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The case against former pilot Gregory Lynn, charged with the murder of missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay in the Victorian highlands, has finally been filed.
Lynn, 56, was arrested in November 2021, more than 20 months after Hill, 74, and Clay, 73, went missing from their remote camp in the Wonnangatta Valley.
In a summary of the police case provided to Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday, police outlined their allegations against the former Jetstar pilot.
Police allege the camping trip ended in tragedy, with Ms Clay shot in the head and Mr Hill fatally stabbed, after a fight over a drone.
Lynn has denied murdering the couple, and attorney Dermot Dann KC said the allegations against his client are “highly disputed”.
Childhood sweethearts who had rekindled their relationship 15 years earlier, Mr Hill and Mrs Clay had allegedly traveled to remote ‘Bucks Camp’ on March 19, 2020 to spend some quality time together.
The case against former pilot Gregory Lynn, charged with the murder of missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay in the Victorian highlands, has finally been filed.
When the couple arrived, police believe it is “probable” that they were somehow involved with Mr Lynn, who had allegedly camped there the day before.
At around 6 pm on March 19, Hill made contact via high-frequency radio with a group of radio amateurs, who reported that he sounded “normal”, according to a police summary of the events.
It is alleged in the document that at some point after this conversation a confrontation broke out between Mr. Lynn and Mr. Hill and they were killed.
In a separate statement provided to the court by forensic expert Mark Gellatly, he claims police informed him they believed Lynn was upset about Hill’s drone and confronted the couple about it before returning to their camp.
He said crime scene investigators believe Hill allegedly took a shotgun from Lynn’s vehicle, before a physical fight broke out between the two men and the gun went off.
It is alleged that Ms Clay, who was standing near Mr Hill’s car, received a fatal blow to the head, with a subsequent fight between the two men, which ended when Mr Lynn fatally stabbed Mr Hill.
Court sketch of Gregory Lynn appearing at Melbourne Magistrates Court
Gregory Lynn’s car was allegedly repainted after the deaths.
Police will allege Mr Lynn set fire to the couple’s campsite in an effort to hide what happened, and loaded the bodies into his trailer and dumped them in the bush.
“The defendant made immediate and overt efforts to contaminate the crime scene and conceal the crimes, including the destruction of evidence and the burning of the scene,” the police summary submitted to the court reads.
It is also likely that the defendant threw away the drone, the car keys to the Landcruiser and the Hill and Clay cell phones.
“To date, none of these items have been recovered.”
The statement further alleges that the circumstances of the couple’s death and Mr. Lynn’s subsequent behavior suggest that he “intent to cause death or at least cause really serious injury to each of them.”
According to the summary of facts, Mr. Lynn returned home on the afternoon of March 22.
Greg Lynn’s employment with Jetstar was terminated after the allegations came to light. Image: Supplied
The depleted camp of Russell Hill and Carol Clay photographed by a camper near the Dry River Track at Billabong in the Wonnangatta Valley
The burned remains of the campsite were allegedly discovered on March 27 by a camper, just a day after Hill’s wife reported him missing.
“We walked to the site and I could see things were not looking good and we decided we should call the police,” camper Colin Boyd said in a statement provided to police.
Police will allege that Mr. Lynn then returned to the area in May and November 2020, where he is accused of attempting to “destroy” the couples’ remains by setting fire.
Police first interviewed him in July 2020, after his Nissan Patrol was caught on automatic license plate recognition cameras leaving the area around the time Mr Hill and Ms Clay went missing.
Missing persons detective Abbey Justin told the court he was being considered a witness at the time.
She questioned Mr. Lynn in the kitchen of his Caroline Springs home about his movements through the park and the color of his vehicle, with the interview secretly recorded.
Police alleged that he repainted his vehicle and sold the trailer to “conceal his involvement.”
The remains of Mr Hill and Mrs Clay were discovered in November 2021
By December 2020, Mr. Lynn was allegedly under surveillance with GPS trackers, listening devices, and wiretaps.
At various times over the next several months, he allegedly referred to the deaths of Ms. Hill and Mr. Clay while talking to himself.
He was arrested on November 22, 2021, while camping at an isolated site near Arbuckle, about 20 km south of where Hill and Clay were allegedly murdered.
Supposedly, her remains were discovered at the base of a fallen tree later that same month.
Crime scene investigators returned to the Wonnangatta camp in March 2022, where they reportedly located a fragment of a human skull, linked by DNA to Clay, and a piece of lead near where the couple’s tent had been pitched. .
Forensic testing is underway to determine if the lead was related to firearms and ammunition seized from Mr. Lynn’s home.
Mr Lynn has faced Melbourne Magistrates Court this week for a detention hearing at which Judge Brett Sonnet will decide whether there is sufficient evidence against him to stand trial in the High Court.
The former pilot has denied killing Hill and Clay and his response to the charges has never been made public.