The Mysterious Body on an Australian Beach | Forensic Files

Hello, Case File listeners. [music] As we enter Case Files 10th year, we've created a new run of special [music]
bonus content, Case File Archives, a series of releases revisiting the earliest years of the show, along with
previously unreleased premium episodes. This is completely additional content [music]
and will not replace new episodes. We will still be back in March with brand new cases and we'll be releasing
the same number of new episodes this year as we did last year. [music] Case File Archives is simply a way to
mark the 10th year, revisit some older episodes, and to offer previously subscriber exclusive episodes to the
wider audience for the first time. For the re-release episodes, we have fully edited, polished, re-recorded, and
freshly produced them from start to finish to match our current production [music] standards. They are not full
rewrites. Our aim isn't to reshape the cases or alter the original storytelling, but to preserve them as
they were first told, while giving them the level of production they didn't have
back [music] in 2016. Where appropriate, updates have been added, [music] but the core structure
remains faithful to the originals. Because of this, these episodes may sound a little different to our recent
work. Today's re-release is The Summitton Man, the second [music] case file episode
ever produced. In December 1948, the body of an unidentified man was [music] discovered
on Summitton Beach in Adelaide, South Australia. At first, it appeared he had simply
passed away in his sleep. But as detectives examined his belongings and retraced his final movements, they
uncovered a series of strange and unexplained [music] clues that only deepened the mystery.
Originally released in January 2016, the case has seen a significant [music] development since then, which has been
included in this re-release version. Thank you to everyone who has listened and [music] supported us over the years.
Now, here is the second episode from Case File Archives, [music] The Summit Man.
Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please
contact your local crisis center. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support and for a more detailed list of
content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. [music]
On Wednesday, December 1, 1948, the body of a man was discovered along the seaw wall of Summerton Park Beach in
Adelaide, South Australia. [music] At first, police thought they were dealing with a straightforward matter,
[music] the natural death of an unknown man who needed to be identified. However, it soon became apparent that
the case was anything but [music] straightforward. The further police looked into it, the
deeper it went. Welcome to the mysterious [music] case of the Summitton man. The unknown individual discovered on
Summerton Park Beach would come to be known as the Summitton man. He was found with his head and shoulders leaning up
against the seaw wall, his legs outstretched along the sand, and his feet crossed. [music]
It looked like an uncomfortable position. When Case File originally released this
episode, the man's identity and cause of death remained a mystery. As with all unsolved cases, there were many theories
and a lot of speculation. The Summitton man had no identification on him. [music] In fact, even the labels
on the clothes he was wearing had been removed. He was found with a crumpled up piece of
paper featuring two words to mom should, which is Persian, meaning it is finished
or ended. [music] These words were later linked to a poetry book that contained what many
believed to be a secret code and the phone number of a woman who lived just 400 m from where the Summitton man was
found. While she said she had no idea who the man was, many [music] believed that she
was lying. In recent years, some questions in this case have been answered. But for a long
time, it seemed like an impossible mystery. There were only a few details known with any certainty. [music]
We know that the Summitton man arrived at Adelaide Railway Station one day before he died on Tuesday, November 30,
1948. Upon arriving at the station, he checked in a suitcase in the cloak room. The
suitcase was tagged and a receipt was given to the Summitton man. From a timestamp found on the suitcase's
[music] tag, it was determined that he checked it in somewhere around 11:00 a.m.
Police suspected that the Summitton man had likely traveled to Adelaide from another large city, as an unidentified
man walking around a small country town or regional area with a suitcase would have caught the attention of locals.
[music] The only train arriving from a big city at about that time was one from Melbourne. the capital of the
neighboring state of Victoria. After checking in his suitcase, the Summitton man bought another train
ticket to travel from Adelaide Station to Henley Beach, a coastal suburb in the west of the city. It was a one-way
secondass ticket, although nothing could really be summed from that as that line
had no first class and all tickets were classified as secondass. There were two departures to Henley
Beach around the time that the Summitton man checked in his suitcase. One was at
10:50 a.m. and the other left at 11:51 a.m. [music] But the Summitton man didn't catch
either of these as his [music] purchased ticket was found unused in his pocket after his death.
Instead of boarding a train, he walked across the road and bought a [music] bus ticket to Glenn Elg, another seaside
suburb about 8 km south of Henley Beach. The bus departed at 11:15 a.m. and dropped the Summitton man off a short
distance from where he was found dead. [music] It's thought that the Summitton man
probably purchased a train ticket to Henley Beach as it was the closest railway station to his intended
destination. However, perhaps after talking to someone or reading a map, he realized
that a bus would be a more direct and efficient route. He then [music] changed his plan and had no further use for the
train ticket. After jumping on board what would have been an old-fashioned double-decker bus,
he made the journey to Glennel, arriving at around lunchtime. What he did over the next few hours was
anyone's guess because there were no further sightings of the summit man until after 7:00 that evening
at 7:15 p.m. Just as the sun was starting to set, a well-known local businessman by the name of John Lions
went for a walk with his wife along Summitton Park Beach. As they walked, the couple [music] spotted the summit
man lying on the sand dressed in a suit with his head propped up against the seaw wall.
When John and his wife passed by, [music] the summit man raised his right arm up, then flopped it down again.
The couple [music] put the stranger's pose and demeanor down to him having had too much to drink. Assuming he just
needed to sleep it off, they continued on their way. Now, this was not a quiet, isolated
spot. It was a popular location with plenty of people who regularly used the beach and walked along the esplanard
above. The summit man was lying right next to a commonly used set [music] of stairs that led up to the esplanard.
At about 8:00 p.m. that night, [music] just as the light was turning to dusk, a young couple was strolling along the
esplanard. They sat down on a bench right next to the staircase by the Summitton man.
The couple noticed another unknown man in a hat standing at the top of the stairs who was looking down at the sand
below. This man was never identified nor seen or heard from again, [music] and it remains unknown whether he is
related to the case or if he was just another passer by. The young couple followed the man's line
of sight and saw the legs of summit man sprawled out on the sand. Their view of his head and upper body
was obscured by the staircase. The couple didn't see the summit man move, but they thought he might have
changed positions at one point. They later left without seeing anyone else. At about 6:00 the next morning,
Wednesday, December 1, two jockeyies were riding horses along the beach. They rode past the summer man, but like John
Lions and his wife, they believed he was just drunk and sleeping off a bender. However, when they rode back up the
beach passing him again, they realized that he hadn't moved at all. The man was in the exact same spot with
his head propped up against the seaw wall in an unnatural looking position. The two jockeyies approached the summit
man to see if he was all right. They discovered that he was dead. Now, at the same time, businessman John
Lions was actually back at the beach enjoying a morning swim with a friend. He noticed the jockeyies crowded around
the summit and man and realized it was the same person he'd seen the night before.
He rushed over to help and called the police. Officer John Moss arrived at 6:45 a.m.
He examined the scene and found a half-sm smoked cigarette that had fallen between the Summitton man's cheek and
collar. Yet, there were no burn marks on his face or clothing. The sand wasn't disturbed, his clothing
wasn't disheveled, and there was no debris or personal items scattered around at the beach.
Officer Moss determined there were no signs of violence at all. A check of the summit [music] man's
pockets found the unused train ticket, the bus ticket, and two combs, one aluminium and one plastic.
The aluminium comb was thought to be of American origin as there were none like it available in Australia at the time.
The Summitton man's pockets also contained a packet of Juicy Fruit Chewing gum, a box of Bryant and Maze
matches and a pack of cigarettes. The cigarette pack featured Army Club branding, but the cigarettes inside were
Cancerous Club. At the time, it was common for people to buy an expensive brand of cigarettes,
then keep the box and later fill it with cheaper cigarettes. Just an image thing, trying to look more
distinguished while giving yourself cancer. But the funny thing about the Summitton
man was that the cancerous cigarettes were the expensive ones, more expensive than the army club pack they were in.
This was seen as a sign of someone who might have been trying to keep a low profile.
An ambulance arrived to take the summer man's body to Royal Adelaide Hospital where a doctor pronounced him dead. The
time of death estimated by the doctor was no earlier than 2:00 a.m., but that was a very rough estimate. The methods
used to determine when death has occurred are far superior today. An autopsy was performed the next day.
The coroner's report described the Summitton man as a Caucasian male aged about 45 years old and weighing around
80 kg. [music] He was a well-built, strong man in excellent physical condition with the
classic V-shaped body of an athlete. His hands were smooth and uncaloused, indicating he hadn't worked in manual
labor, though they bore the yellow stains of a heavy smoker. His finger and toenails were well cared
for. The summit man had well-developed calf muscles with a bulge near the knee. The
coroner thought this was a sign that he may have been a professional dancer, a ballet performer, or similar.
He was missing about 16 teeth, but that wasn't uncommon at the time. His spleen was three times the size of a
normal one, which indicated [music] pre-existing illness rather than an overnight injury sustained at the time
of his death. This was evidence that the Summitton man may have already been in a weakened
physical state when he died. Enlarged spleens can be a result of many illnesses, including viral and bacterial
infections, inflammatory diseases, and even various cancers. The Summitton man's cause of death was
not immediately obvious, as there were no signs of foul play. It was initially believed he died of natural causes.
The police certainly weren't treating it as suspicious [music] and were convinced that it wouldn't be
long before a friend or relative came forward to identify the body. Sure enough, many people did come
forward to view the Summerton man, believing that he might have been a missing loved one, but no positive ID
was made. When he remained unidentified more than a week later on Friday, December 10, a
decision was made to imbalm and preserve the body in the hopes that in the coming
days or weeks, somebody would identify him. But no one ever did. By now, investigators were starting to
deviate from their initial belief that the Summerton man had died of natural causes.
He had a healthy heart with no sign of disease or a cardiac arrest. Yet something had caused it to stop beating.
[music] It was believed that this something was poison. The Summitton man's stomach, [music]
kidneys, and liver were congested with a large amount of congealed blood. Something that typically happens after
an individual is poisoned and not when they die naturally. Tissue samples were sent away for
testing with the coroner almost certain they would return positive for poison. Yet [music] nothing was detected.
Dr. Robert Cowan, [music] the chemist who tested for the presence of poisons, stated, "I found no common poison
present, and I do not think any common poison caused [music] death. If he did die from poison, I think it would be a
very rare poison. I mean something rarely used for suicidal or homicidal purposes.
There are poisons that excrete from the body quickly, leaving no trace. And although there was no sign that the
summit man had vomited, something that usually occurs in poisoning deaths, it was possible that he had vomited
elsewhere before making his way to the beach. To this day, it hasn't been definitively
proven that poison caused his death, but it hasn't been disproven either. Regardless, the coroner, medical
examiners, and police were now certain he hadn't died of natural causes. They just had to work out if his death
was [music] suicide or murder. >> [music] >> Detectives were assigned to the case.
While there were no signs of foul play when the Summitton man was found, something unusual was discovered after
his body was examined. All of the identifying tags on his clothing had been deliberately removed,
so it was impossible to see where the clothes had been made. Detectives had no idea whether the tags
had been removed by the Summitton man himself [music] or somebody else. They checked the Adelaide train station
to see if there was any unclaimed luggage, even though he had no luggage receipt on him amidst the public
transport tickets and other items on his person. >> [music] >> They found a suitcase that had been
checked in on November 30 at around the same time the summit man arrived in Adelaide and had been left abandoned.
Despite the missing receipt, detectives were certain that the suitcase belonged to the Summitton man. A piece of thread
inside it matched the suit he was wearing [music] and the clothing sizes were a match.
Inside the suitcase was a dressing gown, a laundry bag, a few singlets, some underpants, two ties, a pair of
slippers, a pair of trousers, a sports coat, a scarf, and a shirt. There were also some coat hangers,
handkerchiefs, envelopes, [music] a cigarette lighter, a toothbrush, a razor, a shaving brush, pencils, a
[music] towel, a stencil brush, and a screwdriver, a pair of scissors, and a knife.
Detectives found nothing significant or unusual. But there was one strange detail. The
suitcases identifying labels along with the labels from the clothing inside it had been removed.
Just a few tags remained. The laundry bag had the name Keen printed on the label. This name was also
found on one of the singlets while one of the ties featured the name Teen. This was their sole lead so far in
identifying the Summitton man. It was a matter of some concern that they still had no idea who he was despite sending
his photo and fingerprints to agencies across Australia and overseas. Extensive checks into individuals with
the surname Keen were conducted, but the name couldn't be matched to the Summitton man.
There were no known missing persons or other unaccounted for people with that name.
At the time, it was very common for people to buy secondhand garments as clothing had been rationed during World
War II. This meant it was very possible that the name belonged to the clothing's previous
owner and not the Summitton man at all. This seemed even more likely when taking
into consideration the fact that all of the other tags had been removed from his
clothing and from the suitcase, just leaving three items labeled with keen. If the Summitton man or somebody else
was trying to conceal his identity, the obvious thing to do would be to leave tags behind that bore a false name.
Another key detail was the Summerton man's missing luggage receipt. As the suitcase was found unlocked, it was
possible that somebody had taken the receipt, accessed the suitcase, and tampered with its contents,
maybe even removed a few labels. Detectives made inquiries into the Summitton man's clothing and found that
the jacket he was wearing when he died had been made in the United States of America.
His tie featured a certain print that pointed to it also being made in the United States.
This didn't mean that the Summitton man was American, but it was clear that some
of his clothing was. Unfortunately, the Summitton man suitcase and its contents no longer
exist as they were destroyed long ago in a police cleanout. Detectives didn't know who this man was,
where he came from, how he died, or if it was suicide or murder, and their job was made even harder because the
investigation had started on the back foot. With the summit man's death initially
treated as natural, crucial evidence might have been lost. In addition to all of this, crime
investigation techniques in 1948 were nowhere near the level of what we have today, with DNA evidence unheard of for
another 40 years or so. The detectives were essentially chasing their tails from the very start.
As the investigation continued into the early months of 1949, the Summitton man's body was starting to deteriorate.
Police decided to make a plaster cast of his head and upper body to use in their
investigation. The cast still exists today. [music] After it was made, the Summitton man was
buried at West Terrace Cemetery on Tuesday, June 14, 1949. A headstone was placed at his grave site
which reads, "Here lies the unknown man who was found at Summitton Beach 1st December 1948."
At around the same time as the Summitton man's burial, a piece of evidence was found that investigators originally
missed. A crumpled up piece of paper in the Summitton man's trousers printed with the words to mom should.
This Persian phrase means it is finished or ended. The piece of paper had been torn from a
book. Investigators got to work trying to find where these words could have been taken
from. They found that they were printed on the last page of a poetry book titled
Rubayat of Omar Cayam. Omar Cayam was a Persian poet, astronomer, philosopher and
mathematician who lived from 1048 to 1131. [clears throat] Rubiat of Omar Cayam is an English
translation of a selection of his poems completed by Edward Fitzgerald in the 1850s.
The translations are pretty subjective and others have different interpretations of the poems, but
Fitzgeralds are the most wellknown. The general theme throughout the book is one of seizing the day, living life to
the fullest, and dying without regret. Death is a common focus throughout. Investigators would eventually track
down the actual book the summit man tore the words from, but unfortunately not until a month after the inquest.
A coronial inquest into the summit man's death was held over two days on Friday,
June 17, and then again on Tuesday, June 21. The coroner concluded the identity of the deceased was quite
unknown, his death was not natural, and that it was almost certainly not accidental.
It was noted at the inquest how remarkably clean the Summitton man's shoes were, looking as though they had
been recently polished. That, along with his well-kept nails and general clean and tidy appearance, led
the coroner to believe he wasn't a vagrant or drifter. The inquest was adjourned to no fixed
date, meaning the case would remain open and continue to be investigated. If further information turned up, the
inquest could sit again. Poison was still thought to be the cause of death, and two poisons in particular
were named as possible culprits due to being untraceable. The names of these poisons weren't
released as they were easy to obtain at the time. The last thing police wanted was to publicize an easy, undetectable
way to kill someone. By now, the media had well and truly started to focus on the case following
their initial disinterest. A man dying of seemingly natural causes on the beach hadn't exactly been
headline grabbing. But as time went on, the mystery surrounding the summit man's
identity and the exact circumstances of his death captured the interest of the media and the public alike. I mean, who
doesn't like a good mystery? After detectives tied the words to mom should to Rubayat of Omar Cayam, they
made a public appeal asking if anyone had a copy of the book with a page or a piece of a page missing. [music]
Incredibly, on Friday, July 22, 1949, a man came forward with a copy that had a piece missing from the exact page where
those words would have been printed. It was a very rare edition of the book that was published in New Zealand in
1941. [music] The man said he'd found the book on the backseat of his open roof car and
had no idea how it had gotten there. It wasn't his, and he'd never seen it before. [music] His car had been parked
at Summitton Park Beach at around the time of the Summitton man's death. This suggested the Summitton man had
thrown the book into a random car. But why discard it this way instead of in a bin if he wanted to dispose of it?
[music] Did he want someone to find it? Was he being followed? And did that lead
to him needing to get rid of the book quickly? An expert in paper was consulted and
tests revealed that the crumpled up piece of paper in the summit man's possession was definitely from the same
book that had been handed in. The identity of the man who came forward with the book is unknown.
[music] He requested to remain anonymous and police respected those wishes. As if there weren't already enough
mysteries in this case. At the back of this particular copy of the Rubiat were five rows of handwritten
capital letters that appeared [music] to be some sort of code. The first line featured the letter W followed by a
space and then the letters R O A B A B D all written together. The second row had the letters M space
[music] L I A O I. This row had been crossed out. The third line read [music] WTB I M P A
N E Tp. Beneath it was a cross that had a long line through it. The fourth row was quite similar to the
second crossed out row with the [music] letters MLI [ __ ] space AI A QC. [music]
The fifth and final row read itts am tgab. A notable detail about the code was that
the second line had been crossed out before the writer then penned another line that was very similar to it. This
suggested that whatever they were writing was very deliberate and that a mistake had been made in one line.
The code was published in the news and amateur codereers from all over the country got to work on the mystery. Many
thought it may have been referencing something in the same book. Top military codereers were consulted,
[music] but no one has been able to crack it to this day. Some have posited that these lines may
not be a code at all, but instead a neemonic device to remind the writer of a certain poem or poems in the book.
Or maybe they reference something else altogether. [music] Perhaps whoever wrote it was
just using each letter to represent a word, a sort of shorthand, if you will. Whatever it was, it added even more
mystery and [music] confusion to the case. The supposed code led many people to believe the Summitton man was a spy or
some sort of secret agent involved in espionage. Jason Bourne, James Bond type stuff,
but we will get into that in a bit. First, we need to talk about two phone [music] numbers that were also written
down at the back of the book. The first number was for a local bank, while the second was found to belong to
a local woman named Jessica Thompson. Not only was Jessica Thompson local, she lived [music] just 400 m from where the
Summitton man was found. It was starting to look as though the Summitton man hadn't chosen to visit
Summitton Park Beach randomly. [music] He was there with a purpose. On Tuesday, July 26th, 1949, more than 7
months after the summer man was found, [music] police knocked on Jessica's door.
When they asked her about the Summitton man, she denied all knowledge of him. But when they went on to ask about the
Rubiart poetry book, Jessica surprised them by replying, [music] "Yes, that's my favorite book of
poetry." The police asked if Jessica owned a copy. She said she used to, but not
anymore. >> [music] >> She'd given her copy away 4 years earlier in 1945 to a military serviceman
she'd met in Sydney. His name was Alf Boxel. At this point, [music] the police thought they were a mere formality away
from identifying the summit man as Alf Boxel. They took Jessica Thompson to see the
plaster cast of the Summitton man and found her behavior to be odd. After first glancing at the plaster
cast, she couldn't look at it again. [music] Instead, staring at the floor. She gave only brief, simple answers to
police questions, replying with yes, no, or I don't know. At times, she looked like she was about
to faint. All of her body language seemed to [music] point to her knowing who the
summit man was. Jessica was married and had two children. a son called Robin and a
daughter named Kate. Robin was the oldest and it was unclear who his father was.
Jessica requested that her name not be released as she didn't want any embarrassment to come to her family due
to speculation that she might be linked to the Summerton man. The police agreed.
[music] So for many years she was only known in the public eye as the mystery [music]
woman or by her nickname Justin. Detectives went to work on the Alfox theory and were surprised to find him
alive and well in Sydney. Moreover, [music] he still had the copy of the Rubay art
that Jessica had given him. She had inscribed a short message in the book when she gave it to Alf and [music]
signed it Justin. This development put a puncture in the police's theory that Alf Boxel and the
Summitton man were one and the same. And because he still had Jessica's old copy
of Rubiart, [music] this meant that the Summitton man had owned a different copy
that had Jessica's phone number in it. So, [music] how did Jessica and Dalph Boxel meet? In 1945, Jessica was living
in Sydney and training to be a nurse at the Royal Northshore Hospital. She spent a few evenings at the Clifton
Gardens Hotel in Sydney, which was then frequented by military servicemen. Jessica was introduced to Alf by the
girlfriend of one of Alf's [music] friends. They spent a few nights together talking
and sharing [music] drinks before Alf was put back on active duty for the war. As a parting gift, Jessica gave him a
copy of her favorite book of poetry, Rubayat of Omar Cayam. Jessica [music] left Sydney soon after
that without completing her nursing exams. She moved to Melbourne for a brief period before settling in
Adelaide. Jessica would have become pregnant with Robin at around this time. Not long after this, she met her
husband. They had a daughter named Kate, and all four remained together as a family.
Remember when the Summitton man arrived in Adelaide? How the only train arrival from a major city was from Melbourne?
What if the Summitton man met Jessica in Melbourne where she gave him a copy of Rubiat as well?
Perhaps he then tried to track her down only to find out she'd moved to Adelaide, prompting him to travel there
in search of a former love. Whatever the case, it seemed possible that Jessica was lying to police and
knew who the Summitton man was. Her daughter [music] Kate has described Jessica as a woman with a very strong
dark side. Kate even believed her mother could have been a Russian spy after [music]
discovering that Jessica spoke Russian, but wouldn't say where or why she learned it.
This has led many followers of the Summit Man case to believe in the spy angle. A possible code, missing labels,
a mystery identity, an unexplained death, and Jessica's behavior seemed like compelling details pointing in this
direction. To top it all off, Jessica once remarked to her daughter that the Summitton man
was known to people at a much higher level than state police. All of this is detailed in a 2013 60
Minutes story, which we've linked in the episode notes. [music] There is another significant piece of
information that adds further weight to the spy angle. In 1946, a few hundred kilometers away
from Adelaide, Britain and Australia entered into a joint project of missile and nuclear rocket testing.
This was known as the WRA testing facility. Such a top secret project would provide
a reason for a Russian spy to be in Adelaide. Remember, this took place at the start
of the Cold War, and it's accepted that there were Soviet spies operating in Australia at around this time.
One person that might have been able to answer some of these questions was Jessica Thompson, but she kept her cards
very close to her chest. She seemed to know more about the case than she let on.
Jessica was interviewed by former South Australian detective Jerry Feltus, who took on the case and continued to
investigate it in his retirement. Detective Feltus described her as being evasive with her answers.
It also seemed as though every time the case received media attention and was back in the spotlight, Jessica would go
away on holiday or leave town. In addition to the world of spies and a theory about the Summitton man trying to
track down a former flame, there was another theory. At the time of the Summitton man's
death, World War II had just finished, but Europe remained in chaos. Millions had been displaced and the
Soviet Union was invading more of Eastern Europe, leading to a mass exodus of people looking to find a better life
elsewhere. Australia was a popular destination. Isolated from many other parts of the
world, it was considered a safe place to live, especially if nuclear war broke out.
Millions had been relocating to Australia, and 1948 was the peak period for the Australian government's
displaced person's immigration program. It certainly wasn't uncommon for migrants to create new identities as
part of a fresh start in a new homeland. Some believed that the Summerton man might have been one of many immigrants
flocking to Australia at this time, which could explain why no one was ever able to identify him.
Another possibility was that the Summitton man was a returning soldier suffering from PTSD who had subsequently
become estranged from his family. But of course, with so many questions and so few answers, each theory has its
own pros and cons. The big glaring con for every theory is the unexplained cause of death.
If the summited man was a displaced immigrant or returned soldier, why did he just die with no sign of health
issues? The same goes for the love angle. If Jessica was the summit man's former
lover, that would explain why he was in Adelaide, but not his death. Suicide is one possibility, but many
people have found themselves more drawn to the Jason Bourne James Bond path. It's easy to explain the summit man's
death if he was a Russian spy in Adelaide as part of a secret mission. If that was the case, another spy could
have killed him with an undetectable poison. But if the summit man was a spy, where
does that leave Jessica Thompson? Why was her phone number in his copy of the Rubiad?
By the way, the copy of that book involved in this case was destroyed along with the summer man suitcase, and
an identical copy has never been located. Another interesting detail some have noted is that Jessica Thompson's
favorite book was Howard's End by Emor. This novel is the story of a girl who has a son out of wedlock. Her family
tried to scare her lover off and in doing so accidentally killed him in an altercation that proved [music] fatal
due to his pre-existing heart condition. Could that have been Jessica's way of telling us what happened to the summer
man without telling us what happened? [music] Because there isn't enough mystery
surrounding this case. What about this? 3 years before the summer man case, a man named Joseph Soulheim Marshall was
found dead in Sydney's Ashton Park. His death was ruled to be a suicide by poison.
When his body was found, a copy of Rubiat of Omar Cayam was lying on his chest. As previously mentioned, Rubiat is a
popular book, but the copy found on Mr. Marshall was an extremely rare edition. Just like in the Summitton Man case,
there are two people thought to be experts on the Summitton Man case, and links to their work are provided in the
episode show notes. First is Jerry Feltus, a retired decorated detective who has investigated
the case for many years. He has cracked some tough ones, but even he wasn't able
to solve the Summit Man. He has written a book on the case titled The Unknown Man.
The second expert is Professor Derek Abbott from Adelaide University. He stumbled across the case in 2009 and
became fascinated, perhaps even obsessed by the case. Fun fact, the two experts in the case
don't get on. Jerry Feltus basically viewed Professor Rabbit as an amateur, a pest who should stick to teaching at
universities and leave crimesolving to law enforcement professionals. >> [music]
>> But it can't be denied that both have done excellent work. Professor Abbott has appeared on a Reddit ask me anything
forum and has lectures on YouTube about the case. Another fun fact, while researching the
case, Professor Abbott met Rachel Thompson, the daughter of Robin Thompson and granddaughter of Jessica [music]
Thompson. He married her and they now have three children together. >> [music] >> Professor Rabbit was convinced that the
Summerton man was Robin Thompson's father and Jessica Thompson's former possibly jilted lover who was tracking
her down at the time of his death. Professor Rabbit reached this conclusion after observing a feature on the year of
the Summerton man, which only appears in 1 to 2% of the population. Robin Thompson, who died in 2009, also
shared this feature. In the hopes of confirming his theory, [music] Professor Rabbit submitted two
requests to have the Summitton man's remains exumed for DNA testing. [music] His idea was to compare his wife
Rachel's DNA to that of the Summitton man to see if there was a familial link. Both of these requests were rejected.
[music] However, in 2022, more than 6 years after the original release of this episode, there was [music] a stunning
breakthrough in the case. After Professor Rabbit had been investigating the case for more than a
decade, South Australia's then attorney general, Vicky Chapman, agreed to have the Summitton man's remains exumed for
DNA testing. This occurred in May 2021. Meanwhile, Professor Rabbit had also recovered some hairs from the plaster
case police had made of the Summitton man's head and torso. These were sent away for DNA analysis as
well. Just over a year later, Professor Rabbit announced that the Summitton man had
finally been identified. Using investigative genetic genealogy, Professor Rabbit and American
genealogologist Colleen Fitzpatrick were able [music] to trace two of the Summitton man's cousins.
This ultimately led them to identify the Summitton man as a missing man named Carl Charles Webb.
Born in 1905 in Footsgay, an [music] inner city suburb of Melbourne, Carl Webb was the youngest son of German
immigrants. He grew up to become an electrical engineer and instrument maker. He took
pleasure in poetry and even wrote a few poems himself. They seemed to focus mostly on death,
[music] a similar theme to the poems in Rubayat of Cayam. Carl Webb also enjoyed betting on horse
races. Professor Abbott has speculated that the code in the book linked to the Summitton
man case could actually be referencing raceh horses. In 1941, [music] he married a pharmacist and corruptist
named Dorothy Robertson. According to Dorothy, their marriage was not an easy one due in large part to
Carl. He was a quiet and somewhat isolated man who didn't have many friends and preferred a quiet life spent mostly at
home. Sometimes he could be moody, even threatening and violent. Dorothy said that in March 1946, Carl
attempted suicide by overdosing on ether, a flammable liquid that used to be used as a recreational drug due to
its euphoric effects. Dorothy intervened and nursed Carl back to health, which angered him.
Carl became more violent following his suicide attempt, and in September 1946, Dorothy left him out of fear for her own
life. She said he'd been physically and verbally abusive for years and would later obtain a divorce in 1951, citing
desertion. [music] Carl initially stayed in the couple's South Yara home before leaving for
whereabouts unknown in 1947. Members of his family said he relocated to Perth on the other side of the
country, but they soon lost touch with him. There was no trace of Carl after 1947
with no recorded documentation about his movements or location. With most of Carl's family members who
knew him having passed away by the time he was finally identified, there was no one to ask about what had happened to
him or how they drifted apart. Professor Rabbit has speculated that if Carl Webb was the Summitton man, he may
have traveled to Adelaide in November 1948 in search of his wife Dorothy, who wound up living in South Australia a few
years later. Another interesting clue was the fact that Carl Webb's eldest sister married a
man with the surname Keane, the same name [music] found on some of the Summitton man's clothing.
Her adult son, John Keane, had lived just 20 minutes from Carl before being killed in 1943 at age 26 [music] while
serving with the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II. Some items found in his possession
indicated he'd spent [music] time in the United States, possibly during his air crew training.
These included American coins and [music] a map of Chicago. If Carl Webb took ownership of some
[music] of Jon's belongings, this would explain why his garments bore the name Keane and appeared to have been
manufactured in the USA. >> [music] >> Professor Rabbit was confident he'd finally, at least partially, solved one
of Australia's most enduring mysteries. While South Australia police did not officially confirm the Summitton man's
identity through their own forensic team, they released a comment [music] stating, "We are heartened by the recent
development in that case and are cautiously optimistic that this may provide a breakthrough. [music]
We look forward to the outcome of further DNA work to confirm the identification, which will ultimately be
determined [music] by the coroner. Despite Professor Abbott's long-held suspicion that the Summitton man had
fathered Jessica [music] Thompson's son, Robin, DNA testing ruled out any genetic
link between them. Carl Webb [music] was not the grandfather of Professor Abbott's wife,
Rachel, and any connection he may have had to Jessica Thompson is unknown. [music]
Some of the more thrilling theories about the case were ultimately ruled out, like the notion that the summit man
was a Russian spy killed while undertaking espionage. [music] But questions still remain, such as why
was Carl Webb so determined to obscure his identity? Why did he travel to Adelaide?
Did he intend [music] to leave hidden messages behind via a crumpled note and an abandoned copy of a poetry book?
And how exactly did he die? While we may never know these answers for sure, we're now closer to guessing
at [music] the truth. Whereas before there was only mystery.

In December 1948, the body of an unidentified male was found on Somerton Beach in Adelaide, South Australia. It initially appeared the man had simply passed away in his sleep, but as police looked into his death, they discovered a series of bizarre and unexplainable clues that presented more questions than answers.

The Somerton Man, also known as the case of the Taman Shud, became one of Adelaide’s longest-running and most enduring mysteries. Was the Somerton Man an international spy? If so, what was he doing in the sleepy town of Adelaide? And what significance did the ancient Persian text hold that was found hidden in his pockets?

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Casefile Archives is a series of special bonus releases revisiting the earliest years of the show. The re-run episodes have been completely edited, polished, re-recorded and freshly produced from start to finish to match our current production standards. They are not complete rewrites - our goal wasn’t to alter the cases or reshape the writing, but to preserve the original storytelling while giving the production the refinement it didn’t have when we started the show back in 2016.

Where appropriate, updates have been added, but the core structure and storytelling remain faithful to the originals. Because of this, these re-releases may sound a little different to our recent episodes, but they allow us to bring some of the earliest episodes up to the technical quality listeners expect today.

CREDITS Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Anonymous Host Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer

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Brief Summary

Key points

Case File Archives Launch. Celebrating 10 years with special re-releases and previously unreleased episodes.
The Summitton Man Case. Unraveling the mystery of an unidentified man found dead in 1948.
Mystery of the Summitton Man. The investigation reveals strange clues and unanswered questions surrounding the man's death.
The Mysterious Poetry Book. Investigators discover the words linked to a rare edition of Rubayat of Omar Cayam.
The Code in the Book. A mysterious code found in the poetry book leads to speculation about the Summitton man's identity.
Jessica Thompson's Connection. Jessica Thompson's past with the Summitton man raises more questions than answers.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It looked like an uncomfortable position.

Description of the Summitton man's body position.

4:08WatchJan 17, 2026

Tension

73/ 100High tension

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