The Missing Australia podcast: Rare eye condition could solve ‘Echo Point’ man mystery

It is a rare condition that affects less than one per cent in every 100,000 people but could also hold the key to solving the baffling case of the “Echo Point Man”. Listen to the podcast.

It is a rare condition that affects less than one per cent in every 100,000 people – but detectives believe tracking those few people down may hold the key to a 19-year-old mystery.

Police are asking eye specialists around the country to check their records to see if they ever had a patient with a condition known as “floating cobwebs” or Birdshot Chorioretinopathy who might have just disappeared.

It is an almost last-ditch effort to help identify a man who was found dead at the bottom of a cliff in a popular Blue Mountains lookout known as Echo Point.

A recreation of the unidentified man dubbed “Echo Point Man”.

The man’s remains were found at Echo Point in the Blue Mountains, best known as the site of the "Three Sisters”.

An article published in a specialist ophthalmology magazine MiVision last year failed to find anyone who might have diagnosed or treated the man, but the new push by police may just jog a specialist’s memory if he was treated in Australia.

The man himself left behind the greatest clue to his identity in a handwritten note describing the eye condition he had as “floating cobwebs”.

The note was tucked inside a pink edged black backpack which was found with his body by bushwalkers in 2004.

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Written neatly on paper torn from a notebook, it was addressed to “whom it may concern” and included a hand-drawn diagram of his eye condition along with the comment “Eyesight absolute s**t! Floating cobwebs on increase! Unable to work any longer – no cure I’m told.”

The NSW Coroner allowed the note to be released in late 2021 after linking the man’s DNA to the note and the backpack in the hope it might help find out who he is.

After its publication, there was an anonymous call to Crimestoppers claiming the man, thought to be in his 60s, was suffering from the debilitating condition Birdshot Chorioretinopathy.

But there has been no information since.

A backpack and suicide note left by the man. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

A shirt worn by the “Echo Point man”.

Police have even sent the Echo Point man’s DNA to international databases as well, in an attempt to find his identity but they still have not had a match. They have also urged anyone with a missing family member to submit their DNA to the familial DNA program in case it can be matched.

Former policeman turned investigative journalist Meni Caroutas reveals in the latest episode of The Missing Australia podcast NSW Police are urging practising or retired ophthalmologists and optometrists around the country to come forward if they remember a patient in the early 2000s with that condition.

Detective Inspector Ritchie Sims. Picture: Tim Hunter

“If they can, they will crack this case and finally have a name for the mysterious Echo Point man,” Caroutas said.

Detective Inspector Ritchie Sim, of the NSW Missing Persons Registry, said the investigation is with Blue Mountains Police.

“Detectives have been working long and hard on this investigation and put many hours into it,” Det Insp Sim said.

The man’s body was found on June 4, 2004. Police believe he fell 200m to his death and may have been there for up to six months before his body was discovered.

The length of time meant his remains were badly decomposed.

His remains were sent to a facial reconstruction expert, Dr Meiya Sutisno, to try and rebuild his face so police could use the likeness in public appeals for help.

Dr Sutisno told the podcast it was like “a jigsaw puzzle” that had to be pieced together to then provide an image of the full skull.

Once a facial reconstruction was completed NSW Police released pictures and video of the face she created, but no one came forward to say who the man was.

Do you know more? Call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Originally published as The Missing Australia podcast: Rare eye condition could solve ‘Echo Point’ man mystery