2 Prospectors / Gold detectorists go Missing in West Oz Goldfields.

[Lucky Eddie]

Just a heads up for anyone planning a trip downunder to hunt / fossic the WA Yilgarn Goldfields this winter.
2 prospectors have gone missing - a husband and wife team.
During the search by Police and State Emergency Service Volunteers - the Husbands decomposed body has been found at the bottom of an old disused mine shaft!
The wife remains missing!.
Suspicion is foul play!

News Articles Links for anyone interested.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/26891079/fears-grow-for-missing-couple/

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/26969563/sandstone-search-may-be-suspended/?hc_location=ufi

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/26969563/sandstone-search-suspended/?hc_location=ufi

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/27172674/remains-are-missing-prospector/?hc_location=ufi

Lots "doesn't add up" about this one: -

1. Their camp site found abandoned with their 4wd vehicle & belongings in tact Minus the metal detector & their GPS.
2. Their Quad bike in camp with keys still in the ignition.
3. Searchers did find a yellow Tramex hand held GPS on the ground during the search and it's been taken to Perth for forensic analysis by Police
4. The couples dog which normally wouldn't leave their side, walked 25 km's into the nearest town looking for food and water!

What is being said, basically, is that it's not safe now, to camp out in our gold fields, unless your part of a larger group for self protection.

Theres rumors of a couple guys in a van driving around the gold fields and robbing miners/detectorists camps - who maybe were disturbed in the act?...by the couple and killed the hubby - kept the wife?

Maybe we will get the rest of the story one day....of the wife's whereabouts, but I am not all that hopeful.

Once the Police hear give up after a couple weeks missing - your pretty much on your own.

A US citizen lost in our desert once found this out the hard way. Robert Bogucki - Ask.com Encyclopedia

I shall report back if there are any new leads found regarding the missing wife in due course.

In the mean time, stay safe out there people!.

Cheers

 

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[CA Gold Hunter]

This is why I am always armed while in the woods.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Wow, scary but not surprising. People disappear all the time in all kinds of places, cities, country, out of the way places. The usual common factor is other people.

 

[pepperj]

Maybe another case of the "Dingo ate the baby"?

Maybe it's a case of wifey liking another bloke and they did the husband in.

Maybe it's a case of hubby falling down the shaft, wife goes out looking for him and she's lost.

Maybe it's just a case of robbers, murder, and kidnapping.

The maybe game...

 

[Jason in Enid]

Sucks that you all can't arm your selves, just fodder for the thieves I guess.

 

[pepperj]

Sucks that you all can't arm your selves, just fodder for the thieves I guess.

I thought our gun laws were strict, but it's nothing compared to the Australian laws.

Gun politics in Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[DDancer]

That is a pretty rare event out in the gold fields. Your more likely to get hit when you go into town for supplies with someone burgling your vehicle or lifting your wallet. Self defense in the gold fields consists of your pick and anything else you may be carrying. Pretty much everyone travels in small groups and those who don't have a check in regularly while out bush. I know, been there done that and going again this year. There are guns down there if you know where to look but generally its not a bother. People let you know when something is up down there and by and large its live and let live.
Sad this happened.

 

[Lucky Eddie]

Ahh, the ol "dingo ate my baby ruse" eh!
Yeah, and everyone said a Crocodile got that US gal "Ginger Meadows" too - but WE all know it was really a dingo with a snorkel, hey!

I have 3 firearms - it's not impossible to be armed. its just a lot harder than it once was, and also not a right guaranteed by any constitution.
Yeah a LOT of country has been thoroughly searched looking for the wife.
Many possibilities of course - while many have thought maybe she got shot of him.. he was her 2nd husband - but everyone who knows them (including her first hubby) said she'd never leave the dog behind.
If your going to shoot thru you don't leave behind all the camp vehicles etc... and just take the detector?
Dunno - hopefully one day someone gets to the bottom of it.
Meanwhile camp in groups is the locals advice.

 

[CA Gold Hunter]

Wonder if the wife might surface somewhere with a large gold nugget. If she did do it, finding something like that would add a bit of motive I would say.

 

[Lucky Eddie]

Who knows - maybe she will turn up one day!

3 possibilities I reckon...

1 = lost on way back to camp.
2 = Human intervention (Abducted as camp cook / sex slave?)
3 = Huge nugget found and she shot thru

Thing is, why not take vehicle and dog etc?
If she was lost and died - then the dog went for water and food - you;d think the buzzards (Well Australias version of them - Wedge Tailed eagles and crows etc i.e. carrion eaters) would all be circling on the thermals during the day, while the dingoes and foxes etc all moved in for a feed!.
Surely anyone searching would have seen the birds circling and investigated?
I know out at sea for e.g. when looking for schools of pelagic fish feeding at the surface you can "see" the birds circling as they dive...from quite distance.
In fact you can tune your radar if your clever to pick up flocks of birds well past human eyesight distance!
Now the Plod chopper would surely be able to see birds circling from an elevated position - not to mention it has FLIR (And presumably radar for collision avoidance?)
Lots just doesn't add, up with this one!.
Quite the mystery!