A Murder in West Cork: What Happened to Sophie Toscan du Plantier's Holiday Home?

Netflix's Sophie: A Murder in West Cork follows the tragic death of a French television producer named Sophie Toscan du Plantier. The 39-year-old was found brutally murdered outside her holiday home in West Cork, Ireland in 1996. While Ian Bailey, a local journalist during the time of the murder, remains the sole suspect in the investigation, the true-crime case is still legally unresolved. Now that it's been over two decades since her death, what happened to Toscan du Plantier's holiday home? The cottage still stands in Ireland, and Toscan du Plantier's son, Pierre Louis Baudey-Vignaud, continues to visit it as he works on his mother's case.

As we learn in the docuseries, Toscan du Plantier worked as a film producer in France where she often crossed paths with the French elite. In order to get away from the hustle and bustle of that life, she found a remote cottage in the coastal village of Schull. But on Dec. 23, 1996, Toscan du Plantier was found dead with severe head injuries outside her peaceful retreat, just days after she arrived in Ireland on holiday.

According to The Irish Times, a cross currently marks where Toscan du Plantier's body was found. The story of her death has haunted Schull, which was otherwise known for its welcoming attitude towards people from all walks of life. Locals have had to deal with the morbid fascination over the home as the case has stretched on over the last 25 years.

"We had people bringing their grannies and their small children to look at the cross marking where Sophie was found, and then some of them were cheeky enough to drive up to the house and peer in the windows," Shirley Foster, Toscan du Plantier's former neighbour who found her body, told The Irish Times.

To this day, Baudey-Vignaud, Toscan du Plantier's only son, makes frequent visits to the holiday home, as it reminds him of his mother. "The house in Ireland, for me, is the only place where I would go with my mother and where I still go today," Baudey-Vignaud explained in the docuseries. "It's like going to see her. It's like going to stay with her every time. My mother is very present in this house."