NSFW: Sophie and the Briars

The Sophie Toscan du Plantier crime scene always repays closer inspection. A chance to talk about ethics and responsible reporting too.

I’ve been saving this post up for weeks now as it has me in an ethical bind. It also helps to understand what Crime Guy is and what it is not. Let us first rewind.

I have known an expert on this case for many years now. He writes on Reddit as Phil Mathers and he is not only extremely knowledgeable but he has a forensic mind and a humble manner. He really is the sort of person you would want looking into this case. He is listened to and respected on Reddit and I will share some of his posts below.

Phil goes deep into the details and also deep into the unpleasant photographic evidence that is part of the Sophie mythology. On the Netflix documentary there are no crime scene photos. Jim Sheridan shows a couple and they are heavily redacted. Sheridan explains that he felt obliged to show the photos to help understand the anger and futility felt by the family, and perhaps to try and explain why this case still haunts even the most hardy individuals. The photos help to explain Father Cashman’s anguish years after the event.

Crime Guy has never been about this side of true crime. We shun this angle, we mark it off limits and we look at the less explicit evidence. This is for personal reasons as I am highly squeamish but also for professional reasons. A lot of people find this stuff challenging: even trained and experienced professionals who see it regularly. This crime scene is known to have been especially unpleasant as even the most experienced police officers admitted. The word brutal is overused but apt.

A few years ago I was shown a couple of these photos and it took me weeks to summon up the courage to glance at them through my closed fingers for perhaps a second or two. I still remember them vividly. Part of me wishes I had not done it.

Is it dishonest to report on true crime without covering this side of things? Perhaps. But true crime these days attracts some unusual people, some of whom appear deranged. This is not entertainment. Agatha Christie is entertainment. These are real people.

I always knew that I would leave this side of things for others. If you are interested you can find a lot of this stuff on Reddit but I do urge caution. Reddit put these photos behind NSFW banners and force you to sign in so that they can track who is accessing these posts. So you will not be sent immediately into difficult imagery if you want to look at the comments and surrounding information.

Below I use the only part of one image I am comfortable showing. Phil Mathers has been looking in detail at the neatly cut briars around the area where Sophie was found. Phil believes these briar stems were cut by the killer. He can show they were not cut by the police after the murder and he has done experiments on briars to try and show that they could not have been cut very long before Sophie was killed. The position of the body and the location of some of the cut briars persuades him that Sophie was moved and the briars cut to help the killer move her. This implies he had a sharp knife with him and a level of calm resolve.

The detailed post on this topic is here. You can see part of one of the photos below with the sharp, clean and recent cuts highlighted.

Neatly cut briars at the crime scene

Crime Guy no longer presents complete theories for you to either accept or critique. I am sharing the work of a serious professional I know and respect immensely for two reasons.

The first is to get some more deserved attention on these theories. If they are correct then they move our understanding forwards.

The second is to help you understand what Crime Guy is not. We’re not Reddit. We’re not entertainment. I invite your thoughts and comments on the ideas I mention here. If you want to critique Phil’s theories please do that over on Reddit.