Somerton Man

One of Australia's greatest mysteries may finally be solved, after a professor came forward claiming to have identified a body found on a beach nearly 75 ...

He often left the windows of his car open and thought little of it until he read about the search in the paper. The book itself revealed a startling clue on the back page: an encrypted message, five lines long, each with nonsensical strings of letters. If he was poisoned, it was a fast-acting type, undetectable to medical science at the time. The findings read in part: “There was blood mixed with the food in the stomach. This struck them as oddly deliberate, as if he was trying to play himself off as being of a lower class. Either way, they quickly ascertained Keane was not the man’s name, as no missing persons with that name were reported. Police noted, however, that the Somerton Man did the opposite of this, filling the cheap packet with expensive cigarettes. His clothing was also of an American brand, as police later discovered. Police launched a nationwide appeal for information on the book with the missing page and, surprisingly, a man came forward claiming he found the book on the back seat of his vehicle, which was parked at Somerton Beach around the time of the man’s death. The book was a translation of verses by an 11th century Persian poet, and popular in the Western world during the 1940s. This in itself wasn’t unusual: at the time it was fashionable to carry the case of an expensive brand of cigarettes, while refilling it with a cheaper brand. All sorts of theories have been put forward over the years, including that the Somerton Man was a spy.

PRNewswire/ -- Identifinders International and the University of Adelaide announce the identification of the Somerton Man as Carl "Charles" Webb, born 16...

In 2018 the Australian Center for Ancient DNA (ACAD) at the University of Adelaide successfully extracted the whole mitochondrial genome of the Somerton Man to establish that he was Caucasian European along his direct maternal line. Fitzpatrick and Abbott were able to conclusively eliminate Robin as a relative, even though he shares rare teeth and ear features with the Somerton Man. The Somerton Man is Australia's most well-known forensic case that has defied analysis since the man was found dead on Somerton Beach, South Australia, on 1 December 1948.

The body of a fully-clothed man was discovered by two trainee jockeys near the shore of Somerton Park Beach, Adelaide, on December 1, 1948.

The mystery of the Somerton Man The victim, known as the 'Somerton Man', was found on Somerton Park Beach in South Australia on December 1948 with a coded message in his jacket (pictured) The body of a fully-clothed man (pictured) was discovered by two trainee jockeys near the shore of the Somerton Park Beach, south of Adelaide, on December 1, 1948 The body of a fully-clothed man was discovered by two trainee jockeys near the shore of Somerton Park Beach, Adelaide, on December 1, 1948. - The body of a man was found on Somerton Park beach, Adelaide, in 1948 The man's body (pictured) was found on Somerton Beach on December 1, 1948

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.

University of Adelaide Professor Derek Abbott says DNA testing from hairs of the Somerton Man reveals him as Carl “Charles” Webb, an engineer born in 1905 ...

Please click below to help InDaily continue to uncover the facts. Months after his burial at West Terrace Cemetery, police found the book from which the phrase was cut. The Somerton Man’s body was found on Somerton Beach on December 1, 1948. “The way that works is many people in the world submit their DNA to companies like Ancestry.com etc. Webb was one of six siblings and had no children, Abbott said. “This explains why the Somerton Man had in his suitcase a couple of strange items like a table knife that had be ground down to a point, and a normal scissors that had been ground down to a point,” he said.

A researcher believes he's found the identity of a man who died in mysterious circumstances on Adelaide's Somerton Beach in 1948.

However, Abbott says the cause of the man’s death remains a mystery and unless solved would continue to cause speculation, including unproven theories he was poisoned. People will continue to speculate for years to come, I’m sure,” Abbott said. Abbott has found documents that Webb wrote poetry and enjoyed horse racing, and Abbott guesses the letters could be linked to betting. “Whether it’s too late after so many years to find out anything. “It’s like a sudoku puzzle with 4000 elements. One of those was Webb, who Abbott last weekend was finally able to “triangulate” as a match with DNA to both maternal and paternal relatives of Webb’s.

The identity of the so-called Somerton man, who was found dead on an Adelaide beach more than 70...

They included a suitcase, items of clothing with the tags removed, incoherent writing believed to be a code, the poetry book The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and a torn scrap of paper with the Persian words "Tamam Shud", meaning it is finished. An initial police investigation and coronial inquest left the matter unresolved, with the case particularly mystifying because of a number of items found with the body. The identity of the so-called Somerton man, who was found dead on an Adelaide beach more than 70 years ago, has been solved, a University of Adelaide professor says.

After decades of intrigue, a University of Adelaide professor claims he has discovered the identity of the Somerton man.

Then several years later they made a “major breakthrough” to refine the genetic haplogroup further to H4a1a1a, Abbott said. “In anything like this, you can only be 99.999% sure that it’s right,” he said. And I would like to find out what happened to Dorothy.” “Their protocol is not to talk about a case until their part is done,” he said. There can be a twist.” And the “Tamam Shud” poem? “It’s possible that he came to this state to try and find her,” Abbott speculated. “I would like to see the toxicology done. “This is just us drawing the dots. Near the phone number were scribbled letters that some surmised could be a secret wartime code, though all attempts to decipher it failed. “ Despite those clues, the case didn’t supply them with a name either, the inquest heard.

The identity of the so-called Somerton man, who was found dead on an Adelaide beach more than 70...

They included a suitcase, items of clothing with the tags removed, incoherent writing believed to be a code, the poetry book The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and a torn scrap of paper with the Persian words "Tamam Shud", meaning it is finished. An initial police investigation and coronial inquest left the matter unresolved, with the case particularly mystifying because of a number of items found with the body. The identity of the so-called Somerton man, who was found dead on an Adelaide beach more than 70 years ago, has been solved, a University of Adelaide professor says.

A renowned United States forensic genealogist who lent her expertise to the Somerton Man mystery says the investigation was like doing a "sudoku puzzle".

There has long been speculation that the Somerton Man was a spy, but Professor Abbott said he was a "pretty straightforward type of guy". He said there was a "small chance" they could be wrong if there was a "twist" in the family tree, such as someone in the family being adopted. Professor Abbott said the team then found a relative on Webb's maternal side to further confirm their findings and it was a "beautiful match". "Charles Webb is in there, in a family with six siblings and guess what, he sticks out like a sore thumb because he's the only one without a date of death," he said. "We found a hit, we found a very distant cousin, actually in Victoria who was the best match of all of them," he said. The pair have been working together on the case ever since and now believe the man who was found slumped and lifeless at Adelaide's Somerton Beach in 1948, was Carl "Charles" Webb, a 43-year-old Victorian engineer and instrument maker.