Shirley Foster Dies

The woman who found the body of Sophie Toscan du Plantier has now died, it has been reported.

It is a sad reality that witnesses will gradually pass away after a crime, and this year will be the 30th anniversary of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in West Cork. News broke this week that Shirley Foster, the woman who found Sophie just before Christmas 1996, has herself died.

Shirley Foster kept a low profile in the aftermath. She cooperated with all the various investigations but I never saw her in any English-language documentary. I was amazed to see her in the video below, a French-language documentary about the crime. She is shown at around 2:30, walking a camera operator along and down the laneway below Sophie’s cottage. Although there is a French voiceover, Shirley’s voice is distinct. A little later, Shirley and her husband Alfie Lyons are interviewed together. Alfie has also passed away.

Unfortunately there is no forensic questioning of Alfie and Shirley by the producers, a missed opportunity. We all have so many questions for them simply because they are the only two humans known to have been nearby when Sophie was killed, other than the murderer. Whatever information they held is now inaccessible.

I have tried to think my way through that morning several times, almost monthly, in the last five years. Over the Christmas holiday 2024-25, I tried my own forensic re-examination of the crime scene in the article below.

I went over that map and the evidence so many times, and I did get a much better understanding of the remoteness and the harshness of the location. Many people have questioned the actions of Shirley Foster on that morning, and the time of her discovery has also been questioned. Alfie claimed to have knocked on Sophie’s door after Shirley told him of ‘a body’ in the lane. Neither Alfie or Shirley had recognised Sophie as the victim. Did he notice any blood on the door? He says not. Could his hand have deposited it there? We will never know. Alfie, his account goes, wanted to warn Sophie that there was a killer loose in the hills.

And why did Shirley run up through the steep, overgrown fields, past Sophie’s cottage, to get to her own house? Did she not feel any danger? Why did she not turn the car around and drive back up the lane? Why did she not ascertain whether Sophie was still alive? Maybe she could have administered first aid?

We will never know any of these answers but it is always the case that the simple, logical answer will give you the truth. The simple answer is that Shirley did not realise it was a human at first. What she saw was a bundle of white clothing or cotton. She might have driven straight past without stopping at all, but something did cause her to stop. And when she stopped, realising it was a dead body, blind panic took hold. She just fled. She sprinted through the nearest gate, taking the shortest line to her own house. There was no time for calm reflection. Perhaps she wished she had done something else, but that is what she did on that day.

Many thanks to Geraldine Comiskey for sending this article to me.