Remember when almost every news outlet worldwide trumpeted the exhumation of the Somerton Man?

The news was broadcast worldwide, either in print, by word or in vision. The news of unearthing SM’s body was a MASSIVE event and the good Professor Abbott was to the fore of the resounding uproar .. this was his dream come true.  At last, the chance of a final confirmation of his great project. His fame finally assured. Never mind the ears fiasco.

The newspapers loved it, loved him, loved Colleen Fitzpatrick, loved the sight of a pristine coffin containing the Somerton Man’s decades old remains being escorted from its gravesite  to the care and resolve of SA Forensics.
Back in 2021.

So many years ago.

And since then, nothing. No word. And what is inordinately strange, none of the above mentioned news outlets have questioned why the delay.

The once feared rabid press now appears to be a little more than an disinterested onlooker  .. Perhaps they recognised the problem of provenance with the hairs Abbott and Fitzpatrick plucked from the well used and often displayed plaster cast ..

One transported throughout Adelaide’s streets under the arm of a policeman who understandingly had no knowledge about the forensic importance of evidence contamination.