Greg Lynn trial: Former pilot’s account of missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay’s deaths in Wonnangatta Valley
Former airline pilot Greg Lynn is facing trial after pleading not guilty to the murders of campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay. Picture: SuppliedBy LIAM BEATTY
JOURNALIST- NCA NEWSWIRE
- 2:56PM JUNE 3, 2024
For the past three weeks, the 57-year-old pilot has been standing trial in the Victorian Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to the murders of Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, in March 2020.
The elderly couple vanished while on a camping trip to the Wonnangatta Valley, in Victoria’s High Country, with their remains located 20 months later.
The jury heard Mr Lynn was arrested on November 22, 2021, and held at Sale Police Station while police needed to make further enquiries.
On Monday, footage from his interview three days later was played in court, as the accused man told police of a “childish” act before he “made a poor choice” and just wanted to move on and forget about it.
Mr Lynn told police he just wanted to move on with life. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique AscuiWearing a grey jumper and face mask, Mr Lynn was seated across from two detectives with a large yellow map of the region on the table in front of him.
For much of the video, he kept his eyes down and wrote in a notebook as he gave a calm account of what happened.
He told the detectives he arrived in the valley a day before Mr Hill and Mrs Clay did and set up at Bucks Camp because a contractor spraying weeds had told him it was a “fantastic” spot.
“I’d only been here once before, I don’t know it very well,” he said.
In the video, he explained that on March 19 he watched as two cars “came tearing along this track at high speed”.
Mr Lynn said the first car was driven by Mr Hill with Mrs Clay looking “quite alarmed”, with Mr Hill explaining he’d been chased along the track by the “donkeys” in the second vehicle.
Mr Lynn watched the screen intently as his interview was played. Artist: Paul TyquinIn the interview, he said Mr Hill “seemed nice” and had told him they were also planning to camp at Bucks Camp.
“I said; ‘there’s hundreds of other campsites but if you want to camp here, it’s a free country’,” he told the detectives.
“Yes I would have preferred it by myself but it doesn’t bother me.”
The following day Mr Lynn said he left camp to go “stalking” for deer, and as he was returning a few hours later he noticed a “buzzing” sound.
“I didn’t know what it was, I was scratching my head. Well I was wearing a hat so figuratively speaking,” he said in the video.
He told the detectives he looked up to see a drone “woosh” away and he thought “all right what’s all this about”.
Returning to camp he said he saw Mr Hill slipping the drone into a case.
“I was getting my dinner ready and decided to go find out what this drone incident was all about,” he said.
“I walked up to him and I asked him why he was using the drone. He said he didn’t like deer hunters and had video footage of me hunting close to camp.
“He said he had pictures and would take them to the police, I said; ‘this is ridiculous’.
“He said; ‘I’ll say you shot through camp’.”
The couple’s campsite was discovered in late March 2020. Picture: Supplied/ Supreme Court of Victoria.Mr Lynn said he was annoyed and blared music from his car, admitting it was a “childish” action to annoy Mr Hill.
Later the same night about 9pm or 10pm, he told the officers, he heard Mr Hill swiping a shotgun from his car and confronted him.
“When I advanced towards him, he had the magazine in the shotgun at this stage, he pulled back and let off a couple of shots,” he said.
Mr Lynn said he wrestled Mr Hill for the gun, and it “discharged”, killing Mrs Clay.
In the video, the accused man loudly sighed as he said; “my hand was not on the trigger, it was on the barrel.”
He told police Mr Hill immediately dropped the gun, and he emptied the remaining shot before returning it to his car and locking the doors.
He said he turned around as Mr Hill advanced “towards me with a knife in his right hand”.
On Mr Lynn’s account, they fought, before Mr Hill fell on the knife.
“I panicked and I thought it’s my shotgun, there’s one person dead and he’s dead as well,” Mr Lynn said.
“And, um, I’m guilty of trying to cover it up”.
Greg Lynn's Barathrum 12-gauge shotgun. Picture: Supplied.Mr Lynn said he panicked, set fire to their camp and dumped the bodies off a dirt track near Dargo.
He returned later in November to set fire to the remains, he said.
“It was wrong of me to hide those bodies like that. I should have just gone to police,” he said in the interview.
There’s nothing there, there’s nothing to find, I’m sorry. That’s the truth, that’s the best I can give you, it’s not going to be much relief for the families.
“I just guess that um, in my attempt to hide it I thought I might be able to move on and continue with my life, my family and my career.”
Mr Lynn told the detectives he knew he was being watched by police after returning home but he’d been “trying to keep my head down and just move on”.
“It’s subtle but noticeable,” he said of the perceived surveillance.
Before the video was played, Justice Michael Croucher advised the jury “irrelevant parts” had been edited out to avoid wasting their time.
“You’ll notice at points there’s blips or editing, that’s a standard thing that occurs at trials,” he said.
He said the editing process was still going on and jurors wouldn’t see the remainder of the three and a half hour video until Tuesday.
Earlier on Monday, Detective Sergeant Brett Florence appeared short of breath and occasionally coughed as he took the stand and was questioned by crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu.
Last Thursday, the jury was sent home early for the weekend as Justice Michael Croucher said Detective Florence was “crook”.
Detective Sergeant Brett Florence is expected to give evidence on Monday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicki Connolly“You may have noticed that the informant, Detective Florence, who usually sits behind the prosecution barristers there, hasn’t been there this week,” he said.
“He is crook and is in the process of getting over his illness … but we expect he’ll be here on Monday.”
The jury was told Detective Florence was the ‘lead investigator” in the missing persons case, and had laid the charges against Mr Lynn.
He said in May 2020, the investigation received cell phone data from Mr Hill’s phone showing it had briefly reactivated in the morning of March 21 — on the other side of the valley to where the elderly couple entered two days earlier.
Greg Lynn's Nissan Patrol and trailer were captured by an automatic number plate recognition camera travelling along the Great Alpine Rd at 9.48am on March 21, 2020. Picture: Supplied/ Supreme Court of VictoriaDetective Florence told the jury he travelled out to the area on May 26 looking for CCTV that could assist the investigation and located four automatic number plate recognition cameras.
Two of these on the Great Alpine Rd, he said, were in the area of where Mr Hill’s phone last pinged.
The Sergeant said he was given copies of 12 vehicles passing through the cameras within a 30-minute window.
Other than Mr Lynn’s Nissan Patrol, Detective Florence said, the 11 other vehicles had been captured on corresponding cameras entering the resort on the other side of Mount Hotham.
He told the jury he visited Mr Lynn’s home on July 14, and noticed his car had been repainted to a “beige” colour from the dark grey or blue identified on the camera.
The jury was told Carol Clay and Russell Hill were childhood sweethearts who rekindled later in life. Picture: Supplied.Prosecutors allege Mr Lynn killed the pair “without lawful excuse”, likely following a spat with Mr Hill over his drone or footage on his drone.
“The precise circumstances of the killings are not known. Nor is the motivation,” crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu said at the start of the trial.
It’s alleged Mr Hill was “most likely” killed first, with Mrs Clay shot in the head second as a witness to the first slaying.
Through his barrister, Dermot Dann KC, Mr Lynn is arguing that both died in tragic accidents that were not “of his making”.
Mr Lynn has pleaded not guilty, asking the jury to find both died accidentally. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique AscuiThe defence lawyer told the jury Mr Lynn was camping at the same site while on a deer hunting trip, and his initial exchange with the couple was “exchanging pleasantries”.
On his account, the situation turned south when Mr Hill accused the former pilot of hunting too close to their camp and swiped his gun in the evening of March 20.
The shotgun accidentally discharged as the two men wrestled for control, striking Mrs Clay in the head after first passing through the side mirror of Mr Hill’s vehicle, Mr Dann submitted.
Mr Hill then died after falling on a knife as he advanced on Mr Lynn.
Both the prosecution and defence agree Mr Lynn set fire to the couple’s campsite, before moving and later burning their bodies.
Prosecutors allege this can be seen as an implied admission of guilt, while the defence say he panicked and made “terrible choices”.
The trial continues.
LIAM BEATTY
JOURNALIST
