Researchers claim to have solved mystery of stranger who washed up on Australian beach 70 years ago

South Australia Police and Forensic Science South Australia have not yet verified professor’s findings

South Australia Police exhume the body of the so-called ‘Somerton man’ on 15 May 2021 (South Australia Police)

A professor at the University of Adelaide has claimed to have cracked the mystery of a body washed up on one of the city’s beaches in 1948.

Prof Derek Abbott has claimed that the man who popularly came to be known as the “Somerton man” was Carl “Charles” Webb, an electrical engineer and instrument maker born in Victoria state capital Melbourne in 1905.

Prof Abbott dedicated his life to finding the identity of the man who washed up on Somerton Beach, near Adelaide in South Australia more than 70 years ago. According to the local media, Mr Abbott worked with the American genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick to identify Webb as the “Somerton man”.

He used hair to extract DNA and identify Webb from forensic genealogy, The Age reported. Prof Abbott and Dr Fitzpatrick searched DNA databases and created a family tree linking thousands of people “like a sudoku puzzle with 4,000 elements”.

“Basically, there were just two people in there with no dates of death,” Mr Abbott was quoted as saying, and one of those was Webb, triangulated as a match with DNA linked to both his maternal and paternal relatives. “It turns out he’s our man because it all fits,” Mr Abbott told the paper.

However, the South Australia Police and Forensic Science South Australia have not verified the findings of Prof Abbott so far.

The case of the “Somerton man” had captured the imagination of people globally. His body washed up on the beach on 1 December 1948 and he didn’t have any identifying documents on him. His identity and cause of death remained a mystery.

However, the man was carrying a cryptic note bearing the Persian words “Tamam Shud” which translates to “It is finished”. He was also carrying a book of poems by the Persian writer Omar Khayyam and a suitcase carrying clothes with the labels removed.

The mystery of the “Somerton man” has fascinated internet sleuths globally over the decades. Several offered theories about the man’s identity, claiming that he was a Cold War secret agent, or perhaps, a spurned lover, reports at the time said.

Last year in May, then South Australia’s attorney general Vickie Chapman approved the exhumation of the body. In a statement, she said: “For more than 70 years people have speculated who this man was and how he died.”

She added: “It’s a story that has captured the imagination of people across the state, and, indeed, across the world – but I believe that, finally, we may uncover some answers.”

At the time when his body was discovered, the autopsy could not determine the exact cause of death, even though it found an enlarged spleen and a liver in poor condition. This led to speculation that the man was poisoned but no traces were found in his body.

Prof Abbott said of the breakthrough: “We’re just saying this is what the DNA tells us,” telling The New York Times: “It’s up to the cops to make the legal determination of who this guy was.”

Prof Abbott and Dr Fitzpatrick found out that Webb enjoyed and appreciated poetry and even wrote some of his own. As per the documents, they say that Webb was also fond of betting on horse races.

The two scholars however still don’t know the cause of death of the “Somerton man”. They were quoted as saying by the New York Times that “there’s still lots of ongoing interesting research to do about his circumstances and who he was. That’s still on the to-do list.”

Prof Abbott told ABC News: “It kind of feels like climbing Mount Everest, and having that mixture of elation that you’re at the top, but also tiredness and exhaustion.”

The Independent has reached out to the University of Adelaide for comment from Prof Abbott.