Garda∅ in west Cork have confirmed that blood samples taken from the scene where a French woman was brutally murdered in 1996 are being processed in Britain using new DNA techniques.
Senior Garda sources told The Irish Times at the weekend that the file on Ms Sophie Toscan du Plantier (38), a French film-maker who had a holiday home in the Schull area, was "very much alive" and had never been closed.
New DNA techniques had become available and warranted blood samples being sent to England for further testing, the sources said.
Ms du Plantier's body was found with severe head injuries at her home, a converted farmhouse, at Toormore, Schull, on December 23rd, 1996.
A massive Garda hunt got under way, during which more than 1,000 people were interviewed but no one was ever convicted. Among those questioned was an English man who was held by garda∅ on a number of separate occasions but always released without charge.
It is understood the investigating team has met at least once a month since the crime to review the considerable body of evidence amassed in the intervening years, and that garda∅ from other parts of the State have been called in to evaluate it on a number of occasions.
A file on the murder was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions which has been updated regularly.
Garda sources said the case had been a difficult one but at no stage had the investigation been stood down.
In 1997, the State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, was the key witness at the inquest in Bantry into the death of Ms du Plantier.
In his evidence, Dr Harbison said death had been caused by laceration and swelling of the brain due to fractures of the skull caused by multiple head injuries from a blunt instrument.