On the morning of 1 December 1948, a body was found on Somerton Beach, just outside Adelaide. The man was propped against a seawall, legs outstretched, feet neatly crossed, dressed in a suit and polished shoes. At first glance, he could have been resting but as police quickly realised, he wasn’t asleep. He was dead.
The discovery would become one of Australia’s most enduring mysteries a case plagued with unanswered questions. More than seventy years on, the identity of the “Somerton Man” may finally be known, but the circumstances of his death remain a mystery.
The Body Without a Name
The man appeared to be in his forties or fifties, clean-shaven, and in good physical condition. Strangely, every label had been cut from his clothing. He carried no wallet, no papers, nothing that could reveal who he was.
In his pockets, police found only small, ordinary items: a used bus ticket, a packet of chewing gum, a box of matches, a comb, and a half-smoked cigarette. Nothing pointed to his name, his origins, or the reason he ended up lifeless on Somerton Beach.
An autopsy revealed congestion in his organs and blood in the stomach signs consistent with poisoning. Yet toxicologists could find no trace of any known substance. The pathologist concluded that heart failure was the immediate cause of death, but suspicion of poison lingered. Whatever killed him left no obvious mark.
“Tamám Shud”
Six weeks later, investigators uncovered the clue that gave the case its signature name. Hidden in a small pocket of the man’s trousers was a tiny scrap of paper with two printed words: “Tamám Shud.”
The phrase, Persian for “It is finished” or “The end”, came from a collection of poetry: The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Not long after, police recovered a copy of the book itself from the back seat of a car in Adelaide. Its final page had been torn out the very page that matched the scrap in the man’s pocket.
Inside the book were faint pencil markings: what appeared to be a string of random letters, possibly a code. There was also a phone number belonging to a local nurse, Jessica Thomson, who lived only a short walk from where the body was found.
When questioned, Jessica denied knowing the man. Still, witnesses later recalled her reaction to his plaster death mask she was reportedly shocked, even close to fainting. Whether that was fear, recognition, or something else entirely.
The Suitcase
Another lead surfaced when railway staff discovered an unclaimed brown suitcase at Adelaide Station, checked in the day before the man’s body was found. Investigators linked it to him, based on thread and clothing repairs that matched what he was wearing.
The suitcase contained shirts, underwear, a dressing gown, slippers, and shaving gear. But there were also oddities: sharpened scissors, a table knife cut into a crude blade, and a stencilling brush more often used in industry than at home. Once again, all clothing labels had been removed except for a few items marked “T. Keane.”
That name has never been tied conclusively to the man, though it echoed through the case when researchers later discovered it linked to the family of Jessica Thomson’s brother-in-law.
Theories
From the beginning, speculation surrounded the Somerton Man.
Some argued he was a spy. The Cold War was beginning, and Adelaide was home to sensitive military facilities. A man with no identity, an indecipherable code, and a death consistent with undetectable poison seemed to fit.
Others believed it was more personal. The “Tamám Shud” scrap hinted at a man in despair, perhaps ending his own life. The alleged connection to Jessica Thomson fuelled theories of a secret affair, rejection, or heartbreak.
His physical features led to yet another angle. The man had unusually well-developed calf muscles and wedge-shaped toes traits consistent with dancing or habitually wearing narrow shoes. Was he an artist, a traveller, or the man’s lifestyle?
None of these theories could be proven, and the case eventually went cold.
A Breakthrough in DNA
In 2021, South Australian authorities exhumed the Somerton Man’s remains in hopes that modern DNA testing might reveal answers. In the meantime, researchers had already recovered hairs preserved in the original plaster death mask. Using forensic genealogy, they traced the DNA to extended family in Victoria.
By 2022, researchers identified the Somerton Man as Carl “Charles” Webb, born in Melbourne in 1905. Webb was an electrical engineer and instrument maker who had separated from his wife and appeared to vanish from the record in the late 1940s.
The link to the “Keane” name in his suitcase also fit: Webb’s sister had married a man named Thomas Keane. The pieces aligned, though authorities have yet to officially confirm Webb’s identity through their own testing.
What We Still Don’t Know
If the Somerton Man was indeed Carl Webb, the mystery of his name may be solved but not the mystery of his death. Toxicology from 1948 remains inconclusive, and no definitive cause has ever been recorded. Whether he was poisoned, took his own life, or died of natural causes disguised by circumstance, remains open to debate.
And then there is the human question. Why did Webb leave Melbourne? What led him to Adelaide? Did he know Jessica Thomson? Or was she merely drawn into the story by chance?
A Mystery
The Somerton Man case continues to resonate because it feels both ordinary and extraordinary. A man died alone on a beach, far from home, his identity stripped away. For decades he was remembered only as a mystery.
If the genetic evidence is right, Carl Webb now has his name back. Yet the story of how and why he died and the meaning of the coded letters, the suitcase, and the torn poem is still unresolved.
For true crime followers, that may be the essence of the case: a blend of fact, uncertainty, and the reminder that behind every mystery lies a real human life.
featured image credit: Viniciusmc via Wikimedia
