The plaster mask made on the face of Somerton Man’s corpse was the key to determining the identity of the dead: it is Carl Webb.
In 1948, the body of a man dressed in a suit and tie was found on an Australian beach. A half-smoked cigarette lay on his neck and he had a line from a Persian poem in his pocket. The bewilderment of the researchers was total. There were hundreds of theories, including that the person, nicknamed “Somerton Man”, was a spy. Now, 70 years later, researchers claim to have solved the mystery.
A group of Australian and US researchers announced that they were able to determine the identity of a man who was found dead on December 1, 1948 in Somerton Beach, in the city of Adelaide, Australia, thanks to the reconstruction of his tree. genealogy from a DNA sample obtained from her hair, the private forensic services firm reported Tuesday International identifiersquoted by PR Newswire.
Thus “The Somerton Man” was identified as Carl ‘Charles’ Webb, an electrical engineer and luthier from the Australian city of Melbourne, who was 43 at the time of his death. It is also reported that his parents were Richard August Webb and Eliza Amelia Morris Grace.
Among the personal effects on Carl Webb’s body on Somerton Beach was a note in Farsi that said, “It’s finished.”
South Australia Police has not yet confirmed this discovery, but they say they will soon make an announcement regarding this news.
According to the company, the investigation began in 2011, when the University of Adelaide professor, Derek Abate, managed to collect genetic material from the hair of the deceased, which was embedded in a plaster mortuary mask kept in the South Australian Police Museum.
After seven years, the scientists were able to successfully obtain the DNA of “Somerton Man”, which allowed them to establish that, on the maternal side, it was a man of Caucasian European descent. “We’ve been trying to extract DNA all these years,” said Abbott, who also commented on the difficulties they had in obtaining that DNA due to hair damage.
Derek Abbott the Australian researcher who unraveled the mystery of “Somerton Man”.
Webb was born in 1905 in a suburb of Melbourne. He was the youngest of six children and married Dorothy Robertson, known as Doff Webb. “We have evidence that he separated from her wife and that she moved to South Australia. So maybe he came looking for her,” investigators said.
The mystery of “Somerton Man”.
The mystery of the “Somerton Man” began on the morning of December 1, 1948, when bathers found his body thrown against a dam in Somerton Beach, in Adelaide.
The man he wore a suit and tie. This was the first thing that struck the investigators, and also quickly in the public opinion when they learned of the appearance of the body on the news. The body appeared to be that of a man between 40 and 50 years old.
In his pocket he had bus and train tickets, chewing gum, some matches, two combs and a pack of cigarettes. He had no wallet, no cash, no identity card. The labels had been cut from his suit and forensics suspected it he had been poisoned.
Other curious findings have baffled the authorities. They included a suitcase, more clothes without labels and incoherent writings which is believed to be a code. He also had a piece of paper in his hand with the words in it Farsi “Tamam Shud”, which means “it is finished”printed on it.
Also, a membership phone number was found in the book a young nurse named Jessica Thompsonwho has always denied having known the deceased, although the investigators were convinced that he knew something.
Carl Webb was buried in 1949 and on his headstone it was reported that he was the man found dead on Somerton Beach.
Investigators suspected from the start that it could be an early Cold War spyor a lover abandoned by the nurse who has decided to poison himself.
The Fingerprints Somerton Man’s were shipped all over the world, but no one could identify him. With no news of him, he was buried in Adelaide’s West Terrace Cemetery in 1949 with a headstone that read: “Here lies the unknown man which was found at Somerton Beach. “
The case became a legend that grew over the years, until in April 2021, after years of public discussion about the possibility of unearthing his remains, the Attorney General Vickie Chapman approved an exhumation order on the grounds that the case had generated “intense public interest”.
Then Abbott, in collaboration with the American researcher Colleen Fitzpatrick, obtained an additional DNA sample with which it was possible to carry out a forensic genetic genealogy in order to determine the identity of the deceased. “Our tree has 4,000 people in total while we are building it and there are only two people on this tree with no date of death,” said the Australian scientist, who assured that what they did “was trace the maternal side of Carl Webb and find someone alive today who had one of these DNA genealogical tests, and we found a match.
“We have a lot of confidence, with 99.9% sure, this is the man“, he indicated. The team of investigators found that there are further traces that support that Carl Webb is the individual who was found dead in 1948. One of them revealed that his sister was married to Thomas Keanwhose name was on several items found in a Webb suitcase found at an Adelaide train station shortly after his death.
Fitzpatrick also said that it is not yet known how the man’s body ended up in Somerton Beach, as well as the cause of his death. However, she said that the investigation into his identity will lead to answers that are still clouded as have been the last hours of Webb.
Source: Clarin
