The Somerton Man | |
|---|---|
 Police photo of the corpse, 1948 | |
| Born | c. 1905 |
| Status | Possibly identified in 2022 |
| Died | 1 December 1948 (aged 42–43) |
| Burial place | West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide, South Australia Gravesite: P3, 12, 106 |
| Other names | Carl "Charles" Webb (unconfirmed) |
| Known for | Mysterious death and unknown identity |
The Somerton Man was an unidentified man whose body was found on 1 December 1948 on the beach at Somerton Park, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. The case is also known after the Persian phrase tamám shud (تمام شد),[note 1] meaning "It is over" or "It is finished", which was printed on a scrap of paper found months later in the fob pocket of the man's trousers. The scrap had been torn from the final page of a copy of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám, authored by 12th-century poet Omar Khayyám.
Following a public appeal by police, the book from which the page had been torn was located. On the inside back cover, detectives read through indentations left from previous handwriting: a local telephone number, another unidentified number, and text that resembled a coded message. The text has not been deciphered or interpreted in a way that satisfies authorities on the case.
Since the early stages of the police investigation, the case has been considered "one of Australia's most profound mysteries".[2] There has been intense speculation ever since regarding the identity of the victim, the cause of his death, and the events leading up to it. Public interest in the case remains significant for several reasons: the death occurred at a time of heightened international tensions following the beginning of the Cold War; the apparent involvement of a secret code; the possible use of an undetectable poison; and the inability or unwillingness of authorities to identify the dead man.
On 26 July 2022, University of Adelaide professor Derek Abbott, in association with genealogist Colleen M. Fitzpatrick, concluded the man was Carl "Charles" Webb, an electrical engineer and instrument maker born in 1905, based on genetic genealogy from DNA of the man's hair.[3][4] South Australia Police and Forensic Science South Australia did not verify the result, although they were hopeful of being able to do so.[5]
- ^ Abbott, Derek. "List of facts on the Taman Shud Case that are often misreported". Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- ^ The Advertiser, "Tamam Shud" Archived 22 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine, 10 June 1949, p. 2
- ^ Keane, Daniel; Marchant, Gabriella (26 July 2022). "Somerton Man identified as Melbourne electrical engineer, researcher says". ABC News. Archived from the original on 26 July 2022. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
- ^ Yim, Noah (27 July 2022). "Seven-decade mystery of Somerton Man solved". The Australian. Archived from the original on 26 July 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
- ^ "Statement regarding Somerton Man". South Australian Police. 27 July 2022. Archived from the original on 27 July 2022.
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