A New Suspect: Alfie Lyons

Nothing really new about Alfie, so why did almost everyone rule him out at the time? Thanks to subscribers for suggesting a closer look at Alfie Lyons

Alfie Lyons lived with Shirley Foster at Dreenane. They were the closest people Sophie had to next-door neighbours. Alfie had various disputes with Sophie over the years, the combination of which might conceivably make a motive. As the next-door neighbour, he had the opportunity. His only alibi was Shirley Foster: they stayed in on the night of the murder and did not see anyone else.

The 3 houses at Dreenane (Google Maps)

The means of killing, the weapon, is a little more contentious because there are various theories about the combination of weapons that caused Sophie’s death. Was there a sharp object used to cause the early wounds, which were relatively superficial? Was a flat stone then used to cause further injuries? Was the large cavity block actually used as a weapon, given its large weight and size, or was it simply lying on the ground prior to the attack, which would account for the relatively light blood stains on it? Even if the larger block was used, people have contended that Alfie could have wielded such a weight even though he was in his early sixties. Some sources put him at nearer 70 than 60. I make no claim either way on any of these points, I simply note them here because any theory in which Alfie is the killer needs to answer all of them.

Some people have pointed to Alfie’s minor criminal record for cultivating and possessing cannabis as being relevant. As for other witnesses, this can be interpreted in different ways. Either Alfie’s brush with the police left him compromised, susceptible to carrying out favours for the police that may or may not have influenced him to speak against Ian Bailey. But in the current scenario, where Alfie becomes the killer, there is the tantalising possibility that the police protected him in his role as a supplier of quality cannabis and helped to cover up his involvement in the killing of Sophie. This is far-fetched to the point of absurdity: I have to admit my own feelings here because the idea seems ridiculous. I believe the police only hounded Ian Bailey due to the complete absence of any other credible suspect. If one or more officers knew that Alfie was really the killer, there is simply no way they could have kept that secret for this long. The drug link, which transforms Alfie into a local underworld lynchpin, would not survive such a high profile murder. His local customers could easily find someone else to grow their cannabis after his conviction for murder.

Alfie Lyons in Murder at the Cottage

Anyone wanting to make a case against Alfie Lyons has to incorporate Shirley Foster’s presence into their narrative. It is not usually contested that the killer must have become blood-stained due to the frenzied nature of the attack on Sophie. Whenever the murder happened in the range from midnight to ten o’clock the next morning, Alfie would have had to sneak out of the house unnoticed by Shirley, kill Sophie, return again unnoticed, and then somehow account for his blood-stained clothes. It is possible to come up with some plausible possibilities that kept the secret from Shirley: he hid the clothes in an outbuilding, and there was a shed or barn-like structure between Sophie and Alfie’s houses labelled on the map above as a storehouse. Then he disposed of the clothes later on somehow, before the police arrived. Another possibility, which is surely far-fetched, is that Shirley knew that Alfie was the killer, helped him clean up and then lied for him for the rest of his life. Shirley did not appear in any of the documentaries, the West Cork podcast or any other coverage of the case. I believe that Alfie’s only appearance in Murder at the Cottage was from archive footage filmed in the late 1990s. Alfie was one person I had in mind when I said in January 2024 that we could all agree that the killer, whoever he was, is now dead. Alfie died in 2021 and Shirley sold the house soon after. One can imagine that she felt immense relief at finally being able to leave that chapter behind.

My own view is that Alfie Lyons cannot be the killer. Yes he had the motive, means and opportunity, even if you need to stretch a little bit here and there. Neighbourly disputes do sometimes result in physical violence, but it is hard to imagine Alfie Lyons losing control to the degree needed for such a frenzied attack that shocked even seasoned investigators. According to Senan Molony, writing in his new book Sophie: The Final Verdict written after Ian Bailey’s death earlier this year, “Alfie Lyons was closely interviewed, although he had a solid alibi from his wife Shirley, who had found the body and he was infirm in any case.”

The reason I find myself ruling out Alfie’s involvement is the presence of Shirley Foster. I cannot invent a sequence of events that hides the clean-up operation from her, especially given that the murder did not appear planned in advance. And I find it even less credible that Alfie was found out by Shirley who then protected him for the rest of his life, with all of the international and local scrutiny accompanying this case. If that is true, surely they would have sold up and left the area soon after the murder?

I can’t resist leaving you with this passage from Sophie: The Final Verdict, which I strongly recommend and will be reviewing in detail soon:-

Shirley Foster rose at 8:20 a.m. on Monday, 23 December. She had not been out of the house all Sunday and now had things to do. She made breakfast, whereupon Alfie also rose and got dressed. He had briefly been up an hour earlier to put on the heating and make tea, before coming back to bed. He had also been ‘up a few times during the night to go to the toilet.’