Solving the Somerton Man mystery, Australia's most baffling - CNET [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. Did you talk to her about that at all?" "[44] Boxall's army service record suggests that he served initially in the 4th Water Transport Company, before being seconded to the North Australia Observer Unit (NAOU) a special operations unit and that during his time with NAOU, Boxall rose rapidly in rank, being promoted from lance corporal to lieutenant within three months. [75], Following the death, the boy's mother, Roma Mangnoson, reported having been threatened by a masked man who, while driving a battered cream car, almost ran her down outside her home in Cheapside Street, Largs North. [25][26] Police believed that whoever removed the clothing tags either overlooked these three items or purposely left the "Keane" tags on the clothes, knowing Keane was not the dead man's name. [113][116], Dorothy recalled one instance in March 1946 in which her husband apparently attempted suicide with an overdose of ether. Is British seaman's identity card clue to solving 63-year-old beach body mystery? [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. The man was well-built, about 40 to 50 years old, 5. For 73 years, the identity of a well-dressed man found slumped by a sea wall of Somerton beach, south of Adelaide, in 1948 has been a mystery leaving room for theories featuring jilted lovers and cold war spies. Key points: The mystery Somerton Man has been identified as a Melbourne-born electrical engineer Researcher Derek Abbott spent decades researching the case [67], By early February 1949, there had been eight different "positive" identifications of the body,[68] including two Darwin men who thought the body was of a friend of theirs,[69] and others who thought it was a missing station worker, a worker on a steamship[70] or a Swedish man. The torn-out fragment found in the Somerton Mans pocket perfectly matched a gap on the final page of the discarded copy. Is climate change killing Australian wine? [31] The lack of success in determining the identity and cause of death of the man had led authorities to call it an "unparalleled mystery" and believe that the cause of death might never be known. x Professor Abbott said the team had used popular genealogical DNA databases, like Ancestry.com, to find Mr Webb's distant relatives. 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. Additionally a similar-looking man had been recently seen lurking around the house. [80] International circulation of a photograph of the man and details of his fingerprints yielded no positive identification. But to find out that hes Australian, from Victoria, and that he died, and no one obviously noticed he was missing, or no one followed up with the police that he was missingI find that particularly kind of tragic. Working in conjunction with US investigator Colleen Fitzpatrick, Professor Abbott said that, in March this year, suspicions fell on Webb, who was born in 1905 but later identified "as a person with no death record". It has been one of the most interesting cases in Australias history. 26 July: The unlisted phone number discovered in the book is traced to a woman living in Glenelg (Jessica Thomson, previously Harkness). Feltus in 2010 claimed he was given permission by Thomson's family to disclose her names and that of her husband, Prosper Thomson. acute gastritis hemorrhage, extensive congestion of the liver and spleen, and the congestion to the brain. He buys a ticket for the 10:50a.m. train to Henley Beach but does not use it. We can't say for certain say that this is the reason he came, but it seems logical., Records showed that Webb enjoyed reading and writing poetry, as well as betting on horse races. The ear shapes shared by both men were a "very good" match, although Henneberg also found what he called a "unique identifier"; a mole on the cheek that was the same shape and in the same position in both photographs. [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. Boxall was born in London on 16 April 1906, enlisted in the Australian Army on 12 January 1942 and was not discharged until 12 April 1948. Theories abounded, including that the person - dubbed Somerton Man - was a spy. Thomson's real name was considered important because it may be the decryption key for the purported code. He was a Russian spy. The body of a man found on a South Australian beach more than 70 years ago has been exhumed in the hope of solving one of the country's most intriguing mysteries. And. Also in the suitcase was a thread card of Barbour brand orange waxed thread of "an unusual type" not available in Australiait was the same as that used to repair the lining in a pocket of the trousers the dead man was wearing. According to Prof Abbott, Webb was born in 1905 in a suburb of Melbourne. Accounts of conversations between Jessica Thomson and police suggest she told them that she was "married" or "recently married". Ep 239: The Somerton Man - Mystery Solved? - Astonishing Legends By then, Dorothy had moved from Melbourne to Bute, a town 89 miles northeast of Adelaide. What was unusual was that there were no spare socks found in the case, and no correspondence, although the police found pencils and unused letter stationery. 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. In addition, witness statements have disappeared from the police file over the years.[8]. What was his cause of death? 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. He had a sister who lived in Melbourne and was married to a man named Thomas Keanelikely the T. Keane whose name appears on the clothing in the Somerton Mans suitcase. In fact, all of the tags on his clothing had been deliberately removed. The man was well-built, about 40 to 50 years old, 5. Born in 1946, Robin enjoyed a career as a dancer with the Australian Ballet Company. [32] Mangnoson believed that this situation could be related to her husband's attempt to identify the Somerton Man, believing him to be Carl Thompsen, who had worked with him in Renmark in 1939. There is no record of the Adelaide railway station's bathroom facilities being unavailable and no ticket in his pocket to suggest he visited the Public Baths, outside of the station. In his pocket were bus and train tickets, chewing gum, some matches, two combs and a pack of cigarettes. 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. Police questioned a woman seen leaving the cemetery but she claimed she knew nothing of the man. [5], Carl Webbs father Richard August Webb (died in 1939) had emigrated to Australia from Hamburg, Germany. Dismissing the enigmatic figure as a drunk or a soundly sleeping beachgoer, the couples made no effort to approach him. 'Somerton man' mystery is 'SOLVED': Extraordinary twist in Australia's most baffling death 70 years after he was found dead on a beach with a coded note in his pocket. Taman Shud Case, also called the Mystery of the Somerton Man, is an unsolved criminal case about a man who never had his name and origin discovered, found dead on December 1, 1948, on the beach at Somerton, city of Adelaide, Australia. Abbott also tracked down the Barbour waxed cotton of the period and found packaging variations. [36] Public library officials called in to translate the text identified it as a phrase meaning "ended" or "finished" found on the last page of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. She appeared as if she was about to faint. All Episodes Topics Blog Shop About Contact SUBMIT A LISTENER SEGUE . When an employee looked inside the case he told Harvey he had found an object inside the case he described as looking like a "needle". "[86], The ID card, numbered 58757, was issued in the United States on 28 February 1918 to H. C. Reynolds, giving his nationality as "British" and age as 18. He was fond of poetry and wrote several poems of his own, "most of them on the subject of death, which he claims to be his greatest desire", Dorothy stated. [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." Did he die by suicide? 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. [9][30] There is no record of the station's bathroom facilities being unavailable on the day he arrived. Webb, who was born in the Australian state of Victoria in 1905, fit the bill. Read about our approach to external linking. [59][60] That same day, The News published a photograph of the dead man on its front page,[61] leading to additional calls from members of the public about his possible identity. On 3 December 1948, a day after The Advertiser named him as the likely victim, E.C. The case is part of Operation Persevere, which seeks to put a name to all unidentified remains in South Australia. The mystery man's remains were exhumed by police last year in a bid to solve the case. I was convinced that he was from Europe maybe a displaced person after the second world war [who] was here alone., But to find out that hes Australian, from Victoria, and that he died, and no one obviously noticed he was missing, or no one followed up with the police that he was missing I find that particularly kind of tragic.. His pockets contained nothing to identify him. ][88], Prosper Thomson died in 1995 and Jessica Thomson died in 2007. [65] Police were skeptical, believing Walsh to be too old to be the dead man. [18] All labels on his clothes had been removed,[16][19] and he had no hat (unusual for 1948) or wallet. [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. Adelaide's 73-Year-Old MysteryThe Somerton Man | Unsettling & Unsolved 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. The scrap had been torn from the final page of a copy of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayym, authored by 12th-century poet Omar Khayym. But, they said that the "only clue of any value" remained the clothing the man wore. Its up to the cops to make the legal determination of who this guy was.. VideoThe secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure, LGBT troops take love for Eurovision to front line, Why an Indian comedian is challenging fake news rules. On Wednesday, crews began digging at the gravesite, with local media outlet Nine News reporting initial efforts had moved more slowly than expected due to dense clay and uncertainty as to whether the man had been buried in a coffin. 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. Theories abounded, including that the person - dubbed Somerton Man - was a spy. May 1950: Jessica and Prosper Thomson are married. "I'm hoping, ashis name gets out there, there will be somebody that will have an old photo album in a garden shed somewhere.". "Sorry, The Unknown Man is (very probably) not H.C. Reynolds", "New twist in Somerton Man mystery as fresh claims emerge", "An immaculate corpse, a secret code and Australia's strangest cold case", "Somerton Man to be exhumed by police in attempt to solve mystery", "Somerton Man exhumation to be carried out in hope of solving decades-long mystery", "Complete remains of Somerton Man in 'reasonable condition' after exhumation", "Somerton man: Body exhumed in bid to solve Australian mystery". Over the years many theories have swirled as to his identity, from Cold War spy to rejected lover. [note 3]. Victoria detectives disproved all the claims and said that "other investigations" indicated it was unlikely that he was from Victoria. [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. [62] On 5 December, The Advertiser reported that police were searching through military records after a man claimed to have had a drink with a person resembling the dead man at a hotel in Glenelg on 13 November. 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. Privacy Statement [91][92], An exhumation was carried out on 19 May 2021. Somerton Man body-on-the-beach mystery solved as family secrets unravel | Australian Story ABC News In-depth 1.22M subscribers Subscribe 21K Share 1M views 2 months ago #AustralianStory. Though the state coroner has yet to confirm the pairs findings, Abbott tells the Guardians Natasha May that as a scientist, he is confident in the accuracy of the analysis. The Tamm Shud case, also known as the Mystery of the Somerton Man, is an unsolved case of an unidentified man found dead at 6:30 am, December 1st of 1948, on the Somerton Park beach, just south of Adelaide, South Australia. In a later interview Lawson describes her behaviour as being very odd that day. [22], On 14 January 1949, staff at the Adelaide railway station discovered a brown suitcase with its label removed, which had been checked into the station cloakroom after 11:00am on 30 November 1948. Meilan Solly The identity and cause of death of the so-called Somerton man remain unknown. [16], In 1978, ABC-TV, in its documentary series Inside Story, produced a programme on the Tamm Shud case, titled "The Somerton Beach Mystery", where reporter Stuart Littlemore investigated the case, including interviewing Boxall, who could add no new information,[51] and Paul Lawson, who made the plaster cast of the body and who refused to answer a question about whether anyone had positively identified the body. [83], The South Australian Police Historical Society holds the plaster bust, which contains strands of the man's hair. 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. "The first cousin we found was on his paternal sideand the second one we found was on the maternal side," he said. Mystery of dead man on beach: was he a Victorian? 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. [96] The authorities have said that they intend to take DNA from the remains if possible. 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. The cryptographers reported that it would be impossible to provide "a satisfactory answer": if the text were an encrypted message, its brevity meant that it had "insufficient symbols" from which a clear meaning could be extracted, and the text could be the "meaningless" product of a "disturbed mind". There was congestion in the second half of the duodenum. (The DNA studied by Abbott and Fitzpatrick came from the Somerton Mans death mask, not his body, and was analyzed as part of a separate, parallel investigation.) That's most likely what brought him to Adelaide, the professor said. [83] Other key evidence no longer exists, such as the brown suitcase, which was destroyed in 1986. Did this woman die because her genitals were cut? Professor Abbott, who last week spoke to the ABC about his work, added "the final pieces of DNA proof came into place" on Saturday, "triangulating to Charles Webb". And I would like to find out what happened to Dorothy," she told CNN. 614 June: The piece of paper bearing the inscription "Tamm Shud" is found in a concealed fob pocket. The Tamm Shud case AKA the disappearance of the Somerton Man is arguably one of Australia's greatest true crime mysteries and was solved in July. The divorce was granted in April 1952. "So, it's a triangulation from two different, totally distant parts of the tree, so that's very convincing.". Experts were unable to pinpoint a cause of death, but three medical witnesses who testified during the inquest agreed that the death was not natural., There was no indication of violence, and I am compelled to the finding that death resulted from poison, city coroner Thomas Erskine Cleland concluded. [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. He stressed that this was purely speculation as all the witnesses believed it was, "definitely the same person", as the body was in the same place and lying in the same distinctive position. 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. Police conducted an Australia-wide search to find a copy of the book that had a similarly blank verso. [34], Early in the inquiry, Cleland stated, "I would be prepared to find that he died from poison, that the poison was probably a glucoside and that it was not accidentally administered; but I cannot say whether it was administered by the deceased himself or by some other person. Most populous nation: Should India rejoice or panic? [63], In early January 1949, two people identified the body as that of 63-year-old former wood cutter Robert Walsh. When the bakery closed down, Carl retrained as an electrical instrument maker. [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. 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. Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history. In September 1946, Dorothy fled from her husband, following years of physical and verbal abuse. You really kind of narrow it down so much it could be any one of Carls siblingsbut Carl is the one with no documented death.. Astonishing Legends. "[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". ), Carl 'Charles' Webb's prisoner-of-war brother bears resemblance to Somerton Man https://t.co/c7KcGhtiuI. The Somerton Man's suitcase and its forgotten fingerprints (Supplied) The suitcase When passers-by discovered the man's body on December 1, 1948, he was dressed in a brown suit and had a half-smoked cigarette on his lapel. His history and the autopsy findings suggest he committed suicide by poisoning himself.[113]. [2], A number of possible identifications have been proposed over the years. DNA Could Identify Somerton Man Exhumed in Australia - New York Times MLIAOI [47] When she was interviewed by police, Thomson said that she did not know the dead man or why he would have her phone number and choose to visit her suburb on the night of his death. In July 1949, a local man came forward with a copy of The Rubiyt that hed found tossed into the back of his car around the time of the Somerton Mans death. " Several years ago, Ms. Egan had her DNA analyzed, and links were found to people in the United States (including relatives of Thomas Jefferson ). A former ballet dancer. Ive already been on Trove to see if theres any presence of Charles Webb coming up in the old newspapers. [86][needs update] Some independent researchers believe the ID card belonged to Horace Charles Reynolds, a Tasmanian man who died in 1953 and therefore could not have been the Somerton man. [14][18] On 22 November 1959 it was reported that one E.B. The Somerton man died alone on a beach in 1948. Now Australian - CNN He added that there was sufficient DNA evidence to "definitively"disprove any links with his wife Rachel Egan, whose father ballet dancer Robin Thomson was believed to have potentially been a descendant of the Somerton Man. Shown the plaster cast by Paul Lawson, she does not identify the man as Alf Boxall, or any other person. What, if anything, was his connection to Thomson? Dr Fitzpatrick now wants to help solve the mystery of his death. Derek Abbott, from the University of Adelaide, said that. 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. And so he was buried in Adelaide cemetery in 1949 with a tombstone reading: "Here lies the unknown man who was found at Somerton Beach.". A man showed police a 1941 edition of Edward FitzGerald's (1859) translation of Rubaiyat, published by Whitcombe and Tombs in Christchurch, New Zealand.