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At Amica Insurance, we know it's more than just a house. It's your home, the place that's filled with memories. The early days of figuring it out to the later years of still figuring it out. For the place you've put down roots, trust Amica Home Insurance. Amica. Empathy is our best policy.
Bocas del Toro, Panama.
Scott Makeda's tropical haven becomes his personal hell. A serial killer pretending to be a therapist. A gringo mafia. A slaughtered family. Everybody knows I'm a monster. The law of the jungle is simple. Survive. I'm Candace DeLong. This is Natural Selection, Scott vs. Wild Bill. Available now wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra, and the case I'm going to cover in this episode is one that went unresolved for several years. When I first recorded and released this episode in August of 2023, the suspect, Greg Lynn, was just that at the time, a suspect. He was someone that Australian authorities were extremely convinced had killed campers Carol Clay and Russell Hill in Victoria's Alpine National Park in March of 2020.
However, according to reporting by BBC News and The Guardian, he's now been convicted of Carol's murder. A jury acquitted him in Russell's death. And that's because by the time Greg's trial kicked off in May 2024, he claimed that, yes, he had gotten into a struggle with the couple back when they first disappeared in 2020 while he was hunting in the bush. And he said he ended up violently killing them, but he argued it was all a big accident, not murder.
He told the court that he concealed the couple's deaths because he didn't want anyone to hold him responsible. Like I said, his trial started in May 2024 and lasted five weeks. The jury returned with a verdict of guilty of murdering Carol, but not guilty of murdering Russell. He'll face up to life in prison at his sentencing. I go into much more detail about who Greg is and who Carol and Russell were in the episode. But for now, that's the big update you need to know about.
Now, here's the full episode that will get you up to speed. Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra. And the case I'm going to tell you about today is a wild one. It went from a mysterious missing persons case to a possible lover's elopement to a double murder by a stranger in a matter of two years. And it still hasn't concluded. It happened in March of 2020 in Victoria, Australia's Alpine National Park.
This area is known for being extremely rugged and vast. Parks Victoria describes it as, quote, an adventure lover's dream, end quote. There's whitewater, seemingly endless miles of four-wheel drive trails, cross-country skiing, and beautiful views of mountains. Most people don't go to the Victorian Alps unless they have off-road experience or are prepared to camp in the unforgiving bushland where there's little to no cell phone reception.
But I think part of the area's remoteness is what makes it so attractive to people seeking isolation or a romantic getaway. For as awesome as this area is, the landscape is also the perfect place for predators to be. It's largely known that packs of wild dogs roam this terrain freely, and their population has increased to the point where they're now considered a safety concern. The predator in today's story, though, wasn't a pack hunter. He was a lone wolf.
A lone wolf that many people never knew was lurking among them. This is Park Predators. Around 2 o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday, March 21st, 2020, hikers walking through the Wanangata Valley in the heart of Alpine National Park in Victoria, Australia, stumbled upon something odd.
There, sitting in a remote section of the bush not far from a popular historic site called Wanangata Station, the group found a tent and camping gear smoldering as if they'd been burning for a while. There was no one at the campsite, just the scorched stuff, and a white SUV that also looked like it had caught on fire.
The discovery was alarming enough that one of these hikers felt compelled to report what they'd found. But before leaving, they took a picture of the charred campsite and partially burned vehicle. Unfortunately, because the area they were in was so off the grid, five days passed before this hiker could get their photo and information to the police.
During that time, friends and family of a 74-year-old man named Russell Hill, who lived in the town of Druin, Victoria, which was about five hours south of Wanangata Valley, noticed that he'd failed to return from a camping trip in the Victorian Alps that he'd left for on Thursday, March 19th. He was expected back by the 21st.
An episode of Under Investigation by 60 Minutes Australia reported that sometime between the 21st and 26th, Russell's friends had called his house and spoken with his wife, Robin. After a short discussion with her, everyone agreed Russell's absence was out of character. So Robin called police in Victoria to officially report her husband missing.
Authorities didn't put the information about Russell and the report of a burned campsite in the remote bush together, though, until a few days later on March 28th, which was over a week after the hiker had initially made the discovery.
According to that episode of Under Investigation for 60 Minutes Australia and reporters Simone Fox-Kubb and Rachel Eddy for The Age, when police investigators did finally arrive to the remote campsite on the 28th, something that immediately stuck out to them was the fact that there had been a significant fire. Not like a small, our s'mores got out of control kind of fire. No, the evidence police found at the campsite indicated a large blaze had consumed a tent,
some chairs, a table, and other belongings, as well as scorched the side of a white Toyota Land Cruiser that had been left locked and abandoned. 60 Minutes Australia reported that two wallets were still sitting inside the SUV, and it appeared as if someone had rifled through them, like dumped all the contents out on the seats, but there was no cash or credit cards visible.
The source material doesn't specifically say if the authorities found driver's licenses with these other cards, but I have to imagine they did find some kind of formal IDs, because shortly after discovering everything, the investigators determined the vehicle belonged to 74-year-old Russell Hill, and some of the other stuff inside of it belonged to a 73-year-old woman named Carol Clay.
The Age article I mentioned a second ago stated that an inspector with the police department said that even though the outside of the SUV had sustained fire damage, fire investigators and arson chemists had determined upon closer examination that it was still operable. In general, the fire damage at the campsite was considered, quote, non-suspicious, end quote.
60 Minutes reported that when tech sifted through the debris in the burned tent, they found no traces of material typically associated with sleeping bags. So like no zippers, insulated fabric, etc. Which meant wherever Russell and Carol were, they'd taken their sleeping bags with them. Which to investigators seemed kind of weird.
But regarding how strange this fire scene was, I also read another article by The Age that said fire investigators couldn't rule out whether the fire was suspicious or not. So I don't know which article is correct and why there seems to be contradictory reporting about whether police thought it was suspicious or not. But in the end, authorities officially labeled the cause of the fire as undetermined and left it at that until they had more information to go on.
Aside from the fire damage, how the tent had been situated next to the SUV, plus remnants of personal belongings being left behind, indicated to authorities that Russell and Carol likely had every intention of coming back, but for some reason, hadn't. Where they were, and why their campsite had burned, that's what police needed to find out. The only things that seemed to be missing from the campsite, other than Carol and Russell, were their sleeping bags and the set of keys to the Land Cruiser.
To try and find more clues, investigators and experienced bushwalkers who assisted with search and rescue operations in that part of Australia decided to scour the brush and woods around the campsite. But nothing turned up. Back in Carol and Russell's respective hometowns of Pakenham and Druin, which are about a half hour away from one another outside of Melbourne, police investigators started piecing together how they knew one another and what they'd been doing leading up to their trip.
The Age reported that the Hill and Clay families had been friends for years prior to 2020. According to 60 Minutes Australia and The Age, Russell had been camping alone in Alpine National Park the week before he vanished, so from March 11th until March 13th. He'd come home for a few days after the 13th and then gone back out to camp in the bush with Carol on March 19th.
Carol's neighbors told police that they'd seen Russell pull up to Carol's house around 7.30 in the morning on Thursday, March 19th, and within a few minutes, her bags were loaded and the couple took off. The Age in 60 Minutes Australia reported that authorities were able to access Russell and Carol's cell phone activity.
And data from their devices showed they'd made it into the park and all the way to their campsite by March 21st. But once they'd arrived, their service had stopped and there was no more activity on their phones. After speaking with one of Russell's close friends named Rob Ashlin, investigators learned that Russell was a member of an amateur ham radio club and he joined a nightly call on Friday, March 20th around 6 p.m.
In fact, throughout the couple's travel, Russell had been regularly checking in with members of his radio club to let them know where he was staying. But he'd left out the fact that Carol was with him. According to reporting by Nine News, The Age and 60 Minutes Australia, Rob told investigators that the last time he'd heard from Russell was on Friday night around 6:40 p.m. And Russell seemed to be in good spirits.
He said his friend mentioned he was having reception issues and was going to set up a campsite and a clearing near a place called Dry River Creek Track, which wasn't far from a popular site known as One and Gutter Station. The station is an isolated cattle ranch with remnants of old buildings and a homestead that used to be a family's farm back in the late 1800s, early 1900s. It's well within the boundary of Alpine National Park, and you can only get to it if you have an off-road vehicle or are riding on horseback.
Camping near it is considered remote and off the grid. The distance between where Russell made his last radio transmission at Wanangata Station and where he and Carol had been camping was super short, like less than a few kilometers. Google Maps estimates it was a seven-minute drive or a 45-minute walk, so we're not talking about miles and miles of bush between these two locations.
Equally as important as where they were and who they spoke with and the last time they'd been heard from was something else that was a bit tricky for authorities to address, which was why Russell, a married man, and Carol, a recently single woman, were out alone, camping together as a couple. All of those factors seemed like overwhelming proof that the pair was having an affair, something Russell's wife, Robin, was unaware of.
A spokesman for the police department told reporters for The Age that when Robin learned her husband had not been on a camping trip alone but instead was with Carol, a close family friend, she was "super surprised." However, that episode of Under Investigation by 60 Minutes Australia I referenced earlier reported that Russell and Carol's affair was something Robin had been aware of, at least somewhat.
Individuals interviewed for that segment said the affair had been going on for as long as 60 years. Yes, apparently Russell and Carol had been high school sweethearts, and they were known to take these discreet romantic camping trips together to the one in Gada Valley. One of Russell's close friends said that in March of 2020, Robin didn't specifically know her husband was sneaking off with Carol, but when she found out he was being unfaithful, she didn't act surprised.
The TV program also discussed how for years, while Russell had been operating his logging business and driving a truck, Carol would secretly meet up with him and go on long haul trips as his companion. Obviously, police investigators couldn't ignore this lead about an affair. They had to consider it was possible Russell and Carol had run away together on purpose. The Age reported that detectives pulled both of their financial histories to look for purchases that would indicate they'd been planning to disappear as part of their affair.
But there was nothing. No hotel bookings, no flight reservations, no receipts, nada. Also, there was no activity on their phones, which meant if they'd taken off together, they had to have been using new devices.
9 News reported that when police visited Carol's house, they found her car there, which was proof she'd never driven to the park herself or returned home to get it. So if Russell's SUV was burned and left at their campsite, and Carol's car had not been moved, then the only way the elopement theory could work was if they'd had some other transportation out of the park and off to wherever they were going to go together.
Information that supported an elopement theory was that according to 60 Minutes Australia, both Russell and Carol were financially set. And in fact, Russell had accumulated quite a bit of wealth from his logging business. So I think the point there was that neither of them had to worry about money, and that's why they'd made the decision to just run off together.
Paul Saccol reported for The Age that additional information which kind of bolstered an elopement theory were sightings from three witnesses who told police they thought they saw Russell and Carol in the park after March 21st. The article explains that these visitors told authorities they'd seen a couple loosely matching Carol and Russell's description at several crossings and huts not far from where their burned-out campsite had been discovered.
But those sightings weren't very detailed, and law enforcement couldn't glean much more from them. By March 30th, nearly 10 days had passed since anyone had heard from Russell or Carol. The Asia reported that during that time, police investigators had called in aerial and canine resources from Parks Victoria, the State Emergency Service, and the Mountain Cattlemen's Association of Victoria to help look for Russell and Carol. But even with those beefed-up resources, no sign of the couple turned up.
Simone Fox-Kubb and Rachel Eddy reported for The Age that Carol had literally just bought a new house a week before going on her trip with Russell. Apparently, she'd moved into her new place on March 12th. So the fact that she'd failed to return to her house felt odd to the people who knew her.
According to coverage by Nine News, before leaving, Carol had told her friends she would be home by March 28th or 29th to finish settling in. But that time had come and gone, and Carol was still a no-show. During the first week of April, authorities who'd been searching the bush since March 21st were forced to call off their efforts for a few days because bad weather prevented them from safely looking for the couple.
About two weeks later, police announced they were sending search crews back into the same region as before, except this time their focus was going to be more specific. Investigators said officers were going to scour mostly rugged terrain that hadn't been covered very well during the earlier searches. However, after two days of doing that, search efforts were again called off and nothing new surfaced. The Age reported that by April 22nd, authorities thought it was highly unlikely the couple was still alive.
Not finding a single trace of Russell and Carroll puzzled police investigators. One official told 9 News, quote, I'm really surprised we haven't found them. Throughout the search, we were confident we would locate them in the Winangata Valley, as all the evidence we have got points to them being there, end quote. A few weeks into the investigation, police were desperate. They were trying to get information from other visitors to the valley who might have seen or bumped into Russell and Carroll.
Authorities specifically wanted to speak with people who'd been camping or hunting on March 20th and 21st. According to coverage by 9 News, the week Russell and Carol camped was the last weekend that most people were legally permitted to venture into that remote part of the park, which meant there were just a handful of critical visitors who'd even been able to encounter the couple.
But still, authorities wanted anyone and everyone's help, even if a potential eyewitness might have visited or hunted in the area without a designated permit. A spokesman for law enforcement told reporters, quote,
But even with that disclaimer, no one came forward. Then a new clue emerged that authorities hoped might hold the key to finding Russell and Carol.
But this clue wasn't a person. It was a thing, a drone. At Amica Insurance, we know it's more than just a house. It's your home, the place that's filled with memories. The early days of figuring it out to the later years of still figuring it out. For the place you've put down roots, trust Amica Home Insurance. Amica. Empathy is our best policy.
A more colorful life starts at an Ashley store. From earth tones to vibrant colors, Ashley stores have an array of eye-catching furniture for every room in fun and trending hues that will leave a lasting impression. So it's easier than ever to express your personal style and design a vibrant home that feels just like you. Your more colorful life starts at an Ashley store. Shop in-store or online at ashley.com.
According to reporting by 9 News, during the first month of their investigation, police learned that Russell had bought a drone shortly before going on his camping trip with Carol. And this drone wasn't just a cheap, toss it in the air and hope it flies kind of toy. It was the real deal. It was equipped with a camera that could record video footage and was considered a somewhat professional-grade drone that retailed for anywhere from several hundred to over a thousand dollars.
Authorities didn't find the drone during their search of Russell's home, and it hadn't turned up anywhere around the couple's abandoned campsite, which meant more than likely Russell had taken it with him into the bush. It was either that or someone else had stolen it from him. If he did take it with him, though, more than likely he'd flown it at some point, and investigators were hopeful it had filmed something that might be useful to their investigation.
Regarding how important finding the device was, an inspector for the police force told 9 News, quote, We still can't find that drone. We have been told it was a DJI brand and Mavic model drone. If someone has recovered it, we'd really like them to come forward, end quote.
According to a search and rescue worker who spoke with 60 Minutes Australia, a person who'd been staying in that part of the valley, not far from Russell and Carol's campsite, reported seeing a couple matching Russell and Carol's description driving on Friday, March 20th. This witness also mentioned that they saw a drone flying in the air around dusk that same evening. The reason this person had remembered the drone was because they thought it was kind of rude that whoever was piloting it had it buzzing over someone else's campsite.
So, for police, that witness's information proved it was possible Russell might have been flying his drone on Friday night, hours before he and Carol vanished and their campsite was burned. The question in everyone's mind was, did he maybe crash it while he was flying it? Maybe he and Carol went out looking for it and had gotten injured somehow. Then their campfire just got out of control and consumed their stuff. It seemed like a plausible scenario.
But finding the answers to those questions or figuring out if that's what really happened was hard to come by. In addition to asking people to report if they found a drone, authorities also wanted anyone who operated or listened to ham radio channels to notify police if they heard anyone using Russell's call sign. According to coverage by The Age, Russell's call sign was VK3VZP. But with each day that passed, no one got on the airwaves using that information.
As April ended and turned into May, police were getting desperate for leads. Russell and Carol's families were also trying to make sense of their disappearances. Carol was a loved mother and grandmother who divorced her husband several years before she vanished. She was also a member and former president of an organization called the Country Women's Association of Victoria.
In early April 2020, so a little over a week after she vanished, the group posted a tribute to her on social media that read in part, quote,
End quote.
What's interesting though is that according to 60 Minutes Australia, not long after word of Carol's disappearance and affair with Russell got out, the organization removed her name from its newsletter as a "credited woman of honor." Which 60 Minutes moderators suggested meant the CWA was concerned about how Carol's decision to carry on an affair with a married man might reflect negatively on its reputation.
Carroll's family avoided addressing the affair topic, though, and released a statement that said in part, quote, End quote.
Russell's family echoed the same things in a statement they released to the press. Because he and Carol had disappeared at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, police wondered, at least for a short time, if maybe they'd intentionally chosen to quarantine together in the bush rather than wait out the pandemic trapped at their separate homes.
But something that didn't quite line up with that theory was the fact that no one had heard from them after March 20th. Like, if Russell and Carol were planning to stay in isolation together out in the bush because of COVID-19, then why didn't they tell anyone that's what they were doing?
I mean, I guess you could argue they wouldn't have alerted anyone so that their affair would remain a secret, but like I mentioned earlier, the affair was something at least a few people kind of knew about. So I don't know, that theory just doesn't make sense to me. Anyway, there was also the possibility that the duo had gotten lost or succumbed to the elements in a freak accident.
According to experts who were interviewed, the terrain in the high country of the Victorian Alps was not for the faint of heart, and many people knew it was easy to get turned around if you didn't know where you were going. A search and rescue sergeant who aided in the efforts to find Russell and Carol told The Age, "...the bush is very unforgiving. The Australian bush can swallow people up so it's very difficult once they do come to grief in the middle of nowhere to find people sometimes." End quote.
But the suggestion that they got lost somehow or didn't know where they were didn't make a lot of sense to people who knew Russell. He had a reputation as being an experienced outdoorsman. According to 9 News, police investigators determined he'd been camping many times in Alpine National Park. Plus, he was resourceful. If something had happened to him or Carol, like a serious injury, he would have found a way to contact someone for help.
However, another article from The Age reported that even though police considered Russell an experienced camper, they didn't think he or Carol were knowledgeable about how much energy and expertise it would have taken to walk in the bush for a long period of time. Investigators surmised that due to their age, they would have found surviving in the bush extremely difficult. The last and most concerning scenario police thought might be the reason for the couple's disappearance was that they'd been murdered.
A spokesman for the police department told Nine News that ruling in or ruling out homicide was going to be tough, simply because of the nature of the case and the region the duo disappeared in. He said, quote, End quote.
Rob Ashland, Russell's best friend, told 60 Minutes Australia that he believed almost from the start that something terrible had happened to Carol and Russell. He said that when he saw pictures of the smoldering campsite, he believed all of the evidence pointed to an intentionally set fire. He suggested during his interview that the fact that charred remains of the couple's chairs, table, and belongings had been found inside their collapsed and burned tent proved someone else had set the fire.
60 Minutes Australia experts all agreed evidence from the photos could suggest that whoever had started the fire had piled the items up, hoping the flames would catch faster and burn everything all at once. There was also the scorching and smoke damage found on Russell's Land Cruiser.
A fire investigations expert for 60 Minutes said the photos of the scene indicated an accelerant might have been used inside the tent next to it, which is why there were such intense smoke patterns on the side panel of the vehicle, but it hadn't been consumed. Russell's friend Rob Ashland told the program he knew Russell very well, and nothing about the fire scene pictures felt like the blaze had started because of an out-of-control campfire.
He said Russell would never have started a campfire so close to his own tent and risk it getting out of control. And there was no way Russell would have ever stored extra gas or lighter fluid inside his tent. Yet the photos from the fire scene showed gas containers were inside the charred remains of the tent.
Rob said Russell was too experienced to do something like that and doubled down that he was convinced the fire was suspicious and indicated someone else started it after harming Russell and Carol. According to coverage by 9 News, after three months of no new information and no sign of Russell and Carol, their friends and family thought the only reason they'd not been heard from was because they died, most likely at the hands of someone else who'd been in the bush in March of 2020.
Even the police told media outlets that all signs pointed to foul play. The question no one could answer, though, was why? Why would someone kill the couple? Had Russell and Carol maybe witnessed something they shouldn't have? Did Russell's drone fly over a person or group of people doing something illegal?
According to wilderness and law enforcement experts who talked with 60 Minutes Australia, there could have been hunters illegally spotlighting and killing deer in that part of the Victorian Alps. Or drug cartels planting and harvesting crops. And those criminals would most certainly have been willing to kill innocent eyewitnesses of their activities. But speculating was all anyone could do as months passed and there were no new updates.
Eventually, the one-year anniversary rolled around in March of 2021, and 9 News reported that the only major lead police were able to follow was finding the occupants of a white dual-cab four-wheel drive vehicle that had been spotted near a restroom facility not far from Russell and Carol's campsite on the evening before they vanished. But the owner of that car never came forward.
Additional searches with cadaver dogs, drones, and volunteers on foot took place in early April of 2021, but the going was slow. Chanel Zagon and Carly Waters reported for 9 News that a few days into the renewed search, teams who were combing an area of the valley near Mount Hotham found two shovels that they felt were suspicious enough to collect as evidence.
However, police didn't confirm if they thought the shovels were related to what had happened to Russell and Carol, just that they wanted to examine them more closely. What was strange is that Victoria Police never publicly said what information had specifically led them to check out Mount Hotham in the first place. The only thing investigators would confirm was that the totality of their work so far had led them to consider the mountain area as a, quote, high-value area, end quote.
And just to give you a sense of how challenging it was for teams to search Mount Hotham, one inspector told 9 News, "...there are parts of that bush that have probably never been walked on by humans. Some of this bush is so thick that we might not find what we're looking for, but it won't be for want of trying." End quote.
In June, everything the police had learned during their activities in April led them to publicly state that they believed more than one person was responsible or involved in what had happened to Russell and Carol. Tim Callanan reported for ABC News that eventually the two shovels that seemed to be kind of promising were tested but ruled out as having any forensic trace of Russell or Carol on them.
Back in Russell's hometown, his wife Robin spoke with reporters Jack Painter and Anthony Povison for news.com.au about how low her hopes were that her husband and Carol were still alive. She told the news publication, "...I can't see how they will come home. He hasn't spent any money. He hasn't done anything. I just want them found, one way or the other, and then he can face the music if he's still alive."
But then, just as things seemed to be fizzling out, an update came in November 2021. Law enforcement released images of another vehicle they felt confident was involved somehow. According to Matthew Hart's reporting for Starts at 60 and an article by Chanel Zagon for 9 News, investigators issued still frames from CCTV footage of a blue four-wheel drive Nissan Patrol SUV.
The vehicle appeared to have been made between 1997 and 2001, and in the images, it was towing a trailer. Police confirmed that this SUV had been captured on several surveillance cameras in the park near Mount Hotham, trying to leave Wanangata Valley on the night of Friday, March 20, 2020.
The reason this car had been so noticeable on the video footage was because it had initially tried to exit through a gate that was locked due to a nearby brush fire, and it had to back up and pull forward several times to make a U-turn. A few days after this information about the Nissan came out, police dropped another bombshell. They'd made an arrest, and their suspect was someone no one expected. At Amica Insurance, we know it's more than just a house. It's your home.
The place that's filled with memories. The early days of figuring it out to the later years of still figuring it out. For the place you've put down roots, trust Amica Home Insurance. Amica. Empathy is our best policy.
A more colorful life starts at an Ashley store. From earth tones to vibrant colors, Ashley stores have an array of eye-catching furniture for every room in fun and trending hues that will leave a lasting impression. So it's easier than ever to express your personal style and design a vibrant home that feels just like you. Your more colorful life starts at an Ashley store. Shop in-store or online at ashley.com.
According to Sarah Abo, David Estcourt, and Marta Wainola's reporting for The Age, on Monday, November 22nd, 2021, Victoria police detectives arrested a 55-year-old man named Gregory Lynn in relation to what had happened to Russell and Carol. Greg, who was alone, reportedly didn't resist authorities when they showed up to take him into custody at a remote campsite in an area southeast of Wanangata Valley called Arbuckle Junction.
Allie Foster reported for news.com.au that police didn't charge Greg with a specific crime when he was initially detained. They just said they wanted to question him about where he was and what he was doing in March of 2020. Nine News reported that authorities had initially interviewed Greg back when Russell and Carol first disappeared, along with several other people who'd been known to frequent the park. But his story back then had been that he hadn't seen Russell or Carol.
Something else that made authorities side-eye Greg was the fact that he owned a four-wheel drive Nissan Patrol SUV. However, when he was taken into custody, his Nissan was beige, not blue, like the one police had been looking for.
However, reporters for the age did some digging into Greg's property records, and they found pictures from 2019 of his SUV parked in his driveway. And wouldn't you know it, in 2019, Greg's SUV was blue, but by the summer of 2021, it had been repainted beige.
Authorities didn't miss this noticeable detail. They told reporters they firmly believed Greg had repainted his SUV to cover up the fact that it was a dead ringer for the vehicle they'd been searching for. After he was detained, authorities towed Greg's Nissan to a police storage yard and began searching it for evidence.
But my first question when I learned about Greg was, other than his vehicle being a Nissan Patrol and him being someone authorities first spoke with, what made detectives zero in on him as their prime suspect? It feels kind of odd that he just became front and center out of nowhere.
Well, turns out, according to that article by The Age I referenced a second ago, Greg had posted pictures of himself on social media camping and fishing in the Wanangata Valley in 2020, not long after Carol and Russell disappeared. And it was those images that made police realize he had extensive experience in the bushland, particularly in remote areas of the valley close to Mount Hotham.
But as far as what specific information had prompted police to go arrest him after more than a year and a half of investigating, well, that wasn't public knowledge.
Authorities were careful to keep details like that very close to the vest. However, that article by Allie Foster I told you about stated that police officials tracked Greg's movements before he even went camping in Arbuckle Junction. So apparently in 2021, they'd been watching him for a while and started following him from the moment he left his house in a neighborhood west of Melbourne.
9 News reported that when he'd set out for his solo camping trip at the end of November 2021, he'd done so after having a dispute with his wife, Melanie. At the time of his arrest, Greg didn't have a reputation as being a violent person. Looking at his life from the outside, most people didn't peg him for this crime right away. He had a nice house, three kids, and a good job working as an airline pilot for Jetstar, a job he made more than $250,000 a year at.
The Asia reported that before flying for that company, Greg had spent five years piloting planes for Qatar Airways as well. In response to him being considered a person of interest in the case, a Jetstar spokesperson released a statement explaining the company had let Greg go as an employee. The message also said, quote, Jetstar has been advised by Victoria Police that one of its employees is under investigation for a serious crime and will work to assist in this due process any way we can, end quote.
One of Greg's neighbors told 9 News and A Current Affair that he'd noticed Greg had painted his Nissan Patrol blue sometime in 2020, but hadn't really thought twice about why he painted it. This neighbor said the vehicle had scratches and needed a new coat of paint, but after learning about Greg's arrest and alleged involvement in what had happened to Russell and Carol, he said he saw the whole thing a little differently and was genuinely shocked.
Three days after Greg's arrest, police officially charged him with two counts of murder, despite not having Russell and Carol's bodies. However, in a press conference detailing the charges, Victoria's assistant police commissioner revealed that authorities had located what they believed was a crime scene a few hours away from where the couple had last been seen.
and forensic techs were going to process it for clues, with the hopes of finding Russell and Carol's remains. Another key piece to the puzzle investigators still hadn't been able to locate was the trailer they knew Greg had towed behind his Nissan Patrol when he'd been seen on surveillance footage. When detectives arrested him, that trailer was nowhere to be found, and it wasn't at his house.
So, detectives asked members of the public to come forward if they'd seen it or perhaps purchased it from Greg online sometime after March 2020. Police said the trailer was important because they believed Greg had used it to move Russell and Carol's bodies after killing them at their campsite. If they could just find it, then they might be able to uncover some physical or forensic evidence linking the couple to Greg.
During his first appearance in court, a judge ruled that Greg would be kept in custody through the end of May 2022, until another hearing could be scheduled. During that time, authorities continued to look for Carol and Russell. According to Serena Seifert's reporting for Nine News and John Sylvester's reporting for The Age, on November 30th, police investigators, along with forensic archaeologists and anthropologists, unearthed what they'd been expecting to find for so long — human remains.
Reporter Anthony Piovesan reported that piles of bones, dentures, and jewelry were found buried in a shallow grave beneath a fallen tree in a remote part of the bush not far from where authorities had told the press a suspected crime scene was. The exact location of the remains was in the Grants historical area just north of a town called Dargo. The makeshift grave was roughly two and a half hours southeast of where Russell and Carol had been camping in Wanangata Valley.
Investigators told the media it was going to take several weeks before DNA results would be able to confirm whether the remains belonged to Russell and Carol. According to ABC News, by February 2022, the positive ID came in, and it was official. The bones belonged to Russell and Carol. With the victims finally found, the case moved forward in the direction of prosecution, which forced many people to ask, if he was guilty, why did Greg do this?
According to an article by John Sylvester for The Age, Victoria police detectives who specialized in criminal profiling had spent over a year building a psychological profile of the person they believed had killed Russell and Carol. And Greg fit the mold. He had extensive experience in the remote bushland of Alpine National Park, a talent for stalking and hunting animals, as well as knowing how to elude detection. And he owned several firearms.
On top of that, a few of the people who'd known him for a while described him as having narcissistic tendencies and a self-absorbed demeanor. All attributes profilers felt described the type of killer they'd been looking for. One of his friends told John Sylvester that Greg had some letdowns in his life leading up to 2020.
For one, he'd never intended to fly commercial planes. As a young man, he'd set his sights on being a fighter pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force, but had quit pursuing a military career after being picked over for a spot on a prestigious flight team. Reportedly, his resentment over that stayed with him. But Greg settled for piloting for commercial carriers and moved on. He married his first wife, Lisa, and had two sons. But by October 1999, his marriage had imploded, and Lisa died.
According to news outlets, not long after she and Greg split, neighbors found Lisa's body in her garden at her home in northwest Melbourne. The 34-year-old mother had died of apparent suicide after consuming too many prescription drugs, which some sources referred to as sleeping pills and drinking alcohol. But as you might have guessed, by 2022, Victoria police investigators were very curious to learn more about the circumstances surrounding Lisa's death.
They discreetly requested a formal review of her case while they continued to investigate Greg's background. 9 News reported that over the course of Greg and Lisa's marriage, they'd fought a lot and as a result, she'd sought counseling for depression shortly before her untimely death. It's unclear though from the source material if homicide detectives in 2022 planned to use any information from Lisa's death as part of their evidence against Greg at trial. But speaking of going to trial, that's still kind of TBD.
In May of 2022, Greg's case was continued until August because he was unable to get some of his case material from his lawyer via his prison's computer system. At his August hearing, the case got pushed again until the spring of 2023 so that the defense could have time to vet more of the case discovery and speak with witnesses. While all the court back and forth has been going on, investigators have gone back out to Wanangata Valley to continue searching for potential physical evidence.
Adelaide Lang reported for NCA Newswire that prosecutors planned to build most of their circumstantial case against Greg using information from conversations they gathered from covert recordings. Yeah, apparently detectives had legally installed recording devices in his car as well as tapped his phone conversations from home.
Prosecutors have said that in addition to transcripts from those recordings that allegedly contain incriminating information, they're also going to rely heavily on testimony from firearms experts. As of a hearing in May 2023, the defense has requested even more time to pull their case together.
According to Christian Silva's reporting for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Greg's attorney said funding issues are a problem for Greg right now, and they'll need until spring of 2024 to sort everything out and be ready for a trial. When a jury is seated, the judge expects the trial to last at least six weeks. I, for one, would love to see authorities get their hands on Greg's missing trailer. Like, someone out there must have that thing. Either that or Greg got rid of it somewhere.
Either way, I'm betting it could hold some answers to a lot of questions. Even though it appears Russell and Carol's case is well on its way to concluding, they aren't the only people to disappear or die in Victoria's High country. Since 2008, four other people have vanished in that part of Australia, never to be seen or heard from again. Two men disappeared in 2019, one in 2011, and another in 2008. Most are presumed to be dead since no sign of them has turned up.
During all those years, Greg Lynn was known to visit that part of Australia a lot. Now, I want to be clear. I'm not saying he's connected to these other cases, but it does make me ask the question. If he was willing to kill and conceal Russell and Carol the way he's accused of, was that the only time he'd ever done it? Park Predators is an AudioChuck original show. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?
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