The Hairs Trapped in a Dead Man's Face

Name: The Hairs Trapped in a Dead Man's Face
Genre: Documentary

Genetic genealogists turn hairs caught in a death mask into a family tree containing thousands of possible identities.

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Transcript

Hairs preserved in the plaster cast later supplied DNA evidence.
The face had been cast because police expected the body to deteriorate.
The plaster cast stayed in storage for decades before researchers revisited its evidence.
The researchers analyzed DNA evidence from hairs caught in the plaster cast.
The reported DNA matched distant cousins on both sides of one family.
Abbott and Fitzpatrick built a roughly 4,000-person family tree.
The room held its silence around the search.
Autosomal results pointed to American ancestry beyond the family line they traced.
Abbott and Fitzpatrick claimed the man was Carl “Charles” Webb.
The family tree narrowed the search toward one family line.
The Melbourne family linked the reported DNA matches on both sides.
Family-tree research joined the investigation. Witness Olive Neill remembered the beach.
I watched him extend his right arm all the way. Then it fell limply back down.
The name remained the researchers' proposal, not a settled identification.
South Australia Police hadn't verified the identification, and DNA work was incomplete.
Even if correct, the proposed identity did not explain how or why he died.

On 26 July 2022, Abbott and Fitzpatrick claimed the Somerton Man was Carl “Charles” Webb.

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