Director believes key to unidentified man lies in arrival

The Cavan documentary film maker behind ‘The Last Days Of Peter Bergman’ believes the key to solving the mystery of the deceased man’s true identity lies in probing entry to Ireland.

On June 16, 2009, the body of a man was found on a beach at Rosses Point. His body was taken to Sligo University Hospital where a post-mortem was carried out the following day. Following examination, foul play in the case was ruled out.

In the course of Garda enquires, it was established that the deceased man had only recently arrived in Sligo, checking himself into a local hotel under a false name, ‘Peter Bergman’ days before, on June 12.

The man was then sighted and captured on CCTV in and around the Sligo area for a number days before he was found deceased. Despite exhaustive enquires, the body of the man known as ‘Peter Bergman’ has never been identified.

After the release of his 20-minute docu-short in 2013, Ciaran has watched how interest in this fascinating story has gradually evolved from mystery-solvers doing their own digging, to those offering a more paranormal explanation for the unnamed body washing up.

“It went viral in South America, and massive in Columbia. In France, the same weekend, I remember going on two news channels. So it started getting huge coverage in different countries, being played at all these festivals. Even now, if you go on YouTube, there’s all this content where people have repurposed our film and made it into their own. [The film] has had this wild life of its own.”

Following its release Ciaran had hoped someone, somewhere, might recognise ‘Peter Bergman’, and stemming from that, address many of the questions the documentary had asked.

Except for a few minor leads, each followed up as best as Ciaran and his team could, all came to nothing.

“It kind of deepens the mystery of the whole thing,” says the award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter behind other projects such as Jihad Jane (2019) and The Racer (2020).

Ciaran has always been of the belief that for the mystery to be “truly solved”, the focus of the investigation needs to go beyond Sligo and Ireland.

“Wherever he entered the country, and how he entered the country, that’s probably the key. I imagine he came in through Northern Ireland. He came to Sligo on the bus from Derry. I did think there’s enough evidence, medication and a couple of other things, as well as the name he gave, that link [central European countries such as Austria].”

What Ciaran finds most interesting is that despite ‘Peter Bergman’s’ best efforts to disappear undetected, when it came to his inquest at Sligo Coroner’s Court, there was a collection of unrelated people who all remembered seeing him during his final days. Ultimately, it was tides that Ciaran believes foiled Peter Bergman’s final plan.

“The one thing that didn’t work out I think is, he wanted the tides to bring him out to sea, and really that would have been the end of the mystery there.”

Items found on the rocks near where the body was discovered included black leather Finn Comfort shoes, size 44, manufactured in 2002 in Germany; dark socks; a black leather C&A jacket; navy C&A chino trousers; a black sleeveless Tommy Hilfiger jumper; a black leather belt, called Key West USA, made in Italy.

Other than his clothes, in the previous days Peter Bergman was witnessed going to great lengths to dispose of other personal belongings, thus ensuring that no-one would ever discover who he was or where he came from.

Ciaran says: “It’s not in our film but one of the women, she was doing an amateur creative-fiction writing class, and she went home that evening and wrote a whole thing about the man in the sea in the sun. I’m sure he’d be shocked [by how many people remember him].”

The body of Peter Bergman is buried in an unmarked grave in Sligo Cemetery. He remains unidentified.

“I think maybe if, with this appeal, if it goes out beyond Ireland, to that central belt [of Europe], maybe even Switzerland, possibly there is someone who might know him. The key is somewhere there perhaps.”