THE ‘JESTYN’ MYSTERY

The real identity of the woman known as ‘Jestyn’ – whose telephone number was found in the copy of the Rubáiyát from which the words ‘Tamám Shud’ had been torn – was only revealed in 2013. In November that year, the Australian current affairs programme 60 Minutes added a new twist to the Somerton Man case, interviewing surviving relatives of ‘Jestyn’, who had died in 2007. Her daughter, Kate Thomson, claimed that her mother, Jessica Ellen “Jo” Thomson, née Harkness, was the woman interviewed by the police all those years ago. She went on to claim that Jessica had in fact known the identity of the Somerton Man, but had lied to detectives: “She did know and she told me that it is a mystery that was only known to a level higher than the police force.” Kate also said that she strongly suspected her mother had been a Russian spy – she apparently spoke Russian and was interested in Communism – and that she had quite possibly murdered or at least been responsible for the death of the Somerton Man.

There was more. In 1947, while unmarried, Jessica Thomson had given birth to a son named Robin, Kate’s older brother. Robin’s widow and daughter, Roma and Rachel Egan, also appeared in the 60 Minutes documentary, pointing out compelling anatomical similarities that suggested the Somerton Man had been Robin’s father. They lodged an application with the Attorney General of South Australia to have the body exhumed for DNA testing, but this was turned down. Derek Abbot, Rachel’s husband, continued to pursue his own investigation using DNA from the Somerton Man’s hair samples and from presumed relative Rachel. In 2016, American forensic genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick presented evidence to a conference in the US that this DNA virtually confirmed Somerton Man was from the east coast of the US. Her research revealed links to a large group of relatives in Virginia, indications of Native American ancestry and genes linked to the family of American Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. Sunday Mail (SA), 23 Nov 2013; Advertiser (Adelaide), 1 Oct 2016; phys.org/news/2015-06-years-forensicsomerton-identity-mystery_1.html.