A shoutout to all budding amateur sleuths, I need your help. I can't tell for sure, but there seems to be a correlation between the physical location of the mine shaft Ray was found murdered within, and the "1ST HOLE" denoted on the mudmap produced in the planning of their fateful prospecting trip.
If you haven't read the details of how and when the mudmap was produced, please read the previous Man in the HOLE post, Events Leading Up To 22nd March 2015, and/or sections of the Inquest Findings: 51 & 551.
To assist with your help in this investigation, I have created a basic map on Google Satellite Maps, linked here: Bell Chambers Map
The map includes:
One short section of the 230km long (143 miles) Paynes Find to Sandstone gravel "shortcut" shown in black line.
Bush tracks commonly used by prospectors, in orange lines.
Green pin indicating Ray & Jennie's camp location.
Red pin indicating the mine shaft where Ray was found.
Here’s a screenshot of it, if you don’t trust links.
And here is a copy of the mud map again, to jog your memory.
And here, I have transposed some of the symbols and distances noted by Ray, Jennie, and “Miller” (name changed) from the mudmap onto the satellite map image, as a suggestion that there may be a possible correlation.
Hmmmm… Dunno though, what do you guys reckon? Purely coincidental?
Obviously, the reason this might be important is because Ray was found down that mine shaft without any ropes, abseiling gear, nor even a shirt. The mine shaft that seems within the circle denoted “1ST HOLE” on their mudmap.
And there are reams of evidence that suggest the prospecting trio’s primary objective was to abseil into mineshafts, down HOLEs, to find gold.
Abseiling down mine shafts is very, very uncommon, dontcha know. If you’ve ever stood beside one of those mine shafts up Sandstone way you’d immediately understand why. Rickety centuries-old timber is all that’s between you and the walls collapsing in and burying your stupid corpse for daring be so moronic that you’d lower your idiotic self down the hole — the main reason why it is such an uncommon practice.
The stats are inconclusive, but I’d bet for sure that the total number of abseiling prospectors counted in Western Australia this past half-a-century is THREE. Three total that identified as abseiling prospectors, that is; and TWO that have actually done it. And ONE of those two is DEAD.
The DPP didn’t seem to think all this meant much when the Police wanted to charge someone for Ray and Jennie’s murder back in 2018.
But then, the State Coroner (God I love her) went and got old mate Professor R. Zellweger, Perth’s most notable orthopedic consultant, to do an independent report on Ray’s skeletal injuries — remember? Old mate Professor Zellweger compiled all the forensic specialist’ reports and went, “Nah mate, Ray didn’t fall down that shaft. No way, Jose. Not a chance, Lance!”
In other words, Ray must have somehow got himself down that twelve metre deep mine shaft, then someone must have come along and inflicted some pretty serious "high energy”, “high violence" trauma upon his bonce, then removed all the ropes and gear that they used to get down the shaft. At the bottom of a twelve-metre deep HOLE in a remote outback location! - can you believe it?
I mean, what are the odds? An actual plan to abseil down the very HOLE Ray was found within, Jennie never found yet declared to be deceased beyond doubt by the State Coroner, and someone still hasn’t been charged with any crimes!
Crazy stuff, huh. I just can’t work out what the ambiguity is. Maybe I’m naïve, or maybe I’m not — I’m sure it’s one of those.
So please, someone out there — any budding sleuths — please tell me what I am missing? Please explain to me why this is still not before the Criminal Court?
Unbelievable that the person they went with isn’t charged, you don’t have to be sleuth good luck getting him charged. Maybe someone different needs to look at this as a cold case