GARDAI have appealed for help as they investigate the murder of a French woman in west Cork. Last night they began examining the passenger lists of flights into Ireland before Christmas. Ms Sophie Toscan Du Plantier appears to have been attacked in her holiday home and then murdered as she ran for help.
She was married to a well known French film director, Daniel Toscan Du Plantier, and had arrived in Ireland last Saturday intending to return to Paris on Christmas Eve. However, she was unable to get a flight and was due to leave Ireland yesterday instead.
She was the third wife of Mr Toscan Du Plantier, whose UniFrance group specialised in promoting French films.
The 38 year old woman appears to have been attacked in her five bedroom home which overlooks Dunmanus Bay a few miles from Schull sometime after 10 pm on Sunday. A trail of blood led from the house to a laneway shared by her home and one other. Her body was found there the following morning.
Detectives believe she was hit on the head with a blunt instrument before she ran from the house. Her attacker caught up with her and it appears she tried to defend herself. Her arms were badly scratched and broken as she put her hands to her head to fend off blows. Her attacker appears to have dropped a heavy stone on her and it is thought she died from this final blow.
Her body was discovered by a German woman who was staying at the house next door. Her family has refused to comment, but it is understood the murdered woman was to spend Christmas Day with them.
Ms Toscan Du Plantier, who had her Cork telephone number registered under Bouniol, her name from her first marriage, bought the house in an isolated part of west Cork five years ago. Believed to have recently returned to her first husband, she was a regular visitor to the area, coming up to six times a year, sometimes with her 15 year old son and his friends, and sometimes alone. She also let the house.
Locals believe she came alone to her home on Saturday last having hired a silver grey Ford Fiesta at Cork airport. The car, registration 96 C 14459, was still parked outside the house on Monday.
Lights were seen in the house at about 10 p.m. on Sunday and she had arranged to meet friends on Monday afternoon. She had been in Schull where she did some shopping on Saturday.
Ms Josie Hellen, who lives nearby, described Ms Toscan Du Plantier as a quiet woman who kept to herself.
"She was very nice and liked coming to the area. People locally knew her."
Detectives from the Technical Branch in Dublin arrived at the scene on Tuesday and the area where her body was found and the house were sealed off.
Gardai are surprised by the brutal way in which she was beaten and killed but they still do not have any firm idea as to who might be responsible.
Signs in the house indicate she may have had a visitor or been surprised by an intruder.
Traces of skin found under her finger nails indicate she scratched her attacker. Some hair was also found in her hands.
Chief Supt Noel Smith has appealed to the public to help piece together the final hours of the woman.
"Someone must have noticed her from the time she arrived at the airport and picked up her car to the time she went to her holiday home on Sunday. Anyone with any information at all should come forward," he said.
Gardai in Bantry have set up an incident room with two telephone numbers - 027-50045 and 027-50216.
The area is remote with a small, mostly elderly local population and a large number of holiday houses owned by foreigners.