The Mystery of Tamam Shud

When it comes to murder, most cases aren’t hard to figure out. The husband did it. The wife did it. The vengeful ex did it. The crime falls into a well-established pattern, and the motives are easy to spot.

But then there are times when murder makes no sense. They don’t fall into a template, and it seems as if the killer murdered a person for no reason. Or the killing is just plain bizarre. Nowadays, with the technology professionals have at their disposal, they can typically find something to go on. Thanks to DNA technology, most things don’t baffle the police anymore.

The same can’t be said in Adelaide, South Australia, in December of 1948. The only thing that has changed over the years is that what started as a simple discovery of a body on the beach on the first day of southern summer has become more mysterious. While the case is theoretically still active, it is so opaque that they still haven’t figured out who the victim is, have no idea how he died, and can’t even be positive as to whether or not he died by murder or suicide.

The only thing that can be said for certain is that the clues found in the Somerton Beach mystery add up to one of the world’s most perplexing cold cases. In fact, it just might be one of the most mysterious.

Let’s take a trip back to 1948 and see what happened. One warm Tuesday evening, on…