‘It all fits’: Researcher finds Melbourne identity of Somerton Man

A man who died in mysterious circumstances on Adelaide’s Somerton Beach, becoming the subject of decades of speculation, was Melbourne man Carl “Charles” Webb, a researcher says.

University of Adelaide Professor Derek Abbott has spent more than a decade working to identify Somerton Man, who died in December 1948 and has been an enigma for detectives and amateur sleuths, using hair to extract DNA and identify him from forensic genealogy.

Adeleide researcher Derek Abbott believes he has identified Somerton Man, who died in mysterious circumstances in 1948.Credit:Newsouth books

Abbott worked with Californian scientist Colleen Fitzpatrick to search DNA databases and create a family tree linking thousands of people.

“It’s like a sudoku puzzle with 4000 elements. It was huge,” Abbott said. “Basically, there were just two people in there with no dates of death.”

One of those was Webb, who Abbott last weekend was finally able to “triangulate” as a match with DNA to both maternal and paternal relatives of Webb’s.

“It turns out he’s our man because it all fits,” Abbott said.

Webb, born in 1905, was the youngest of six siblings and last known to live in Bromby Street, South Yarra. He worked with electronics as an instrument maker and had separated from wife Dorothy “Doff” Webb in 1947.

“The last time he’s ever mentioned in any kind of document that we’re able to find is 1947. So it’s like he just fell off the radar,” Abbott said.

Among clues police discovered around the time of Somerton Man’s death were a pair of scissors and knife ground to have sharp points, as well as clothing in a suitcase labelled with the name T Keane.

Abbott has found Webb had a brother-in-law named Thomas Keane who lived in Brunswick, and believes the sharp objects were likely used in his work as instrument maker.

The death mask of Somerton Man.

A Persian poem and letters that appeared to form a code have perplexed amateur sleuths in the decades since the man’s death, leading to speculation he could have been a spy. Abbott has found documents that Webb wrote poetry and enjoyed horse racing, and Abbott guesses the letters could be linked to betting.

“I was suspected right from the beginning of this case – because a lot of the spy theories came around in the ’90s – I thought, ‘that’s all very well, but it’s more likely to be something banal, really’. And that’s what it turned out to be, all quite pedestrian,” Abbott said.

The body of Somerton Man was exhumed by police from Adelaide’s West Terrace Cemetery last year with the hope of identifying him. However, Abbott says the cause of the man’s death remains a mystery and unless solved would continue to cause speculation, including unproven theories he was poisoned.

“Whether it’s too late after so many years to find out anything. Who knows? People will continue to speculate for years to come, I’m sure,” Abbott said.

“My biggest hope is that now the public had his name … [they] will remember that name and go searching in their garden sheds for all family elements that might find something on this guy.”

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