One week before turning 67, today, January 27, 2024, English journalist Ian Bailey died suddenly in Cork, Ireland, apparently of a massive heart attack. It was in the same city, 28 years ago, that he became internationally known as the prime suspect in the murder of Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier, who was found murdered outside her home in West Cork, near Schull, on the morning of December 23, 1996.

For Sophie’s family and the French justice system, however, Ian Bailey was “THE” killer and only managed to escape due to the ineptitude of the Irish police who concluded that there was not enough evidence to merit prosecution. With global public opinion divided, in 2020 he was convicted in absentia by a French court and received a 25-year sentence. The family put great pressure on the authorities to hand him over and the Netflix documentary was one of those tools. At risk of being extradited, if he left Cork, Ian Bailey spent almost 30 years in the same city, somewhat apart from society. He always maintained his position of innocence, despite testimonies and suspicions that he was indeed the killer. Irish producer and writer Jim Sheridan also made a documentary on the subject titled Murder At The Cottage: The Search for Justice for Sophie.

According to Irish newspaper reports, Bailey had collapsed in a square, and when the emergency services arrived, he was no longer responding. The news of his death worries Sophie’s family, who still want to effectively elucidate the documentary filmmaker’s murder. “We never had any doubt that Ian Bailey was the killer, but we hoped that the cold case analysis team would obtain DNA and forensic evidence to prove this beyond any doubt. Now our fear is that we will never get to the full truth about what happened, so I am asking the Irish police to continue with their investigation to be absolutely sure that Bailey was to blame,” said Sophie’s uncle, Jean Pierre Gazeau.

Ian Bailey’s death also interrupts his defamation case, which he wanted to conclude to “clear his name” and was awaiting a review of the case to do so. Be that as it may, the investigation does not appear to have stopped. Local newspapers reported today that they seized the journalist’s personal items from his apartment, after searching the property. Among the materials, there are several notebooks with his notes, a cell phone, a laptop, hard drives and memory cards, and other electronic storage devices.

Sophie’s son is optimistic that the conclusion will now be definitive. “We are confident that the discovery of new evidence, the hearing of new witnesses, and the revelation of possible complicity will allow the Irish police to finally close the case, 27 years after my mother’s murder,” he said. It will be?

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