The devastating story of a small-town loyal wife who was deceived until the end by her cheating husband Russell Hill and his ‘first cousin’ Carol Clay

When Robyn Hill first met Carol Clay in the 1960s, she had no idea that their lives would be forever entangled in tragedy because of their love for the same man.

Little did she know, Robyn’s husband-to-be, Russell Hill, had already swept Mrs. Clay off her feet, but life got in the way of their love before it could become permanent.

However, he never came clean to Robyn about his past with Carol.

Instead, Mr. Hill lied to his wife-to-be — and for decades afterward — that she was only his “cousin,” while he began a secret affair that lasted into his 70s.

Robyn married Mr. Hill in 1969 and remained with him for more than 50 years.

But in 2020, Mr Hill and his elderly secret lover were allegedly murdered during an illegal camping trip in the remote Wonnangatta Valley in Victoria’s Alpine region.

Last week, Robyn was brought before the Supreme Court of Victoria, where former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty to the couple’s murder.

Seated on a bench usually reserved for court reporters, Robyn appeared stoic as she relived her early years with her husband in front of Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu.

The couple had moved to a flat in Lilydale after taking their vows, but Mr Hill’s job meant the young couple moved away in those early days.

Robyn told the jury that her husband had been ‘dozing’ and ‘chuckling’ – the process of dragging logs from bushes after they had been felled.

Their first daughter Debbie was born in 1970, followed by Colleen in 1973 and Jenny in 1977.

By the time Mr Hill made his fateful trek to the Wonnangatta Valley, the couple were living in Drouin – a town in the West Gippsland region, 90 kilometers east of Melbourne.

Robyn told the jury that her husband had actually helped build the dirt roads in the Wonnangatta Valley.

As a young family, they traveled through the area in a caravan around Christmas time.

It was an area that Mr. Hill knew well and felt at home in.

Later in life he devoted much of his time to amateur radio, speaking every day to friends in far-flung places.

After retiring, Mr. Hill took an interest in drones, flying them high above the wilderness trails he himself had bulldozed decades earlier.

The jury heard repeatedly about Mr Hill’s love of drones, radio, camping and Carol Clay.

It was a subject that Mr. Hill’s wife knew she could no longer avoid talking about out loud.

When Lynn’s lawyer Dermott Dann, KC raised the subject, Robyn was handed a box of tissues by a court employee.

By then, the jury had already heard about her husband’s cold response to her as she spoke to other campers in the days before his death.

Deer hunter Chris Benton told the jury he met Mr Hill at a campsite known as King Billy about a week before he and Ms Clay made the trip to the nearby Wonnangatta Valley.

Mr Benton said he chatted with Mr Hill about his love of amateur radio and his life in the woods before confiding in him about the struggles of life as a retiree.

“Now I’m retired and it’s really messed me up,” Mr. Hill told the stranger.

Although Mr. Benton claimed that Mr. Hill told him he was married, he made no mention of Ms. Clay.

‘When I go home, my wife will just nag me anyway. I might as well stay here,” Mr. Hill allegedly told the camper.

Another witness told the jury that Mr Hill had been the love of Ms Clay’s life.

Louise Heib told the court that Ms Clay had wanted to be with Mr Hill since childhood but he did not want to commit.

“Carol told me that they were originally together when they were much younger, but when Carol started taking the relationship seriously when they were younger, they broke up and it devastated her,” she said.

Ms Heib said the couple’s relationship “flared up” years later.

The jury heard that Robyn and their children had become aware of Mr Hill’s secret relationship in the early 2000s when he assured them he would end it.

While Mrs. Clay divorced her husband in anticipation of continuing her relationship with Mr. Hill, he withdrew and instead continued to see her secretly until the time of their deaths.

Mrs. Heib claimed that Mrs. Clay told her that Mr. Hill could not leave his wife “because she was not a healthy lady.”

“When she came back from camping, she would tell me about the beautiful walks they went on and show me pictures of the walks they went on on her phone,” Ms Heib said.

On the day she embarked on her final journey, the court heard Mrs Clay call her friend from the road.

“She sounded excited to get out and go camping,” Ms. Heib said.

Robyn told Mr. Dann that she had no idea Mrs. Clay had been on that last trip with her husband.

When Ms Clay was married, she and Mr Hill took a couple’s holiday to Phillip Island.

At the time, she still believed Ms. Clay was Mr. Hill’s cousin.

It was a lie that Robyn only learned after watching Mr Hill and Ms Clay behave ‘strangely’, such as walking together on trips to Phillip Island.

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 Robyn had bought her husband a new box of antidepressants, along with cans of bourbon and coke and a bottle of Bundaberg rum for his final trip.

A bottle of wine was later also found at the burned campsite.

Robyn also gave him $20 or $30 in cash so he could buy himself lunch.

Mrs. Hill agreed with Mr. Dann that her husband enjoyed sitting by the campfire in the evenings enjoying a few drinks.

The jury heard that Mr Hill had struggled with depression for most of his life.

Robert Williams had been hard at work spraying weeds in the Wonnangatta Valley when he chanced upon Mr Hill and Mrs Clay driving around the track.

He later described Mr Hill to police as a “grumpy old bastard”.

‘It was like he was on a mission. It was just very unusual,” he told the jury.

“He just looked really grumpy and sad, and it’s just the way he rushed past me… people normally slow down.

“He just didn’t smile, he didn’t recognize me, he didn’t even really want to look at me.”

The accused killer of the elderly couple claims it was Mr Hill who authored his own downfall.

The court heard that Hill and Lynn had had an argument about Lynn hunting deer so close to other campers.

Later that evening, Lynn decided to turn up the volume on his car radio in an attempt to irritate Mr Hill, the jury heard.

It was about 10 p.m. when Lynn noticed that Mr. Hill had gotten into his car and stolen his 12-gauge shotgun.

The jury heard that when Lynn tried to wrestle the firearm away from Mr Hill, the gun went off and Ms Clay was hit in the head.

When he saw what had happened, Mr. Hill dropped the gun and rushed to Ms. Clay’s body.

Mr Dann said Lynn picked up the gun and fired the remaining shots into the air before being attacked by an irate Mr Hill.

“The next thing is Mr. Hill comes up to him with a knife and yells at him, ‘She’s dead,'” Mr. Dann said.

‘There was a struggle over the knife. Mr. Lynn tries to defend himself – they are engaged in this struggle – and as part of that struggle the two men fall to the ground and the knife goes through Mr. Hill’s chest.”

The process continues.