Inside Russell Hill and Carol Clay’s secret love life together – and how Gregory Lynn’s murder trial revealed their passion fuelled by Viagra and lies

When Carol Clay rekindled her relationship with childhood sweetheart Russell Hill, she believed that fate had decided that they should be together.

So when the couple disappeared in the Wonnangatta Valley in Victoria’s Alpine region in March 2020, the people closest to the couple came believed it was possible that they had faked their own disappearance to live their best lives together a world away.

In reality, their fate was sealed the moment they made the mistake of pitching their tent next to former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn, who was found guilty of Clay’s murder by the Supreme Court of Victoria, but not guilty of Hill’s.

In closing the prosecution case, Crown Prosecutor Daniel Porceddu took a look at the relevance of the elderly couple’s secret relationship and whether or not it contributed to their deaths.

Lynn’s own barrister Dermott Dann, QC, later told the jury: ‘It’s not irrelevant.’

The former pilot claimed Ms Clay was wearing her pajamas when Mr Hill made the mistake of stealing his shotgun from the back seat of his Nissan Patrol.

He told the court that the subsequent struggle for control of the gun led to the death of the elderly couple.

Lynn told police he turned up his stereo to irritate Mr. Hill after an earlier confrontation over his drone.

“He’s trying to have fun in bed and I played the music loud and he lost his temper,” Lynn said.

During the trial, Robyn Hill, Mr Hill’s long-suffering wife, explained what she knew about her husband’s sordid relationship with his mistress.

Part of that story was about Mr. Hill’s personal struggle with depression.

She told the jury Mr Hill was prescribed antidepressants after an incident in the bush where he worked in logging in the mid-1970s.

“I have to say that when he went to hospital he had a very enlarged penis and it wouldn’t go down, and that was apparently part of the depression,” she told the jury.

The court heard Hill regularly took antidepressants in the years following the day he was allegedly murdered.

Mrs Hill told the court her husband had long lied about his relationship with Mrs Clay, who Lynn claimed was shot by Mr Hill in a tragic accident before dying by falling on a knife during the ensuing struggle.

The jury heard that Mr Hill was Ms Clay’s first boyfriend, but they had reconnected in the early 2000s.

Mrs Hill told the court she and her husband were going on holiday to Phillip Island, while Mrs Clay and her then husband were unaware of their secret relationship.

She told the court that she had known Mrs. Clay as long as her husband, who had told her that Mrs. Clay was her cousin.

It was a lie that Ms. Hill learned only after she saw Mr. Hill and Ms. Clay behaving “strangely,” such as going for walks together on those outings.

The secret relationship eventually came to a head when a neighbor of the Hills threatened to expose Mr. Hill’s behavior to his wife.

The court heard Hill confessed to the relationship but assured his wife he would end the affair immediately – a lie he maintained until his alleged murder.

Mrs Hill said she believed her husband was alone when he left for his final camping trip in the bush.

The jury heard that Mr Hill had told his entire family he would be alone.

The court heard Mrs Hill had bought her husband a new box of antidepressants, along with cans of bourbon and coke and a bottle of Bundaberg rum for the trip.

Police later found a label for Mr. Hill’s erection pill Viagra in Ms. Clay’s bathroom sink.

Mrs. Hill broke down in tears as she recalled how her husband continued to lie about his relationship with Mrs. Clay.

Mrs Hill said her husband enjoyed sitting by the campfire in the evenings enjoying a few drinks.

She told the court she married him in 1969 and initially lived in Lilydale before moving to a flat in Nayook, east of Melbourne.

Mr Hill had worked in the timber industry all his life, removing logs from the bush with a bulldozer.

He had helped create some of the tracks he last rode on in the Wonnangatta Valley, where he died.

Mrs Hill said she too would camp with her husband in the same rugged areas he took Mrs Clay.

“When Debbie was really little, we would camp there in a caravan around Christmas because he would make tracks,” she said.

Ms Hill had been living with him in Drouin, south-east Melbourne, at the time of his death.

The court heard that Mr Hill had taken up drone flying during his retirement, keen to get an aerial view of the landscape below.

She also talked about his love for amateur radio and how he talked about it with friends every day.

The court heard she briefly listened to radio conversations Mr Hill made in the two days before he died.

“A lot of times I didn’t listen to that because it was only men’s stuff,” she said.

Mrs Hill said her husband appeared jovial before leaving on what would be his final adventure.

“He was happy because he enjoyed going there. It’s a lovely place,” she said.

Mr Hill’s daughter, Debbie Hill, told the jury she knew about her father’s relationship with Ms Clay “a long time ago”.

Like her mother, she recalled her father telling her in the mid-2000s that he was ending the relationship.

Mr Dann told the jury the couple’s relationship remained a mystery to many of those who knew them.

“He’s been living a double life for a long time,” Mr. Dann said.

He told the jury that Mr Hill, who was described as a tall and fit man, was likely drunk and excited when Lynn claimed he had stolen his shotgun.

‘It was late at night. We say the inference is that Mr Hill was drunk,” Mr Dann said.

“He had only been there a few nights or one night before. He has the alcohol. He’s in the tent with Mrs. Clay and he has this person playing loud music.”

Mr Dann reminded the jury of what Lynn told police about what he thought the couple were up to when he annoyed them that night.

‘Mr Lynn says in his account of the interview that he thought they were having fun in bed. Is he making that up now? Is he just making that up for his own sake?’ said Mr. Dann.

‘It’s consistent with what another witness said, which was his impression of the relationship. It was an intimate relationship.

“Once again we need to support Mr. Lynn’s story, not that he could, possibly know anything about this. We have the Viagra record that (a police officer) saw the prescription in the trash, obviously a recent prescription.

“There are still some lights on at their campsite, so they won’t sleep this evening.”

On Tuesday, a jury could not conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Lynn had killed Mr. Hill, but found him guilty of Ms. Clay’s murder.