The Wonnangatta campsite murders in Victoria’s Alpine National Park

Russell Hill and Carol Clay, 73, disappeared March 20, 2020, Dry River Track, Wonnangatta, Alpine NAtional Park, Victoria, Australia. Bodies found November 2021

On March 20, 2020, Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, headed for a campsite near Dry River Track near Wonnangatta, a locality in northeast Victoria, Australia, in the Alpine Shire local government area. It is 217 miles (349 km) northeast of the state capital, Melbourne.

The area is within the Alpine National Park, located in Victoria's Central Highlands and Alpine regions. The 1,600,000-acre park covers much of the higher areas of the Great Dividing Range in Victoria, including Victoria's highest point, Mount Bogong, at 6,516 feet (1,986 metres) and the associated subalpine woodland and grassland of the Bogong High Plains.

Russell had picked up Carol from her house in Pakenham on the outskirts of Melbourne on March 19 after leaving his home in Drouin, and the pair headed north east, bound for the remote Wonnangatta Valley.

They had a secret relationship and didn't tell anyone where they were going. Carol just told friends she would be gone for a few days, but Russell’s wife, Robyn, knew of the affair for decades. They planned to return on March 26, and Clay told friends she expected to be home by March 28 or 29.

Russell drove into the valley on a rough 14 miles long (23 km) 4WD path known as the Zeka Spur Track, a road he’d built decades earlier while working as a contract logger. He took his drone, which he called Fred, along with him. The area was very isolated, and their chosen campsite was well hidden from passing visitors. The area has no cellphone reception and is described as a “Dense and Dangerous country”.

The couple were never seen alive again. What followed was one of the most baffling disappearances in the bush ever seen in Australian history.

In May 2020, the disappearances were linked to an oddball bushman loner living in the Victorian Alps, who has been questioned over several mysterious disappearances called “Buttons” or “the Button Man.” He had become a person of interest after concerns about his odd behaviour were raised by locals, but the police exonerated him after tracking him down in the bush. A police source told Daily Mail Australia, “Being creepy is not illegal.”

There have been a series of strange disappearances from the Victorian High Country in recent years. Read more at The strange mystery of the Australian Button Man and the Victorian Alpine Park Disappearances.

Russell and Carol’s camping trip

Russell’s family, including his wife, falsely believed he was camping alone. Friends say since Russell’s retirement two years earlier, he’d been known to head off on solo road trips. Only later did those close to him learn that Carol, a former Country Women’s Association president, was on some of those getaways.

The pair has not been heard since Friday, March 20, when Hill made radio contact from a remote station in the Alps. During the call, Russell said he was having radio transmission issues.

Rob Ashlin

Robbie Ashlin, Russell's long-time friend, was the last person known to have spoken to him. They were part of an amateur radio club that would chat on their radios each day at 6.00 pm, and that day, they ended the call at around 6.40 pm. The group comprises men who like camping, hunting, and fishing: outdoors types who use the radio to communicate when they are out of phone reception.

They weren't too concerned when Russell didn’t call into the radio club on the 21st, but by the 23rd, Robbie became worried and spoke to Russell’s wife, Robyn, who then reported him missing to the authorities.

Discovery of the campsite

Hill and Clay burnt campsite March 2020

On March 21, at around 2 pm, the couple’s campsite was discovered by a passerby, but the authorities were only notified a week later on March 27.

Investigators headed to the area on March 28. The 4WD truck had been burned out, and Russell’s specially equipped Toyota camper utility was left scorched by fire and abandoned. Despite it being burnt, the vehicle was still able to be driven. There was no sign of any bodies. The couple’s phones, car keys, and sleeping bags were also missing, as well as the $AUS2000 drone.

The contents of the Wallets were scattered in the ute with no sign of cash or identity documents, and the vehicle was locked.

Police checks showed they had not accessed their phones, credit cards or bank accounts. Despite repeated searches by the authorities, no evidence of their fate was found at the time, but the detectives presumed they were dead given the state of the camp.

But many were puzzled. It seemed implausible that an experienced camper would put flammable gas bottles inside a tent. Foul play was immediately suspected.

High country musterer Lachlan Culican, who helped police during the search, believed the pair may have accidentally captured footage of illegal hunters in the area with their drone. He was shocked by the sheer quantity of dead deer in the area where their scorched campsite was found, explaining he saw a new carcass every “200m or 300m”.

If the couple were murdered in their sleeping bags, Mick Ott, who was paid to kill dangerous wild dogs in the region, said it was likely their bodies would have been discovered by the hounds before police arrived, “If I was lost and potentially injured, I'd be very concerned about what the dogs could do,' he said, adding that they will 'completely devour' their prey.”

Russell’s friend Robbie Ashlin talked of one incident on a previous trip when Russell was sitting around the fire when they saw a person standing at the edge of the light, staring at them, “One of them shot over to his vehicle and this person who was standing there just wandered behind the shadow of a tree and was gone. They were being stalked without knowing about it for some time.” Ashlin told the media he thought there could be a suspect hiding in the mountains.

One source said, “There are a lot of people who go up there and do illegal stuff. Like people who go hunting in the national park and ride motorcycles. Has he had a dispute with one of them that turned bad?”

He also found the image of their burnt campsite, taken by two passers-by a week later, startling because the site was not set up in the way Russell would ever arrange his campsites. Ashlin had been camping with Hill several times and described his friend as “cautious” with fire and flammable materials.

The charred scene was a pile of blackened chairs, tent material and gas bottles, but Russell was an experienced camper and would never have made a campfire close to anything flammable. When Robbie saw the jumble of burnt equipment, he knew something was wrong, “I knew straight away in my own mind that something really unforgiving had happened”.

Fire forensics expert Greg Kelly experimented with tent fibers and ropes to see if an accidental fire could have started. However, the materials burned too slowly and extinguished themselves before a blaze could have started. There were also no burn marks across the car doors, which were nearby, the tyres weren't melted, and the esky underneath the car was intact.

Kelly said the scene suggested the fire was short and hot, likely caused by an accelerant, such as the gas canisters inside the tent.

Detectives believed that unidentified attackers may have torched the campsite to destroy forensic evidence of a crime.

If they hadn’t set up their disappearance and were the victims of an accident, then how did their campsite - set up for comfort with a tent, outdoor shower, fold-up chairs and a table - just happen to catch fire?

Carol Clay

Police were asked if the pair, who reportedly known each other for more than 20 years, could have run away together. However, this was considered highly unlikely - these two people were close to their families and had good, independent, comfortable lives. Also, Carol was considered a person who always followed the rules.

The police had hit a dead end. The official search was ended on April 6 without a trace of the missing couple, with the authorities saying, “It's a genuine mystery”.

In May 2020, police searched where Russell Hill and Carol Clay were last seen in a final effort before the snow. They found nothing.

The arrest of Greg Lynn

Then, 56-year-old Greg Lynn, a former airline pilot, was arrested in November 2021 and later charged with murdering Russell and Carol

At 9.48 am on March 21, 2020, the camera on Victoria’s Mount Hotham captured a Nissan Patrol being driven by a man. The camera is usually used to catch anyone who avoids paying a resort entry fee of $60 during the ski season.

Mount Hotham Camera image of Greg Lynn’s car

In May 2020, an analysis of Hill’s phone data found that between 9.26 am and 9.50 am on March 21, 2020, the device appeared to be travelling between Dargo and Mount Hotham.

On June 3, 2020, detectives visited local businesses looking for CCTV footage showing cars that could be investigated for links to the Russell Hill and Carol Clay disappearance. They were provided footage from the automatic numberplate recognition cameras for 10 minutes on Mount Hotham.

The cameras showed twelve cars, but only one belonging to Greg Lynn went through at the same time Hill’s phone appeared to be travelling in the area.

Detective Acting Sergeant Brett Florence, the case’s lead investigator

Acting Sergeant Brett Florence, the lead investigator in the case, said that the police spent the next five weeks gathering further information about Lynn, including speaking with Parks Victoria about whether he was a registered camper or hunter.

On July 14, 2020, Florence and another detective from the missing persons squad, Detective Senior Constable Abbey Justin, arrived at Lynn’s Caroline Springs home. When police arrived at the home, they noticed that Lynn’s Nissan Patrol had been painted since his trip to Mount Hotham.

Between July and December, police checked further information regarding Lynn with banks and government agencies, obtained further photos from the Mount Hotham cameras, spoke to a witness who had been spraying blackberries in the area at the time of the disappearance, and made multiple trips to the high country searching for any sign of Hill and Clay, or their missing belongings.

In early December 2020, police obtained warrants to intercept Lynn’s calls and placed surveillance devices in his house and four-wheel drive.

In the following 11 months, police conducted further searches of the high country, including at Howitt Plains, where cadaver dogs were used after Lynn was believed to have camped in the region.

Detectives listened to Lynn’s conversations, including with himself. Eventually, more than 5,000 recordings would be made from the surveillance devices.

Florence said in his statement that he and another detective were listening to Lynn speaking to himself on November 22 2021, when “the accused appeared to be crying and started talking in the past tense, and he was engaged in self-talk that was concerning and seemed to indicate a propensity for self-harm”.

He believed Lynn had been travelling to Gippsland to go camping and hunting, but Florence said that after fearing the now-suspect would self-harm, he met with “senior command” and formulated a strategy to arrest him.

Lynn was arrested near Arbuckle Junction and taken to Sale police station. He was then interviewed over the next four days.

In January 2023, a committal hearing was held at the Melbourne Magistrates Court in late January to determine whether there was enough evidence for him to stand trial.

Victoria police forensics officer Mark Gellatly was asked to examine material related to the case based on information provided by missing persons squad detectives.

The information provided to Gellatly was that Lynn might have been annoyed by a drone flown by Carol and Russell and confronted them about it before returning to his campsite. Hill allegedly then grabbed Lynn’s gun from his car. The pair wrestled for control of the weapon, causing it to discharge and shoot Clay dead, and, as the fight progressed, Lynn stabbed Hill to death.

According to the officer's statement, a hotel room in the region was said to be left with numerous bloodstains after the incident, all of which were cleaned apart from a possible stain on a bathmat. The information contained in the statement represented the first complete account of how police believe the pair may have been killed.

A witness told the court that they had seen a drone in the area on the night that Carol and Russell were allegedly killed.

Greg Lynn

A redacted summary of the police evidence also outlined details, including that Greg Lynn had allegedly returned to the crime scene, but nothing about how or why the pair were killed. It also detailed a camping trip Hill took by himself earlier in March, during which he asked other campers if they minded whether he flew his drone above their camps.

Gellatly’s statement, dated July 2022 , also detailed that he examined two swords, a pick-axe and more than 20 knives, including throwing knives and a blade known as a Gurkha, that were seized from Lynn’s property by police after he was arrested in November 2021. Possible blood was detected on seven of the items but further testing could not confirm this and they were not examined further, Gellatly said.

Before the police summary was released, magistrate Brett Sonnet cautioned the media that while the summary gave an overview of the police case, it did not comprise all their evidence. Much of the summary was contested by Lynn.

Police alleged Lynn had a confrontation with Hill and/or Clay sometime after 6 pm on March 20, 2020, which led to him killing them.

“The circumstances of their deaths and the accused’s behaviour afterwards are consistent with the accused having intended to cause death or at least cause each of them really serious injury”

“The accused contaminated and staged the crime scene, intentionally destroyed evidence within the crime scene, and removed evidence from the crime scene before transporting and disposing of the bodies and mobile devices to further conceal his involvement and distance himself from the crimes.

“In May 2020 and/or November 2020, the accused returned to the bodies of Hill and Clay, where he further tampered with the human remains to dispose of the deceased. This involved burning, dispersing and partially interring them.”

Lynn was then alleged to have then packed up his own camp and left the area with the bodies in his box trailer – disposing of them as he left the area. Lynn later sold this trailer and was recovered.

Remains discovered

Location of remains Grant’s Historic area

In November 2021, remains were found in bushland in Grant's historic area, about 9 miles (15km) northwest of Dargo.

The dense bushland is about 31 miles (50km) from the campsite in the Wonnangatta Valley, where Russell Hill and Carol Clay were last seen in March 2020.

Acting Sergeant Brett Florence travelled with other detectives, crime scene examiners and a Victoria Institute of Forensic Medicine team to the area to excavate using digging equipment.

In February 2022, Forensic testing confirmed that the remains found were Russell Hill and Carol Clay.

The Pre-Trial of Greg Lynn

Gregory Lynn has pleaded not guilty to the murder of campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay

On Monday, October 23, 2023, Greg Lynn appeared in the Victorian Supreme Court for a pre-trial hearing before Justice Michael Croucher.

Prosecutors allege Lynn killed Carol Clay and Russell Hill in Victoria’s high country in March 2020.

Lynn pleaded not guilty to the murders, and the full trial is scheduled for February 2024.

Chris McLennan & Co represented him, who has briefed prominent Victorian barrister Dermot Dann KC to appear in court.

Read other strange stories from Australia

The shocking story of Australia’s vanishing bushwalkers (Member Only)

The Real Wolf Creek - Ivan Milat and the Backpacker Murders in the Australian Outback

The amazing story of Shannon Fraser and her survival in the Australian wilderness

The Kaz II Ghost Yacht mystery

The disappearance and search for Bruce Fairfax in the Australian bush

The Australian Button Man and the Victorian Alpine Park disappearances

The miraculous escape of the Brazilian and German backpackers at Salt Creek in South Australia (Member only)

The terrible events of the Batavia Shipwreck on Murder Island (Member only)

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Sources

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9312479/Russell-Hills-friend-thinks-Carol-Clay-killed-sleeping-bags-eaten-dogs.html

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/28/drones-phones-and-secret-tapes-how-police-zeroed-in-on-greg-lynn-over-alleged-murders-of-victorian-campers

https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/courts-law/greg-lynn-pictured-entering-court-ahead-of-trial-over-alleged-murders-of-russell-hill-and-carol-clay/news-story/a07f85ff089024fd18f79bd0bb4e3b77

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/30/human-remains-found-in-victorian-alps-by-police-searching-for-campers-russell-hill-and-carol-clay

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/18/russell-hill-and-carol-clay-court-documents-reveal-why-police-allege-gary-lynn-killed-missing-campers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8207101/Dark-past-alpine-bushland-married-man-went-missing-mystery-woman.html

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-19/how-four-people-disappeared-without-trace-in-victorian-mountains/12455124?nw=0