Jetstar pilot Gregory Lynn self-defence case over murder of missing campers Russell Hill Carol Clay
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Stunning twist in the case of ex-Jetstar pilot accused of murdering missing camper secret lovers in a crime that shocked Australia, and how the bullets that killed them could hold the key
- Missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay were shot dead in the bushes
- Gregory Lynn, 55, was charged in February with their alleged murders.
- Lynn allegedly burned the human remains after she allegedly killed them.
- The police have compiled a massive report of evidence against the jailed Lynn.
- Lynn will appear in court to face a preliminary hearing over four days in January.
Former Jetstar pilot Gregory Lynn could claim self-defense when his matter returns to court in the coming weeks.
Lynn allegedly shot campers secret lovers Russell Hill and Carol Clay in the Victorian highlands before burning their bodies and dumping them in bush graves.
On January 13, the ballistics experts Lynn hopes will clear her name will appear before Melbourne Magistrates Court for a four-day preliminary hearing.
Russell Hill (right) and Carol Clay (left) were allegedly killed while on a camping trip in the Victorian Highlands in March 2020
Gregory Lynn, 55, (pictured) was charged with the murder of secret lovers Russell Hill and Carol Clay.
While Lynn’s defense team has never publicly stated how her case would be handled, Melbourne’s top lawyer Dermot Dann, QC, suggested in November that a self-defense argument could be on the cards.
Dann is considered one of the best criminal defense attorneys in the country and the man responsible for clearing the name of convicted murderer Katia Pyliotis.
In preparing for the January commitment hearing, Mr. Dann provided the first public clues about what happened to the campers.
The badly burned remains of Clay, 73, and Hill, 74, were located by detectives from the Victoria Police Missing Persons Squad on November 30 last year, just days after Lynn’s arrest.
Melbourne Magistrates Court heard last month that a ballistics expert would play a crucial role in the alleged killer’s upcoming preliminary hearing.
Dann said he was looking forward to questioning ballistics expert Paul Griffiths.
“Mr. Griffiths is an important witness dealing with the trajectory of the bullet and so on,” he said.
The court heard that 11 witnesses will be called to testify at the preliminary hearing.
Mr. Dann’s request to question the ballistics expert revealed for the first time that the undercover campers had likely been shot to death.
While Mr Dann did not explain why the findings on the bullet’s trajectory were “crucial”, it could help support any notion of self-defense based on the results.
The court heard that Victorian homicide detectives had compiled a massive 773-page evidence report against Lynn, whose flight attendant wife, Melanie, continues to be supportive.
She has regularly attended Lynn’s online court hearings since her arrest in the alleged murders.
Mr. Hill’s family did not know that he would be spending the weekend with Mrs. Clay.
Greg Lynn is seen with his wife Melanie, who is a Jetstar flight attendant, and the couple are at work.
Mrs. Clay was on a romantic camping trip and had confided in her sister about the romance.
The court heard that the police report contained mountains of transcripts of secret recordings of Lynn captured by detectives as part of ‘Operation Lexicon’.
Dann said he had at least 14 folders of material related to his client’s phone records.
Lynn will appear in court in person for the first time when the matter proceeds in January.
The burned remains of Russell Hill Camp
Lynn will appear in court in person for the first time when the matter proceeds in January.
The 55-year-old man from Caroline Springs, in Melbourne’s west, remains in custody after being charged with the couple’s murders.
The bodies of his alleged victims had been dumped in a dense bush near the Providence Spur Track, north of Dargo, in the eastern part of the state, and had lain there for 20 months.
Detectives allege that the bodies had been dumped in the area the same day they went missing on March 20, 2020.
The mystery remains, for now, as to what else the police found at the burial site.
A breakthrough in the missing campers case came when police arrested Lynn in the bush on November 22 of last year.
He had been arrested on a Monday night at a remote camp in Arbuckle Junction, 1.5 hours south of Wonnangatta in the eastern part of the state.
Detectives seized his Nissan Patrol after following their movements and flying by helicopter to remote bushland.
A trailer being towed by an SUV, also captured on CCTV the night the secret lovers disappeared, is believed to be still missing.
Lynn faces life in prison if convicted of the murders.
Search footage showed plainclothes officers sifting the soil by hand as an excavator moved forward churning up the soil and digging out the tamped soil.