(1) He had a massively oversized and congested spleen.. Medical term - Splenomegaly. 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. Kate Thomson, the daughter of Jessica and Prosper Thomson, said that her mother was the woman interviewed by the police and that her mother had told her she had lied to them. The information about Webb sheds some light on the mysteries that have surrounded the case. Robin Thomson was also a dancer in the Australian Ballet, blessed with strong calves. The ridge on his forehead shows evidence of his autopsy, where his skullcap was sawn off. One of the witnesses told the police she observed a man looking down at the sleeping man from the top of the steps that led to the beach. DNA THE LAST SECRET OF THE SOMERTON MANMYSTERY. (LogOut/ In summer, the beach at Somerton in suburban Adelaide is a glistening stretch of sand, surf and sun. The man had no further information, but the book supplied yet more baffling clues. The results suggest that Robin had ancestral ties to the US along his paternal line. Police checked incoming train records and believed the man had arrived at the Adelaide railway station by overnight train from either Melbourne, Sydney, or Port Augusta. We will never know unless we try. While the autopsy found he had a good heart at the time of death, had he lived longer he may have developed coronary problems. Splenomegaly is a rare but potentially life threatening occurrence that can lead to splenic rupture. 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. , Phys.org. Her real name was considered important as the possibility exists that it may be the decryption key for the purported code. At the time, the number belonged to a 27-year-old local woman named Jo Thomson. We add to DS Leanes slow motion investigativerecord. 22 Reasons enough to believe the Somerton Man didnt die where he wasfound. In July 2013, Abbott released an artistic impression he commissioned of the Somerton man, believing this might finally lead to an identification. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, in its documentary series Inside Story, shown in 1978, produced a program on the case, entitled The Somerton Beach Mystery. The man's body was found on 1 December 1948 on Somerton beach in the South Australian city of Adelaide. Fifty days to interpret the two words TamamShud., THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRAIN TICKET TO HENLEYBEACH. Their first task was to try and identify the body. People with these conditions can be apparently pretty healthy and athletic untill something gets to far out of whack and they start declining. There were no foreign agents in the man's body, however, the suggestion was that the internal bleeding and over-enlarged . team was capable of identifying the man after 70 years of mystery surrounding his death. In February 2018, the University of Adelaide team obtained a high-definition analysis of the mitochondrial DNA from the hair sample from Somerton Man. ", Abbott said that they were convinced they've found their man. There can be a twist. 16 RACHEL EGANS DNA LINKED TO PROSPERTHOMSON.. 15 In 2002 I had a lengthy conversation with Jessica Harkness., 14 The seventy-year old secret of the Somertoncode. 7 WHERE DID HE DIE? Over the coming days, we'll consult with colleagues at Forensic Science SA and make a determination as to how we proceed from a forensic perspective. "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.". In fact, all that could be garnered from the suitcase was that the front gusset and featherstitching on a coat found in the case indicated it had been manufactured in the United States. The Dome, and why nicknames are not forNick. The scrap came from the last words of the last page of The Rubiyt of Omar Khayyam, an 11th-century poetry book about lifes transience. Implications stemming from Rachel Egans shared DNA and a word from Dr CarolynBilsborow. (8) His liver contained a great excess of blood. The 5-foot-11, 40- to 50-year-old man carried no money or identification. 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). He was also after my DNA. Then the scientist ran those segments through massive DNA databases (maintained by genealogy companies such as Ancestry.com) to try to find out more about her fathers father the suspected Somerton Man. 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. On Dec. 1, 1948, a man's body was discovered lying against a wall at a beach in Adelaide, Australia. In 1994, John Harber Phillips, Chief Justice of Victoria and Chairman of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, reviewed the case to determine the cause of death and concluded that "There seems little doubt it was digitalis." The final DNA twist in the Somerton Man case comes from Abbott himself. Although poisoning remained a prime suspect, the pasty was not believed to be the source of the poison. Science X Daily and the Weekly Email Newsletter are free features that allow you to receive your favorite sci-tech news updates in your email inbox, Phys.org 2003 - 2023 powered by Science X Network. (The project has so far been done without external funding. 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. But. DNA preserved in the mans teeth or bones, Abbott knew, could link him to family members in genealogy databases worldwide. According to the pathologist, John Burton Cleland, the time of death was estimated at around 2 am, on December 1, 1948. . He was slumped against a seawall, dressed in a suit and tie. The theme of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that one should live life to the fullest and have no regrets when it ends. We take a new look at RobinThomson. It was later established Four differing accounts of the contents found in the Somerton Manspockets. We're not talking about the type of DNA that's used to catch criminals. July 5, 2021 by Juliane Cunha. Leane referred to the man who found the book by the pseudonym "Ronald Francis" and he has never been officially identified. The last page of the book had been torn out and replaced with a list of random letters a code, perhaps. In late July 2022, Professor Derek Abbott from the University of Adelaide named Somerton Man as Carl Charles Webb, a 43-year-old electrical engineer from Melbourne. Gangsters at the Webbs dinnertable. Clive, perhaps he acquired his conditions relatively quickly, especially seeing so many appear to be related a bit like the domino effect and that being the case didnt lose his physique. Once again, Robin shared this same unusual condition, as revealed in photographs. Although the man's lead content was enormous about a month before his death, it decayed as time went on, so it does not appear that lead was what killed him. The Somerton Man committed suicide yousay? Initially, the letters were thought to be words in a foreign language before it was realized it was a code. His identity has never been determined, but there are several theories about his origin. The code was a quatrain offering a gist of why and how The . His research led him to his wife, Rachel Egan, who he believes is the Somerset Man's granddaughter. He appeared to be drunk . Mike Dash. While Abbott and other investigators plan to continue to search for answers on his identity and the circumstances surrounding his life and death, it's likely that we'll never know the full story. "This is just us drawing the dots. 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. 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." 11 Why did Detective Sergeant Leane take 51 days to release news of finding the Tamam Shudslip? 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 . 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. Police are called. Australia's most enduring mysteries - the identity of the "Somerton Man" - is finally solved. Life is sometimes stranger than fiction.. etc. It was suspected that the suitcase was owned by the man found on the beach on December 1. The paper's other side was blank. 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 . "This is not conclusive and the mystery is by no means solved," Abbott said. There is no record of the station's bathroom facilities being unavailable on the day he arrived. It can occur even in newborns and babies in the womb. Science X Daily and the Weekly Email Newsletters are free features that allow you to receive your favourite sci-tech news updates. ", 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. Certain connective tissue syndromes could could most, and possibly all of the observed problems. Derek 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. He had an unsmoked cigarette resting on his chest, his hair was perfectly in place and . 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. Carl "Charles" Webb was born in Footscray, Melbourne, Victoria, on November 16, 1905. (Top right) A map of Robins cousins in the 3rd-5th cousin range in the USA, found on a genealogical database. According to the autopsy, the man died about three to four hours after eating a pasty. The man's death coincided with a reorganization of Australian security agencies, which would culminate the following year with the founding of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). We have a problem with the whereabouts of a Mr. John Freeman chemist of 24a Jetty RoadGlenelg. Feltus believed Thomson knew the Somerton man's identity. Despite thousands of hours of investigation by the authorities and internet sleuths, the identity of the Somerton Man remained unknown. Cue the dirge for the loss of the autopsy report. ", Become a member of StrangeOutdoors.com for exclusive content, See the list of exclusive member-only articles by clicking here, The mysterious case of Netta Fornario on the Scottish Island of Iona, The terrible events of the Batavia Shipwreck on Murder Island, The story of Sir John Franklin's lost Northwest Passage expedition and the ghostly predictions of Weesy Coppin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamam_Shud_case, https://www.newidea.com.au/somerton-man-adelaide-70-year-mystery, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7573831/Notorious-murder-mystery-one-step-closer-solved-Somerton-Man-exhumed.html, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-01/somerton-mans-belongings-3/10569238?nw=0, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-24/mysterious-somerton-man-to-be-exhumed-by-sa-police/100092750, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-20/somerton-man-forensic-process-following-exhumation/100150868, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-19/somerton-man-remains-exhumed-from-adelaide-grave/100150216, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/have-scholars-finally-identified-the-mysterious-somerton-man-180980540/, https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/26/australia/australia-somerton-man-mystery-solved-claim-intl-hnk-dst/index.html, Tagged: The strange mystery of the Somerton Man, Tamm Shud case, Rachel Egan Somerton Man, Adelaide Professor Derek Abbott somerton man, somerton man solved july 2022, somerton man Carl "Charles" Webb, StrangeOutdoors.com Terms of use/Cookie notice/Privacy Policy, Sign up for a one-off fee to read over 50 exclusive member-only articles, The strange disappearance of the Eilean Mor Lighthouse Keepers, The strange mystery of the Somerton Man (Tamm Shud case), Learn more - Somerton Man pathology report click here, Adelaide Professor Derek Abbott somerton man, The Great Mull Air Mystery - The death of Peter Gibbs on the Isle of Mull in Scotland, The mysterious disappearance of the Sarah Joe and its five man crew, The mysterious deaths of the Korovina group on Mount Tritrans, The strange disappearance of Jim Carter in Ape Canyon.