UPDATE 19/5/21: The still-unidentified body of The Somerton Man has been exhumed this morning, after South Australia’s Attorney-General Vickie Chapman approved the SA Police’s application back in April.
9News reports that police detectives were overseeing the digging up a grave in Adelaide’s West Terrace Cemetery this morning.
One of Australia’s biggest mysteries — The Somerton Man — is going to be reopened and as Kris Jenner famously said, “this is a case for the FBI.”
In 1948, a couple of locals found a man lying in the sand on Adelaide’s Somerton Beach. The man looked like he was asleep, but he was actually dead. Upon closer inspection, a tiny rolled up scrap of paper was found in a small pocket in his pants. The scrap of paper was torn from a rare edition of a book of poetry called the Rubaiyat Of Mar Khayyam, with the Persian words “Tamam Shud” meaning “it is finished.” Hmmm how bizarre?
PEDESTRIAN.TV also did a deep dive into the case for podcast All Aussie Mystery Hour, which you can find below.
Police were eventually able to track down the book the scrap of paper was from. On back of the book was a secret code and phone number of local woman named Jessica Thomson. She denied knowing The Somerton Man, but those present when she was shown a plaster cast of the mystery man’s face said she looked like she was about to faint. As for the code it has never been deciphered.
Many believe that The Somerton Man was a spy during the Cold War, as even international law enforcement could not identify him.
South Australian Police now think that improvements in DNA technology can help find the identity of the man, according to the ABC. The Somerton Man is currently buried in Adelaide’s West Terrace cemetery where his remains will be exhumed from in order to obtain a DNA sample.
Attorney-General Vickie Chapman said the case has generated “intense public interest” and after 70 years she hopes many of the questions surrounding The Somerton Man will be answered.
“This man could be someone’s father, brother or cousin, and those relatives and friends deserve answers,” Chapman said.
“South Australia Police has since come to me with the funding and an application, and I have approved it.”
Police and Somerton Man researchers hope that researching his genealogy will bring him back to his relatives.
Wow, imagine getting a call from the SA Police to find out you’re a descendent of The Somerton Man?
