New clue about four-wheel drive in search for missing Victorian campers

Fresh details have been released amid the search for Victorian campers Carol Clay and Russell Hill, 19 months on from their disappearance.

A crucial new clue has emerged in the baffling search for two campers who have been missing in the Victorian wilderness for 19 months.

Detectives say they have intensified their search for a dark blue four-wheel drive vehicle seen in the area around the time Carol Clay and Russell Hill disappeared from a Wonnangatta campsite on March 20 last year.

The vehicle has been narrowed down to a five-door wagon “GU” model Nissan Patrol Series 1, built between 1997 and 2001.

The clue came after police received information from the Nissan Patrol community.

Last week, detectives released new images of a mid to late 1990s model Nissan Patrol and its trailer and said they were keen to speak to the driver of the vehicle or any witnesses who may have seen it in the area on the day of the pair’s mystery disappearance.

Police have released a crucial clue about a blue four-wheel drive in the search for the missing campers.

Police also displayed burnt out items detectives had seized from the campsite.

Campers found Mr Hill’s vehicle with signs of minor fire damage, while the campsite near the Dry River Creek Track in the Wonnangatta Valley had been completely gutted.

Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper said last week the “best theory” police had so far involved a blue four-wheel drive, and that the driver could have been involved in a “confrontation” with Mr Hill and Ms Clay at the campsite.

“Maybe someone in that blue four-wheel drive was parked and camped in the same area and that could have prompted some contact which may have been confrontational or aggressive contact,” he said on Monday last week.

“We know Russell was a very peaceful and law-abiding man and he worked in the wilderness and some very tough jobs, so he wasn’t someone who would necessarily take a backwards step either.

“So if there’s been some sort of argument, maybe it’s escalated from there.”

Image of a dark blue four-wheel drive leaving the Wonnangatta Valley campsite the day Carole Clay and Russell Hill vanished.

Witness statements put the vehicle at the campsite where Mr Hill and Ms Clay were last known to be before they vanished.

Inspector Stamper said the four-wheel drive attempted to leave the valley about midnight on March 20, but the Myrtleford gate was closed because of the bushfires, meaning the driver had to make a complicated turn back in the direction from which they had come.

“It’s unusual for someone to try and depart that area, because it’s treacherous in the daytime let alone the night-time,” he said.

Detectives believe that same vehicle was then also spotted on two cameras at the top of Mount Hotham, consistent with where a vehicle would exit the valley given the closure of the Myrtleford gate.

“If you are the driver of this blue Nissan Patrol, or you know who is, we would urge you to come forward – if nothing else so we can eliminate you from our inquiries and move forward,” Inspector Stamper said.

The damaged campsite belonging to Russell Hill and Carol Clay. Picture: ABC

Mr Hill left his Drouin home on March 19 before collecting Ms Clay from her home in Pakenham in his white Toyota LandCruiser.

The pair then travelled via Licola, spending one night at Howitt High Plains, before heading into Wonnangatta Valley on March 20.

Mr Hill – who did not tell his wife he was with Ms Clay – was last heard from the next day via HF radio, stating he was at Wonnangatta Valley in the Victorian Alps.

Since then, police have extensively searched the area, using missing persons squad detectives, local police, the search and rescue squad, air wing, dog squad and even the Australian Federal Police.

Inspector Stamper believed the bodies of Mr Hill and Ms Clay remain within the 1.6 million square hectares of the Wonnangatta Valley.

Investigators are asking anyone with information regarding the dark blue vehicle, particularly if the vehicle is associated with a trailer, to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.