A Garda cold case team reviewing the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation is awaiting a report from Irish forensic scientists on whether an advanced method of DNA collection has helped them to identify her killer.
The Garda Serious Crime Review team has been working closely with Forensic Science Ireland (FSI) after it recruited a US DNA collection expert, M Vac Systems, to examine a number of exhibits from the near 30-year-old inquiry.
Jared Bradley, M Vac Systems president and chief executive, travelled to Ireland last month and spent a week examining various exhibits gathered by gardaí as part of the original investigation into the French film producer’s murder.
Posting on Instagram in advance of his trip, Mr Bradley said: “Praying for a fantastic outcome. If what I believe will happen actually does, it will be MASSIVE for us in a whole host of ways. Please pray for us.”
RM Block
Ms Toscan du Plantier’s badly beaten body was found on the laneway leading to her isolated holiday home in Toormore near Schull, Co Cork, on the morning of December 23rd, 1996. A postmortem revealed she had been bludgeoned to death with a rock and a concrete block.
Gardaí from the cold case review team based in Bantry brought several exhibits to the FSI laboratory for examination by M Vac including the flat rock and large cavity block found at the scene and Ms Toscan du Plantier’s dressing gown, leggings, vest and boots.
Investigators are hoping that any DNA evidence obtained will enable FSI to make comparisons with DNA samples obtained from some 10 people identified as suspects during the original Garda investigation.
These include samples from Ian Bailey, an English journalist who later became the chief suspect in the case. He was twice arrested in connection with the murder, but was never charged, and repeatedly protested his innocence before his death last year at the age of 66.
In a 2001 review of the original garda file, a solicitor at the Director of Public Prosecution’s office, Robert Sheehan, said that given the attack “was carried out in a frenzied manner, one might expect that the assailant would have left traces of blood, skin, clothing fibres or hair at the scene”.
However, he said no such material was discovered and there was no forensic evidence linking Mr Bailey to the scene.
Gardaí are remaining tight-lipped about the latest developments in the case and say it would be premature to speculate on whether the M Vac technology was able to gather enough DNA from the exhibits to generate a full DNA profile to identify Ms Toscan du Plantier’s killer.
But Garda sources confirmed they have retained possession of the exhibits throughout the cold case review, contrary to some media reports that suggested the items had been sent to the FBI in the US for analysis at its headquarters in Quantico, Virginia.
What is the M Vac system?
The M Vac system was developed in the early 1990s by scientist Dr Bruce Bradley to detect e-coli following an outbreak of the bacteria at a US restaurant chain which led to the deaths of four children and left hundreds of others needing hospital treatment.
Dr Bradley died in 2009 but his son, Jared Bradley, now M Vac chief executive, began exploring other uses for the technology and realised it might have an important part to play in criminal investigations. The view was endorsed by researchers at Boston University in 2012.
According to M Vac Systems, its approach is particularly useful in collecting DNA samples from rough and porous surfaces which are often difficult to sample with traditional methods such as swabbing.
The system involves spraying a sterile solution on to a surface and simultaneously vacuuming it up, creating a turbulent environment that helps the break free DNA containing cells, which are suspended in a solution, which is then collected with the vacuum.
The first successful use of M Vac’s technology to secure a criminal conviction came when it was used to extract DNA from a pillowcase, which led to the identification of paediatrician Dr John Wall and his conviction for the 2011 murder of his ex-wife Uta von Schwedler in Utah.
Since then, it has been used by US police forces in hundreds of cases including many of a historic nature such as the unsolved rape and murder of Leisa Mitchell Jackson (12) in Texas in 1979.
It was also used in solving the 1995 murder of Krystal Beslanowitch (17) in Salt Lake City, Utah, who was found surrounded by bloody rocks after being bludgeoned to death.
Swab samples taken in 2008 only yielded a partial DNA profile but in 2013, forensic scientists used the M Vac technology and obtained a full DNA profile from the rocks which led to the identification of Michael Simpson as the killer and his subsequent conviction.
