At 10.00am the police were forced to stop shooting to allow some of the hostages to escape. Several, including the hotel owner's son had been shot dead. Dan Kelly's sister, Maggie Skillion, and a Catholic priest Father Gibney tried to go to the hotel to tell Steve and Dan to give themselves up, but were stopped by the police. The police wanted a cannon to be sent from Nelbourne so they could blast the two men out. At 2.30pm the police set the hotel on fire, and Father Gibney rushed inside. Gibney saw the bodies of Hart and Dan Kelly lying side by side in a room at the back of the hotel, with their heads resting on blankets. They had removed the armour which was placed beside them. It is most likely they had killed themselves.