Greg Lynn allegedly talked to himself about Carol Clay, Russell Hill deaths

Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn was allegedly recorded talking to himself about the deaths of elderly campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay, before he was charged with their murders.

In court documents released Tuesday afternoon, prosecutors revealed that homicide detectives had been investigating Lynn for about a year before finally arresting him in November 2021.

“Investigators identified the defendant to have conversations with himself while at various locations, at his home address, and while camping on his own,” the court documents state.

“It is alleged that the defendant sometimes referred to the deaths of Hill and Clay.”

Lynn, 56, appeared in Melbourne Magistrate Court on Tuesday charged with the murders of Hill, 74, and Clay, 73.

The elderly camper, Ms. Clay, was allegedly shot in the head and killed when her secret lover, Mr. Hill, tried to take a gun from Lynn, the court heard.

At the time of her arrest, Lynn was working as a senior checking captain pilot at Jetstar and had worked in the airline industry for more than 30 years, according to the documents.

The court heard that Lynn had been a gun enthusiast when he ventured into the desert in March 2020.

“Defendant was a passionate amateur sports shooter and firearms enthusiast licensed to possess nine different firearms, including pistols, long-arm centerfire rifles, and a shotgun,” a prosecution summary stated.

Police allege that Lynn went through the wallets of the dead campers, which were partially open and scattered across the footwells of Mr. Hill’s vehicle.

‘A closer examination noted that credit/debit type cards were missing. It was also confirmed that Hill’s and Clay’s mobile phones were not inside the vehicle,” the court heard.

Police believe Lynn took Hill’s beloved DJI drone and the keys to his Landcruiser before leaving the scene. The drone has never been recovered.

Lynn continues to deny murdering the couple while they were camping in the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020.

According to the summary, investigators allege that Lynn argued with the campers before killing them both.

“The circumstances of their deaths and the defendant’s subsequent behavior are consistent with the defendant having intent to cause death or at least cause each of them genuinely serious injury,” the summary read.

It is the first time that details of how police allege the killings occurred have been revealed.

The badly burned remains of the elderly couple were found by detectives from the Victoria Police Missing Persons Squad on 30 November 2021, just days after Lynn’s arrest.

It’s unclear how police allege Lynn murdered Hill.

The court heard that Lynn worked to cover up her alleged crimes, placing camping items, including a bottle of barbecue gas that belonged to the couple, inside her tent before setting it on fire.

It is alleged that this was done to hide his crimes. He packed up his own camp and fled with the bodies of Hill and Clay,” the court heard.

Police say Lynn dumped the couple’s bodies in the bush, but returned again in May and November “to implement measures to try to destroy the remains…including setting fire to the remains of their bodies.”

Police allege that Lynn repainted her own vehicle from blue to beige just two months after the alleged murders.

Months later, police released a roadside camera image of a dark blue Nissan Patrol towing a modified trailer in the Wonnangatta Valley on March 20, 2020.

In December of that year, seven months after the couple’s disappearance, police obtained warrants to begin undercover surveillance of Lynn’s vehicle.

Lynn wouldn’t be arrested until almost a year later.

Lynn’s lawyer, Dermot Dann, QC, told coroner Mark Mr Gellatly that Hill had seized his client’s shotgun.

“The two were fighting over the gun that caused an accidental discharge … which struck Ms. Clay in the head as she was positioned on the near side of Hill’s vehicle,” Mr. Dann said.

“Yes,” replied Mr. Gellatly. “It’s a possible explanation at this point.”

The court heard that traces of Mrs Clay’s blood, confirmed by DNA analysis, had been found in Mr Hill’s Toyota Landcruiser, however many suspicious traces had been destroyed by fire.

On Monday, the court heard that the elderly lovers had visited a remote desert cemetery and buzzed other campers with a drone.

The court heard that Hill had spoken at length with three hunters on March 12, about eight days before he died, about his drone.

The documents indicate that Hill talked about his life and family before asking the hunter if he minded if he flew his drone.

‘Hill told him that he knew that it is illegal to use drones in a National Park. The hunter told Hill that they had no problem with the drone,” the documents state.

“Throughout the day, Hill and the hunters talked more about the drone, his retirement, and working logging in the area, as well as hunting.”

The court heard that Hill told the hunters that he was not a hunter, but that he had a friend who was.

The hunters testified that Hill talked to them about the importance of firearms safety. He told them about a tragic accident in which a relative was accidentally killed when he was mistaken for a deer,” the court heard.

On March 13, 2020, Hill packed up his camp and headed home to Drouin.

The hunters later describe Mr. Hill to the police as an “old gentleman” and “polite”.

On Monday, brush sprayer Robert Williams told the court he saw a drone hovering over other people’s campsites, which he believed were being filmed.

He didn’t see who was operating it, but he thought it was an intrusion.

“You are going there to have a peaceful camp and someone is flying a drone over you,” he told the court on Monday.

The next morning he smelled burning plastic in the air.

The case continues.