As Abbott explained, the strontium-88 level is perhaps the most intriguing. 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?" His pockets held chewing gum, combs, and unused bus and train tickets. One man seen alive in the evening, another found dead in themorning. The mystery man's body was found slumped against a sea wall at Somerton Beach, south of Adelaide in 1948. 10 DNA, mtDNA, genealogy,mass spectroscopy and nuclear related matters. The suitcase also contained a thread card of Warm Sepia of Ridgway thread which was an unusual color, not available in Australia. The stomach was deeply congested as was the small intestine, blood mixed with the food in the stomach. The Criminal Connection: Roy Webbs father-in-law was an associate of one of Australias most notoriouscriminals. Chasing another avenue, Abbott turned back to the copy of The Rubiyt that had been found in the car, which had a phone number scrawled on its back cover. He was 5 ft 11 inches tall (180 cm), with grey eyes, fair to ginger-colored hair, and slightly grey around the temples. Another revealing feature of the Somerton Man's ears is that he had a small crease on his earlobe, technically called a diagonal earlobe crease (DELC). Abbott had been trying to solve the mystery for more than a decade. A post-autopsy restoration of the mystery man done by forensic video consultant Dan Voshart. This chain of events is part of a stroke that can occur in adults and children. . Former South Australian Chief Superintendent Len Brown, who worked on the case in the 1940s, stated that he believed that the man was from a country in the Warsaw Pact, which led to the police's inability to confirm the man's identity. The information about Webb sheds some light on the mysteries that have surrounded the case. (4) He had congestion (clogging) of the pharynx. Police recovered the mans suitcase from the train station (a spool of thread inside the case matched the thread used to repair one of the mans pockets), yielding more incomplete clues. The details of the case were spread far and wide around the world, says Ellis-Jones and so too were the autopsy pictures and the images of the . People with these conditions can be apparently pretty healthy and athletic untill something gets to far out of whack and they start declining. What we know about the Somerton Man, the Thomsons, the Egans and theirDNA. Although Robin passed away of prostate cancer in 2009 and was cremated, the University of Adelaide researchers have found a way around this obstacle with modern forensics techniques. A seaman by the name of Tommy Reade from the SS Cycle, in port at the time, was thought to be the dead man, but after some of his shipmates viewed the body at the morgue, they stated categorically that the corpse was not that of Tommy Reade. The local press report the story. Of course, this is only true if Rachel is indeed the Somerton Mans granddaughter. It was . In 2004, retired detective Gerry Feltus suggested in a Sunday Mail article that the final line "ITTMTSAMSTGAB" could stand for the initials of "It's Time To Move To South Australia Moseley Street" (the former nurse lived in Moseley Street which is the main road through Glenelg). Parallax Error. There were no foreign agents in the man's body, however, the suggestion was that the internal bleeding and over-enlarged . Nevertheless, the names Feltus used in his book were pseudonyms. Fifty days to interpret the two words TamamShud., THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRAIN TICKET TO HENLEYBEACH. Gordon Cramer. Is this when he travelled, so he drank different water and ate vegetables from a different region? The scientists believe that he went to Adelaide to see Jo Thomson, then died by happenstance on the beach wall, perhaps by positional asphyxia, where someone passes out in a position that cuts off their breathing. Some inconsistencies with regard to the Somerton Mans personaleffects. Somerton Man's identity - and how and why he died - has baffled an army of sleuths ever since his body was found by two apprentice jockeys just after sunrise on December 1, 1948. 13 The Somerton Mans mtDNA haplogroup.. 12 The South Australian Telephone Directory Nov 47 .. Gordon Cramer and Pete Davidson PLEASE NOTE!! Although the teeth would provide the best source of DNA, so far it has not been possible to exhume the body, since this involves fulfilling various legal requirements from the Attorney General of South Australia. Another couple who saw him from 7.30-8 pm, said that they did not see him move during the half an hour in which he was in view, although they believed his position had changed on the beach. Byron, I missed one of Dwyers findings. In November 2013 relatives of "Jestyn" gave interviews to the television current affairs program 60 Minutes. Cleland noted that the man's shoes were remarkably clean and appeared to have been recently polished, rather than being in the state expected of the shoes of a man who had apparently been wandering around Glenelg all day. In July 2013, Abbott released an artistic impression he commissioned of the Somerton man, believing this might finally lead to an identification. Evidence shows Jessica Harkness wasnt too bothered. This is especially the case if its caused by a bacterial infection. He was named Carl Charles Webb, a 43-year-old electrical engineer and instrument maker from Melbourne in Australia by Derek Abbott, from the University of Adelaide, using DNA sequencing and genealogy. The Scene At The Taman Shud Case: Neil Day was riding his horse down Somerton beach in Adelaide (Australia) on December 1, 1948. But the catch with autosomal DNA is that the concentration levels per human cell are much lower than the levels of mtDNA and YDNA. As a result, blood cells may break and leak blood into the brain tissues, forminga hemorrhage. The drugs were later publicly identified as digitalis and ouabain, both of which are cardenolide-type cardiac glycosides. He added that this evidence fitted in with the theory that the body might have been brought to Somerton beach after the man's death, accounting for the lack of evidence of vomiting and . Although it was a very common practice to use name tags, it was also normal when buying secondhand clothing to remove the tags of the previous owner. The Body By The Steps. Following a public appeal by police, the copy of the Rubaiyat from which the page had been torn was located. Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. A silly question, I realize, but is there any type of occupation/lifestyle that could result in the SM having so many medical issues? Now, after nearly seven decades, DNA has turned up some answers and more questions. The heart was normal, but the brain showed damage. The railway station bathing facilities were next to the station cloakroom, which itself was adjacent to the station's southern exit onto North Terrace. Unfortunately, there were no photos of him to make a visual match. Some of the man's DNA was pulled from the hair . The 3 Inch Conundrum and a measured reponse to 'Jo.'. Carl Webb. Recent evidence suggests that both deterioration in kidney function and renal congestion are important prognostic factors in heart failure., https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4720202/. The 60-year-old strands of hair may hold other secrets besides those contained in the DNAspecifically, information about the isotopes of the elements in his system, which may provide clues about the Somerton Man's lifestyle. On November 30th, 1948, John Lyons was strolling along Somerton beach, south of Adelaide, Australia, around 7 pm. Through his DNA, should we find it through the exhumation, we can potentially find on genealogical databases his cousins and relatives and bring him back to his family.. ", The Webb Brothers. What might Jessica, Alf and Estyn have incommon? How and where did the Somerton Man die and who was he with at thetime? All identification marks on the clothes had been removed, but police found the name "T. Keane" on a tie, "Keane" on a laundry bag, and "Kean" (without the last e) on a singlet, along with three dry-cleaning marks; 1171/7, 4393/7 and 3053/7. A new DNA analysis links the Somerton Man to Thomas Jefferson and Native Americans. (1) He had a massively oversized and congested spleen.. Medical term - Splenomegaly. Gerry Feltus claimed he was given permission by Thomson's family to disclose her names and that of her husband, Prosper Thomson. Infamous case: Australian police investigators look over the belongings of the "Somerton Man," pictured at left in a death mask, who was found dead on the beach Dec. 1, 1948, in Somerton Park . Public library officials called in to translate the text identified it as a phrase meaning "ended" or "finished" found on the last page of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. In the book, it is unclear whether the first line begins with an "M" or "W", but it is widely believed to be the letter W. There appears to be a deleted or underlined line of text that reads "MLIAOI". Kate Thomson opposed the exhumation as being disrespectful to her brother, In October 2019, the South Australian Attorney-General, Vickie Chapman, signed off for the Somerton mans body to be exhumed by the University of Adelaide Professor Derek Abbott. According to Day, he looked like he . The same poison that Cleland thought was responsible for the death of the Somerton Man. Was the state of the Somerton Mans health a factor in hisdeath? "Ideally, we'd like to identify a source of good quality DNA and then generate a DNA profile from it. I guess its all over and done with now,right? There was the destruction of the center of the liver lobules revealed under the microscope. And she remained coy about the mans identity, despite decades of speculation, until her death in 2007. This feature occurs in only 1% of the population. An Australian researcher claims to have solved a 73-year-old mystery by identifying a man found dead on . Each person's DNA contains the genetic code that makes them who they are that code can be compared to another person's DNA code and it's that comparison that we can do in order to identify a person. Life is sometimes stranger than fiction.. More information: The back of the book had faint indentations representing five lines of text, in capital letters. The Somerton Man fits into neither category. Coroner Cleland, Professor Cleland and Professor StantonHicks. We have a photograph of a young blonde man somebody tagged as Charlie.. Was the fair-haired Charles Richard Webb the Charlie in thephotograph? Although poisoning remained a prime suspect, the pasty was not believed to be the source of the poison. Although the last character in this line of text looks like an "L", it is fairly clear on closer inspection of the image that this is formed from an 'I' and the extension of the line used to delete or underline that line of text. Small matters of little concern in the grand scheme ofthings. It was suspected that the suitcase was owned by the man found on the beach on December 1. and policies. More importantly, however, this successful DNA test shows that viable DNA is still present that has not been contaminated by the formaldehyde embalming fluid. Gangsters at the Webbs dinnertable. Phys.org is a part of Science X network. Oddly enough, research has shown that DELCs are correlated with an increased risk of ischemic heart attack. With a global reach of over 10 million monthly readers and featuring dedicated websites for science (Phys.org), Fitzpatrick said, "The last known record we have of him is in April 1947 when he left Dorothy. Called the Somerton man after the beach where he was found in December 1948, . The final DNA twist in the Somerton Man case comes from Abbott himself. well developed calf muscles-horse riding? We add to DS Leanes slow motion investigativerecord. 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 has been some speculation among internet sleuths that the Somerton Man may have been poisoned by a jilted lover. I note that Robin was able to extend his legs out 180 degrees (the ballet jump photo) and hyper-flexibility is a common connective tissue disease symptom. Preliminary results show that the Somerton Man had higher-than-normal levels of arsenic, lead, and strontium-88 in his system. Kidney dysfunction is associated with adverse outcomes in heart failure patients. But that didnt explain anything about their connection to the Somerton Man. How the Somerton Man investigation could have been done in oneday. According to the Centers for Disease Control and PreventionTrusted Source (CDC), amoxicillin and penicillin are the most commonly prescribed treatments for strep throat. If it is likely that the perpetrator of a murder is deceased, then there is a decent ethical case that it serves no purpose to pursue the legal case any longer, genome expert Jared Roach of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, who was not part of the investigation, told BuzzFeed News. We can't say for certain say that this is the reason he came, but it seems logical.". That profile we could compare to potential descendants. Guess whos coming to dinner? +. This post is all about Carl Webbsbrain. Mysterious death. The Somerton Man was found on a beach. This is the second part of a two-part story about the forensic investigation of the Somerton Man. It turns out that the Somerton Man had unusual ears in that his upper ear hollow (the cymba) was much larger than his lower ear hollow (the cavum). Around the same time as the inquest, a 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. The code was a quatrain offering a gist of why and how The . Police questioned a woman seen leaving the cemetery but she claimed she knew nothing of the man. There are so many weird twists and turns in this case so many unlikely things keep happening. This would be followed by a crackdown on Soviet espionage in Australia, which was revealed by intercepts of Soviet communications under the Venona project. They believed he had showered and shaved at the adjacent City Baths (there was no Baths ticket on his body) before returning to the train station to purchase a ticket for the 10.50 am train to Henley Beach, which, for whatever reason, he missed. (A coroners assistant said the man possessed strong and high calf muscles.) (9) He had congestion in the blood vessels of the brain. He was the youngest of six siblings. The man had no further information, but the book supplied yet more baffling clues. Parallax Error. "The identification of the Somerton Man will ultimately be determined by the coroner. The man in the photograph does bear a resemblance to the Somerton Man, and would've been 48 when the Somerton Man's body was found- an appropriate age, based on autopsy findings. Read "Part 1: History and Code" here. Passersby had mistaken him for a drunk. 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. To be more sure about that would require exhumation of his corpse and either genetic testing of any intact tissue or chemical analysis of dental enamel, which can reveal where someone lived when their teeth formed. The chemicals used in the embalming process can significantly break down any DNA present. A stroke! On May 19, 2021, the exhumation of the remains began around sunrise and continued for about 12 hours. Leane referred to the man who found the book by the pseudonym "Ronald Francis" and he has never been officially identified. Note: A 2014 analysis by computational linguist John Rehling suggested that the letters consist of the initials of some English text, but finds no match for these in a large survey of the literature, and concludes that the letters were likely written as a form of shorthand, not as a code and that the original text can likely never be determined. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window), Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Somerton Man's last meal was a pasty eaten four hours before death. The black area at the top of the root, called post-mortem banding, is what you expect to see when a hair is taken from a dead person. I would like to subscribe to Science X Newsletter. Witnesses said that on the evening of November 30, they had seen an individual resembling the dead man lying on his back near the Crippled Children's Home, where the corpse was later found. Detective Superintendent Des Bray said, "Everything has gone smoothly and we're happy that we've recovered the complete remains of the Somerton Man, He's now been formally delivered in our care to take to the Forensic Science center. Charlie Webb here is supposed to be more than two inches taller than his brother, Roy Webb But heisnt. Was Prosper strong enough to carry a man weighing about 78kgs? Once the dig progressed, a wooden spatula and small brush were then used to carefully remove the bones from the ground and the remains of the unidentified man were placed inside a new coffin. Another theory concerns Alf Boxall, who was reportedly involved in intelligence work during and immediately after World War II. The remains of the so-called Somerton man have been exhumed at an Australian cemetery in a bid to solve the more than 70-year mystery over his death and identity. More and more people are adding their genes to these databases every day, making them more reliable at ferreting out connections between families. (Number 9) .. which indicates he suffered from a cerebral haemorrhage. At about the same time, Ina Harvey, the receptionist from the Strathmore Hotel opposite Adelaide railway station, revealed that a strange man had stayed in Room 21 or 23 for a few days around the time of the death, checking out on November 30, 1948. Bookmark. In 1947, while unmarried, she had given birth to a son named Robin. I try to keep an open mind on who he was, Derek Abbott, a biomedical engineer at the university who has studied the mystery for seven years and who led the student team, told BuzzFeed News. Dead, and in a jacket and tie. ), Change.org petition for the exhumation of the Somerton Man to assist in his identification, "The Somerton Man: An Unsolved History" paper by Ruth Balint, Taman Shud: The Somerton Man Mystery by Kerry Greenwood. 34 Things folks know and things they dont about the Somerton Man MurderMystery.. 33 Whatever happened to the Somerton Mans brown knittedpullover? Once again, Robin shared this same unusual condition, as revealed in photographs. Graphs showing that the Somerton Man had high levels of arsenic, lead, and strontium-88, based on isotope tests of his hair. With wartime rationing still in place, clothing was difficult to acquire at that time. Why has it taken over 70 years to question why the police didnt use the Henley Beach train ticket to trace the Somerton Mansmovements? There have been many arguments against H. C. Reynolds being the Somerton Man by people close to the case, but a professor who examined the photo finds the theory . Code experts were called in at the time to decipher the lines, but were unsuccessful. The identity of the Somerton Man remains a mystery more than 70 years after he was found dead in a smart brown suit on an Australian beach, a half-smoked cigarette resting on his collar. Royal Visits; Coronation Medals; . June 1949: The Somerton Man is buried in West Terrace Cemetery. Thomson denied ever knowing the Somerton Man. Somerton Man's body to be exhumed in South Australia more than 70 years after he was found on a beach. For general inquiries, please use our contact form. Taken together with the fact that the Somerton Man was wearing a jacket and tie of US origin, the evidence makes a compelling case that the Somerton Man was an American. But. To make it clear, normal criminal DNA tests use something like 23 markers, whereas this one we're using about 800,000 DNA markers. As The Australian reports, South Australia's new attorney general Vickie Chapman is considering exhuming the corpse of the Somerton Man so googletag.cmd.push . For now, Abbott and other investigators have access only to DNA from the man's hair samples, which are preserved in a museum. Has Rachel Egans DNA finally ended Derek Abbotts involvement in the Somerton ManMystery? 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. Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request, Optional (only if you want to be contacted back). In June 2010, Abbott obtained a photograph of Jessica Thomson's eldest son Robin, which clearly showed that he, like the unknown man, had not only a larger cymba than cavum but also hypodontia. You know how I answer the question, Was he a spy? I get a coin, and I flip it up in the air.Feltus. As a result of their interviews with Thomson, police suspected that Boxall was the dead man. Detective Sergeant Lionel Leane, who led the initial investigation, often protected the privacy of witnesses in public statements by using pseudonyms. You can explain any weird thing by saying he was a spy, Abbott said. South Australia Police has since come to me with the funding and an application, and I have approved it. A fictionalised account of the Somerton Mancase. ", Dr. Linzi Wilson-Wilde oversaw the DNA analysis, which was carried out at Forensic Science SA and hoped are that there will be enough DNA to allow researchers to compare the Somerton Man's profile with potential relatives. It was noted that the movement seen by witnesses at 7 pm could have been the last convulsion preceding death. On July 23, 2022, they matched DNA obtained from the hair to DNA tests taken by Webb's distant relatives. The coroners inquest report indicates the Somerton Man had the same relatively rare condition. The card, a document issued in the United States to foreign seamen during World War I, was given to Henneberg in October 2011 for comparison of the ID photograph to that of the Somerton man. After years of forensic investigation, Somerton Man's identity remains a mystery (Part 2: DNA, isotopes, and autopsy) . "The strontium-88 is very interesting, as there is a very sharp change about one-and-a-half weeks before death," he said. 18 Proof the code is an acrostic depends on whose edition of Omar Khayyhams quatrains you are lookingat. At least two sites relatively close to Adelaide were of interest to spies: the Radium Hill uranium mine and the Woomera Test Range, an Anglo-Australian military research facility. "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.". The Somerton Man inquest was closed for lack of new evidence despite the police having found more than enough. This is the type of DNA that's used to identify somebody's genealogy. March 2009: University of Adelaide Professor Derek Abbott begins . This article has been reviewed according to ScienceX's editorial process The case was considered one of Australia's biggest mysteries. In 2011, an Adelaide woman contacted a biological anthropologist and professor of anatomy at the University of Adelaide Maciej Henneberg about an identification card of an H. C. Reynolds that she had found in her father's possessions. The ear shapes shared by both men were a "very good" match - his cymba (upper ear hollow) was larger than his cavum (lower ear hollow), a feature possessed by only 12% of the Caucasian population. Following the last post regarding the finding of Cleland's notes, the document you see below is an autopsy report that dates back to 2010. A closer look at the Somerton Mans NINE medicalconditions. Did Prospers $50,000 play a part in Webbs mysteriousdeath? Intriguing and tragic new details emerge about the 'Somerton Man' as Australia's most baffling death is 'solved' 74 years after his body was found with a coded note in his pocket - and how a .