What Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn allegedly told his ex-wife Lisa Lynn
New details have emerged as Greg Lynn is the focus of a new police probe into the suspicious death of Lisa Lynn, whose death came at the end of their violent relationship.
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Exclusive: As Greg Lynn sat drinking and reading a book in a Melbourne pub, his wife was dying.
This is what he told investigators as he sat inside a Sunbury police station three days after the night Lisa Lynn died alone and in the cold in 1999.
The statement he made that night would later be scrutinised by a coroner.
The mother to his two sons had been found lifeless and in the fetal position in the front yard of their home in Zig Zag Rd, Mt Macedon, a spot an hour north-west of Melbourne favoured by pilots and stewardesses like the Lynns.
Inside the bluestone house, photo albums were sprawled across the living room floor and a CD was playing on repeat.
Hours earlier, Lisa, 34, had consumed a copious amount of vodka, swallowed sleeping pills and seemingly attempted to drive her Subaru as her children slept inside the house.
Her husband was no forlorn figure. He moved his new love straight into the home he had threatened to burn down.
In her death notice, Lisa’s parents, Kim and David, farewelled their daughter as Lisa Maree Searle – the giver.
Lynn would become the taker of at least one life.
In June, the infamous Jetstar pilot was convicted of the 2020 Victorian High Country murder of Carol Clay, 73, but was acquitted of killing her companion, 74-year-old Russell Hill.
LYNN IN HIS OWN WORDS
The cracks in their marriage, Lynn stated, first became public at a friend’s wedding in 1993, where they “fought all day’’. It was, he said in a statement to police, a “complete circus’’.
They were already in a trial separation before the “embarrassing’’ episode leaving Lisa “in no doubt’’ the marriage was over.
In response, Lynn said, Lisa ingested rat poison, called him to tell him so, and was hospitalised in Launceston.
This was part of the tapestry surrounding them that Lynn used to explain his estranged wife’s struggles before the acrimony of their final separation in 1999.
Her death, it seemed to him, was its sad end.
Lisa’s life had involved a teenage pregnancy, running away from home to have the child and giving up her first born for adoption as she fell in with a religious group.
Years later, in 1983, Lisa survived a car accident that killed her fiancé and left her with shocking head injuries.
In his carefully crafted police statement, provided to the Coroner’s Court, the highly intelligent Lynn even owned up to his flaws as a poor husband and habitual adulterer.
The 33-year-old even admitted to menacing the woman he was supposed to love.
Lynn, a trainee pilot, and Lisa, a trainee signals operator, met at the end of 1985 during their Air Force days at a friend’s birthday party at Laverton Air Base.
By Christmas they were engaged and the following June they were married.
The rest of his story, where he played the protagonist in a Greek tragedy, more or less went unquestioned.
“We constantly argued and bickered,’’ Lynn told police.
“I have never hit Lisa but I have on occasion pushed her away during an argument.’’
The officers interviewing Lynn knew the man before them was worse than that.
Police had investigated a family violence incident at the home earlier that year.
Lisa claimed her increasingly unhinged husband had broken into the Mt Macedon home they had once shared, stealing the family car.
“Rather than cause a confrontation I waited until everyone was asleep and hit the side door with a sledge hammer to gain entry, grabbed the keys and left immediately,” Lynn stated.
Lynn admitted he then telephoned his wife to say: “See, I told you I was going to make life difficult.”
The truth was, Lisa was petrified of Lynn and feared for the safety of her children.
So much so that during the separation she sent the family nanny and her sons, aged one and three, to Tasmania to stay with her parents.
She had also refused to write a will, fearing it would be like tempting fate.
A phone call, noted by a witness, was part of Lynn’s escalating fury during the final months of her life where she “lived in terror’’ of her husband.
“There’ll be blood in the streets. Your blood will flow. I hate you Lisa. Your blood will flow in the street…..f---ing bitch,’’ the pilot allegedly told his wife.
Lynn had also allegedly told her he would burn the house down.
“I was also charged with making threats to kill Lisa,’’ Lynn told police.
“This was over things that I admit that I said in the heat of the volatile situation but never intended to carry out.”
Those charges were later withdrawn.
During the marriage, Lynn had slaughtered the family’s pet pig and was alleged to have killed the neighbour’s dog.
There was also Lynn’s jealousy.
In what he referred to as the “flirting’’ incident, he flew into a rage over another man talking to his wife.
“The incident was triggered by a man flirting with Lisa in the pub where we all had gone out to dinner,” Lynn said.
“I didn’t take kindly to it ….’’
Lynn said when they arrived home: “I pushed her away and went to enter the spare room upstairs. As I went to open the door she kicked the door which basically fell apart.”
But, if the officers listening needed a sign of the nature of the man before them, it was the time he felt compelled to “teach her a lesson’’.
Lynn, during an “incident free” period during the mid-90s, regaled how he punished his wife on a rare occasion she drank too much.
“What I did was go up to the bedroom while Lisa was still drunk and asked her if she wanted to play a little game,’’ he told police.
“She said yes, so I bound her hands and feet with masking tape and carried her outside into the backyard.
“I put her near the back steps and hosed her down with water from the garden hose. I then sat out there with her and she got extremely cold.
“I then untied her, took her inside, helped dry her off and put her to bed.’’
He claimed his wife had no memory of it the following morning, until she saw her “wet and grass stained clothes.’’
“I have told this (story) to a few of our friends and their reactions have been a bit negative,’’ he said. “…they seemed to consider it a bit bizarre and cruel’’.
Lisa, in her own affidavit before her death, said her husband “was removed from his flight duties because of security reasons and their concern as to his mental stability.’’
Pilots had refused to fly with him.
Lynn denied it.
THE ALIBI
If there was one area Lynn excelled, it was in the preciseness of his alibi.
In policing circles, some might call it “over alibied’’.
“I’ve been asked about my movements this week, particularly on Monday, the 25th … and Tuesday the 26th of October,’’ he states.
“Late in the afternoon, about 5.30pm, I called Bronwyn, my partner who was on an overnight flight to Tasmania and staying at Wrest Point Casino,’’ he states.
“I decided to go out for dinner rather than sit alone. I went to Irish Murphy’s in Smith Street, Collingwood and had a drink while reading the paper.
“I then went out to Dimples Video Café, 125 Smith Street where I had dinner. I was in possession of a discount voucher for that restaurant. I paid by credit card and have produced the receipt to police.
“I then went back to Irish Murphy’s and had a couple of drinks while reading a book. I have a credit card receipt for my purchases at Irish Murphy’s but they are dated the next day, 26/10/99 because I left the card there and had to return to fix up the account and retrieve my card the next day.
“I also have a receipt for a cigarette purchase from a service station in Collingwood that night.
“I ended up going to two other hotels in the Fitzroy, Collingwood area. Those Hotels were the Albion Hotel in Smith Street. I didn’t stay there because it wasn’t my scene and I ended up at the Provincial Hotel, on the corner of Johnston and Brunswick Street where I had a drink and continued to read my book.
“I finished up after midnight and walked back to the Irish pub to fix up the credit card but they were closed. I then left my car where it was where it was because I was drinking.
“I walked to an ANZ bank in Smith Street and withdrew $40 cash for a cab home. I have the receipt for the withdrawal, timed 1.06am on 26/10/99. I then caught a cab home.’’
The taxi ride home is curious, as if it was planned.
“I started to talk top (to) the taxi driver who on finding out that I was employed by Ansett he asked me if I could arrange for refund of an unused airline ticket,’’ Lynn recalled.
“I said I doubted whether anything could be done but undertook to make some enquiries. I asked him for his card so I could contact him and he didn’t have one. He told me his name was Moses and he worked for Arrow Taxi Company. He dropped me home and I went straight to bed.
“In the morning I caught a tram back to pick up my car and then reported for work at 10.40am. I didn’t got (sic) anywhere between being dropped off by the taxi and going to get my car in the morning. Later that day I was informed at work that Lisa had died at home.’’
Lynn’s alibi raises some big questions.
Who reads a book in a pub on a Monday night? Who keeps receipts of all their purchases, including buying cigarettes? What were the chances of losing your credit card, but keeping the receipts dated the next day? And who remembers the name of their taxi driver?
Lastly, Lynn attempted contrition before the police interview ended.
“I would like to add that I am extremely sorry regarding the circumstances of Lisa’s death,’ he wrote at the end of his statement.
“Whilst I admit that relations between us had deteriorated dramatically ... and that I did make certain threats against her, I had absolutely nothing to do with her death.’’
TRUE COLOURS
In 2021, more than two decades after Lisa Lynn’s death, Gregory Stuart Lynn was “ice cool’’ when he was arrested in Victoria’s high country at Arbuckle as the only suspect of the murders of Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73.
He even feigned only a vague knowledge of who the elderly couple were. After several days in custody, he changed his tack, admitting to the confrontation that ended the elderly couple’s lives.
Since then a small team of detectives have been re-investigating Lisa’s death, and others.
One of their key questions remains, was Greg Lynn sitting in a pub drinking beer when his first wife died?
It has taken them on a global search for witnesses as they prepare a detailed report for Victoria’s coroner to re-open an inquiry.
It has even led to questions about another death in Zig Zag Rd, Mt Macedon – the alleged murder-suicide of Catherine and Jacob Viergever.
Police had believed the Viergevers’ strained finances led to Mr Viergever shooting his wife and three dogs before burning down their house.
Those who knew the Viergevers found it hard to accept.
In light of Lynn’s penchant to kill animals and burn bodies, some locals in the Macedon district are convinced the script will be re-written.
In June this year, the Jetstar pilot was found guilty of Mrs Clay’s murder, but a jury found him not guilty of Mr Hill’s murder.
It was his first conviction, but not his first brush with the law.
Lynn, the loner, would move to Adelaide, father a daughter with his partner, Bronwyn Jones, and continue his flying career.
His career would take him to the Middle East where he became an international pilot before moving home with a new love, his current wife, Melanie, with whom he had a son.
And it allowed him to own guns.
Lynn was a terrible hunter, but he was drawn to the isolation of the bush and was passionate about his gun club.
He even took part in a “dress up’’ day, playing the role of a cowboy.
But at home, there was a darker pet name for him – Wolf Creek.
It was picked up on police bugs hidden in his Caroline Springs home.
Lisa’s parents, David and Kim, have long waited for the day Lynn would face justice.
Now all they want is justice for their daughter.
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Originally published as What Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn allegedly told his ex-wife Lisa Lynn
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