By Tim Binnall
An Australian professor claims to have determined the identity of the mysterious 'Somerton Man' by way of an exhaustive forensic genealogy study. One of the country's most famous unsolved cases, the peculiar tale began back in 1948 with the discovery of a man's body on Somerton Park Beach in the city of Adelaide. Authorities quickly found themselves scratching their heads over the puzzling find as the individual bore no identification, possessed a suitcase full of clothes with their labels removed, and, in his pocket, was a scrap of paper with the Farsi words Tamám Shud, meaning "it's finished." In the nearly 75 years since, the identify of the Somerton Man has remained a mystery, though one researcher now believes that he has cracked the case at last.
Derek Abbott of the University of Adelaide has doggedly pursued the mystery for decades and reportedly announced on Tuesday that the newly emerging investigative technique known as forensic genealogy appears to have finally provided an answer to the longstanding question of who, exactly, the Somerton Man was. He explained that, around a decade ago, authorities in Australia gave him hairs that were procured from a plaster 'death mask' made of the man's face after his body had been discovered. Using that material, Abbott was able to obtain a DNA profile of the individual and, in turn, enlisted celebrated forensic genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick to produce a family tree which would theoretically contain the Somerton Man somewhere within its many branches.
Although there were over 4,000 people featured in this family tree, Abbott and Fitzpatrick were finally able to hone in on a particularly promising suspect, an electrical engineer named Carl "Charles" Webb, earlier this year. Eventually, he says "we managed to find a first cousin three times removed on his mother's side" who agreed to have their DNA tested and, upon receiving the results this past weekend, he was gratified to learn that there was match which seemingly confirms the researchers' suspicions. "t just felt like I climbed and I was at the top of Mount Everest," Abbott said, recalling the moment when he received the test results.
As for who Charles Webb was, Abbott indicated that he was born in November of 1905 and, later in life, married a woman named Dorothy Robertson. The suspected Somerton Man then mysteriously vanishes from the public record after 1947 when his wife had appeared in court to declare that "he had disappeared and she wanted to divorce." Since Robertson subsequently moved to an area fairly close to Adelaide, where the body was found, Abbott theorizes that "it's possible that he came to this state to try and find her," before somehow meeting his demise in the process. In addition to the genetic genealogy research, the lack of a death certificate for Webb nor any indication of his whereabouts from 1947 onward certainly seems to suggest that he was the Somerton Man.
While the possible conclusion of the case may be met with some skepticism from those hoping to keep the mystery alive, Abbott and Fitzpatrick's conclusion could soon be confirmed by a second source as a similar genetic investigation is currently being conducted by authorities in South Australia following the exhumation of the Somerton Man last year. In response to the researcher's claims of having managed to link Webb to the story, the SA police have simply said that they would not provide any updates on their work until the results of their testing is complete. That said, should they also determine that the man was Charles Webb, that facet of the mystery can probably be considered solved, though how he wound up dead on Somerton Park Beach remains unknown.