How a bee sting solved biggest dilemma in campers case

In the months after he murdered Carol Clay, Greg Lynn took up beekeeping. And a bad reaction to a sting was exactly what police needed to ground the ex-Jetstar pilot.

Elderly lovers Carol Clay and Russell Hill went missing during a camping trip to the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020.

A humble bee sting saved investigators in the missing campers case from the biggest dilemma they faced during a saga full of difficult calls.

In 2021, police would have been wrestling with the possibility that Greg Lynn, the man they believed had murdered two elderly people, might soon be back flying packed planes around Australia.

A decision had to be made about whether Jetstar – grounded by Covid – should be told their pilot needed to be suspended from work and why.

Melanie and Greg Lynn took up beekeeping as a pandemic pastime. Picture: Facebook

This would have been a major negative for police because Lynn would have suspected or known something was up, removing the critical advantage investigators had of keeping him in the dark.

There was the risk he would seek legal advice and clam up.

But there was no question the lives of passengers had to come first and – even if that meant showing their hand – Jetstar had to know.

Lynn suffered a nasty reaction to a bee sting that put him in hospital – and kept him out of the cockpit. Picture: Facebook

While all this was going on, Lynn had taken up beekeeping as a pandemic pastime.

In a picture he posted on social media, Lynn stands alongside his wife, Melanie, and a young man, with all three dressed in matching white bee suits, broadbrimmed netted hats and elbow-length gloves.

Smiling and clutching what appears to be a glass of honey in his gloved-up hand, Lynn stands closest to a bee hive that looks to be perched in his backyard.

His wife, Melanie, wearing a big grin, holds up a pamphlet with a bee hive printed on the front.

The Herald Sun has been told it was during this period that Lynn was stung by a bee and suffered a nasty reaction that put him in hospital.

In a selfie from his hospital bed, Lynn snapped a close-up with his face mask pulled down to his chin and later posted it to Facebook.

Staring at the camera with an expressionless face, he lay in a bed wearing a hospital gown as the screens of machines glared behind his head.

The bee sting, and Lynn’s bad reaction, was enough to have him suspended from taking the controls of an airliner and, importantly, it happened without him knowing he was under scrutiny.