SOMERTON MAN: THE FOURTH OPTION UPDATED 31 October

A BODY ON THE BEACH

In the previous post on this subject, our focus was a humble pasty, remnants of which were found in the man's stomach. We found that:

1. The man's time of death was between Midnight and 2 am on Wednesday 1st December 1948. This has been revised, the Doctor who examined the man at 9.40 am on December 1st stated that he had been dead for no more than 8 hours. That puts his death at around 2 am.
2. We also found that according to the coroner's report, the man had eaten the pasty between 3 and 4 hours before his time of death
3. We, therefore, were able to deduce that the man ate the food at some time between 10pm and 11 pm on Tuesday 30th November 1948

Traditional Cornish Pasty was made from meat, carrot, and potato

The natural question was, just how did he get that pasty? 

1.  Did he walk to the local shops and buy one at sometime after he was seen, that is shortly after 8 pm on Tuesday night or even up to 11 pm? 
2. His being found on the beach in a very similar position to the way a man was seen lying that Tuesday evening would have to mean he walked to the shops and he walked back. My view would be that this would be unlikely.
3. Did someone perhaps stop and give him a lift on his way back? If he walked along the road then whilst it's a possibility, once again in my view, it would be unlikely.
4. Was he the man that was reportedly seen being carried on someone's back along the beach at around 10 pm that Tuesday night? Possible, but why would he want to go back to the same location? Bear in mind that the man was big and no doubt quite weighty, whoever carried him on his shoulders would have to have been very fit and big enough for the job. He was walking on sand which wouldn't have been much help to the task.
5. Was he a different man altogether to the man seen on the beach on that Tuesday evening by Mr. Lyons and the young couple? That being the case, it's more than interesting that he was found in the same position as the man first sighted.

Another question relates to the issue of the cigarette found between his lapel and cheek. Given that it was part smoked by the man shortly before his death, which probably means in reality, shortly before he fell unconscious followed by his death. Where was the match with which he lit that cigarette? 

Constable Moss was quite clear about the presence of the cigarette and the fact that it was more than half-smoked but not fully smoked. I looked at that issue and found that a cigarette left without puffing would self extinguish in about 1 minute. A full cigarette takes about 5 minutes to smoke. That suggests that he smoked the cigarette for around 2 minutes before he fell unconscious.  Was that enough time for a poison to be delivered by the cigarette and would it pack enough punch to cause catastrophic damage to man's internal organs? I don't know the answer to that but it is, I think, a valid question.

Constable Moss also acknowledged in his statement to the coroner, that he did not compare the 

part smoked-cigarette with those found the Army Club packet that was in the man's possession. In my view, that was a critical error.

It's very important to note that when, as a Police officer, you are called to a sudden death incident and there being no obvious medical reason for that death, then you treat the incident as a potential murder and you carefully check and note everything. To his credit, Constable Moss acknowledged that he didn't follow procedures when it came to comparing the part smoked cigarette.

Something else he didn't do given that this was a potential murder, he didn't look for the match that was used to light the cigarette. 

Moreover, he did not discuss the methodical search of the area around where the man was found, no waste bin was spoken of for example. Was there a waste bin nearby, perhaps near the seat from where the couple saw him? What could be in that bin? a syringe? Or maybe a paper bag that once contained a pasty? It does not appear that a thorough and detailed search was carried out and the questions raised by the coroner did not include a reference to the detail.

Something else wasn't checked, it was a hindsight issue in some ways. The man had nicotine-stained fingers to the extent that detective Sergeant Leane commented on them saying, 'the man was an inveterate smoker judging by the stains on his fingers'. 

So here we have an inveterate smoker sitting by the beach for a good 5 hours and he only got to part- smoke 1 cigarette and that was possibly around midnight? Your bones should tell you that such a man would have smoked at least 2 and maybe 3 cigarettes in that time but no mention of other cigarette stubs or spent matches.

One last question, if the man had not long eaten a pasty, wouldn't there have been traces of the pastry/filling in his mouth? No mention of it that I can find in the documents. Does that mean he had time to brush his teeth? And just where would he have done that?

On the subject of matches, Pete Bowes raised the issue of what he saw as a conflict in the evidence in that Constable Moss did not mention finding a box of matches but Detective Sergeant Leane did. The coroner believed the matches were there as well. Was this another detail that Constable Moss had missed? Or were they not there in the first instance? Both are quite possible given what we have now deduced.

Pete Bowes also mentioned the different patterns of the trousers that the man was wearing given it was the same man on Monday evening and found on Tuesday morning. What we are saying here though is that it very likely was not the same man and therefore a different pair of trousers was more than likely, so if anything that observation supports the view held here and vice versa. It was a different man found on Tuesday morning.