When Robyn Hill met Carol Clay in the 1960s, she had no idea that their lives would become forever intertwined in tragedy through their love for the same man.
Unbeknownst to her, Robyn’s future husband, Russell Hill, had already won Clay over, but life got in the way of their love before it could become permanent.
However, he never confessed to Robyn about his past with Carol.
Instead, Hill lied to his future wife (and for decades after) that she was simply his “first cousin” as he embarked on a secret affair that lasted into his 70s.
Robyn married Mr Hill in 1969 and was by his side for more than 50 years.
But in 2020, Hill and his elderly secret lover were allegedly murdered on an illicit camping trip in the remote Wonnangatta Valley in Victoria’s alpine region.
Last week, Robyn was forced to appear in the Supreme Court of Victoria, where former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn, 57, pleaded not guilty to the couple’s murder.
Sitting on a bench normally reserved for court reporters, Robyn appeared stoic as she relived her early years with her husband before Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu.
Robyn Hill broke down in tears when asked to talk about what she knew about her husband’s last trip to the desert.
The couple had moved into an apartment in Lilydale after taking their vows, but Mr Hill’s job caused the young couple to move out in those early days.
Robyn told the jury that her husband had been “snoozing” and “snaking” logs, the process of dragging logs out of the bush after they have been cut.
In 1970 their first daughter, Debbie, was born, followed by Colleen in 1973 and Jenny in 1977.
When Hill made his fateful trip to the Wonnanangatta Valley, the couple was 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 make the dirt roads in the Wonnangatta Valley.
As a young family, they caravanned through the area around Christmas time.
It was an area Mr Hill knew well and felt at home there.
Later in his life he devoted much of his time to amateur radio, talking to colleagues in faraway places every day.
After retiring, Hill became interested in drones and flew them high above the wilderness trails he himself had bulldozed decades before.
Russell Hill lied to his wife Robyn about his secret relationship with Carol Clay
Carol Clay loved hanging out with Russell Hill
Russell Hill would take his young family to the Wonnangatta Valley. He returned in March 2020 with his secret lover and never made it out alive.
The jury has 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 speaking out loud about.
When Lynn’s attorney, Dermott Dann, KC, raised the issue, a court employee handed Robyn a box of tissues.
By then, the jury had already learned of her husband’s cold reaction to her as he spoke to other campers in the days before his death.
Deer hunter Chris Benton told the jury he met Hill at a camping area known as King Billy about a week before he and Clay made the trip to nearby Wonnanangatta Valley.
Benton said he talked to Hill about his love of amateur radio and his life working in the woods before confiding in him about the struggles of life as a retiree.
“I’m retired now and that really screwed me up,” Hill told the stranger.
While Benton claimed that Hill told her he was married, he did not mention Ms. Clay.
‘If I come home, my wife will only scold me. I might as well stay here,” Mr. Hill allegedly told the camper.
Greg Lynn as he left the Wonnanangatta Valley after allegedly murdering Carol Clay and Russell Hill.
Another witness told the jury that Hill had been the love of Clay’s life.
Louise Heib told the court that Clay had wanted to be with Hill since childhood, but he was unwilling to commit.
“Carol told me that they were originally together as a couple when they were much younger, but when Carol started getting serious about the relationship when they were younger, they broke up and it devastated her,” he said.
Heib said the couple’s relationship “rekindled” years later.
The jury heard that Robyn and her children had found out about Mr Hill’s secret relationship in the early 2000s, when he assured them he would end it.
Although Clay divorced her husband in anticipation of continuing her relationship with Hill, he backed out and instead continued seeing her secretly until the time of her death.
Mrs. Heib claimed that Mrs. Clay told her that Mr. Hill could not leave his wife “because she was not well.”
“When he came back from camp, he would tell me about the beautiful hikes they took and show me pictures on his phone of the hikes they took,” Ms. Heib said.
On the day he ventured out on his final journey, the court heard Clay called his friend from the road.
“She seemed excited to be on the road and go camping,” Mrs. Heib said.
Robyn told Mr Dann she had no idea Mrs Clay had been with her husband on that last trip.
When Mrs Clay got married, she and Mr Hill took the couple on holiday to Phillip Island.
Russell Hill had found a new passion for flying drones. Police say he probably cost her her life.
At that time I still believed that Mrs. Clay was Mr. Hill’s cousin.
It was a lie that Robyn only learned after observing Mr. Hill and Mrs. Clay behaving in “strange ways,” like when they went for walks together on those trips to Phillip Island.
The secret relationship finally 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 their last trip.
A bottle of wine was also later found in the burned camp.
Robyn also gave him $20 or $30 in cash so he could buy lunch.
Mrs Hill agreed with Mr Dann that her husband liked to sit by the fire at night enjoying a few drinks.
The jury heard that Hill had struggled with depression for most of his life.
Robert Williams had been hard at work spraying weeds in the Wonnanangatta Valley when he came across Mr Hill and Mrs Clay driving along the track.
He later described Mr Hill to police as a “grumpy old bastard”.
‘It was like I was on a mission. “It was very unusual,” he told the jury.
“He looked very moody and sad and it’s just the way he sped past me… people usually slow down a little bit.”
“He just wasn’t smiling, he didn’t recognize me, he didn’t even want to look at me.”
Greg Lynn has pleaded not guilty to killing elderly campers
The burned remains of Russell Hill and Carol Clay’s camp
Russell Hill was comfortable enjoying a can by the campfire, jury heard
The elderly couple’s accused killer claims Mr Hill was responsible for his own death.
The court heard Hill and Lynn had argued about Lynn hunting deer so close to other campers.
Later that night, Lynn decided to turn up the volume on her car stereo in an effort to annoy Mr Hill, the jury heard.
It was around 10 p.m. when Lynn noticed that Mr. Hill had gotten into her car and stolen her 12-gauge shotgun.
The jury heard that when Lynn tried to grab the firearm from Mr Hill, the gun went off and Ms Clay was hit in the head.
Seeing what had happened, Hill dropped the gun and ran toward Mrs. Clay’s body.
Dann said Lynn took the gun and fired the remaining shots into the air before being attacked by an enraged Mr Hill.
“The next thing Mr. Hill advances towards him with a knife and yells ‘she’s dead,'” Mr. Dann said.
‘A fight developed over the knife. Mr. Lynn tries to defend himself (they are engaged in this fight) and as part of that fight the two men fall to the ground and the knife passes through Mr. Hill’s chest.
The trial continues.
