‘Rid of bodies’: Slain camper’s widow erupts - news.com.au

The widow of slain camper Russell Hill has broken her silence after a disgraced pilot was found guilty of murdering her husband’s secret lover.

Former Jetstar captain Greg Lynn was on Tuesday found guilty of murdering retiree Carol Clay at a Victorian campsite four years ago but acquitted of murdering fellow camper Mr Hill.

For the past five weeks, Lynn, 57, had been facing trial after denying he was responsible for the deaths of the pair in the state’s remote High Country.

The elderly couple, childhood sweethearts who had reconnected in secret later in life, vanished a day after arriving at Bucks Camp in the Wonnangatta Valley in 2020.

Speaking with the Herald Sun after the shock split verdict, widow Robyn Hill questioned how the jury of 12 were able to find Lynn not guilty of her husband’s murder.

“It could have been a better verdict,” she told the publication.

“It’s been a very long (process) and I was very concerned about what the verdict was going to be. When I heard Russell’s (verdict) first, I was really concerned it was going to be Carol not guilty as well,

“An innocent person doesn’t get rid of the bodies … that’s how I looked at it.”

Lynn’s ex-wife’s mysterious death

Gregory’s first wife Lisa Lynn, 34, was discovered dead in the front yard of her Mount Macedon home on October 26, 1999.

Her body was found in the fetal position, their two young children were asleep and photo albums were spread over the floor inside.

The coroner’s report indicated a blood-alcohol level of 0.21, four times the legal driving limit, and high levels of anti-depression medication.

No suicide note was found, leaving it unclear if she intended to take her own life.

At the time, Victorian coroner Graeme Johnstone attributed her death to “combined alcohol and drug toxicity,” with no evidence suggesting suspicious circumstances or involvement of others.

Lynn was never charged over her death.

During the pre-trial hearing, Lynn’s defence considered introducing evidence of his good character.

Prosecutors prepared to counter this with statements from Lisa Lynn’s family, which were part of the coroner’s brief, but both sides ultimately agreed to exclude the material from the trial.

It meant the jury never heard the details and they were unable to be reported on until the conclusion of the trial.

In part of a statement read to the court from the coroner's brief, Ms Lynns’ mother claimed her daughter had been “living in absolute fear of Greg”.

“As far as I’m concerned, Greg is responsible for my daughter’s death by mental torture inflicted by him,” she said.

She described his temper as “bizarre” and his behaviour as “physical and mental abuse regularly,” adding that these incidents occurred too frequently to recall specifics.

She also alleged he had a “warped mind,” citing incidents like killing animals and a neighbour’s pet, and refusing to feed the children when responsible for them.

“He has done things in the past like killing animals and [a] neighbour’s pet, refusing to feed the children when he was supposed to be looking after them and on one occasion, he exploded into a fit of uncontrollable rage when we went for dinner at the Macedon Hotel,” she said.

She recounted an incident where Lynn verbally attacked a man at a pub for speaking to her and Lisa, directing his rage at Lisa afterwards.

A statement from Ms Lynn’s father was also read to the court.

“Before their separation, Lisa had told me that Greg had been making very serious death threats against her and that these continued through to her death,” he said.

“Greg had been verbally abusing Lisa since their marriage began. She … lived in terror.”

Lynn’s lawyer, Dermot Dann, criticised the prosecution’s presentation of these allegations as “a history lesson of unproven and tested allegations,” calling it “an improper process.”

Lisa Lynn’s mother acknowledged that her daughter was alone when she died but asserted, “her actions were a culmination of the fear and terror that she lived under”.

Secret car recordings

Driving alone on May 4 2021, after a radio story about the couple’s disappearance, Mr Lynn said to himself; “They’re sitting on a beach in f--king Queensland. Nudist beach. Butt naked. Playing on his f--king drone.

“Running up and down the beach. Taking pictures of the young people. Who’s got the biggest d**k?”

Another story about the couple had played on the radio earlier that day as he was driving. The court had heard Mr Lynn then turned up the volume on his radio and said: “I put a f***ing trigger lock on it. You’ve gotta get a second set of trigger lock f***ing keys and stick them in there. ... They’ve just got to keep pushing all the time, don’t they?”

The police had scoured through hours of recordings to find instances where they believed he was talking about Mr Hill and Mrs Clay.

Mr Lynn appeared to discuss the couple several times between December 15 and 16 2020, while on a solo camping trip near Howitt Plains.

Speaking to himself, he said the following things:

• “Let’s see if the cops turn up. If they do, we know that they can put a tracker on it.”

• “F***ing white people, that’s all it is who can we annoy now. Who can we annoy?”

• “Who decides what’s right and what’s wrong? That’s the thing, judgment, judge does, the law does, the community does.”

• “Ballistics, you’d think they would want samples of my ammo, you would. Until that.”

Justice Croucher said each of the Howitt Plains utterances and the recording about the trigger lock had not been proven relevant to the case.

He found Lynn’s comments about the nude beach could be rationally linked to the couple.

However the recording was ruled inadmissible because, as the prosecution case would be that he allegedly killed the pair 14 months earlier, it would force the jury to speculate on his sanity, and because the references to taking photos and anatomy “risks unfairly blackening Mr Lynn’s character for no rationally probative reason”.

How cops arrested Lynn

The judge heard Mr Lynn had been first identified by Victoria Police’s missing person squad less than three months after Russell Hill and Carol Clay vanished in March 2020.

Four automatic licence plate recognition cameras, set up on either side of the Hotham Alpine resort to ensure visitors paid entry fees, had captured him leaving the valley.

When police swooped in November the following year, the avid camper had been the only suspect in the couple’s disappearance for about 16 months.

Aside from a short visit by detectives in July 2020, Lynn had no idea he was under surveillance.

“Yeah, mate, you’re not in any strife or anything,” Detective Sergeant Brett Florence told him on July 14, explaining they were “chatting” with everyone in the region.

“We’ve sort of expanded our search zone for possible witnesses.

“So I just wanted to … just ask you a few questions to see … if you can help us.”

The then-Jetstar captain provided a statement about his trip, including the dates he’d been camping and the routes taken.

He claimed at the time not to have met Mr Hill and Mrs Clay during the trip.

But detectives believed he was not telling the full story about his movements, and noticed he had repainted his car – which Mr Lynn said was a “Covid project” with his children.

He would later tell police he may have “appeared calm”, but inside he was panicking during the exchange.

More Coverage

By the end of the year his phone, car and home were bugged as investigators collected thousands of recordings.

Heavily armed officers from the Special Operations Group arrived by helicopter and arrested Mr Lynn in the afternoon of November 22, 2021, at a campsite in Moroka Junction.

When detectives arrived on scene, he asked if the whole show was “really necessary”.

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2024-06-25 23:27:16Z
CBMisgFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC92aWN0b3JpYS9jb3VydHMtbGF3L2dyZWctbHlubi1tdXJkZXItdHJpYWwtc2xhaW4tY2FtcGVyLXJ1c3NlbGwtaGlsbHMtd2lkb3ctZXJ1cHRzLW92ZXItc2hvY2stdmVyZGljdC9uZXdzLXN0b3J5L2ZjY2FhN2IyYzg5YjQwMTlhMmEyMzI0ODM1MTQ1MThl0gG2AWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm5ld3MuY29tLmF1L25hdGlvbmFsL3ZpY3RvcmlhL2NvdXJ0cy1sYXcvZ3JlZy1seW5uLW11cmRlci10cmlhbC1zbGFpbi1jYW1wZXItcnVzc2VsbC1oaWxscy13aWRvdy1lcnVwdHMtb3Zlci1zaG9jay12ZXJkaWN0L25ld3Mtc3RvcnkvZmNjYWE3YjJjODliNDAxOWEyYTIzMjQ4MzUxNDUxOGU_YW1w

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