Vanishings and unsolved cases where the case itself is the anomaly — DB Cooper, the Somerton Man, Hinterkaifeck, the Sodder children, the cases modern forensics is finally catching up to.
On December 1, 1948, a well-dressed man was found dead on Somerton Beach, Adelaide. No ID. Labels cut from his clothes. A scrap in his pocket read 'Tamám Shud' — the closing line of the Rubaiyat. The book it came from turned up in a nearby car, with a phone number and a coded message inside. The case stood open for 74 years. In 2022, Colleen Fitzpatrick and Derek Abbott matched DNA from preserved hair to Carl Webb, born Melbourne 1905.