It has to be said, nobody but nobody could have been as incompetent as Detective Sergeant Leane of the South AustralianPolice. In May 2009, Abbott consulted with dental experts who concluded that the Somerton Man had hypodontia (a rare genetic disorder) of both lateral incisors, a feature present in only 2% of the general population. Remains of mystery Somerton man exhumed 70 years after his death. The 11.15 would be the next bus. Sixty-three years later, the . The Somerton Man was thought to have fathered a child with a nurse called Jo Jestyn Thomson, Rachel Egan's grandmother. Police believed that whoever removed the clothing tags either overlooked these three items or purposely left the "Keane" tags on the clothes, knowing Keane was not the dead man's name. When passers-by discovered the man's body on December 1, 1948, he was dressed in a brown . How the Somerton Man investigation could have been done in oneday. It's an enduring mystery here in South Australia. I won't speculate on how this man died, but there may also be potential to establish a definitive cause of death. The revelations appear to close the file on the Somerton man mystery, but the apparent confirmation of Webb's name raises many more questions about who he was, and importantly how he died. Australia's most enduring mysteries - the identity of the "Somerton Man" - is finally solved. 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. In December 2017, Abbott announced three "excellent" hairs "at the right development stage for extracting DNA" had been found on the plaster cast of the corpse, and had been submitted for analysis to the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide. Although the teeth would provide the best source of DNA, so far it has not been possible to exhume the body, since this involves fulfilling various legal requirements from the Attorney General of South Australia. Abbott believes the Somerton Man's son is Robin Thomson, an American, who went on to perform with the Australian Ballet and Royal New Zealand Ballet before he died in 2009. (8) His liver contained a great excess of blood. well developed calf muscles-horse riding? "Ideally, we'd like to identify a source of good quality DNA and then generate a DNA profile from it. June 1949: Inquest into the man's mysterious death is launched. This is another bit of information that could prove useful in the future, suggesting that investigators might check for heart disease in his relatives, should candidates one day be found. Unusually, there were no spare socks. DNA is basically a waiting game,Abbott said. The final DNA twist in the Somerton Man case comes from Abbott himself. "Once his DNA is on a genealogical database, even if there are insufficient matches to triangulate his family tree today, it is a matter of waiting one, two or a few more years as the numbers are rapidly growing and providing more connections. This site uses cookies to assist with navigation, analyse your use of our services, collect data for ads personalisation and provide content from third parties. Police are called. They believed he had showered and shaved at the adjacent City Baths (there was no Baths ticket on his body) before returning to the train station to purchase a ticket for the 10.50 am train to Henley Beach, which, for whatever reason, he missed. FamilyNamed. He disappeared and she appeared in court, saying that he had disappeared and she wanted to divorce. ByronDeveson. People think this missing evidence is further proof that our unknown man was a Cold War spy. Gwen Shamblin's diet program of praying the fat away somehow appealed to enough people that she could afford a private plane- unfortunately for her.. (LogOut/ Patients hospitalized for worsening heart failure have high mortality in hospital and within the months following discharge. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy As a result, blood cells may break and leak blood into the brain tissues, forminga hemorrhage. They reveal he liked betting on horses, which may explain the "code" found in the book, as the letters could correspond to horses' names. I guess its all over and done with now,right? 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. "In anything like this, you can only be 99.999% sure that it's right. Walford Cross fire. 18 Proof the code is an acrostic depends on whose edition of Omar Khayyhams quatrains you are lookingat. Preliminary results show that the Somerton Man had higher-than-normal levels of arsenic, lead, and strontium-88 in his system. Did the Professor pick the wrongCharlie? You will read the results and there differences apparent between these results and those from the Somerton Man's . The body was then embalmed on December 10, 1948, after the police were unable to get a positive identification. This prevents blood from draining out of the brain. According to the pathologist, John Burton Cleland, the time of death was estimated at around 2 am, on December 1, 1948. . To part quote Derek Abbott Theres two things that bugme.. 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). Thomson also said that whilst she was working at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney during World War II, she had owned a copy of the Rubaiyat. Reddit thread discussion with Prof. Abbott on the Somerton Man case, Crowdsourcing campaign for research funds, to go toward more sophisticated DNA tests and to pay research assistants to process DNA and isotope data. (A recent study of living heirs of French royalty identified the genes of the kings of Versailles, for example, as well as calling into question a purported head of King Louis XVI.). The coroners inquest report indicates the Somerton Man had the same relatively rare condition. In the end, his DNA will bring closure to candidate descendants who want to know if they are related or not.". Harking back to the Coroners speculation, in that if it was found that TSM didnt die where he was found and had been carried to the beach, cue Detective ODohertys credible witness, then everything would need reconsidering, which would include his alleged 30th November arrival in Adelaide etc etc so, perhaps he was in town and unwell for quite some time before dying. Back in 1949, investigators tracked down the owner of a phone number written in the back of the Somerton Man's copy of The Rubiyt of Omar Khayym, which brought them to a woman that investigators dubbed "Jestyn," who lived just a block from where the Somerton Man was found. In 1947, while unmarried, she had given birth to a son named Robin. Updated. On December 1, 1948, a man was found dead on Somerton Beach in Adelaide, Australia. 2.36pm Monday 24th April 2023. If the book was found one or two weeks before, it suggests that the man had visited previously or had been in Adelaide for a longer period. March 26, 2022; The Somerton Man's suitcase and its forgotten fingerprints March 22, 2022; The Somerton Man Case .. an uncommon timeline. Kate Thomson opposed the exhumation as being disrespectful to her brother, In October 2019, the South Australian Attorney-General, Vickie Chapman, signed off for the Somerton mans body to be exhumed by the University of Adelaide Professor Derek Abbott. In an interview many years later, Paul Lawson, the technician who made the cast and was present when Thomson viewed it, said that after looking at the bust she immediately looked away and would not look at it again. Although poisoning remained a prime suspect, the pasty was not believed to be the source of the poison. In 2011, an Adelaide woman contacted a biological anthropologist and professor of anatomy at the University of Adelaide Maciej Henneberg about an identification card of an H. C. Reynolds that she had found in her father's possessions. The railway station bathing facilities were next to the station cloakroom, which itself was adjacent to the station's southern exit onto North Terrace. An entire course of these antibiotics usually lasts 7 to 10 days., https://www.healthline.com/health/pharyngitis#treatment, There are many possible causes of indigestion. (Number 9) .. which indicates he suffered from a cerebral haemorrhage. In 1945, at the Clifton Gardens Hotel in Sydney, she had given it to an army lieutenant named Alf Boxall, who was serving at the time in the Water Transport Section of the Royal Australian Engineers. Sleuths amateur and professional alike have been puzzled for years by the discovery in 1948 of an unidentified man's . By November 1953, police announced they had recently received the 251st "solution" to the identity of the body from members of the public who claimed to have met or known him. According to the coroner's report, Somerton Man was born sometime around 1905. A stroke can damage the brain and central nervous system. His hands and nails showed no signs of manual labor, with pronounced high calf muscles consistent with people who regularly wore boots or shoes with high heels or performed ballet. The postmortem showed no lesions likely to cause natural death such as coronary disease or cerebral hemorrhage. While riding on the beach, he found the dead body of a man around 6:30 am. Now, get this: In June 1945 three years before the death of the Somerton Man a 34-year-old Singaporean named George Marshall was found dead in Ashton Park, in Sydney, with an open copy of the Rubaiyat on his chest. Chapman has had an interest in the case since studying it in law school and she said, It's a case of intrigue and mystery and so it's been on my agenda for over 40 years now. Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) occurs when a blood clot forms in the brains venous sinuses. His pockets contained nothing . With the original autopsy report lost, and the government unwilling to exhume the body, Abbott was still able to analyze photos of the dead man, and discovered two strange things. (Right) A photograph of Robins teeth showing a bilateral absence of lateral incisors. The Somerton Man's autopsy photos. Some inconsistencies with regard to the Somerton Mans personaleffects. Abbotts research was undertaken with American genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick, founder of Identifinders International, a genealogical research agency involved in some of America's most high-profile cold cases. An unidentified man found dead on an Australian beach has baffled investigators for decades. "This is not conclusive and the mystery is by no means solved," Abbott said. This article has been reviewed according to ScienceX's editorial process One hypothesis is that he came from Sydney and looked for Jestyn in Melbourne, before traveling to Adelaide. They found that he and his mother belonged to haplogroup H4a1a1a, which is possessed by only 1% of Europeans. He was wearing a suit, and in his pockets were a pack of cigarettes, a box of matches, a . There are so many weird twists and turns in this case so many unlikely things keep happening. Somerton Man's body to be exhumed in South Australia more than 70 years after he was found on a beach. Thomson denied ever knowing the Somerton Man. And I'm quite happy to give my approval, provided the costs are met by those who apply.. Parallax Error. To exhume a body in South Australia, it needs the Attorney-General's approval for obvious reasons. The Somerton Man Survey .. Who is theHighest? Mystery of the Somerton Man; Royalty, Military and Women Royalty, Military and Women Menu. The second line has been struck out, the fact that is considered significant, due to its similarities to the fourth line and the possibility that it represents an error in encryption. He was of white, European appearance and thought to be aged about 4045 years. 7:00 AM. It turns out that the Somerton Man had unusual ears in that his upper ear hollow (the cymba) was much larger than his lower ear hollow (the cavum). (9) He had congestion in the blood vessels of the brain. Strange things can happen. Lumps of potato in the stomach contents suggested death before digestion was complete. Robin Thomson was also a dancer in the Australian Ballet, blessed with strong calves. Despite these findings, he could not determine the cause of death of the Somerton Man. . We will never know unless we try. His pockets held chewing gum, combs, and unused bus and train tickets. Cleland remarked that if the body had been carried to its final resting place then "all the difficulties would disappear". A bloodhounds trail, or follow themoney. Gordon Cramer and The Redlegged GeorgeWebb. (The project has so far been done without external funding. Among her father's old possessions, she found the ID card of a man identified as Reynolds who served in World War I and bore a striking similarity to the Somerton Man, albeit 30 years younger. 30 The Somerton Mans missing teeth: why theymatter. The body was lying by the sea wall about across from the Crippled Children's Home, which was on the corner of The Esplanade and Bickford Terrace. There has been persistent speculation that the dead man was a spy, due to the circumstances and historical context of his death. The public wants to know who this man was. Other key evidence no longer exists, such as the brown suitcase, which was destroyed in 1986. "Whilst we may never find the complete truth surrounding the circumstances of his death, I am confident we can find his family group," Abbott said. There is also an "X" above the last O in the code, and it is not known if this is significant to the code or not. Fitzpatrick and Abbott said Robertson filed for divorce in Melbourne, but 1951 documents revealed she had moved to Bute, South Australia, 144 kilometers (89 miles) northeast of Adelaide, establishing a link to the neighboring state, where the body was found. He immediately checked his suitcase at the station cloakroom before leaving the station and catching a city bus to Glenelg. Fitzpatrick compared DNA from Rachel and her mother to identify which portions of her genome came from her father. The man had no further information, but the book supplied yet more baffling clues. Is this when he travelled, so he drank different water and ate vegetables from a different region? (Supplied) The suitcase. I would like to subscribe to Science X Newsletter. On November 30th, 1948, John Lyons was strolling along Somerton beach, south of Adelaide, Australia, around 7 pm. When the body of a well-dressed man was found on Adelaide's Somerton Beach in 1948, police assumed that somebody would soon come forward to identify him. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Tech Xplore in any form. Feltus also stated that her family did not know of her connection with the case, and he agreed not to disclose her identity or anything that might reveal it. 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. SA Police would work with Forensic Science SA scientific staff and the Adelaide Cemeteries Authority to carry out the exhumation and reinterment of the man's body. The ID card, numbered 58757, was issued in the United States on 28 February 1918 to H.C. Reynolds, giving his nationality as "British" and age as 18. Robin Thomson's widow, Roma Egan, and their daughter Rachel Egan, also appeared on 60 Minutes suggesting that the Somerton Man was Robin Thomson's father and, therefore, Rachel's grandfather. The remains of the man were exhumed in May 2021 for DNA analysis and then finally, in July 2022, the mystery of the Somerton Mans identity was claimed to have been solved. Electroconvulsive therapy, frontal lobe lobotomy, brain scrambling and the mysterious death of CarlWebb, Lawson sat in a darkened room creating the bust while his every move was being watched by a detective who was guarding thedoor.. 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. In February 2018, the University of Adelaide team obtained a high-definition analysis of the mitochondrial DNA from the hair sample from Somerton Man. The identification of the Somerton Man will ultimately be determined by thecoroner., My concern is that we may never be able to categorically say that we know this persons identity.. Cowan, Hicks andCleland. (1) He hada massively oversized and congested spleen. Dead, and in a jacket and tie. A man was found dead, in 1948, on a beach in Australia. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. To be more sure about that would require exhumation of his corpse and either genetic testing of any intact tissue or chemical analysis of dental enamel, which can reveal where someone lived when their teeth formed. If Rachel is the granddaughter of the Somerton Man, then she inherited about 25% of his DNA. All figures credited to Derek Abbott, University of Adelaide. An autopsy found an enlarged spleen and a liver in poor condition but could . 1947 Prosper Thomsons want ads and the possible uses of Carl Webbstools. technology (Tech Xplore) and medical research (Medical Xpress), However, she also reported that, at some time in late 1948, an unidentified man had attempted to visit her and asked a next-door neighbor about her. Both kidneys were congested, the liver contained excess blood and the spleen was about three times its normal size. Parallax Error. He appeared to be drunk . The Thomson family bloodline courtesy of ByronDeveson. The South Australian Grandstand Bookmakers Association paid for the service to save the man from a pauper's burial.
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