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For decades he has been known only as a man frozen in death, a face without peace, rigid and inscrutable, with deep wells of darkness beneath his lidded eyes.

Source : PortMac.News | Independent :

Source : PortMac.News | Independent | News Story:

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Somerton Man Charles Webb's ID revealed in family photos
For decades he has been known only as a man frozen in death, a face without peace, rigid and inscrutable, with deep wells of darkness beneath his lidded eyes.

News Story Summary:

Now, for the first time, the face of the mysterious Somerton Man, whose body was found lying on an Adelaide beach in 1948, has been revealed in life.

Photos of Charles Webb, who was recently linked to the Somerton Man by DNA and genealogical testing, show him smiling and playing a prank on one of his relatives.

Taken in the 1920s, they were found in a musty photo album kept in a back room by the Webb family, which has now been shared 

Within its pages were the answers to questions that had gripped experts and amateur sleuths alike for 74 years — who was the Somerton Man and what did he look like?

Until recently, the Webb family had no idea of their connection to the long-running mystery, though there were stories of a missing family member many years before.

The news came from Derek Abbott of Adelaide University, who has been researching the case for many years and carried out DNA tests on a hair from the body of the Somerton Man. The finding is yet to be verified by the South Australian police.

After finding a positive match with members of the Webb family, who'd put their family tree on a genealogical website, Professor Abbott contacted Stuart Webb, who he believed was the great-grandson of the Somerton Man's brother.

"Professor Abbott asked me if I was related to Norman Webb, who's my grandfather, and that led to a whole series of questions about my heritage and whether there's any photos or family histories that I can recall," Stuart told Australian Story.

 

Photos of Charles Webb, who was recently linked to the Somerton Man by DNA and genealogical testing, show him smiling and playing a prank on one of his relatives.

Taken in the 1920s, they were found in a musty photo album kept in a back room by the Webb family, which has now been shared with Australian Story.

With the help of his aunt, Julie, Stuart found the photo album put together by his late grandparents.

It took only 10 minutes to spot a family group photo which possibly contained an image of Charles (Above).

It showed 19 smiling faces of all ages "at a fantastic family day". "It looks to be somewhere rural, and it looks like they're having fun," Stuart said.

But he wasn't sure which of them was Charles until a week later, when he realised that two of the album's pages were stuck together.

Prising them apart, he found another family photo on which the names had been handwritten — grandpa, grandma, Roy and Charlie.

"And I felt so elated that we had found him. It was like being on a treasure hunt," Stuart said.

Then he went back to the larger family photo and was able to identify Charles as the young man in the back row on the far right, with his hand playfully positioned above the head of the man thought to be his brother-in-law, Gerald Keane.

Family members have also now identified Charles in a 1921 photo showing the Swinburne Technical College under-16 football team. They believe Charles is the player in the front row on the far left.

Meanwhile, DNA tests have confirmed the link between the family and Charles.

Stuart's sister, Cristy Webb, volunteered to do a saliva test and was found to be "right in the middle of the range" of a DNA match, according to Professor Abbott.

"So you are a great, great-niece of Charles Webb," he told Cristy in a Zoom call recorded for Australian Story.

For Stuart and Cristy, it was bittersweet to discover their family's connection to the case.

"It was happiness, it was joy," Cristy said. "But there was also some sadness about this forgotten family member.

"This was a person. He wasn't just a media hit for a little while and an unsolved mystery. He was our family."

Original Story By | Ben Cheshire


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