A woman who was questioned by gardai yesterday in connection with the murder of Ms Sophie Toscan du Plantier, near Schull, west Cork, on December 23rd, 1996, was released following six hours' custody in Bandon Garda station.
This was the second time in a week that gardai have taken a woman into custody for questioning about the murder of the French woman, who had owned a holiday home in west Cork.
Last Thursday a 19-year-old woman was arrested in Cork city and also brought to Bandon Garda station for questioning. She was also later released.
A Garda spokesman in west Cork said yesterday the arrests were part of the continuing investigation into the murder.
It is understood the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation has been helping west Cork gardai with their inquiries. Ms du Plantier's murder shocked the quiet area of Dunmanus West, outside Schull, where her body was discovered on December 23rd, 1996. She was lying in a pool of blood in a remote laneway leading to her holiday home. She had been battered to death.
Ms du Plantier was well liked although she did not socialise much in the area. Locals described her as a quiet woman. It is understood she had returned to west Cork to oversee repairs to the central heating system in her home.
Gardai believe that her murderer used a heavy implement, such as a brick, to batter her about the head.
Ms du Plantier's former husband, Mr Daniel Toscan du Plantier (59), a French filmmaker, paid his first visit to west Cork since the murder last July, to be briefed by the Gardai on the continuing investigation. Mr du Plantier had been critical of the Gardai because no arrest had been made, but in a brief news conference after his west Cork visit he said he understood the Gardai was doing everything possible to bring the case to a conclusion and to arrest the murderer.
He said he believed the Garda in west Cork knew the identity of the killer, but he was not at liberty to say what he had been told during the briefing.
"That's the law here. The day I can tell you what I know, the case will be finished," he said.
It is believed that Ms du Plantier was killed probably between 11 p.m. on the day before her body was discovered and 10 a.m. on the morning of December 23rd.
A limestone cross has been erected by her family at the site of her murder.