McIntyre finally found help after a gruelling 22 hour trek through the bush. Despite his injuries, he immediately rode out with a second search party to recover the bodies of Lonigan and Scanlan. The fate of Sergeant Kennedy was still unknown.

McIntyre was taken hostage by the Kelly gang when they attacked the police's camp. Trapped unarmed and outnumbered, he was forced to find a way of saving the other policemen who were out on patrol, as the Kelly gang prepared for an ambush.

Ned and Dan Kelly were on the run, hiding out in the dense bushland in the north east of Victoria. A search party of four policemen - Sergeant Michael Kennedy, and Constables Michael Scanlan, Thomas Lonigan, and Thomas McIntyre - were sent out from Mansfield to find and apprehend the two men who had evaded capture for months. But not even a day into their mission, the four policemen had no idea how much danger they were already in.

On October 27, 1878, Constable Thomas McIntyre walked out of the Australian bush bloodied, severely injured, and desperate for help after surviving a deadly attack at the hands of a gang led by Ned Kelly.