Late at night on 26 June 1880, Joe Byrne and Dan Kelly went to Sherritt's house at Sebastopol. Sherritt and his family were being guarded by four policemen who were living at the house. When Sherritt opened the door, he was shot dead by Joe Byrne. The police did not come out of the house and remained there until the next day. Byrne and Kelly left Sebastopol and rode across country to Glenrowan. They knew the police would send a large group by train to Beechworth to try and capture them. Ned Kelly and Steve Hart had gone to Glenrowan earlier and had pulled up the train tracks. They had planned on the police sending the train to Beechworth during the night. The plan failed when the police at Sherritt's house did not report the murder until midday.