Australia Australia - Jennie, 49, & Raymond Kehlet (fd dec'd), 47, Table Top, WA, 22 March 2015

[iamshadow21]

I wonder if it will be the hi-vis vest they suspected Ray had on.

I wonder if it's part of something Jennie was wearing. Can you imagine if she's actually down there too, and they just didn't find her the first time?

MOO

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Do any of those shafts have a side tunnel that you can't see from the top ?

I know that some of them were looked at, including the one where Ray was found.
But maybe some others were just looked at from the top, and looking straight down and could miss seeing the sides.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Maybe Jennie is not even in that area anymore...

 

[iamshadow21]

Do any of those shafts have a side tunnel that you can't see from the top ?

I know that some of them were looked at, including the one where Ray was found.
But maybe some others were just looked at from the top, and looking straight down and could miss seeing the sides.

Speaking as someone who lived in gold mining country, in an historic town where gold was found, with literally THOUSANDS of mines in the immediate area of this type and vintage, it DEFINITELY would. Mines are made of SHAFTS and DRIVES. Shafts are the up-down bits. Drives are the left-right bits. If you're on flat ground or the top of a hill, you put a shaft down, then, when you find the vein of quartz you think the gold is in, you switch to going horizontal and follow that seam wherever it takes you.

And if you're going into the side of a hill, you put a drive first, then a shaft to find a good seam, and so on.

That mine in this case would go down, then across, then maybe down and across again. That's what they did 100+ years ago to mine gold. That's not to say that it's intact - after 100 years, you're going to have collapses, a lot of them fill with water, all the supporting wood would have rotted away (I can tell it probably has because there's not in evidence in the photo of the shaft, though some may still exist further in.)

It's going to be more than just a vertical hole in the ground. How much more depends on whether they found a seam and how productive it was. It could be not much more than what we see, or it could be kilometres of tunnels. And after that long, there almost certainly won't be any records if they kept them at all.

MOO

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Speaking as someone who lived in gold mining country, in an historic town where gold was found, with literally THOUSANDS of mines in the immediate area of this type and vintage, it DEFINITELY would. Mines are made of SHAFTS and DRIVES. Shafts are the up-down bits. Drives are the left-right bits. If you're on flat ground or the top of a hill, you put a shaft down, then, when you find the vein of quartz you think the gold is in, you switch to going horizontal.

Thanks for that.
I live in a gold mining area, but I've never really looked into what it entails.
I knew there are shafts and tunnels but I wondered if you could see any tunnels just from looking straight down into one.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Another place a body could be disposed of are wells.

I imagine those old mining areas probably had some in the old days.

 

[iamshadow21]

Thanks for that.
I live in a gold mining area, but I've never really looked into what it entails.
I knew there are shafts and tunnels but I wondered if you could see any tunnels just from looking straight down into one.

I went for regular holidays to a village my family had history in back to the 1930s. My great grandfather and grandfather, post WW2, worked a 1870s era mine they'd purchased the mining rights to for a few years in the late '40s. It was a drive into the side of a hill. When I was a teenager, we hiked down through many kilometres of bush to the spot - the mouth was gated off but you could feel the chill, damp air gushing out of it when you stood near it.

We returned a year later, and the whole mouth of the mine had collapsed in completely. We could work out where it had been, but it was absolutely not an open hole into the hill any more.

As an adult, I lived out there for six years. Beautiful place. I miss it so much. But if you valued your life, you never 'offroaded' while on a bushwalk. Literally thousands of mine shafts covered the landscape, many of them with 'false tops' that would open up if you walked across the thin shell of soil and leaf litter covering the opening. The mine in this case looks just like the mines I saw through my childhood, the ones that were still open.

MOO

 

[iamshadow21]

Thanks for that.
I live in a gold mining area, but I've never really looked into what it entails.
I knew there are shafts and tunnels but I wondered if you could see any tunnels just from looking straight down into one.

It depends how far down it is before it goes horizontal. Some shafts are very deep - the deepest I know of from my village was 1km straight down. A long way to fall. And too far to see the drive at the bottom. Of course, most aren't that deep, but it's often very difficult to tell without, say, lowering something like a GoPro down there, or abseiling down.

MOO

 

[iamshadow21]

Another place a body could be disposed of are wells.

I imagine those old mining areas probably had some in the old days.

Yeah, I can think of at least five wells in the village I was in, and those are just the ones I was aware of. There would have been far more. Some wouldn't be much use for body disposal because the water sits high in them, and the mines are everywhere. But if you found a dry one, or one where the water level was low, it could work.

The wells tended to be placed near where people lived, so close to the centre of town, or, if they were in the bush, then it would have been where there used to be housing. The mines tended to take water directly from the creek, or from a series of dams built to work the stamper batteries used to crush the ore.

I don't know if this site in WA used water differently, though. If water was scarce or far from the seam, they may have had more wells.

MOO

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Fresh forensic search in mineshaft murder probe

A fresh search of an abandoned mineshaft where a murdered prospector's body was found comes after a potential lead was discovered by a member of the public.

www.perthnow.com.au

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Brother of murdered prospector reveals hope in new dig

The brother of a prospector who was found dead at the bottom of a mineshaft after vanishing with his wife says he is ‘hopeful’ a fresh police search will uncover new evidence.

thewest.com.au

 

[iamshadow21]

These blokes are using local outback know-how to try to solve a homicide

As police dig up an abandoned mine shaft for clues that could shed light on the deaths of two people in the WA outback, locals are conducting their own search as they try to help solve the baffling cold case mystery.

...

"Sandstone has never forgotten Jennie and Ray," Ms Bennett said.

"We always look for her if we're out in the bush."

.

Local people and volunteers doing absolutely selfless, often dangerous work to try and bring Jennie home. They all think she's out there to be found, and they've never stopped looking. Good people.

MOO

 

[iamshadow21]

Double murder investigation uncovers 'items of interest' in gold mine

[The items found and handed in to police by the citizen searcher] prompted police to mount a massive excavation of the base of the shaft over 12 days.

"A number of items of interest were seized. These will be subject to forensic examination," a statement from WA Police said.


So, good on the citizens still searching, at their own risk, for answers. They found enough to get a police team to look again, and those police found yet more items. These new items recovered may or may not progress the case, but they're things that weren't found in previous searches. I'm hopeful. Even if they never find the perpetrator, I hope that one day, they'll find Jennie.

MOO

 

[TootsieFootsie]

‘Items of interest’ found in mineshaft dig for murder clues

Detectives have found a ‘number of items of interest’ after descending down a century-old mineshaft in pursuit of clues to help solve the murders of prospecting couple Ray and Jennie Kehlet.

thewest.com.au

Behind paywall, I think.

 

[acehard]

Any update on these items? It's been a year

 

[Esme]

Ray's brother, Dave Kehlet, has a Facebook group you can join for updates. 'The Man in the Hole'. According to a recent post it's been quiet of late. For those who don't know, 'Under Investigation' did an episode on Ray and Jenny. There's a podcast, 'Cold Case Western Australia' that did three episodes on the Kehlets. And Dave Kehlet speaks with Meshel Laurie on the 'Australian True Crime' podcast too. Dave has spent so much time, tirelessly, getting Ray and Jenny's 'story' out there. It must be devastating when all goes quiet.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Daughter speaks about Kehlet murders in hope killer is found

In what is considered one of WA’s most baffling cases, Ray and Jennie Kehlet were prospecting with friend and colleague Graham Milne near Sandstone when they disappeared in 2015.

thewest.com.au

9th January 2024

Behind a paywall, I think. Posting it here for those who subscribe.

 

[Esme]

Here is an ABC article from last year which includes information on the last, (if I remember correctly), potentially significant discoveries regarding the Kehlets.

A killer's on the loose and Britney thinks the clues are in this desert

Three people went prospecting in the West Australian outback — only one came home. Now the family are taking the investigation into their own hands.

www.abc.net.au

"An army veteran with experience in search and rescue has volunteered to undertake a thorough search of the area to look for clues that could take the case forward.

Together they’ve uncovered potential pieces of evidence they will submit to police."

 

[DRT]

Ray's brother, Dave Kehlet, has a Facebook group you can join for updates. 'The Man in the Hole'. According to a recent post it's been quiet of late. For those who don't know, 'Under Investigation' did an episode on Ray and Jenny. There's a podcast, 'Cold Case Western Australia' that did three episodes on the Kehlets. And Dave Kehlet speaks with Meshel Laurie on the 'Australian True Crime' podcast too. Dave has spent so much time, tirelessly, getting Ray and Jenny's 'story' out there. It must be devastating when all goes quiet.

Dave posted on this thread in 2021 with the Man in the hole website. You'll see his postings from this entry.

​

Hi all,
I am Ray Kehlet’s youngest brother.
If you would like to follow the investigation from the family’s perspective, please see the link below. Please subscribe to the substack newsletter to receive further updates.
And, PLEASE SHARE. Share it here, on email, social media, anywhere you can. We need to keep their case in the forefront of the minds of those in the vocations of dispensing justice, so that Ray and Jennie's murders are accounted for, and so Jennie can be found.
Cheers,
Dave
https://dkkehlet.substack.com/about

 

[acehard]

Here is an ABC article from last year which includes information on the last, (if I remember correctly), potentially significant discoveries regarding the Kehlets.

A killer's on the loose and Britney thinks the clues are in this desert

Three people went prospecting in the West Australian outback — only one came home. Now the family are taking the investigation into their own hands.

www.abc.net.au

"An army veteran with experience in search and rescue has volunteered to undertake a thorough search of the area to look for clues that could take the case forward.

Together they’ve uncovered potential pieces of evidence they will submit to police."

Yeah I saw that and was wondering if they revealed what they found. I did read the brothers blog and the inquest last year.