Have you ever read something that makes your entire body freeze in terror? Something that invades your mind and occupies your thoughts at night? If you answered no to any of those questions, be prepared. I'm going to tell you a story of one of the most mysterious and bone-chilling unsolved murders in the world.
Here is the story of the Somerton Man or more formally called the Tamam Shud case, it is one you may have heard of before because of its extreme abnormalities. A man was found at 6:30 AM on December 1st, 1948 on Somerton beach in South Australia. He is described by pathologists and witnesses as around 40-45 years of age, in “top physical condition”, 5 feet 11 inches tall, hazel eyes, and fair to ginger hair. One of the most outrageous things about this case is that the man’s dental records and fingerprints do not match those to any living person. The man was found with no identification, the only things found on his person was an unlit cigarette, an unused second class rail ticket, matches, a bus ticket, and a piece of crumpled paper with the words 'Tamam Shud' in his pant pocket which translate to "finished" or "ended" in Persian. Later investigation found out that the crumpled paper came from a book called 'Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam' which is a book filled with poems dedicated to the 12th century poet Omar Khayyam. The theme of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that one should live life to the full and have no regrets when it ends. The poem's subject led police to believe that the man had committed suicide by taking poison, although there was no other evidence to back the theory. The actual book the page was torn from was found in a car near the beach, with no relation to the man other than someone threw it in an open car window. In the back of the book there was found to be 5 lines of text that were somewhat blurred, and the 2nd line was crossed out. That is considered significant because it is believed to be a mistake in the encryption. WRGOABABD MLIAOI WTBIMPANETP MLIABOAIAQC ITTMTSAMSTGAB Nothing further was found. Over one year after the discovery of the body, a suitcase was found at the Adelaide Railway Station by staff. The suitcase was believed to be the mans. The contents of the suitcase is underwear, pants found with sand in the cuffs, a few shirts, size 7 shoes, shaving items, a screwdriver, a table knife that has been shaved down to a small sharp weapon, a pair of scissors that have sharpened ends, and a square of zinc. The creepy part of this is the staff had discovered that the bag had been checked into the station cloakroom around 11 AM on November 30, 1948 which is a day before he was found dead. Police talked to a few witnesses who claim they saw the man at 7-8 PM on November 30th laying on the beach but claimed he was changing positions, so didn't think to call anyone because they assumed he was taking a nap in the sand. The mans autopsy confirmed he died around 2 AM from an unknown cause, it is still unknown to date. The only thing found in his autopsy was blood mixed with food (a pastry) in his stomach, and his spleen was three times as large as it should be, the pathologist Dr. Dwyer said and I quote "I am quite convinced the death could not have been natural ... the poison I suggested was a barbiturate or a soluble hypnotic" it is believed that the pastry is the main source of the poison but no tests could confirm. No suspects were ever found, the case is still open today. But here is where the cool part happens, the theories. There are 3 theories, a love affair, suicide and a spy theory. The biggest theory is one I personally agree with as well is that the dead man was a spy. This is believed because of the circumstances of his death. Turning up on a beach, the note meaning “finished/ended”, his suitcase, the encrypted message. All of this doesn’t make any sense to me, or anyone in that matter. Nobody in the entire world at that point in time could identify him. His records match those of nobody alive! His tomb stone doesn’t even have a name on it. He was somebody’s son, cousin, uncle, father, brother. I don't know what he did, if it was an accident, but one thing I know for sure is that his death has changed the world. What do you think happened to him?
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