morning December 1, 1948 It started out like everything else in Somerton Beach near Adelaide. Early in the day, a 16-year-old boy called Neil Day, He was walking when he saw a man wearing a suit and leaning on some stones. He thought he was sleeping after a long night. Maybe he was drunk and decided to stay there to rest. Hours later, the jeweler John LyonsHe passed with his wife in the same place and she noticed a motionless man. When they approached, they discovered that he was dead. Thus a police investigation was launched that would from that moment transform this stranger into the most famous protagonist in Australian police history.
He was smartly dressed, white shirt, tie, brown slacks, polished shoes, jacket and European jacket despite the heat of that first December day. His flawless hands and nails, his athletic build, and lack of scars revealed someone who had done no manual labor, and his gray eyes and ash-blonde hair belied the coldness of his fate. There is no document or label Can reveal his identity: Everything seems to have been carefully erased, as if someone wanted to remain anonymous.
In one of his pockets was a small piece of paper with a Persian inscription “Okay, okay.”meaning “finished”, torn from the last page of a book of Persian poems, Quartets Omar Khayyam, who was later found in a nearby car. This initial discovery unleashed a maze of unanswered questions, planting the seeds of a mystery that could span decades. In the midst of the Cold War, the death of the unknown man led to explanations ranging from suicide to espionage, from passion murder to the silent revenge of secret agents, leaving Australia with a mystery that seemed to defy logic and time.
The scene surprised everyone who came to Somerton Park that day. The man was almost lying down, face up, with his back leaning on a rock, a brand cigarette Kinsetas On the right ear and a box of Army Club In his pocket even though it had Kensetta cigarettes inside. Also among his belongings were matches, chewing gum, a bus ticket, a train ticket, and most disturbingly: The paper is written in Persian. Every detail seemed carefully prepared so as not to reveal anything, and the absence of labels on the clothes reinforced the impression that someone was trying to erase any evidence.
From the first moment, the researchers were faced with a puzzle. The body did not show any signs of external violence or scars, and its heart and organs were normal. Later, an autopsy, although thorough, identified congestion in multiple organs and stomach bleeding, without identifying known toxins or traces of poison. Each answer obtained opens new questions: Did he die of natural causes, a planned suicide, or an untraceable murder? In that case, the body did not speak, defying legal logic.
News of the man in the suit spread like wildfire, and the press quickly added to the mystery: the next day all the local newspapers published contradictory stories about his identity and his accounts of what had happened. There was someone who came to the police station to deny that he was the deceased man, while other possible identities were considered to no avail for weeks. Every failed attempt to determine the man’s identity turned the man into a more solid mystery, a hero in stories that combined everyday life with the impossible.
The espionage hypothesis emerged almost immediately. The Cold War began to color every strange death with suspicion, and the appearance of the phrase in Persian reinforces the idea It is possible that this man is involved in secret and espionage activities. His good manners, clean hands, and choice of expensive clothing suggest someone accustomed to moving with caution and precision, almost like a secret agent.
The case took on new dimensions when it happened on January 14 A suitcase was found at an Adelaide train stationIt was kept in warehouse on November 30th and no one claimed it. A seemingly independent discovery added to the mystery: There were clothes, a tie, slippers, pajamas, electrician’s tools, cut-off knives and sewing thread that matched those found in the jacket worn by NN’s body. Everything was carefully organized, and labels had been cut off on many of the clothes, as if someone wanted to erase any evidence of their origin. The bag appears to belong to the man who found it on the beach, although there is nothing to confirm this conclusively.
At the same time the famous book appeared Quartets By Omar Khayyamin a car near the beach. On the last page there was a cut part that coincided with the one that said “Tamam Shud”. In addition, someone hand-wrote a series of seemingly incomprehensible letters that could be a code. It also showed a phone number that led to Jessica ThompsonA nurse lives a few meters from the beach. His appearance added a new level of intrigue: who was this man and what was his connection to her?
When the police questioned the woman, she seemed nervous and denied knowing the deceased, although she remembered that someone had searched for her months before. The clues seem to mix everyday life with the suspicion of espionage: an elegant and meticulous man, with a secret code and mysterious connections… Every detail reinforced the feeling that the truth was hidden behind a veil of deliberate discretion.
Identifying the man has become more difficult due to the continued failure to identify him. Many people provided information or claimed to know, but all hypotheses were discarded after official verification. Organizations such as Interpol and FBI They compared his fingerprints and physical characteristics to international records, without obtaining a match. At the same time, the media published new accounts of espionage, secret relationships, or crimes that were impossible to solve. The body remained mummified for several months, and a plaster cast of his face was made, which has been preserved as a source for future identification, reflecting the difficulty of solving a case that has eluded forensic and police investigations for years.
Over the decades, the investigation oscillated between myth and science, as cryptographers, genealogists and forensic scientists attempted to decipher the objects, symbols and personal relationships surrounding the mysterious man. The combination of unfinished personal elements, a mysterious book, and proximity to Nurse Thompson built a mystery that has kept Australia and the world in suspense for more than seventy years.
Decades later, Professor Derek Abbotta DNA expert at the University of Adelaide, took the case as a scientific challenge and made it personal. In cooperation with a forensic specialist Colin FitzpatrickAbbott was able to reconstruct the man’s family tree using preserved hair samples from the autopsy, and compared genetic profiles with genealogical databases. Scientific research, driven by patience and obsession, allowed us to narrow down the possibilities until we came up with a name: Carl “Charles” WebbBorn in 1905. He was an electrical engineer from Melbourne and started playing football as a teenager, which explains his muscular physique.
The analyzes confirmed the genetic match with his living relatives, and revealed the details of his life: the man lost his parents and brother in World War II, separated from his wife and lived an isolated life. Divorce documents and family testimonies highlighted his penchant for writing poems about death, a history of suicide attempts, and traits of violence, however Nothing explains the existence of the mysterious symbol or the reason for his trip to Adelaide.
Although scientific discovery has put an end to uncertainty about his identity, the cause of his death remains a mystery. As for the cause of his death – was it poisoning, suicide, or an accident – it was not clarified at all. The encrypted message in the book has not been deciphered, and remains so A puzzle that challenges experts and amateurs alike.
It’s been 77 years of unanswered questions, and Carl Webb’s story remains a mystery. From that first discovery in sand to its genetic identification, The Somerton Man case intertwines intrigue, espionage and personal tragedycementing itself as one of the most fascinating and enduring mysteries in international police history.