He was poisoned you say?
This reads like a plot for a thriller.
Apr 26
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Utility trucks, fob pockets, ticket pockets and bloodstains revisited.
There were bloodstains on his shirt but no wounds on his body that would account for them.
Coincidence is just a couple of things happening simultaneously..
… and is the betrayer of logic.
Revisiting the Somerton Man’s Fingerprint Form.
I bought brought this subject up about twelve years ago during my research whilst writing The Bookmaker from Rabaul (available Amazon) and lately there has been a resurgence of interest in the Somerton Man’s fingerprint form – namely because it was not dated or signed off.
1/ Understandingly there is no surname.
2/ and no Christian names.
3/ There is no mention of the police station or prison where the prints were taken as the body was in the morgue at the time. Nevertheless it could have been noted.
4/ No date to show when the prints were obtained.
5/ No signature of the officer / individual who took the prints.
6/ No rank of any such officer.
7/ No identity number of any such officer.
The fingerprints were obtained on Friday December 3 by ‘Police Photographer and Fingerprint Expert Patrick James Durham who was stationed in Adelaide and who was accompanied on this occasion by Mounted Constable Knight’. Knight said at the time ‘That is the body of the man found dead on the beach at Somerton on the 1st of December 1948.’ (Feltus)
If Durham was indeed a ‘fingerprint expert’ then he would have been very familiar with the importance of filling out all the available details on the forms, particularly the date the job was done and the identity of the individual responsible for doing it.
There has been no explanation as to why he did not.
An invigorating read.
‘I’m not sure we will ever be absolutely certain.’
‘What we would do in a forensic context normally is to take deceased DNA and compare that directly with something we knew belonged to them, like a toothbrush or a hairbrush. We haven’t got that here.
So my concern is that we may never be able to categorically say we know this person’s identity.’
.
Xanthe Mallett, forensic scientist, criminologist and associate Professor at the University of Newcastle.
Awaiting Developments 2
A timely reiteration ..
According to SAPOL’s Media and Public Engagements Section (123) in an email dated 1/12/23 we were advised as follows:
1/ The DNA work on the Somerton Man’s remains was recently completed.
2/ An analysis of these results will be reported to the State Coroner in the final (SAPOL) report.
3/ Completed Forensic Anthropology and Forensic Odontology reports will also be reported to the State Coroner in the final (SAPOL) report.
4/ Together with the results of some outstanding forensic analysis which will be completed soon.
5/ The final (SAPOL) report will be made available to the State Coroner in early 2024.
https://www.courts.sa.gov.au/court-decisions/coroners-findings/
Awaiting developments 1
I’ve been touch with both the Adelaide Advertiser and SA Courts today and very courteously asked them (via email) if they have any information regarding on what looks like an unexpected delay in the release of the SA Coroner’s findings in the Somerton Body Case – remembering SAPOL’s Media Office told me on December 1 that all the work had been done and the final report was to be made available to the Coroner in ‘early 2024’. That time has long been passed.
Perhaps SAPOL have yet to deliver their various reports to the Coroner, or if they have done so then SA State Coroner David Whittle may have reason to hold back publication of his findings for a while. This though seems unlikely as Whittle has at times criticised the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for their many delays in providing evidence and which resulted in repeated adjournments.
David Whittle pictured.
https://www.courts.sa.gov.au/court-decisions/coroners-findings/
It is now officially no longer ‘early 2024’
A representative of SAPOL’ s Media and Public Engagements Section (123) informed yours truly on December 1 that the recently completed DNA analysis together with the final reports submitted by AFP and FSSA would be made available to the State Coroner in early 2024.
It is now officially no longer early 2024 and given the intense interest in the Somerton Body Case both here and internationally a man might wonder if there are a few surprises in store.
AFP Australian Federal Police
FSSA Forensic Science SA
Soon everything will be sown up tight, thanks to the SA Coroner.
All our doubts will be put to rest, surely.
Horse doping, shady chemists, threatening behaviour and jewellers with Somerton connections
Sharon Cochran aka The Shabster took a little time out to put this together
Feb 27
Time isn’t exactly flying down at Forensics SA
We’re looking at the number of days since the exhumation.
Feb 14
The Somerton Man .. 