Ray and Jenny Kehlet Outback mystery sees new twist as forensics officer reveals bullet suspicion

A police forensics expert has come forward with startling new evidence in the long-running unsolved mystery surrounding the fate of a married couple who went missing while prospecting in the Outback.

Jennie, 49, and Raymond Kehlet, 47, were last seen near the town of Sandstone, about 700km north-east of Perth, in March 2015 after setting out with friend Graham Milne to find gold on a 10-day camping trip.

But police began an intensive search after the couple’s pet dog showed up at Sandstone caravan park unaccompanied nine days later.

A horror discovery was made three weeks later when Mr Kehlet’s decomposing body was found at the bottom of an abandoned 12-metre mineshaft.

Ms Kehlet’s body has never been found.

Raymond and his wife Jennie Kehlet (pictured together) went missing during a prospecting trip in remote WA in 2015

Former police forensics officer Dr Mark Reynolds has revealed he discovered a chunk of bone missing in Raymond’s skull he believes may have been a gunshot wound. 

‘There was an area of dislodged 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 gunshot injury.’

Mr Kehlet’s rifle was found to have round missing. 

Dr Reynolds also revealed that the working theory that Mr Kehlet had perished in an accident was always one he doubted. 

‘They treated it as an accident but the problem for me with all of that is where’s Jenny?’ he said. 

Dr Reynolds said the missing bone was around 3 to 4mm in diameter, which would be consistent with a bullet wound 

Former police forensics expert Dr Mark Reynolds believes a wound found in Raymond Kehlet’s skull could have indicated a gunshot wound

Although the initial investigation ruled Mr Kehlet’s death an accident, a 2021 coronial inquest declared it was homicide. 

Mr Milne, a mentor who accompanied the couple on the trip and claimed to know there was rich veins of gold that were untapped in the area around Sandstone, was the last person to see them alive.

He told police he had been off solo prospecting when he came back to the camp in the early hours of the morning of March 22, only three days into the prospect and assumed the couple were in bed.

Without saying goodbye, so as not to wake them, Mr Milne said he set off to take the long drive back to Perth.

Mr Milne said he needed to get back 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 who was the last person to see them alive

Raymond’s decomposed body was discovered down a disused 12-metre deep mineshaft 

While searching for Ms Kehlet police discovered three cigarette butts three metres from the mine where Raymond’s body was found. 

DNA testing showed that one of the butts belonged to Mr Milne and the other two to Jennie.

Mr Milne denied ever standing at the spot the butt was found and suggested it might have blown there from being discarded elsewhere.

Following the coronial inquest WA’s Director of Public Prosecutions ruled out charging anybody over the murder.