Skeletal remains found near Sandstone in the Western Australian outback, about 720km north-east of Perth, have been identified as belonging to missing prospector Raymond Keith Kehlet.
Kehlet, 47, and his wife, Jennie Anne Kehlet, 49, were last seen on 22 March at a place called Table Top. Their abandoned campsite was found six days later when their dog wandered alone into the Sandstone caravan park, some 25km away.
News.com.au reported that the couple had left their cars, quad bike, mobile phones and generator behind and had apparently set out with just their GPS, a metal detector and a few bottles of water.
Police, emergency service volunteers, local government rangers and local volunteers conducted extensive searches, covering 11sq km on foot and 625sq km by air, before the search was called off on Monday.
The remains were found in an abandoned mine shaft on 8 April by one of the search teams, but were originally felt to be too old to belong to the missing couple.
In a statement on Friday, WA police said the remains had since been positively identified as belonging to Kehlet. The couple’s family has been told. Jennie Kehlet has not been found.
The couple, who are from Beverley in the WA wheatbelt, were reportedly experienced campers but new to prospecting. The area around Sandstone is popular with gold prospectors but more than 100 years of gold mining means it is riddled with abandoned mine shafts. Many of the mine shafts are unmarked.
A week into the three-week search, Raymond’s daughter, Charmaine Batista, told Nine News Perth that her father was “extremely resourceful and he’s very resilient”.
Jennie Kehlet’s ex-husband, Jim Keegans, also spoke to reporters early on in the search, saying: “We’re hoping some sort of miracle happens and they turn up out of the bush.”
