[11] They speculated he had showered and shaved at the adjacent City Baths (although there was no Baths ticket on his body) before returning to the railway station to purchase a ticket for the 10:50a.m. train to Henley Beach, which, for whatever reason, he did not board. 14 October 2019: Attorney-General of South Australia grants conditional approval for The Somerton Man to be exhumed in order for a DNA sample to be obtained. Abbott speculates that Carl had may have gone to Adelaide intending to find her. "Together with the similarity of the ear characteristics, this mole, in a forensic case, would allow me to make a rare statement positively identifying the Somerton man. Video, The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure, Body exhumed in hope of solving Australia mystery, Explosion derails train in Russian border region, Banana artwork in Seoul museum eaten by visitor, Donald Trump arrives in Scotland on golf visit, NFL player's daughter, aged two, drowns in pool, Indian 'killer' elephant relocated to tiger reserve, Ding becomes China's first male world chess champion. The copy not only had its last page torn out, but also incoherent writing believed to be a code on its back cover. Webb was born in 1905 but was later identified as a person with no death record, Abbott said. [49] Abbott also subsequently wrote to Rau in support of the Egans, saying that exhumation for DNA testing would be consistent with federal government policy of identifying soldiers in war graves, to bring closure to their families. Reflecting on the identification, Carolyn Bilsborow, a filmmaker who directed a 2018 documentary about the Somerton Man, tells the Guardian: We had all these grandiose ideas about him being Russian, American and European. 14 January 1949: Adelaide railway station finds the brown suitcase belonging to the man. [63], In early January 1949, two people identified the body as that of 63-year-old former wood cutter Robert Walsh. "So, it's a triangulation from two different, totally distant parts of the tree, so that's very convincing.". He gave Cleland a piece of paper with the names of the two drugs which was entered as Exhibit C.18. "For more than 70 years, people have speculated who this man was and how he died," South Australia Attorney General Vickie Chapman said. The pair analysed DNA evidence from hairs caught in a plaster cast made of the mans face more than half a century ago by investigators. [89], Kate Thomson, the daughter of Jessica and Prosper Thomson, said that her mother was the woman interviewed by the police and that her mother had told her she had lied to them Jessica did know the identity of the Somerton man and his identity was also "known to a level higher than the police force". Titled "Body found on Beach", it read: A body, believed to be of E.C. In reply, Boxall says "no", and when asked if Harkness could have known, Boxall replies: "Not unless somebody else told her." MLIABOAIAQC Authorities said if sufficient DNA evidence can be obtained, they will attempt to identify the man and where he came from. [115] South Australia Police had not verified the result, but stated they were "cautiously optimistic that this may provide a breakthrough". [27], Around the same time as the inquest, a tiny piece of rolled-up paper with the words "Tamm Shud" printed on it was found in a fob pocket sewn within the dead man's trouser pocket. "I'm hoping, ashis name gets out there, there will be somebody that will have an old photo album in a garden shed somewhere.". Police suspect the calls may be a hoax and the caller may be the same person who also terrorised a woman in a nearby suburb who had recently lost her husband in tragic circumstances. She nursed him back to health, only for him to scold her for it and become more violent. Researchers now say the man is Carl Charles Webb, an electrical engineer from Melbourne. The case has drawn international interest and attracted plenty of sleuths online. Abbott and Rachel married in 2010 and they have three children. [43], In 1978, following a request from ABC Television's journalist Stuart Littlemore, Department of Defence cryptographers analysed the handwritten text. The Somerton Man was a mysterious, unknown decedent, found on Somerton Beach near Adelaide, South Australia, on December 1, 1948. Video, 00:02:36, The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. [24] With wartime rationing still enforced, clothing was difficult to acquire at that time. All Episodes Topics Blog Shop About Contact SUBMIT A LISTENER SEGUE . Interestingly, the book contained several handwritten annotations, including a suspected code and the phone number of a nurse, Jessie Jo Thomson, who lived near the site where the body was discovered. Abbott had attempted to contact the Thomson family, but upon finding both Jo Thomson and her son Robin Thomson dead, sought expert opinion which showed biological links between Robin and the Somerton man likely due to sharing the same rare dental and ear conditions, on top of the muscular calves which helped Thomson become a professional dancer. He then stated its absence was not unknown but that he could not make a "frank conclusion" without it. 2023 BBC. [32], On 6 June 1949, the body of two-year-old Clive Mangnoson was found in a sack in the Largs Bay sand hills, about 20 kilometres (12mi) up the coast from Somerton Park. 28 February 1918: H. C. Reynolds identity card issued. The identity and cause of death of the so-called Somerton man remain unknown. [32] Mangnoson stated that "the car stopped and a man with a khaki handkerchief over his face told her to 'keep away from the police or else'". I solved it when I was looking back at my old notes on the tamam shud code, which had a solution. Although it was a very common practice to use name tags, it was also common when buying secondhand clothing to remove the tags of the previous owners. The case is part of Operation Persevere, which seeks to put a name to all unidentified remains in South Australia. A jilted lover poisoned by his paramour. He was a Russian spy. The pathologist, Dr. Dwyer, concluded: "I am quite convinced the death could not have been natural the poison I suggested was a barbiturate or a soluble hypnotic". MLIAOI An inquest into the man's death, conducted by coroner Thomas Erskine Cleland, commenced a few days following the discovery of the body but was adjourned until 17 June 1949. [100] The media have suggested that Robin Thomson, who was sixteen months old in 1948 and died in 2009, may have been a child of either Boxall or the Somerton man and passed off as Prosper Thomson's son. On 26 July 2022, Adelaide University professor Derek Abbott, in association with genealogist Colleen M. Fitzpatrick, claimed to have identified the man as Carl "Charles" Webb, an electrical engineer and instrument maker born in 1905, based on genetic genealogy from DNA of the man's hair. [18] All labels on his clothes had been removed,[16][19] and he had no hat (unusual for 1948) or wallet. Some observers cited the code found on his copy of The Rubiyt, as well as the apparent attempts to mask his identity, as evidence that he was a Russian spy. When Littlemore suggests in the interview that there may have been an espionage connection to the dead man in Adelaide, Boxall replies: "It's quite a melodramatic thesis, isn't it? [50] The team concluded that it was most likely that each letter was the first letter of a word. A professor who has dedicated decades to solving one of Australia's most enduring mysteries claims he has discovered the identity of the Somerton man. Hicks noted the only "fact" not found in relation to the body was evidence of vomiting. He teamed up with renowned US forensic expert Colleen Fitzpatrick - who specialises in cold cases - to build an extended family tree using the DNA. "It's an story that has captured the imagination of people across the state, and, indeed, across the world - but I believe that, finally, we may uncover some answers," South Australian Attorney General Ms Chapman said. The coroner will be asked to confirm the identification. However, the code's short length meant the investigators would require the exact edition of the book used. "Now there's the historical work of actually digging further and finding out about the man's life and his circumstances and what might have exactly led to this particular situation," he said. Police conducted an Australia-wide search to find a copy of the book that had a similarly blank verso. [42] The police agreed a decision that hampered later investigations. And. If the book was found one or two weeks before, it suggests that the man had visited previously or had been in Adelaide for a longer period. Is climate change killing Australian wine? Mack stated that the reason he did not confirm this at the viewing was a difference in the colour of the hair. [84], In 2011, an Adelaide woman contacted biological anthropologist Maciej Henneberg about an identification card[85] of an H. C. Reynolds that she had found in her father's possessions. [32] The contents of the boy's stomach were sent to a government analyst for further examination. [18] The body was then embalmed on 10 December 1948 after the police were unable to get a positive identification. A South Australian academics claims to have identified Somerton man as a 43-year-old electrical engineer from Melbourne could finally provide answers in one of Australias most infamous cold cases. [14], After the inquest, a plaster cast was made of the man's head and shoulders. "[82] Phillips supported his conclusion by pointing out that the organs were engorged, consistent with digitalis, the lack of evidence of natural disease and "the absence of anything seen macroscopically which could account for the death". April 1947: Charles Webb leaves his wife Dorothy, whereupon she files for divorce. There was blood mixed with the food in the stomach. [45], An investigation had shown that the Somerton man's autopsy reports of 1948 and 1949 are now missing and the Barr Smith Library's collection of Cleland's notes do not contain anything on the case. [66] Any thoughts that a positive identification had been made were quashed, however, when Elizabeth Thompson, one of the people who had earlier positively identified the body as Walsh, retracted her statement after a second viewing of the body, where the absence of a particular scar on the body, as well as the size of the dead man's legs, led her to realise the body was not Walsh. Last month Ms Chapman said the decision to exhume the body followed "intense public interest" in the case. Carolyn Bilsborow, a film-maker and director of the documentary Missing Pieces about Somerton man, said the news was incredibly exciting. The case is also known after the Persian phrase tamm shud (Persian: ),[note 1] meaning "is over" or "is finished", which was printed on a scrap of paper found months later in the fob pocket of the man's trousers. Complete remains of Somerton Man in 'reasonable condition' after exhumation, Nurse driving home from shift among victims of triple-fatal crash involving allegedly stolen car, Lauren Cranston jailed for eight years over one of Australia's biggest tax frauds, 'They will forever know their dad was a hero': 1,000 mourners farewell slain NSW paramedic, Family of man shot dead by police question why they weren't called in to help, There are 11 First Nations MPs and senators. Tucked in his pockets were cigarettes, matches, a pack of Juicy Fruit gum, a used bus ticket, an unused train ticket and two hair combs. ITTMTSAMSTGAB[29]. University of Adelaide researcher Derek Abbott believes the unknown man found slumped and lifeless at Adelaide's Somerton Beach on December 1, 1948, was Carl "Charles" Webb, a 43-year-old engineer and instrument maker. While the mystery man's remains were exhumed last year by SA Police, Professor Abbott has in the meantime persisted with his own independent efforts to crack the case. When presented with the Somerton Mans death mask, Thomson appeared completely taken aback, to the point of giving the appearance she was about to faint, according to Detective Sergeant Lionel Leane. A search concluded that no T. Keane was missing in any English-speaking country. [50], It was determined the letter frequency of the message in the back of the Rubaiyat was considerably different from letters written down randomly; the frequency was to be further tested to determine if the alcohol level of the writer could alter random distribution. "So it's not out of the question that these items of clothing he had with TKeane on them were just hand-me-downs from his brother-in-law.". Copies of Rubaiyat, as well as the Talmud and Bible, were being compared to the code using computers to get a statistical base for letter frequencies. [36] The paper's verso side was blank. Did this woman die because her genitals were cut? We had all these grandiose ideas about him being Russian, American and European. And from 4000 names, the pair narrowed it down to one - Carl Webb. The Somerton Man case has been an enigma since his body was discovered in 1948. "I would like to see the toxicology done. [8][83] Any further attempts to identify the body have been hampered by the embalming formaldehyde having destroyed much of the man's DNA. By 4 December, police had announced that the man's fingerprints were not on South Australian police records, forcing them to look further afield. No new findings are recorded and the inquest is ended with an. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [5], Carl Webbs father Richard August Webb (died in 1939) had emigrated to Australia from Hamburg, Germany. [48] Nevertheless, the names Feltus used in his book were pseudonyms. The 5-foot-11, 40- to 50-year-old man carried no money or identification. [33], Cedric Stanton Hicks, professor of physiology and pharmacology at the University of Adelaide, testified that of a group of drugs, variants of a drug in that group he called "number 1" and in particular "number 2" were extremely toxic in a relatively small oral dose that would be extremely difficult if not impossible to identify even if it had been suspected in the first instance. The case has been considered, since the early stages of the police investigation, "one of Australia's most profound mysteries". Early 1950: Prosper Thomson's divorce is finalised. The text has not been deciphered or interpreted in a way that satisfies authorities on the case. One of the biggest mysteries in modern Australian history may have finally been solved. The Egans reported lodging a new application with the Attorney-General John Rau to have the Somerton man's body exhumed and DNA tested. Webb, who was born in the Australian state of Victoria in 1905, fit the bill. [51] According to Leane, he described her reaction upon seeing the cast as "completely taken aback, to the point of giving the appearance that she was about to faint". There was congestion of the pharynx, and the gullet was covered with whitening of superficial layers of the mucosa with a patch of ulceration in the middle of it. As Hilary Whiteman reports for CNN, a new DNA analysis suggests the Somerton Man is Carl Charles Webb, an electrical engineer from Melbourne who vanished from the public record in April 1947. Abbott, who has researched the Somerton Man for more than two decades, met his current wife, Rachel Egan, through the case. Processing the results could reportedly take up to a year. The second line has been struck out a fact considered significant due to its similarities to the fourth line and the possibility that it represents an error in encryption. This would be followed by a crackdown on Soviet espionage in Australia, which was revealed by intercepts of Soviet communications under the Venona project. [27] A nationwide circulation of the dry-cleaning marks also proved fruitless. He had no wallet, no cash, and no ID. The 5-foot-11, 40- to 50-year-old man carried no money or identification. "There's lots of. The police believed that Clive had been dead for twenty-four hours when his body was found. In October 1951, three years after the Somerton Mans death, Dorothy placed a notice in the Age newspaper stating that she had begun divorce proceedings against Webb on the grounds of desertion. At 6:30 am on December 1, 1948, police were called to Somerton Park beach south of Adelaide, South Australia after the body of a man was found. [38] Former South Australian Police detective Gerry Feltus (who dealt with the matter as a cold case) reports that the book was found "just after that man was found on the beach at Somerton". This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. 15 January 1948: Boxall arrives back in Sydney from his last active duty and is discharged from the army in April 1948. The autopsy also showed that the man's last meal was a pasty eaten about three to four hours before death,[8] but tests failed to reveal any foreign substance in the body. [49][89], In October 2011, as interest in the case resurfaced, Attorney-General John Rau refused to exhume the body, stating: "There needs to be public interest reasons that go well beyond public curiosity or broad scientific interest." [17], He was dressed in a white shirt; a red, white and blue tie; brown trousers; socks and shoes; a brown knitted pullover and fashionable grey and brown double-breasted jacket of reportedly "American" tailoring. Maciej Henneberg, professor of anatomy at the University of Adelaide, examined images of the Somerton man's ears and found that his cymba (upper ear hollow) is larger than his cavum (lower ear hollow), a feature possessed by only 12% of the Caucasian population. One question surrounding the Somerton Man had already been solved by sleuths of a more literary bent. [110], Abbott claimed his DNA identification from strands of hair found in the plaster death mask made by South Australian Police in the late 1940s. His pockets contained nothing to identify him. "Marriage and a mystery: Somerton Man's romantic twist", "The Somerton man died alone on a beach in 1948. Cookie Settings, Illustration by Meilan Solly / Photos via, Five Places Where You Can Still Find Gold in the United States, Scientists Taught Pet Parrots to Video Call Each Otherand the Birds Loved It, Balto's DNA Provides a New Look at the Intrepid Sled Dog, The Science of California's 'Super Bloom,' Visible From Space, The True Story of the Koh-i-Noor Diamondand Why the British Won't Give It Back. The man's death also coincided with a reorganisation of Australian security agencies, which would culminate the following year with the founding of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). Australia Exhumes the Somerton Man, and His 70-Year Mystery This week the police disinterred a body, found on a beach in 1948, that has puzzled investigators for decades. He noted that the man's shoes were remarkably clean and appeared to have been recently polished, rather than in the condition expected of a man who had apparently been wandering around Glenelg all day. 10 p.m.11 p.m.: Estimated time he had eaten a pasty based on time of death. [81], Years after the burial, flowers began appearing on the grave. Although they commented between themselves that it was odd that he was not reacting to the mosquitoes, they had thought it more likely that he was drunk or asleep, and thus did not investigate further. Dr Coxon said tests of this kind were highly complex but investigators would use "every method at our disposal to try and bring closure to this enduring mystery". [32], Cleland speculated that, as none of the witnesses could positively identify the man they saw the previous night as the same person discovered the next morning, there remained the possibility the man had died elsewhere and had been dumped. The truth, however, is seemingly more mundane. Refresh the page, check Medium 's site status, or find something. The mystery man's remains were exhumed by police last year in a bid to solve the case. The theme of Rubaiyat is that one should live life to the fullest and have no regrets when it ends. [98] Abbott believes an exhumation and an autosomal DNA test could link the Somerton man to a shortlist of surnames which, along with existing clues to the man's identity, would be the "final piece of the puzzle". Police arrived on the scene the following morning after receiving reports of a dead body on Somerton Beach. The doctor who carried out the autopsy at the time of the discovery believed the man had died from heart failure due to poisoning, and the coroner didnt rule out murder. The South Australia Police Major Crime Branch, who still have the case listed as open, will investigate the new information. Initially, the letters were thought to be words in a foreign language[38] before it was realised it was a code. Australia's Greatest Mystery The Somerton Man An unknown dead body on an Adelaide Beach in post-war Australia In 1948 an unknown nameless man washed up on Somerton Park Beach in Adelaide,. 58. Read about our approach to external linking. [2] An editorial called the case "one of Australia's most profound mysteries"[2] and noted that if he died by poison so rare and obscure it could not be identified by toxicology experts, then surely the culprit's advanced knowledge of toxic substances pointed to something more serious than a mere domestic poisoning. There was congestion in the second half of the duodenum. He said it had been thrown into the back of his car around the time of the incident. (A spool of thread in the suitcase matched the orange stitches used to repair the mans clothing.) She appeared as if she was about to faint. [49] She suggested that her mother and the Somerton man may both have been spies, noting that Jessica Thomson taught English to migrants, was interested in communism, and could speak Russian, although she would not disclose to Kate where she had learned it or why.
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