Body on Somerton Beach

[Pcdunn]

What an interesting result to a long investigation! Thank you to those who provided links to news articles.

Mr. Webb seems to have been of an era where he would be educated enough to know the "Rubiyat", and he seems handsome enough in the forensic reconstruction. I wonder if his wearing clothes marked as his brother-in-law's offers insight to his possible economic status at the time of his death? If he was a gambler, as suggested, he might have been poverty-stricken.

There are always questions, I guess.

[Abby Normal]

Yep.
Read Jeff's CNN link.

none of the links posted say anything about the dna from the exhumed body. theyre all talking about dna from hair given to the professor tjat was stuck in the death mask. obviously this raises questions about the provenance of the dna/hair.

earlier in this thread it was mentioned the police exhumed the body to analize dna directly from the body.

that is my question..what is going with the dna analysis from tje exhumed body that the police were doing?

[DJA]

Yep.
Read Jeff's CNN link.

[Abby Normal]

does anyone know the answer to my previous post?

[JeffHamm]

Others have beat me to it, but I saw this today as well:

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/26/australia/australia-somerton-man-mystery-solved-claim-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

- Jeff

[GUT]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-26/somerton-man-identified-melbourne-born-engineer-researcher-says/101272182?fbclid=IwAR240NNm0KfbLfoBnMYgIYWVK0LSeCgcXk5f4KZEWiOUj8nvV5h5VGq8mgg

[Abby Normal]

Might have been a Melbourne born 43 year old electrical engineer named Carl Webb.

More to come.

thanks DJA
so they never exhumed him for the DNA? I thought they had and where in process of analyzing the DNA?

now this? where a professor is using DNA from strands of hair that was caught in the death Mask? WTF? Id say theres a little probem with the provenance then. But I guess well see.. now that theres a name hopefully it pans out.

[DJA]

Might have been a Melbourne born 43 year old electrical engineer named Carl Webb.

More to come.

[Pcdunn]

I liked the program for putting things in order and examining all of the police theories in order. It was great, as I haven't read any books on this mystery, and have only seen information on this thread and Wikipedia.

My disappointment came with how quickly they glossed over the "American spy" theory as being discredited through DNA not matching.

They ended up with poisoning as a cause of death, and went with suicide as a motive. Seems to fit. I suppose.

[Abby Normal]

Just finished watching the program. Absolutely fascinating. So thanks to Pcdunn for the heads up. I agree that the spy/jilted lover suicide explanation is certainly feasible and doesn't have to be mutually exclusive. Both scenarios could be true. But I think I missed something along the way. If he poisoned himself why didn't they find a vial of poison on him? I suppose it is possible that he threw it into the ocean and walked for a ways before dying.

Very strange story.

c.d.

hi cd
no you didnt miss anything, the poison was thought to be an undetectable kind and yes if he had taken poison he had time to throw out the container, if there was one, before he expired.

[c.d.]

so what did everyone think? I thought it was pretty good and it looks like it came to basically the same conclusion Ive reached-that the most likely scenario is that it was a suicide jilted lover type deal. I would add though that I think he was also some sort of "spy".
as mentioned hopefully well hear soon on the results of the exhumation and DNA analysis.

Just finished watching the program. Absolutely fascinating. So thanks to Pcdunn for the heads up. I agree that the spy/jilted lover suicide explanation is certainly feasible and doesn't have to be mutually exclusive. Both scenarios could be true. But I think I missed something along the way. If he poisoned himself why didn't they find a vial of poison on him? I suppose it is possible that he threw it into the ocean and walked for a ways before dying.

Very strange story.

c.d.

[GUT]

thanks gut
been wondering about that, since when i heard they exhumed and got dna samples last year that there would be an ID soon.

Not 100% sure it would lead to an ID except perhaps through a site like Ancestry, they were really hoping to link him to a grandaughter, but her lineage seems to be uncertain. But any advancement would be welcome

[Abby Normal]

so what did everyone think? I thought it was pretty good and it looks like it came to basically the same conclusion Ive reached-that the most likely scenario is that it was a suicide jilted lover type deal. I would add though that I think he was also some sort of "spy".
as mentioned hopefully well hear soon on the results of the exhumation and DNA analysis.

[Abby Normal]

Still nothing on the exhumation and DNA testing that I have heard or been able to find in the Adelaide press.

thanks gut
been wondering about that, since when i heard they exhumed and got dna samples last year that there would be an ID soon.

[GUT]

Still nothing on the exhumation and DNA testing that I have heard or been able to find in the Adelaide press.