In September 2008 a man’s body is discovered on the spillway of the Poona Dam near Nambour on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. A police search of his belongings, however, reveals no identification items, and he has not been reported as a missing person. So who is the man investigators have dubbed Poona Paul? After years of hard work police take a punt on genetic genealogy to try and locate living relatives and get a hit in New Zealand. Come behind the scenes of a painstaking investigation to try and return the dignity to a man who seems to have slipped through the cracks and into anonymity.

Credits: The Queensland Police Service and the Breakthrough team would like to thank: genetic genealogist,Louise Coakley; Forensic Anthropologist and Criminologist, Dr Xanthe Mallett BSc, MPhil(CANTAB) PhD; CeCe Moore, Chief Genetic Genealogist at Parabon NanoLabs, Inc.;  and Poona Paul’s family, Margo Calcott and Jay Alley, for assisting the QPS and being a part of this podcast episode.

The producers would also like to thank all members of the QPS who gave up their valuable time and offered their expertise during the making of this podcast episode.

Breakthrough is co-produced by Moo Media and the Queensland Police Service.

Writer and narrator: Matthew Condon.

Producer: Kate Morris.

Audio production: Wasabi Audio.

© Queensland Police Service 2023