Body of evidence in bid to solve Somerton Man mystery

Almost 73 years after he was found dead sitting upright in a suit and tie on a suburban Adelaide beach, The Somerton Man may finally be ready to give up his secrets.

South Australian police exhume the body of The Somerton Man, who was found dead in 1948 and has never been identified. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Almost 73 years after he was found dead sitting upright in a suit and tie on a suburban Adelaide beach, his pocket containing an eerie note bearing the Persian words for “It is finished”, The Somerton Man may finally be ready to give up his secrets.

SA Police on Wednesday ­exhumed the remains of The Somerton Man from Adelaide’s West Terrace Cemetery and hope to use modern forensic techniques and DNA technology to solve a mystery that has invited more theories than a John le Carre novel.

No one has ever established the identity of the man or determined how or even if he was killed after he was found propped up immaculately dressed on a Somerton seawall on December 1, 1948.

There has been speculation he was a Russian spy who was poisoned, an American sailor who died through misadventure, or a local man who took his own life or was murdered, possibly due to a secret affair with a local nurse.

The most intriguing part of the mystery involved a note found in a secret pocket inside his suit jacket bearing the words “Tamam Shud”, Persian for “It is finished”.

The scrap of paper had been torn from a book of Persian poetry, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. A doctor in the beach suburb of Glenelg, which neighbours Somerton, found the book of poetry thrown through the open window of his car, missing the section of the page that was found on The Somerton Man.

Aside from a large contingent of SA Police, the exhumation was also attended yesterday by University of Adelaide academic Professor Derek Abbott who has been researching the case for more than a decade and whose wife, Rachel Egan, believes she may be the granddaughter of The Somerton Man.

Ms Egan’s grandmother was Jo Thomson, an Adelaide nurse who died in 2007 and whose phone number was found written on the inside page of the book of Persian poetry, potentially linking her romantically with The Somerton Man.

“It is a credit to the SA police that they have managed to get the approval for this exhumation and I think it means a lot also to the state because many people in SA want to see a resolution to this mystery,” Professor Abbott said.

“There’s a feeling of being pleased it’s going ahead and we’ll get a resolution, hopefully, but a sombre feeling because we are disturbing the remains of a grave.”

The process by which The Somerton Man was exhumed was deeply respectful and spearheaded by one of SA’s most senior police officers, veteran Detective Superintendent Des Bray who heads the Major Crime Investigation Branch and has overseen some of SA’s most infamous crime mysteries.

Care was taken at West Terrace Cemetery to maintain The Somerton Man’s privacy, with curtains placed around the gravesite as the excavators moved in.

Superintendent Bray said it was important the exhumation was being done with dignity and respect. “The Somerton Man is not just a curiosity or a mystery to be solved. He’s somebody’s father, son, perhaps grandfather, uncle, brother, and that’s why we’re doing this and trying to identify him,” he said.

When The Somerton Man’s remains were successfully removed, they were placed inside a new coffin with SA Police acting as pallbearers and transporting him to an waiting vehicle.

Superintendent Bray said the next step would be for his remains to be examined by forensic scientists. “Following recovery of the remains, Forensic science SA will attempt to recover a DNA profile from the man,” he said.

“If a DNA profile can be obtained … a forensic case meeting will be held to formulate the most appropriate DNA strategy, which will then require considerable ­investigation work to have any chance of identifying the man or where he originated from.”

The gravesite at West Terrace Cemetery will be set aside pending The Somerton Man’s return once the DNA process is complete, a process which may take several months.

The grave is marked by a simple marble inscription that was placed upon his burial by the Salvation Army in the absence of any family or friends. It reads: “Here lies the unknown man who was found at Somerton Beach, 1st December 1948.”