Neil’s Story
‘My Little Mate’
Hi all, this week I want to share a personal story with you, written by a good friend of Ray and Jennie’s: Neil.
For those that haven’t met Neil, he is a Beverley local boy who grew up much the same as Ray, resulting in a bighearted bloke with a deep love of the country. Ray and Neil share a similar stature and temperament in more ways than I am sure even they understood, which is obvious to we outsiders. It was somewhat inevitable that they became best mates later in life.
Neil’s speech at Ray’s memorial service back in 2015 was heart-warming and raw. In it, he described how they would both call each other “My little mate”. Hearing it again recently, during Ray’s Reclamation of Bell Chambers, I was equally gladdened by the fact that Ray met and shared part of his life with such a good mate, one that he could relate to on such a visceral level, as I was saddened now for Neil that that bond was broken by the events of 2015.
Wanting to ensure my timeline and understanding of upcoming events for the Outback Mystery series was correct, I recently reached out to Neil and asked him to send me some bullet points – dates and times – and perhaps add a fond story of his time with Ray. Neil sent me the following. With it, he said “feel free to use what you like from it, and feel free to portray me as you like”.
I replied, “I’ll portray you exactly as you were/are, a good mate of Ray’s”.
This week, considering how I could best repay that promise, there was only one conclusion, and I am sure it would be how Ray would want it too: Post it exactly how Neil has written it, heart-warming and raw.
So, here it is. Thank you, Neil.
Neil’s Story
‘My Little Mate’
The first I heard about Ray and Jennie being missing, I was at work operating my D11 bulldozer in the Pilbara when I heard their names on the 9am news on Red FM.
I stopped the machine and quickly changed stations, desperately hoping I’d find one running a little late with the news. I just couldn’t take in what I was sure I’d heard.
I called Mine 2 Jim Bame to give me a ride to the crib room to call my wife, who confirmed that I had heard correctly. I couldn’t get my head round it and I couldn’t return to work that day, my thoughts were a million miles away. At the wet mess that night, after work, Ray & Jen’s disappearance was the number one story on all the news channels and the talk of the mine camp.
I had a phone call from Snags who was a mutual friend of Ray Jennie’s and my wife and myself.
He’d had a call from Detectives that day asking about Ray and Jenn’s financial situation and if their relationship was in a good place.
WTF, I couldn’t believe that the first scenario the police were entertaining, was that one had harmed the other, or murder suicide.
That fact, and that I knew Ray and Jennie were proficient in navigating the outback safely, was enough for me to request a compassionate leave asap. By 5am Saturday morning I was booked on a flight out of Paraburdoo.
After landing in Perth and getting my ute from long term parking I headed for Beverley.
It was impossible for me to sit on the speed limit, I was so desperate to get home to my wife and young daughter.
Majority of that Saturday night was spent with mutual friends of ours, both trying to make some sense of the situation and looking at maps of the area the camp was found.
After a long night and early morning of beers and numerous theories we called it quits and had a couple of hours sleep, I woke early and my first thought was I need to go to Sandstone to find my Little Mate and the beautiful Jennie. I discussed with my wife who very reluctantly gave her blessing. We had all been close friends for the better part of ten years and she knew as well as me that if the tables were turned Ray wouldn’t think twice about doing the same.
So, Sunday was spent getting supplies and camping gear sorted, while Snags was happy to lend his 4x4 Hilux to make trip in.
Monday the 6th of April, I left at 330am and spent the next 7 hours or so making my way to Sandstone while my mind was on an endless loop trying to make sense of what was happening right now.
I made a stop at Paynes Find for diesel and a stretch. I pumped my fuel and waited for the burger I had ordered. While sitting on the dilapidated bench out front, this Great Dane walked up for a pat. It was Ray and Jenn’s dog Ella.
Jennie’s ex-husband and their youngest daughter had picked up Ray and Jenn’s vehicles, and their faithful dog Ella, and were heading back to Beverley. I looked that big dog in the eye and wished she could talk. She was not the same dog she had been; she had a real look of sadness in her eyes because she was going home without her pack. A quick chat about proceedings so far was had and we continued in opposite directions.
What I saw between Paynes Find and Sandstone was a steady procession of police vehicles, police horse div, mobile command centre and too many paddy wagons to count headed in the opposite direction – toward Perth. What the fuck is going on?
Around 100kms out of Sandstone I find myself scouring the scrub north and south of Mt Magnet Rd until I reach Sandstone. Still cursing to myself about all of the police assets I had passed, why the hell had the search been obviously called off?
The best place for intel in most towns is in the Pub, and in Sandstone’s case more so because it’s also the supermarket, post office and tyre shop.
I met Scruffy and Donna, the owners of the Sandstone Pub, who were able to fill me in on what was going on, and pointed out where Ray and Jenn’s camp was. Taking advantage of the fact the police weren’t securing the site, I took the opportunity to inspect the camp site, and check out the terrain. My first impression of the camp site was of what a great spot it was for a long-term camp. A stone-throw off the Payne Find road, yet still secluded. Any doubt I had that maybe they had gotten lost was gone after seeing the terrain, and the landmarks that can be seen in the Bell Chambers area which are all easy to navigate from.
Now what?
Murder Suicide, Not a consideration.
Became disorientated, Not possible.
Fell down mineshaft, Extremely doubtful.
It was dark by this time so I headed back to town for a feed and a couple of beers, while working out a bit of a strategy on my own search.
Tuesday morning and I am waiting for the shire doors to open, hoping someone can enlighten me on what was going on. Are the police coming back? I explained I was a close friend and left my contact details in the event they heard some news. I spend a couple of hrs familiarising myself with where recognisable landmarks were, or waterholes around where I was going to search.
The shire office called to say that Police Search co-ordinator would be returning by the afternoon, so I found my way back to town to have a chat.
I get back to Sandstone and I see Channel 5 news crew parked in the shade on the main street. Now I hate my picture taken, don’t enjoy speaking in front of anyone but my wife, but by now was so frustrated with how piss poorly the investigation and search had gone thus far, it needed to be made clear to police that family and friends who knew Ray and Jenn best, hadn’t for a second entertained the idea that they were lost or had done each other any harm. So, I got chatting with the cameraman from the channel 5 news crew.
It didn’t take long before he asked why I was in Sandstone. My response was “To find out what the hell was going on because there was no way that Ray and Jenn were lost.”
So, I was interviewed for that night’s news, in which I stated that I believed foul play was the only plausible conclusion. After finishing the interview, it was back to kicking the dirt around waiting for the police to arrive. When they finally showed up a good 2 hours later my mood hadn’t gotten any better. I made it clear to them I was there to assist in the search, and that I wasn’t a fan of any of their theories so far, and that they needed to be looking for involvement of a third party. After letting them know what I thought, they retorted by not allowing me to search officially. So off I went, I covered 150km that afternoon east of Bell Chambers. I’d stop and get out of the 4wd fairly often to walk to the top of a breakaway for a better view. I got back to Sandstone on dark to find a few SES had arrived back also for another search.
The bar was full with the return of the police and SES, plus the seasonal prospectors. I had never felt so alone in a room full of people, with a room full of police and search crews laughing at stories or sharing their thoughts on what the fate of my friends might be, So to spot a familiar face was welcome. It had been 25 years or more, but I recognised Dave, Ray’s younger brother. We spent a couple of years at BDHS in the same class. We caught up over a couple of beers and I filled Dave in on the little detail that I knew. I introduced Dave to Scruffy who had offered to take Dave out to the camp site the following day.
On Wednesday there was to be a lot more people arriving to search, and they had to be fed. A Semi Trailer loaded with stores arrived from Laverton, so I volunteered to help unload and pack away the supplies. Scruffy and I delivered the search teams lunches just before Midday. As we arrived at the Mobile Command Point, the confined space search team was doing a re-enactment of their shaft entrance procedure for channel 5. Scruffy pointed out that the shaft they were using had a god-awful smell emanating from it a couple of weeks before. But it had been cleared during the previous search. I thought nothing more of it and we left to head back to town.
A little over an hour or so later I was surprised to see the Channel 5 4wd pull up, thinking they would return when search was called for the day. To my surprise they had come to talk to me. As Scruffy and I had left the Command Post Earlier, the confined space team found human remains at the bottom of that shaft they had been filming when we left. But the 5-news team hadn’t come to inform me of this massive development in the search for MY friends, instead they asked if I would do another interview because something had been found during the search that afternoon (My Mate) for fuck sake. But they chose not to tell me what had been found, only that the nights edition of the news would begin with a breaking development from Sandstone, and they want me to appear.
I don’t recall what I was asked during that interview, along the lines of how was I holding up and had conceded that it was certainly now a recovery not a search and rescue. I do recall them asking me to be filmed walking through the scrub holding a compass and to yell out Ray and Jenn’s names. I do recall the anger I felt right at that moment, I was 1000kms from home, on my own in a desperate search for two great friends, while the 5 News Crew was there to sensationalise and orchestrate how the world was going to react to the discovery of the remains. Obviously I was unaware what the big development even was until I watched the coverage on the tv at the bar in the pub an hour later. Every stare in that bar was in my direction. I assume the police were well aware at the time the remains were Ray’s, but directed the media to report that they believed the remains were too far advanced into decomposition to be Ray. Dave and I spoke briefly that night and we both shared the belief it was Ray they had found.
Completely gutted and resigned to the fact that my Little Mate and his best Mate Jennie were gone, I packed up my shit and thanked the Sandstone locals I had become friends, who had been strangers to me just 4 days earlier.
The Paynes Find Sandstone Rd would cut about 150kms from the drive home, but was still closed by the police. I ignored this as I was confident I wouldn’t be contaminating an already clueless crime scene. I left at 3 am Friday morning to be sure to arrive home by lunch. The road is an isolated 230kms of gravel and station stock grids. I couldn’t help feeling torn about driving away knowing that Jennie could possibly be so close, but I just couldn’t do anything.
Getting some mobile coverage, my phone beeped, it was a msg from Maximus.
It made me laugh out loud recalling immediately how Ray and I enjoyed having a regular catch up for a beer to talk mining or shooting or whatever we were earning a crust at, But mostly to pull piss out of Max about his latest failure to prove that what he didn’t know wasn’t worth knowing. But Ray and I were happy for Max to purchase any machine we suggested would be handy and pay us cash to operate.
