theme that.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Thing that he projected on his friend, that whole scenario
that he projected on his friend.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
But now that it happened, he was like, Oh, I
can cash in on this, right, I'm a journalist. This
is the biggest story that's going to hit so I
can't get all the exclusive rights to it.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Got it? That is definitely interesting. So if you have
some time, check that out and let us know what
you think. Unfortunately, this successful, wonderful woman lost her life
and they don't know who did it and that is
a huge open wound for the family I can only imagine.
So let us know your thoughts. We do have reminder
(44:11):
Patreon this week this Thursday, the twenty seventh Patreon Live,
so hop on with us. We'll post the link about
thirty minutes beforehand. We'll have a story for thirty minutes.
Hang out for thirty minutes. If you are not on Patreon,
go on Patreon search for Corbus Tilikti. A dollar and
up gets you ad free episodes. Sometimes we post them
(44:32):
early for you guys. Sometimes we don't. Just depends. That
also gets you on these monthly live episodes that we do.
Three dollars in up gets you on the Discord server
where we have a lot of fun. Ten dollars and
up gets you a quarterly gift. So come join us,
come hang out. All that to say, it's a fun time.
If you are in the group or on Discord, you
(44:56):
may have seen we just posted an update about Rocky.
It is not the update we wanted. The Alabama courts.
That's part of what's been going on in the background
here is the courts have been going back and forth
about whether or not they can or should proceed with
setting an execution date, and Rocky's team wrote up this
(45:20):
whole argument, presented it, and they actually followed an extension
and said, hey, we need more time to look at this.
And I will admit I was a little naive in
thinking that maybe that was a good thing. But they
did come back on Friday and said that they can
proceed with setting a date. Now, there is not a
date right now, but that means that there could be
(45:43):
literally any second. That's where we stand within. This was it.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
This was the last hope.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
Pretty much, unless our governor decides that she wants to
step in a grant clemency. For me personally, I feel
like she's going to say, the courts just looked at it.
That's what the courts are for. If they don't think
there's anything there, then you do I technically speaking, could
she could somebody present the case to her and she
could grant the clemency. Could be but that's it, that's it.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
She's not known to go against that war.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
No, she's not. And just to reiterate, because it's been gosh,
it's been almost exactly four years since we covered his case.
When we say grant clemency, Rocky Myers cannot be freed.
He will not ever get out of jail unless Alabama
change is a law. So when we say clemency, that
is just giving him that original sentence. Remember how the
(46:34):
jury said we want him to have life in prison.
The judge invoked judicial override, which is now illegal, not
even allowed, can't do it now. All that means she
can give him that original sentence. The best this man
can hope for is life in prison. That's all we're
asking at this point. It's not even like we're saying, oh,
just let him free, No, just don't kill him, because
(46:57):
that's not even what the jury wanted. That's where we stand.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
And it doesn't even scrape the surface. So that entire
trial was a sham. The legal representation was a shamp.
The appeals that never got filed because the lawyer just
quitted and didn't file them and got slapped on the hand.
There's just so much.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
It is the poster child for every single thing that
is wrong in the system, just all of it. And
God bless Maypucket. If you remember Maypucket, she was the
juror who has been outspoken on the case and talked
about how the jurors who voted for guilty were very
biased in using the racial slurs. And she's the one
who talked about how upset they were when the judge
(47:43):
overrode their sentence because they were like, then why are
we here? She is still to this day out there.
She went to Alabama Capitol Hill with Rocky's son and
is pushing for this bill to make the judicial override retroactive.
And she is still out there to this day. What
does that say that this woman who was on a
(48:06):
jury is still no, this is wrong. I was there,
I was in the seat, I heard every word of it,
and I am still out here saying this is wrong.
That says a lot. It says a lot. God bless her.
But anyway, that's where we stand on that. We will
keep you guys updated. If you want to send a letter,
email it to us at Corpus Delicti at yahoo dot
(48:27):
com and we will get it where it needs to go.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
Yeah, anything at this point, yep, But okay, we for
our patriots. We will see in a few days and
if not, you'll hear us hopefully in a couple of weeks.
But until then, you know what they said to plea
Bye bye,
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