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Shocking twist on the mysterious deaths of a prospecting couple who traveled to the Outback in search of gold before one was found dead in a mine shaft and the other disappeared.
- Twist in 2015 Outback mystery surrounding Ray and Jenny Kehlet
- Forensic officer suspected gunshot wound to Ray’s skull
- Ray’s body found in the mine shaft while Jennie was missing
A police forensics expert has produced new evidence he suspects shows that a married couple who went missing while searching the Outback were shot and killed.
Jennie, 49, and Raymond Kehlet, 47, were last seen near the town of Sandstone, some 700 kilometers northeast of Perth, in March 2015 after going out with their friend Graham Milne to pan for gold in a 10 day camping trip.
But police launched an intensive search after the couple’s pet dog turned up at the Sandstone trailer park unaccompanied nine days later.
Three weeks later a horrifying discovery was made when Mr. Kehlet was breaking down. The body was found at the bottom of an abandoned 12 meter mine shaft.
Ms. Kehlet’s body has never been found.
Raymond and his wife Jennie Kehlet (pictured together) went missing while on a prospecting trip in remote WA in 2015
Former police forensic officer Dr. Mark Reynolds has revealed that he discovered a piece of bone was missing from Raymond’s skull and believes it may have been a gunshot wound.
“There was an area of detached bone and the diameter of that area where the bone was missing was about 3 or 4mm,” Dr Reynolds told Channel Nine’s Under Investigation, which aired on Wednesday.
‘When I saw it my head went to a bullet wound.’
Mr. Kehlet’s rifle was found to be missing a bullet.
Dr. Reynolds also revealed that he always doubted the working theory that Mr. Kehlet had been killed in an accident.
“They treated it like an accident, but the problem for me with all that is where is Jenny?” he said.
Dr. Reynolds said the missing bone was around 3-4mm in diameter, which would be consistent with a gunshot wound.
Former police forensic expert Dr. Mark Reynolds believes that a wound found on Raymond Kehlet’s skull could have indicated a gunshot wound.
Although the initial inquest ruled Kehlet’s death an accident, a 2021 coroner’s inquest ruled it a homicide.
Mr. Milne, a mentor who accompanied the couple on the trip and claimed to know that there were rich, untapped veins of gold in the area around Sandstone, was the last person to see them alive.
He told police he had been out of the solo survey when he returned to the camp in the early morning hours of March 22, just three days after the survey and assumed the couple were in bed.
Without saying goodbye, so as not to wake them, Milne said he started the long journey back to Perth.
Mr Milne said he needed to return to Perth because he was working a shift at the Cloudbreak mine in the Pilbara.
Graham Milne (pictured) was the couple’s friend and prospecting mentor and was the last person to see them alive.
Raymond’s decomposed body was discovered in a disused 12 meter deep mine shaft.
While searching for Ms Kehlet, police discovered three cigarette butts ten feet from the mine where Raymond’s body was found.
DNA tests showed that one of the butts belonged to Mr. Milne and the other two to Jennie.
Milne denied having ever been to the location where the cigarette butt was found and suggested that it may have exploded there from being disposed of elsewhere.
After the coroner’s inquest, the WA Director of Public Prosecutions ruled out charging anyone for the murder.