The exhumation of the Somerton Man has been delayed, with his remains believed to be buried deeper than first thought.
Detectives started digging this morning, after getting permission from South Australia’s Attorney-General to extract DNA as part of their investigation.
But dense clay and no knowledge of if he is buried in a coffin, or its condition, has delayed the process by a few hours.
He has never been identified and the circumstances surrounding his death have baffled police.
After several lines of enquiry over the years have left authorities stumped, detectives started digging up the man’s body from a grave at West Terrace Cemetery with permission from SA’s Attorney-General, Vickie Chapman.
SA Police Detective Superintendent Des Bray said exhuming the man’s body will allow investigators to get a full and complete DNA profile of the man.
“Whether we’re successful or not is yet to be determined,” Supt Bray told Today.
“It’s going to be a challenge because he was embalmed at the time and the chemicals will impact with the DNA and that will make it more difficult.”
Supt Bray said technology available today is ahead of the techniques available to investigators who discovered the body in the 1940s.
For years, the man’s identity and circumstances surrounding his death have been a mystery to locals and police hope this new development will lead to answers.
How DNA could help solve the mystery
More than 70 years have passed since the mystery man’s body was found and authorities still don’t know who he is or how, when and why he died.
His details don’t match any missing persons reports, no one’s come forward to claim the body and the collection of clues investigators have gathered have so far turned up nothing.
Professor Derek Abbott, a keen follower of the Somerton mystery for over a decade, told nine.com.au the man’s nuclear DNA could provide answers to his identity.
While DNA from strands of the man’s hair had been retrieved at the time of the man’s discovery, it only provided some clues to his origins.
“We can say which haplogroup he’s from, and he’s from one which is pretty well spread throughout Europe, that’s what his mother’s origin is, but it’s not enough to identify him,” Professor Abbott told nine.com.au.
With nuclear DNA, investigators will be hopefully be able to search genealogical databases for a match.
What clues detectives have so far
The man was found dressed in a suit with the tags cut out on Adelaide’s Somerton Beach.
Supt Bray told Today the man arrived in Adelaide by train and checked a bag into a locker at the station the day before he died.
He said the man caught a bus to Glenelg and had eaten a pastie according to post-mortem tests.
Hidden deep in one of his pockets was a piece of ripped paper with the words “Tamam Shud” written on it, which translates as “finished” in Persian.
Six months after his body was found, a man handed in a copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a book of poems it is believed to be ripped from.
He said it was thrown through his car window.
The book had the pen imprint of what appeared to be five lines of undecipherable code and a phone number in it.
Detectives were able to determine the phone number belonged to a young nurse, Jo Thomson, who lived in Glenelg, and investigators believe the Somerton Man may have visited her prior to his death.
“That woman has always denied knowing him,” Mr Bray said.
“He was not dressed for the beach. Dressed neatly, highly polished shoes. Sat against the wall, seen by people that evening and found the following morning.
“There are a lot of crazy theories but the reality is nobody knows what the truth is.”
An aluminium comb and packet of Wrigley’s chewing gum were also found in the man’s pockets leading some to believe he may be American.
This content first appear on 9news