A police officer sent to investigate the disappearance of two elderly campers has revealed the harrowing moment he thought he had found them alive.
Former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court of Victoria to the murders of secret lovers Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, in the region’s Wonnanangatta Valley. alpina of Victoria, in March 2020.
On Tuesday, Sergeant Matt Turner told the jury that he had been sent to the area on March 28 after being told Hill’s vehicle and the burned campsite had been located there.
Images obtained by police during the initial search for the missing campers
A witness stated that Greg Lynn was camped in the surrounded area. Mr Hill’s vehicle was found about 30 meters from the exposed river.
That afternoon, the crime scene services officer headed into the bush with his partner and headed to Wonnangatta Track, where the pair were last seen alive.
“As we were driving towards the flat area of the valley we saw two people who were probably in their 60s and we thought, ‘We’ve got it figured out. These are the missing people,'” he told the jury.
But the police officer’s hopes were quickly dashed when he stopped to talk to the hikers.
“It wasn’t the people who were missing, so we continued until we found the camp,” Sergeant Turner said.
Arriving at the scene, Sergeant Turner took a series of photographs of the camp, which police at the time believed may have been the result of an accident.
The Wonnanangatta Valley in the alpine region of Victoria, where Russell Hill and Carol Clay were allegedly murdered
Carol Clay was allegedly attacked with a shotgun by Lynn before Hill was impaled with a knife during a fight with the former pilot.
Disturbing images showed the interior of Hill’s beloved Landcruiser, with his wallet open and dumped in the driver’s side footwell.
In the passenger seat, Ms. Clay’s purse and other personal items remained intact, but her green purse was also dumped in the footwell.
When the officer opened Ms. Clay’s purse, he found her license and Medicare card neatly placed inside clear sleeves.
His smiling picture of the license was shown to the jury, which was reduced to 14 members on Tuesday after one of them fell ill and needed to be discharged.
Other images showed the burned remains of the campers’ tent, which contained a destroyed solar panel, a gas stove, gas cylinders, buckets and an electronic tablet.
Next to the fire-damaged 4×4 were several empty bourbon and Coke cans.
About 30 meters from the scene, Sergeant Turner took a series of images that captured the idyllic river next to where his alleged killer is believed to have set up his own camp.
When officers finished capturing the scene on camera, Sergeant Turner said he felt obligated to return the hidden secret key he had used to enter Mr Hill’s vehicle to the location where he had found it.
The jury had previously heard that police were able to enter Mr Hill’s locked car after learning the location of the key from his wife, who had reported her husband missing when he was unable to make contact through his long distance radio.
Greg Lynn pleaded not guilty to the murders and said both deaths were a “tragic accident.”
The burned remains of Mr Hill’s Esky and a battery.
A camper heard Lynn try to cross this section of the river before having to make a U-turn because the road was closed. Police allege that at the time he had the campers’ bodies in a trailer.
“(The key) was left with the vehicle in case they came back and needed the vehicle to leave,” Sergeant Turner said.
“If they got lost in the bush and returned to the vehicle, we didn’t want to take the spare key and leave them stranded without a vehicle.”
The court heard officers placed distinctive police tape in the shape of a cross on the back of Mr Hill’s car before driving off.
‘I left the scene shortly after 7pm. “I put police tape on the back of the vehicle so if they came back to the vehicle they would know the police had been there,” Sergeant Turner said.
He also hoped the tape would reassure the campers that their wallets had not been stolen.
“If they thought their wallet had been stolen, they would know the police had been there and they could call the police,” the officer said.
Detectives say Lynn killed the elderly campers before placing their bodies in his trailer and dumping them elsewhere in the bush.
On Wednesday, the court heard Lynn claimed Hill and Clay died in a “tragic accident.”
His lawyer Dermot Dann, KC, told the jury that Mr Hill stole Lynn’s shotgun after becoming enraged that Lynn was playing loud music on the night he was murdered.
“He headed toward Mr. Hill to try to get the gun back, to take control of the gun,” Dann said.
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.
‘A fight developed over the knife. “Mr Lynn is trying 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,” Mr Dann said.
The court heard that Hill and Lynn had argued earlier that day about Lynn hunting deer so close to other campers.
The jury heard Lynn admit that he covered up the campers’ deaths because he was afraid of being charged with murder.
The trial continues.