Jul 6
Firstly, I know nothing about these AI chat sites like ChatGPT, bugger all in fact but I’m learning and if anybody is in any way expert in using the stuff do you think it might find what the following has been taken from?
LJHSIAC
…and no cheating
Loose threads and a new development courtesy of Alan Hamill.
May 27
The Somerton Man’s body was exhumed for DNA testing in May 2021, over 4 years ago and we still haven’t had a result or an explanation for the delay.
'I essentially think about him every day and I wonder every day, literally, about the truth and where I fit into all this and where he fits into all of this and how we fit into all of this as a family.'
May 3
A challenge for anyone who fancies a shot .. nothing complicated.
Did the hair Abbott used belong to Carl Webb?
.
Was the man identified in the family photo someone other the Carl Webb?
.
And if Carl webb wasn’t the Somerton Man, who was?
And a testing challenge for David Morgan (see comments)
There were bloodstains on his shirt but no wounds on his body that would account for them.
… and is the betrayer of logic.
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.
‘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.
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/
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/
The Somerton Man .. 