MYSTERY: The Somerton Man

Summary

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Podcast Summary:

Murder: True Crime Stories | "MYSTERY: The Somerton Man"

Host: Carter Roy
Date: February 6, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode of Murder: True Crime Stories, Carter Roy explores the enduring enigma of the Somerton Man, an unidentified man found dead on an Australian beach in 1948. With a mysterious scrap of paper, coded messages, ties to potential espionage, and modern DNA breakthroughs, the case has confounded generations. Roy goes beyond the crime scene, unraveling both the facts and the fascinating theories, and examining the passionate people who wouldn’t let the story die—including those who may have finally solved his identity after more than 70 years.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Discovery of the Body and Initial Investigation

• Timeline: December 1, 1948, Somerton Beach, Adelaide, South Australia.

• Two early-morning horse riders, Neil Day and Hori Patching, spotted a well-dressed man slumped against the seawall, initially assuming he was a drunk (06:03).

• Police arrived; the man was dead, well-groomed, dressed in multiple layers despite the heat—no wallet, ID, or hat (a rarity for the era).

• Notable Details:

  • Clothing had all identification tags removed.
  • An American-style tie and US-exclusive stitching suggested overseas origins.
  • Pockets contained only a used bus ticket, unused train ticket, and a few personal items.

"Despite how many layers he had on, the man wasn't wearing a hat, which Constable Moss thought was strange. In 1948, it was etiquette for men to wear hats [...] All men wore them outside." — Carter Roy (08:27)

2. Autopsy and Physical Evidence

• Dr. John Dwyer performed the postmortem (09:57).
• Unknowns and Oddities:
  • Age estimated at 45.
  • Grey eyes, strawberry-blonde hair, clean nails—he cared about his appearance.
  • Unusual calf muscles, possibly from dance, cycling, or heeled boots.
  • Missing nine upper and nine lower teeth—most notably the lateral incisors.
• Cause of Death: Heart failure, likely due to an undetectable poison; no trauma or typical signs of suicide/homicide.

"The damage to his stomach and liver strongly suggested he'd taken some sort of drug or poison. The problem was... tests for common poisons and drugs came back negative." — Carter Roy (12:45)

3. Police Hits a Wall—Then Finds a Suitcase

• Fingerprints and dental records yielded no matches locally or with international agencies (14:44).
• In January 1949, a suitcase was found in railway storage (16:05).
  • Contents: clothes (some marked "T. Keen" or "Keen"), sewing thread matching his suit, tools (including a stenciling brush used by sailors).
  • No direct link to the man; the name tags likely an attempt to obscure true identity.

4. The "Tamam Shud" Mystery and Coded Book

• Major Break: In June 1949, pathologist Cleland found a secret fob pocket with a tiny scrap of paper: "Tamam Shud"—Persian for "the end" (20:51).
• Later, a local chemist produced a copy of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, with "Tamam Shud" torn from the final page (22:12).
  • The book had faint writing: a phone number and a string of coded letters—possibly a cipher used by spies.
  • Police traced the phone number to Jessica Ellen Harkness (Jessica Thompson), who denied knowing the man but became visibly upset when viewing his likeness.

"The code... ended up turning this case into a global mystery." — Carter Roy (23:37)

5. Espionage Theories and Connections

• The book's code and the Somerton Man's clandestine traits fueled Cold War spy theories.
• Jessica was evasive, and her then-boyfriend/husband Prosper Thompson was involved in black market dealings.
• Robin, Jessica’s son (born before she married Prosper), had physical anomalies matching the Somerton Man; speculation arose about familial ties (27:45).

6. Modern Breakthroughs: Derek Abbott and DNA

• In 2009, electrical engineering professor Derek Abbott picked up the cold case, focusing on the connection between Somerton Man, Jessica, and her son Robin.
• Abbott noted that both Robin and the Somerton Man shared rare genetic features: ear shape and missing teeth.
  • The odds of coincidence: between 1 in 10 million and 1 in 20 million (36:55).
• DNA analysis was pursued:
  • Abbott married Robin's daughter, Rachel Egan, while attempting to establish a genetic link (she was not a match).
  • Partnered with Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick of the DNA Doe Project, they built out an extended family tree using modern genealogy techniques (39:27).

7. Identification at Last—Carl Webb

• Abbott and Fitzpatrick’s research pointed to Carl Webb, an Australian man missing from records since 1947, as the Somerton Man (41:55).
  • Family connections explain suitcase items.
  • Personal history: Carl was a troubled man—divorce records describe his affinity for poetry about death, mirroring the Rubaiyat's themes.
• Official police remain noncommittal—the forensic case is still open (45:31).

"He has written many poems, most of them on the subject of death, which he claims to be his greatest desire. The Rubaiyat is full of poems about death..." — Carter Roy quoting Dorothy Webb’s divorce petition (44:40)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On the Comfort of Unsolved Mysteries:

  "There are some things in life we may never know the answers to. It's an uncomfortable thing to realize and something that not everyone is willing to accept." — Narrator (00:42)

• On the Endurance of the Case:

  "Although we might know the Somerton man's identity, we still don’t know how he died or how Jessica knew him. But if we can take away anything from this case, it's that no matter how far gone an investigation might seem, there's always hope. Thanks to Derek Abbott, the Somerton man’s story continued, and we learned more than we ever thought possible. It just goes to show, where there's a will, there's a way." — Carter Roy (48:12)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:42 — Case Introduction & Setting the Scene
• 05:59 — Discovery of the Body
• 09:57 — Autopsy Findings
• 13:00 — Evidence and Dead Ends
• 16:05 — Suitcase Discovery
• 20:51 — "Tamam Shud" and The Rubaiyat
• 22:12 — The Book, Hidden Code, and Phone Number
• 27:45 — Jessica, Prosper, and Robin’s Theories
• 35:41 — Derek Abbott's Modern Investigation
• 41:55 — Carl Webb Identified
• 46:50 — Present Day: Official Statement and Unanswered Questions

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Final Reflections

The Somerton Man’s story weaves together classic detective work, the human urge for answers, spy-movie intrigue, and the promise of scientific breakthrough. Carter Roy’s narrative highlights the perseverance of everyday people—be they 1940s detectives or a modern professor who “married the case”—and reminds listeners that mysteries, however cold or complex, deserve to be told and re-told as long as questions remain.

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For further discussion and more episodes, follow Murder: True Crime Stories on your favorite podcast app or on Instagram @crimehouse.

Transcript

[Carter Roy]

On the Crime House Original podcast, Serial Killers and Murderous Minds, we're diving into the psychology of the world's most complex murder cases.

[Peyton]

From serial killers to cult leaders, deadly exes and spree killers, we're examining not.

[Narrator]

Just how they killed, but why.

[Carter Roy]

Is it uncontrollable rage? Overwhelming fear? Or is it something deeper? Serial Killers and Murderous Minds is a Crime House Studios original new episodes drop every Monday and Thursday Friday. Follow wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator]

This is crime house. An unclaimed suitcase, a Soviet spy, an unbreakable code, and a man without a name. There are some things in life we may never know the answers to. It's an uncomfortable thing to realize and something that not everyone is willing to accept. In 1948, a man was found dead on a beach in South Australia. At first, it seemed like an open and shut case. The police were certain someone would come forward to claim him and explain how he ended up there. But that never happened. Instead, the case went cold. Although there were plenty of clues, the authorities had no idea who the man was or how he died. At a certain point, it seemed like this was one mystery that would never be solved. But over 60 years later, someone picked up where the police left off. He was determined to solve the puzzle once and for all. And against all odds, he blew case wide open. This is the story of the Somerton Man. People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is True Crime Stories, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. New episodes come out every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Thank you for being part of the Crime House community. Please rate, review and follow the show and for early ad free access to every episode. Subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to another episode of Murder Mystery Fridays where I'm covering unsolved cases with questions that I can't get out of my head. The ones where the evidence points in multiple directions and every theory feels like a possibility. Today, I'm diving into one of Australia's most enduring mysteries. It's a case that's fascinated me ever since I heard about it. The Somerton man. In December 1948, a man was found dead on the beach in Adelaide, South Australia. He had no wallet, no id, and apparently no one was looking for him. Along the way, detectives found several clues, but they were nearly impossible to unravel. As the questions continued to mount, so did the conspiracy theories. Some people thought he was a Soviet spy or a wayward sailor. Others believed he was killed in a black market deal gone wrong. Thanks to one determined engineering professor, some of those questions were finally answered. But over 75 years later, others remain buried in the sand. All that and more coming up.

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[Narrator]

December 1, 1948 was the first day of summer in Australia. In Adelaide, the capital of the state of South Australia, hot weather was rolling in. 16 year old apprentice horse jockey Neil Day and his 35 year old friend horse Horace Hori Patching got up early that day. It would be too hot for their horses to exercise later, so they went down to the beach shortly after sunrise to ride along the shore. As they were making their way across the sand, they noticed a man wearing a brown suit slumped against the seawall with his feet pointing toward the ocean. They figured he got drunk and spent the night there. But on the way back from their ride at around 6:30am Neil and Hori saw the man was still there in the exact same position. Horry dismounted and tried to wake the guy up by lifting one of his legs. And that's when he realized this man was dead, already cold and stiff with rigor mortis. Soon another beachgoer ran home and called the police. And by 6:45am Police Constable John Moss arrived on the scene. One of the first details he noticed was that the man's clothes were dry, which meant he couldn't have washed up from the sea. Not only that, but the man was wearing a lot of clothing for how hot it was that day. He had on a singlet, the Australian term for an undershirt, a white button down shirt over that, a brown wool pullover or cardigan, and a double breasted suit coat on the bottom. He wore jockey shorts or boxers, socks and brown trousers. Despite how many layers he had on, the man wasn't wearing a hat, which Constable Moss thought was strange. In 1948, it was etiquette for men to wear hats which were only removed indoors or or when greeting a lady on the street. All men wore them outside. As for the accessories he did have, the man wore brown lace up shoes, a red, white and blue tie, and there was a handkerchief in his pocket. But none of the clothes he was wearing had any tags. In fact, both his shirt and jacket appeared to have had the tags removed. And there was also something odd about the tie. The stripes were higher on the right hand side, which was how ties in the United States were made back then. The stripes on Australian ties usually went the other way. And the type of stitching on his coat was exclusively used in the US at the time. That meant it had come from America. But how did this man get his hands on it? Those details were interesting, but they still didn't explain who he. Constable Moss checked his pockets for any sign of his identity, but the man didn't have a wallet or any money on him. Still, there were a few other notable items, including a used bus ticket to Glenelg, just about two miles from the beach. Constable Moss wondered if he'd gotten off the train there recently. But there was also an unused train ticket to Henley beach, about eight miles away. It seemed like the man had plans to continue his travels before he died. Unfortunately, none of this pointed to his true identity. Still, the police didn't seem too worried about that just yet. They figured it was just a matter of time until family and friends came looking for him. Until then, the authorities needed to learn more about the man and how he Died. The man had no wounds, signs of trauma or blood on him when he was found, so performing an autopsy was the only way the authorities could find out what actually happened. The day after the body was discovered, on December 2, a pathologist named Dr. John Dwyer performed a postmortem exam. He estimated the man had been dead for about seven and a half hours by the time the jockey found him. Dr. Dwyer also guessed he was around 45 years old. He was 5ft 11, with gray eyes, strawberry blonde hair that was starting to gray, and an overall healthy physique. He had unusually large, tight calf muscles, like someone might get if they wore high heels frequently. This made people wonder if he worked on a cattle ranch wearing heeled cowboy boots. However, ballet dancing or riding a bike long distances could also explain it. Whoever he was, he seemed to care about his appearance. He was well groomed and had just trimmed his nails before he died. One of the Most important details Dr. Dwyer noticed was that the man was missing nine upper and nine lower teeth, mostly in the back of his mouth. Two of those were his lateral incisors, which go between the front teeth and the canines. But there wasn't an obvious gap in his mouth, which made Dr. Dwyer think he probably didn't lose those teeth. Chances were he never had them at all. That was a huge discovery. Just about 2% of people are born missing certain teeth. Because dental records are essential in identifying John and Jane does, this unique detail could help set the man apart. But that wasn't the only thing they learned from the autopsy. Dr. Dwyer noticed there was some unexplained blood in the man's stomach, along with the food that had been eaten about three to four hours before he died. His liver showed signs of damage, and several other organs, including his brain, were also reportedly swollen. But his heart appeared totally healthy and normal. Despite all that, Dr. Dwyer determined the immediate cause of death as heart failure. But he made it clear that he didn't think the man's heart failed naturally. There was no sign of underlying heart disease or a heart attack. Instead, the damage to his stomach and liver strongly suggested he'd taken some sort of drug or poison. The problem was tissue samples taken from the body. All tested negative for common poisons and drugs. Dr. Dwyer also noted that most poisons that lead to bleeding in the stomach would also cause violent vomiting. But the man hadn't vomited up his last meal. So either a fit, apparently healthy, middle aged man had died of an underlying condition that didn't appear to be at a terminal stage or or this was a homicide or a suicide using an undetectable rare poison. Dr. Dwyer's theory was certainly compelling, but it was almost impossible to prove. It also didn't help identify the victim, who quickly became known as the Somerton man in the media because he'd been found on Somerton beach that same day on December 2nd. They photographed and fingerprinted the body, and they embalmed him with formaldehyde so he wouldn't decompose further before an identification was made. However, there weren't any matches for the fingerprints in Adelaide or anywhere else. Local police even sent them to the FBI in Scotland Yard, but no good results turned up. And despite the promising lead on the dental records, those didn't return any matches either. Meanwhile, the photos were widely distributed in the hopes that somebody might recognize the victim. Through the rest of December and into January 1949, a few people did come forward. They thought they recognized the photos or knew of a missing person fitting the victim's description. However, all of those possible identifications ended up being ruled out by one mismatched trait or another. For example, police ruled out a missing man who is a woodcutter because there was no calluses on the submarton man's hands, which meant he couldn't have done hard manual labor. Investigators also spent time sending the fingerprints out to more law enforcement agencies and searching the area for the man's missing possessions, like his hat and wallet. Still, none of that led them any closer to getting answers. Until finally, on January 14, 1949, six weeks after the body was found, they learned something new. Like I mentioned earlier, there was a used bus ticket and unused train ticket in the victim's pocket. Because of that, the police went to the Adelaide Railway station to check for evidence. At the time, all train stations offered luggage storage. Sure enough, there was a suitcase in the cloakroom that had been dropped off on November 30, the day before he died, between 11am and noon. And it was still there. As soon as the police opened it, they felt sure it belonged to their victim. They it contained a card of brownish orange thread for mending clothes, which matched recent repairs on the Somerton man's clothing and the clothes inside would have fit him. Some of the underwear was the exact same size and style the Somerton man was found in. Unfortunately, the most important missing item, his wallet, which presumably contained his id, wasn't in the suitcase. However, there were three items with a possible name on them. A tie was marked T Keen, and the singlet and laundry bag were both marked Keen Though one had an E at the end and the other didn't. However, there were no missing canes that seemed to match the Somerton man's description, so police believe those items were either bought second hand or or deliberately mislabeled to help disguise the man's identity. Besides the clothing, the suitcase also contained some envelopes and airmail stickers used for writing letters to people overseas. This suggested the Somerton man was in touch with someone abroad. But maybe the most interesting thing they got from the suitcase was a hint about what the victim did for work. He had several tools, like a screwdriver, two pairs of scissors, a sheathed knife, a length of cord, pencils, and something called a stenciling brush. At the time, stenciling brushes were often used by sailors for stenciling important markings onto cargo crates. If the Somerton man worked at sea, that would fit with the idea that he traveled the world collecting clothing and mailing letters. On the other hand, none of the clothing in the suitcase matched what a sailor would wear during a voyage. After the suitcase was found, things settled back into a frustrating holding pattern. Over the next five months, from January to June of 1949, people kept coming forward with tips on the Somerton man's identity, but nothing stuck. Meanwhile, the Somerton man remained in the morgue, embalmed and refrigerated. The theory was that he most likely wasn't from South Australia and his family would probably want him buried closer to home. And while police still had his body, they figured they'd try a few more tactics to identify him. On June 7, just over six months after the Somerton man died, a plaster cast was made of his head and shoulders. Around this same time, the authorities also made one final Hail Mary. They called in Sir John Burton Cleland, a famous Australian scientist and pathologist. Cleland mostly agreed with the original autopsy's conclusions. He also felt like the most likely cause of death was suicide by undetectable poison. Although he was unable to find proof, though, he did find one new, very important detail. It would go on to define the case and mystify the world for decades to come.

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[Narrator]

In June 1949, a little more than six months after the Somerton man was found, renowned pathologist Sir John Burton Cleland took a look at the body. What he found changed everything. While he was examining the Somerton Man's clothing, Cleland found a tiny fob pocket that the original medical examiner had missed. The fob pocket is that useless little pocket some jeans still have that you could maybe fit a quarter into. But the Somerton Man's fob pocket wasn't in the usual place near the top of a larger pocket. It was sewn just to the right of his fly and incredibly well hidden. Cleland noticed it though, and it had something in a tiny piece of folded paper. It had been torn out of a book. There were just two words printed on it. Tamam Shud. It's Persian and roughly translates to the end or finished. And it wasn't too hard to figure out where this piece of paper came from. One of the most popular books at the time was the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. It's a long Persian poem that was translated into English by Edward Fitzgerald. The book first came out in 1859 and was an instant hit throughout the English speaking world. The Rubaiyat's message is all about living in the moment and the importance of love, so people turn to it for inspiration and guidance during hard times. By 1948, almost everyone in Australia had read it, so the book itself didn't really help identify the Somerton man, but finding his specific copy might. However, there were no books in his suitcase at the train station the hunt for the copy was on. But first the police had to deal with the body itself. On June 14, six and a half months after he died, the authorities finally decided it was time to lay the Somerton man to rest. It seemed clear that no one was coming to claim him. He was buried at the West Terrace Cemetery in Adelaide. Because the case was so high profile, the ceremony was kept secret. Only a handful of people connected to the case attended the short service. His grave was initially marked with a simple wooden cross saying unknown Somerton Body. Later it was replaced by a tombstone reading here lies the unknown man who was found at Somerton Beach, 1st December 1948. With the body buried, it was time to continue the search for the Somerton man's order. Rubaiyat1 with the words Tamam should torn out. After a search of local libraries failed to find anything, police publicly announced they were looking for copies. The next day, July 23, 1949, a local chemist walked into the police station carrying a copy of the Rubaiyat with the words Tamam should torn out. It perfectly matched the scrap the Somerton man had. The chemist had a pretty strange story about how he got the book. On November 30, 1948, he was parked near Somerton beach when someone threw it into the open window of his car. Well, that would have been the day before the Somerton man died. And the place the chemist parked was walking distance from where the body was found. The chemist didn't see someone throw it into his car, but later he saw his brother in law reading the book. He asked where he got it and his brother in law said he assumed it was the chemist's. He'd found it in his vehicle earlier that day. The chemist didn't think much of it and the book ended up in the glove box for safekeeping. That's where it stayed until the chemist saw a newspaper headline saying the police were looking for a copy of the Rubaiyat. But when he handed it over to investigators, they found it contained some other critical clues. There was some faint writing on the last page. The same page where Tamom should, meaning the end had been torn out. It couldn't be read clearly with the naked eye, but under ultraviolet light, police were able to make out two things. A local phone number and a series of random letters with a second line crossed out. This puzzling clue ended up turning this case into a global mystery. It also sparked a popular theory that the Somerton man was actually an international spy. That's because some people think the code was A substitution cipher. Substitution ciphers are codes where one letter gets substituted for another. These ciphers were commonly used to pass messages between spies in World War II and the Cold War. The problem is you can't break the code without having the key. In the case of the Somerton man, the key seemed to be his exact edition of the Rubaiyat, making this what's called a book cipher or a one time pad. And it's incredibly complicated, but simply put, each letter in the code corresponds to a letter in the book. The person receiving the message follows a bunch of steps to figure out the corresponding letter. So Q A or B Y. But both parties need to have the exact same edition of the Rubaiyat to figure it out. All to say if the Somerton man was using the book for his key, he might have been a current or former spy, maybe from Russia as part of the Cold War. This would make sense considering some of the other evidence too. He didn't have an id, his dental records didn't match any of those in Australia, and his most likely cause of death was an undetectable poison. But the only way to figure it out was to crack the code. On July 27, 1949, four days after receiving the book, the police sent the code to an Australian Navy code breaker, hoping he could tell them what it said. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to crack it. And neither has anyone else in the 77 years since. And we probably never will. Somehow the police lost or destroyed that space specific copy of the Rubaiyat. And despite an extensive search, modern investigators have never found an identical copy to try and run the code against. Luckily though, that code wasn't the only thing the police got from the scrap of paper. They also had the Adelaide phone number. On July 27, 1949, four days after police got the Rubaiyat, they traced the phone number to a 27 year old nursing student living nearby named Jessica Ellen Harkness. When the police paid her a visit, Jessyca admitted that she was familiar with the Rubaiyat. She had even given a copy of the book to a friend named Alf Boxall. But Jessica was certain it wasn't the Somerton man's copy. She'd handwritten a transcription of one of the poems in the copy she gave Alfred. And there was no handwritten message in the Somerton man's Rubaiyat. Still, Jessica agreed to view the plaster cast of the Somerton man in person that same day in hopes of finally identifying him. As soon as she saw it, she became visibly upset. In fact, she looked like she might faint. Everyone in the room was sure Jessyca recognized him and their case was solved. But when she pulled herself together, Jessica flatly denied recognizing the face in the plaster cast. She stuck to that story for the rest of her life and refused to speak to the police about the case ever again. But the authorities weren't giving up that easily. They wondered why she refused to identify a person she seemed to know. They thought maybe the Somerton man was actually Jessica's friend Alf Boxhall, and she was afraid to be connected with a possible murder. But the next day, July 27, detectives found Alf Boxhall alive and well at his home. When he was asked about the Somerton man, he said he knew nothing about him. A day after that, Alf's wife gave police his copy of the Rubaiyat with Jessica's handwritten inscription. Unfortunately, that was the last serious lead the original investigators ever got. But the story was far from over. In the years since, people have fixated on Jessica and why she reacted the way she did. Some thought it had to do with her love life. Reportedly, her boyfriend at the time, who later became her husband, was a shady guy named Prosper Thompson. He was widely rumored to be selling black market goods through classified ads. Some people think the Somerton man got into some kind of conflict with Prosper, and Jessica believed Prosper killed him. But there was another, more personal theory. Jessica and Prosper had a baby boy named Robin who was born in July 1947. He was just turning 2 when police tracked Jessica down. But eventually, Jessica admitted to a friend that she met Prosper when she was already pregnant. This whole story only got pieced together after both Jessica and her son Robin had passed away. But this is the most likely version of how it happened. In October 1946, 24 year old Jessica left nursing school, perhaps because she was pregnant. Shortly after that, she met a handsome but married 34 year old salesman named Prosper Thompson. Without even divorcing his wife, Prosper and Jessica ran off to Adelaide together in early 1947. That July, Prosper put his name on baby Robin's birth certificate, despite knowing he couldn't be the father. By July 1949, when the police came knocking on Jessica's door, Prosper was in the process of getting divorced so he could finally marry Jessyca. Which brings us to the reason Jessica might have refused to identify the Somerton man. Maybe he was Robin's biological father. Or at least Jessica thought he was. If so, getting involved with the case might expose the secret she was trying to Run away from. So the theory goes, she decided to never say a word to anybody about the Somerton man again. And if that was her plan, it worked. Jessica and Prosper got married the next year, in 1950. In the early 1950s, they gave Robin a little, little sister, Kate. Jessica eventually returned to the medical field, working in a mental health facility. Robin apparently lived his whole life without ever being questioned about the Somerton man case and never knowing the truth about his father. Even so, Robin still provided some key evidence. After decades without any answers, the Somerton Mann case was ice cream cold. But the mystery was still alive and well, especially in Australia. And in 2009, a local Adelaide man decided to try to solve it once and for all. Derek Abbott was a professor at the University of Adelaide. Interestingly, he didn't teach criminology or forensics. He actually taught electrical engineering. That year, he happened to see a story about the Somerton man in a magazine. He thought the unbreakable code would be a fun project for his electrical engineering students. He didn't mean to get obsessed with the case, but that's what happened. Professor Abbott became determined to identify the Somerton man himself. And he believed Jessica was the key to the whole thing. He started digging into her story, and what he found blew the whole, whole case wide open.

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[Narrator]

In 2009, 61 years after the Summerton man was found dead in South Australia, a local engineering professor named Derek Abbott picked up where the investigation left off. He thought the key to identifying the Somerton man was a woman named Jessica Thompson. More specifically, her son, Robin Thompson, who some people believed might have actually been the Somerton Man's child. By the time Professor Abbott started looking into Robin, he'd already passed away. But there were still plenty of clues that seemed to connect him to the Somerton Man. It turned out Robin had a long career as a professional ballet dancer. And remember, the Somerton man had unusually strong calves and was believed to be either a dancer, a bicyclist, or someone who wore high heeled shoes at work. But more importantly, Robin's dance career meant there were lots of of photos taken of him. When Professor Abbott got his hands on some of those photos, he noticed two things. First, Robin's ears had the same unique shape as the Somerton Man's, where the upper hollow of the ear is larger than the lower hollow. Only about 2% of white people share this trait. But Robin's smile was even more unusual. Usual he was missing his lateral incisors, two of the 18 teeth the Somerton man was missing. Professor Abbott believed the Somerton man was probably born without those teeth, based on testimony from the pathologist. And he thought Robin may have had the same exact genetic abnormality. Professor Abbott calculated the probability of this being a coincidence as somewhere between 1 in 10 million and 1 in 20 million. But to prove Robin was the son of the Somerton man, he's going to need more than math. The only way to know for sure was to compare the Somerton Man's DNA with a sample from Robin. But doing that meant exhuming the Somerton Man's body. Professor Abbott decided to start with the easier side of the two tasks. Getting a sample from one of Robin's living relatives. So he got in touch with Robin's daughter, Rachel Egan. When Professor Abbott reached out in 2010, Rachel was willing to meet up and discuss a DNA sample. Except they both got more than they bargained for. Professor Abbott and Rachel fell so head over heels for each other, they got engaged the day after their first meeting. They're still married today and now have three children together. Though the family still jokes that Professor Abbott married Rachel for her DNA. Professor Abbott didn't stop there, though. If DNA from one of Robin's family members was good, DNA from 2 would be even better. So Professor Abbott reached out to Robin's sister, Kate Thompson, who was still alive. Not only was Kate willing to help, she had some bombshell theories of her own. Kate said she believed her mother, Jessica, was a Soviet spy and may have even killed the Somerton Man. Herself. According to Kate, she'd asked her mother directly about the Somerton man's identity. Jessica replied that she knew who he was, but it was information reserved for people at a level higher than the local police. Kate also said Jessica spoke Russian and wouldn't disclose where she learned it. This was more than enough for Professor Abbott to believe he was on the right track. As Professor Abbott became well known for his work on the Somerton man case, he got access to some of the original evidence, including the plaster cast of the man's head and torso. It turned out there were lots of hairs from the man's face and chest trapped in the plaster. In 2012 and 2018, the University of Adelaide helped extract DNA from the hairs, but they didn't get much new information. All they were able to confirm was that the man's mother had European ancestry. But Professor Abbott still had some hairs left to test. He'd read about new technology that allowed nuclear DNA to be recovered from hair, which could give a much more specific profile of the person. He hired a California company to do the job, and using state of the art methods, they recovered 2 million unique DNA markers. That was way more than the previous tests had extracted. It was fantastic news. But there was a big twist. The first person Professor Abbott wanted the new DNA compared to was of course, his wife, Rachel, Robin's daughter. And based on those tests, they were definitely not a match. It wasn't what anyone expected, but Professor Abbott wasn't giving up just yet. Eventually, he teamed up with Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick, who co founded the DNA Doe project and led the first team to ever solve a cold case using genetic genealogy. Using the consumer DNA database Gedmatch, she and Abbott built out a profile of 4,000 potential relatives. Then they began the painstaking process of eliminating matches one by one, which took months. In this case, anybody who had a confirmed date of death could be dropped from the list. Because the Somerton man was bur as a John Doe. And given the age range they were looking for, most of the potential matches did have death certificates. But one didn't. An Australian man named Carl Webb. He disappeared from official records after 1947 and never had a documented death. To get a more definitive match, though, Professor Abbott and Dr. Fitzpatrick needed DNA from one of Carl's living relatives. Using the same process, they found a home heating system salesman in Victoria, Australia. He agreed to provide a sample which confirmed he was the Somerton man's first cousin. Three times removed. That's exactly the relationship between Carl Webb and the salesman, too. And there was another exciting detail. Carl had a brother in law named Gerald Thomas Keene. So the items in the Somerton man suitcase marked Keene might have been hand me downs from Gerald. On July 26, 2022, exactly 73 years after Jessica's strange interview with the police, Professor Abbott and Dr. Fitzpatrick formally announced their findings. As far as they were concerned, the mystery of the Somerton man's identity was solved. The Somerton man was Carl Webb. However, Carl's life was just as mysterious as his death and the details are slim. But here's what we know. He was born in 1905 in Victoria, Australia, the youngest of six six siblings. His father was a German Australian baker, Richard August Webb. And according to family photo albums, Carl played soccer for the Swinburne Technical College's under 16 team in Melbourne. He must have also picked up some technical skills there because after the family bakery closed down, he worked as an electrical instrument maker. That occupation fits with the electrician's screwdriver in the Somerton man suitcase. In 1941, 35 year old Carl married a 21 year old pharmacist and podiatrist named Dorothy Jean Robertson. Unfortunately, the only other details we know about Carl come from Dorothy's divorce petition filed on June 29, 1951. Dorothy was apparently unaware that Carl had been dead for two and a half years by this time because her petition accuses him of desertion. It also says Carl was moody and mean from the very start of their marriage. He expected Dorothy to work and hand over her paycheck to him. On top of doing all the housework and taking care of Carl's sick mother, most of the money went towards his habit of betting on horse races. When Dorothy became ill herself, Carl was angry with her for spending money on medical care. And things only got worse from there. By 1946, Dorothy said Carl was both verbally and physically abusive to the point of threatening her life. In March 1946, he attempted to die by suicide. Dorothy found him and nursed him back to health, at which point his violence escalated even further. On September 13, 1946, Dorothy escaped from their home in Victoria with the help of her father. She had to leave nearly all her money and possessions behind. But there was one particular line in the divorce petition that seems like the key to the whole mystery. She wrote, quote, he has written many poems, most of them on the subject of death, which he claims to be his greatest desire. The Rubaiyat is full of poems about death. And if Carl tended to write his own poetry, well, that dovetails perfectly with another theory that says the secret code actually represented a poem. Dorothy lost track of Carl in April 1947, about 20 months before the Somerton man died. After leaving, Dorothy settled in Bute, south Australia, about 90 miles from Adelaide. Professor Abbott believed that might have been why Carl ended his life in Adelaide. More than two years after Dorothy left him. He came looking for her, then died on the beach. But that's still not the end of the story. In 2021, Australian authorities exhumed the Somerton man's body. A team including an anthropologist, a pathologist, and multiple DNA specialists extracted as much usable DNA as possible from the remains, but they never shared those samples with Professor Abbott. In 2022, the South Australia police made a short statement confirming that they knew about Professor Abbott's announcement, but they didn't comment on whether they agreed with his findings. And the only other thing they said was that the forensic investigation is still active. Since then, they haven't said anything at all. It's hard to believe that all these years later, we still have so many questions. Although we might know the Somerton man's identity, we still don't know how he died or how Jessica knew him. But if we can take away anything from this case, it's that no matter how far gone an investigation might seem, there's always hope. Thanks to Derek Abbott, the Somerton man's story continued and we learn more than we ever thought possible. It just goes to show, where there's a will, there's a way. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy and this is True Crime Stories. Come back next time for the story of another murder and all the people it affected. True Crime Stories is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference and to enhance your Murder True Crime Stories listening experience. Subscribe subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode early and ad free. We'll be back on Tuesday. True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy and is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benidon, Natalie Pertzovsky, Lori Marinelli, Yelena War, Sarah Camp and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening.

[Carter Roy]

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