The Man Who Found the Body on Somerton Beach

Steven Douglas Baughman

In December 1948, a man and his wife were walking on Somerton Beach, near Adelaide, Australia. There was a man sitting there; they thought he might be drunk. Another couple thought he was asleep.

The next morning it was discovered that he was actually dead. To this day no one knows who he was or how he died. His last meal was a pasty.

I know that this story is not personal in the slightest; in fact, I’d never heard of the case until last night. But it’s the sort of story I’m attracted to. Thus.

Oh, since I’d started working on the dog sounds anyway, in my universe, he’s walking on the beach with his dog. It’s the dog who discovers the body, and the dog already knows that the man is dead. But no one ever asks a dog anything.