Carl Webb Claim Flawed?

Carl Webb Claim Flawed?

By Gordon Cramer | October 31, 2025 | 7 minute read

In 2022, researchers Professor Derek Abbott and Colleen M. Fitzpatrick made international headlines by identifying the Somerton Man as Carl 'Charles' Webb. This claim, based on DNA analysis from a single hair, has since been widely reported as a definitive conclusion to one of the world's greatest unsolved mysteries.

However, as this post and its accompanying research demonstrate, the evidence for the Carl Webb identification falls short of providing definitive proof. This isn't just a matter of skepticism; it's a matter of forensic integrity and scientific methodology.

Key Arguments Against the Carl Webb Identification:

• Flawed Hair Evidence: The hair analysis shows signs of coming from a living person (antemortem banding), contradicting the claim that it originated from the deceased.
• Missing Chain of Custody: The hair's origin is undocumented, unverifiable, and lacks essential scientific controls.
• Lack of Independent Verification: No independent lab has confirmed the DNA results or the interpretation of the hair evidence.
• Statistical Oversight: Nearly 10,000 other men fit the same demographic profile and were not ruled out, making the focus on one individual statistically unsound.
• Plausible Alternative: The hair was likely a stray fiber mixed into the plaster bust in 1949, a common practice at the time, with no connection to the Somerton Man's body.

Was It Really Carl Webb? Video Analysis & Forensic Critique

(A full transcript of the audio in this video is at the base of this page)
The video above, from the blog’s YouTube channel, lays out — clearly and methodically — why the claim that Carl Webb was the Somerton Man falls short of providing definitive proof. We delve into the critical aspects of forensic integrity and the scientific limitations of the identification.

Detailed Research: Comprehensive Analysis of the DNA Evidence

Over the past two years, I’ve joined others in questioning the Webb identification. The claim, while headline-grabbing, rests on a single strand of hair with no documented origin and a troubling lack of scientific transparency. To address this, I submitted a detailed article to Academia.edu, which explores the forensic, statistical, and historical dimensions of the case.

🔗 Read the full article on Academia.edu (Please ensure this link is correct and points to your full article on Academia.edu, not just the PDF appendices).

That article was built on a foundation of rigorous research, more than 20 pages of data, analysis, and forensic scrutiny. From DNA protocols to demographic modeling, every claim was tested against the evidence. Because of the volume and complexity of that data, I created a full set of appendices to accompany the article.

Included below is the complete PDF of those appendices, which served as the backbone for both the article and the video. If you’re interested in the raw data, the forensic logic, or the statistical context behind the critique, this is where you’ll find it.

Appendices to Carl Webb Article

View Appendices PDF:

Full Transcript of the Video:

"Was It Really Carl Webb?"

For those who prefer reading or want to reference specific points, here’s the full transcript of the video above. It follows the forensic critique laid out in the accompanying article and appendices.

00:00 For more than 70 years, the mystery of the Somerton Man has been one of the world's greatest unsolved cases. Then, in 2022, headlines everywhere screamed that the case was finally solved. But was it? When you take a really close look at the forensic evidence, it seems this legendary case might not be closed at all.

00:19 So here's what we're going to do. We're going to conduct our own little investigation, following the evidence just like the pros. We'll start with that big breakthrough claim, then we'll put the evidence itself under the microscope, look at the missing paper trail, and even check out the thousands of other guys who could have been him. Let's see if this case is really as open and shut as they say.

00:47 Identifying a man named Charles Carl Webb was hailed as a massive achievement. The lead researcher even called it a world record — a real triumph for modern science. So here's the quick timeline: 1948, body on the beach. A year later, they made a plaster cast of his head and shoulders. Fast forward to 2022 — a single hair found in that old plaster supposedly gives them the DNA match to Carl Webb.

01:34 But this is where our investigation really kicks off. Because when you actually put the science under a microscope, the whole thing starts to look like it's built on a pretty shaky foundation.

The Hair Evidence

01:34 Let’s zoom in on the star of the show — that one single strand of hair. It all boils down to a microscopic feature called root banding. There are two types:

• Antemortem banding (before death): caused by processes in a living body
• Postmortem banding (after death): caused by decomposition

02:25 The official claim was that the hair showed postmortem banding, which would fit the story perfectly. But here’s the bombshell: critical analysis of the published photo shows the banding isn’t near the root at all. It’s further up, and the pattern matches antemortem banding — the kind that can only form in a living person.

Chain of Custody Problems

02:58 Even if we ignore the microscopic contradiction, there’s another huge problem: nobody knows where this hair came from. In any real investigation, you need a chain of custody — a documented trail of who handled the evidence, when, and how.

03:27 For this hair, that trail is completely missing. No records of who took it, when, how it was stored, or who handled it. From a scientific or legal standpoint, it’s unverifiable.

The Statistical Oversight

03:49 Was Carl Webb the only man who fit the description? Not even close. Demographic analysis shows that nearly 10,000 men born in Victoria in 1905 were still alive, single, and unaccounted for in 1948.

04:49 Focusing on just one man without ruling out the others is like finding one piece of hay and declaring it the needle — without checking the rest of the barn.

A Plausible Alternative

05:15 So, where did the hair come from? In the 1940s, it was common for artists and taxidermists to mix fibers — including human hair — into plaster. The bust shows signs of a finishing layer on the head, where hair could’ve been added for texture.

05:37 Historical sources confirm that human hair swept from salon floors was sold for this exact purpose. A random piece of cut hair from a living person could easily have been mixed into the plaster in 1949, with no connection to the Somerton Man.

Mind Map: Visualizing the Forensic Critique

Below is an image of the Mind Map that underlies the contents of the Appendices document. While currently presented as a static image, it graphically illustrates the complex connections between the evidence, the forensic analysis, and the arguments presented in the video and detailed paper.

(To see the detail in the image, you'll need to zoom in. Below this image, I have cropped a section from it for better viewing.)

Bottom Section: Enlarged Mind Map Detail