Did she Fall or was She Pushed? – Annie Solly

SKELETON  FOUND IN OLD MINE !

The old Brown Hill mine, close to the Brown Hill railway station, was the scene of a mild sensation yesterday. The mine has not been worked for a long time, and a party  of prospectors – tributors went down and at about the 400ft. level a human skeleton was found, which proved to he evidently that of a woman. Apparently it had lain there for about two years. The police are proceeding with enquiries.

Kalgoorlie Miner (WA : 1895 – 1950), Tuesday 6 June 1911, page 4

THE SKELETON MYSTERY  –   DETECTIVES INQUIRY  –  ANNIE SOLLY STILL MISSING.

The Kalgoorlie detectives were busily engaged yesterday in instituting inquiries with the object of gaining some further information in the hope that it would lead to a solution of the mystery that now surrounds the woman’s skeleton lying at the Government morgue, and which was found in the Oroya-Brown Hill mine on Friday morning last by two employees. The detectives feel quite sure that she got into that position by falling into the open cut on the lease, and then down a pass, and in view of the knowledge that has come to them regarding the woman, Annie Solly, who was supposed to have been about 5 ft. high, which would be consistent with the appearance of the skeleton, -they are still strongly inclined to  the belief that she was the woman who lost her life there. The sudden disappearance of the woman about November 1908, from the boarding house at which she was employed on Boulder-road, together with the fact that she was in the habit of going along a path close to the southern fence of the open cut, give a good deal of colour to the theory that has been formed in reference to her. Detective Sergeant Walsh made inquiries yesterday regarding Annie Solly, who had not been heard of since her name was published in connection with this case.
The result of his investigations is not available at present for publication, but it is believed that there is a possibility of interesting developments along the line which the detectives are at present proceeding. There are rumors abroad that Annie Solly has been seen about Kalgoorlie during the last 12 months, but definite details on this point cannot be obtained. However, it seems unlikely that, if alive, she is on the goldfields, for the reason that the luggage which she left behind her on the night she was last seen at O’Hears boarding-house, is still in possession of local people. Inquiries in all other directions have been abandoned for the time being, or until all possibilities have been exploded or confirmed regarding the fate of the young woman in whom most interest is now generally centered.  An inquest was formally opened yesterday on the remains by Mr. P. Whelan, J.P., deputy coroner, with a jury consisting of Messrs. J. Landvogt, Britten, and A. Katz. The jury were sworn in at the police station by the deputy coroner, after which they were conveyed in a cab to the morgue, where the skeleton was viewed. The inquest was then adjourned until Tuesday, June 13.

Melbourne Woman’s Fate.  –  Foul Play Suspected  –  Kalgoorlie

The skeleton found in the open cut of the Oroya Brown Hill mine on 2nd June is supposed by the detectives to  be that of Melbourne woman Annie Solly or Soloy, a well known Melbourne bar maid who disappeared two and a half years ago.  Soley, when last seen wearing a dress similar to that found on the skeleton. The shoe on the skeleton is identified by her friends as similar to a pattern worn by her. The theory of foul play is supposed by the fact that a box belonging to Solly was found in the camp of a man whom she was on terms of intimacy but he failed to report the womans disappearance.

Grave of Annie Solly – photo by Danelle Warnock

Although it appears that Annie Solly had a sister in Melbourne she is buried without a headstone in the Kalgoorlie Cemetery.