Tuesday May 16 16:29 AEST
Trapped miner's wife 'used telepathy'

The wife of trapped miner Brant Webb was convinced her husband was alive
all through his two-week ordeal in which she communicated with him by
telepathy, her father says in a diary.
Excerpts from the diary, written by Mr Webb's father-in-law Michael
Kelly and published in New Idea magazine this week, revealed his
daughter Rachel appeared to know Mr Webb was alive before he and Todd
Russell were found in the Beaconsfield gold mine.

Mr Webb and workmate Mr Russell spent 14 days trapped almost a kilometre
underground in the mine following the April 25 rockfall that killed
their workmate Larry Knight.
Mr Kelly, 66, began detailing his family's darkest two weeks soon after
news of the mine collapse reached him.
   "I scribbled things down as they happened because everything was such
a blur that I hoped when it was all over, everyone would look back and
remember what we had survived," Mr Kelly told the magazine.
Soon after the collapse, the Kellys met Rachel on the way to the mine.
Her car had run off the road, and Rachel claimed this was because Brant
had spoken to her, Mr Kelly said in the diary.

"I stopped in front and got out. I though she might have been battling
the drive. Instead she looked up with the loveliest smile. 'Brant has
just spoken to me. He is alive and OK'," the diary said in its April 26
entry.
Rachel's mother Julie, 59, thought Rachel's claims Brant had spoken to
her were a bad omen.
"I thought Brant had passed and his spirit was connecting with Rachel,"
she said.
"But she insisted her husband has called her by her pet name, Cutie, and
had reassured her he was alive and well.

"Lots of spooky things started happening."
On Saturday, April 29, a day before Mr Webb and Mr Russell were found
alive, Mr Kelly wrote:
"Today, TV announced that a body had been sighted by remote camera and
the coroner was coming to the mine to authorise retrieval and
identification.

"Rachel says it's not Brant. She sounds sure."
Mr Kelly also detailed the moment the next day when rescue coordinator
Rex Johnson ran from the mine to give the family the news Mr Webb was
alive.
"'They're alive! They're alive! It's a miracle!' he cries. The boys have
survived five days on drips of water, but they're trapped in a cage."
The following day, the strong bond between Brant and Rachel, sweethearts
since their teens, became evident again.

"Brant sent Rachel a note telling her to take his car and empty his
locker. He wants his belongings as far away from here as she can get
them," the diary said.
"She's already done it, of course. She said he'd told her to. And I
can't believe it - he's got pains in his legs, just like she said."
Later that day, Mr Webb appeared to his wife in a dream, Mr Kelly said.

"She said his face was like a child's as he lay by her, saying he was
unharmed except for sore hands and very painful legs," he said.
The tense nine days following the discovery the two trapped miners were
alive was followed by jubilation and a tender family reunion, Mr Kelly
said.

"It was all so overwhelming. He just wanted to hug and kiss his wife and
children and go home to bed," he said.
And Mr Kelly hinted Mr Webb would never return to the mine.
"Rachel's not going to let him out of her sight," he joked.