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The Somerton Man is 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 by the Persian phrase tamám shud (تمام شد), 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. Following a public appeal by police, the book from which the page had been torn was located. 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. Fitzpatrick, claimed 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. South Australia Police and Forensic Science South Australia have not verified the result, although they were hopeful of being able to do so.

On 1 December 1948 at 6:30 am, the police were contacted after the body of a man was discovered by a couple on Somerton Park beach near Glenelg, about 11 km (7 mi) southwest of Adelaide, South Australia. It was believed the man had died while sleeping. Witnesses who came forward said that on the evening of 30 November they had seen an individual resembling the dead man lying on his back in the same spot where the corpse was later found. One of the witnesses told the police she observed a man looking down at the sleeping man from the top of the steps that led to the beach. Another witness came forward in 1959 and reported to the police that he and three others had seen a well-dressed man carrying another man on his shoulders along Somerton Park beach the night before the body was found. Other than that, the coroner was unable to reach a conclusion as to the man's identity, cause of death, or whether the man seen alive at Somerton Beach on the evening of 30 November was the same man, as nobody had seen his face at that time.

It was believed that the suitcase was owned by the man found on the beach.

Former South Australian Police detective Gerry Feltus (who dealt with the matter as a cold case) reports that the book was found "just after that man was found on the beach at Somerton".

On 5 December, The Advertiser reported that police were searching through military records after a man claimed to have had a drink with a person resembling the dead man at a hotel in Glenelg on 13 November.

Some independent researchers believe the ID card belonged to Horace Charles Reynolds, a Tasmanian man who died in 1953 and therefore could not have been the Somerton man.

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 – Jessica did know the identity of the Somerton man and his identity was also "known to a level higher than the police force".

The media have suggested that Robin Thomson, who was 16 months old in 1948 and died in 2009, may have been a child of either Boxall or the Somerton man and passed off as Prosper Thomson's son.

Kerry Greenwood, Tamam Shud – The Somerton Man Mystery, University of New South Wales Publishing, 2013 ISBN 978-1742233505

Casefile Archives 2: The Somerton Man, an updated production of Case 02: The Somerton Man, an episode of the Casefile true crime podcast series.

Quick Facts

• On 1 December 1948 at 6:30 am, the police were contacted after the body of a man was discovered by a couple on Somerton Park beach near Glenelg, about 11 km (7 mi) southwest of Adelaide, South Australia.
• Another witness came forward in 1959 and reported to the police that he and three others had seen a well-dressed man carrying another man on his shoulders along Somerton Park beach the night before the body was found.
• Fitzpatrick, claimed 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.
• One of the witnesses told the police she observed a man looking down at the sleeping man from the top of the steps that led to the beach.
• Casefile Archives 2: The Somerton Man, an updated production of Case 02: The Somerton Man, an episode of the Casefile true crime podcast series.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Somerton Man". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.