In March 2009, a University of Adelaide team led by Abbott began an attempt to solve the
Somerton Man case involving an unidentified man being found dead near Adelaide in 1948. This involves genetic analysis and proposing to exhume the body to test for DNA. His investigations have led to questions concerning the assumptions police had made on the case. Abbott also tracked down the
Barbour waxed cotton of the period and found packaging variations. This may provide clues to the country where it was purchased. An investigation had shown that the Somerton Man's
autopsy reports of 1948 and 1949 are now missing and the
Barr Smith Library's collection of Cleland's notes do not contain anything on the case. Maciej Henneberg, professor of
anatomy at the University of Adelaide, examined images of the Somerton man's ears and found that his cymba (upper ear hollow) is larger than his cavum (lower ear hollow), a feature possessed by only 1–2% of the
Caucasian population. In May 2009, Abbott consulted with dental experts who concluded that the Somerton Man had
hypodontia (a rare genetic disorder) of both lateral
incisors, a feature present in only 2% of the general population. In June 2010, Abbott obtained a photograph of Jessica Thomson's eldest son Robin, which clearly showed that he – like the unknown man – had not only a larger cymba than cavum but also hypodontia. The chance that this was a coincidence has been estimated as between one in 10,000,000 and one in 20,000,000. 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 Alf Boxall or the Somerton Man and passed off as Prosper Thomson's son. DNA testing would confirm or eliminate this speculation. Abbott believes an exhumation and an
autosomal DNA test could link the Somerton man to a shortlist of surnames which, along with existing clues to the man's identity, would be the "final piece of the puzzle". However, in October 2011, Attorney General
John Rau refused permission to exhume the body, stating: "There needs to be public interest reasons that go well beyond public curiosity or broad scientific interest." Feltus said he was still contacted by people in Europe who believed the man was a missing relative but did not believe an exhumation and finding the man's family grouping would provide answers to relatives, as "during that period so many war criminals changed their names and came to different countries". In July 2013, Abbott released an artistic impression he commissioned of the Somerton man, believing this might finally lead to an identification. "All this time we've been publishing the autopsy photo, and it's hard to tell what something looks like from that", Abbott said. In December 2017, Abbott announced three "excellent" hairs "at the right development stage for extracting DNA" had been found on the plaster cast of the corpse, and had been submitted for analysis to the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide. Processing the results could reportedly take up to a year. In February 2018, the University of Adelaide team obtained a high definition analysis of the
mitochondrial DNA from the hair sample from Somerton Man. They found that he and his mother belonged to
haplogroup H4a1a1a, which is possessed by only 1% of Europeans. On 26 July 2022, Abbott announced that he and American genealogist
Colleen Fitzpatrick had used DNA websites such as
Ancestry.com to build a family tree of over 4,000 people. In March 2022, they narrowed this to Melbourne man Carl "Charles" Webb, an electrical engineer and instrument maker, who had no death record. Abbott said that on 23 July, "the final pieces of DNA proof were found to fully identify Webb as the Somerton Man."
South Australia Police and Forensic Science South Australia said they had not verified Abbott's findings, and that further comment would be provided "when results from the testing are received." == Personal life ==