SOMERTON MAN EXHUMED
The Tamám Shud cold case is reopened with a search for DNA matches
Police in Australia have exhumed the body of Somerton Man, the mysterious individual at the heart of what is sometimes known as the “Tamám Shud” case (see FT351:3035). The man was found dead, slumped against the sea wall on the beach at Somerton, South Australia, on 1 December 1948. He was dressed in a suit and tie, but his pockets contained nothing to identify him and the labels had been cut out of his clothes. All attempts to discover who the man was, or to ascertain the cause of his death, failed; but investigators did find a tightly-rolled piece of paper in one of his pockets with the words “Tamám Shud” – meaning “It is finished” in Persian – printed on them. The paper turned out to have been torn from a copy of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam that was found on the back seat of a car parked nearby, but whose owner knew nothing of the dead man. This further complicated things, as it was an edition that wasn’t supposed to exist. A so-far uncracked cipher was also found among the dead man’s equally anonymous possessions, as well as a phone number that led to a nurse living in Somerton; she denied knowing the man, but appeared upset on being shown a plaster cast of his head.
There has been much speculation as to who the man was and why he died on Somerton beach, with suggestions ranging from spurned lover to Cold War spy, but no definitive answers. He was buried, still unidentified, in Adelaide’s West Terrace Cemetery, and that is where he has remained until now.
On 19 May, South Australian police exhumed the corpse as part of their Operation Persevere, which investigates historic cold cases with the aim of giving names to all unidentified individuals who have died in the region. The intention is to extract DNA from the man’s bones and use this to trace any living relatives he may have. In addition, forensic anthropologists will examine the bones and an odontologist will look at the man’s teeth for any further clues. There was a previous attempt to use Somerton Man’s DNA to identify him, using hairs found embedded in the cast of his head, but these only yielded limited amounts of DNA that proved insufficient to match him to any relatives. Professor Derek Abbott told the media that the bones were in a good condition on exhumation and that he is hopeful of a “good result”. He said this analysis would be “a different ball game” from a regular crime scene DNA analysis. In those cases, scientists use a basic matching technique involving just 23 markers on the DNA, but for the Somerton Man match they will be able to use in the region of 800,000 markers, giving far greater accuracy. Researchers will also be matching the DNA against genealogical websites, not just crime databases, allowing them to search for matches internationally against anyone who has used a commercial DNA analysis service to research their ancestry. This would enable them to potentially identify any descendants, or even cousins, who may finally be able to give Somerton Man his identity back and possibly even solve the mystery of how he wound up dead on an Australian beach. Pedestrian.tv 19 May; Adelaidenow.com.au 24 May; 9news.com.au 22May; abc.net.au 24 April 2021.