Camper’s widow tells murder trial of affair ultimatum, a husband’s vow and radio silence

The widow of camper Russell Hill has recounted details of her husband’s affair and how she helped him pack for the camping trip from which he never returned, in emotional evidence to a jury.

Robyn Hill said she had known Carol Clay for as long as her husband, who had introduced her as his cousin.

Robyn Hill outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday.Credit: Chris Hopkins

But she told the Supreme Court that it was a neighbour’s intervention during her long marriage that finally led to her learning the pair were having an affair.

Robyn, who gave her evidence seated due to her frailty, said Hill had helped build roads around the Wonnangatta Valley in the 1970s when he worked in the logging industry. The couple moved to Drouin in 2001, and around this time they went on trips as a group of four with Clay and her husband.

During questioning from defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, the widow agreed that a neighbour gave Hill an ultimatum to confess his affair with Clay, or she would tell Robyn herself.

At that time, Robyn said, her husband had claimed he would end the affair and stop seeing Clay.

Russell Hill and Carol Clay.

Years later, in March 2020 when Hill was leaving for a camping trip to the valley, she believed he was going alone, the court heard.

Robyn told the jury she helped her husband pack and said he was happy as he loved going to the Wonnangatta Valley as it was a “lovely place”.

She said her habit was to listen in to Hill’s nightly radio group chat to make sure he was safe when he went camping.

But when he fell silent for three or four days that March, she was worried.

Gregory Lynn has pleaded not guilty to murdering Carol Clay and Russell Hill.Credit: Facebook

Robyn said the unexplained silence made her so worried that she contacted friends for advice and then reported the 74-year-old missing to police.

“I rang triple zero,” she said. “They suggested I went to the Warragul police station because they’re open 24 hours.”

Airline pilot Gregory Lynn, 57, is on trial after pleading not guilty to murdering Carol Clay, 73, and Russell Hill, 74, at Bucks Camp in the Wonnangatta Valley on the evening of March 20, 2020.

Lynn’s legal team earlier told the jury both Hill and Clay died accidentally, while the prosecution alleges Lynn, a hunter, killed the pair with murderous intent.

Hill and Clay’s campsite, including Hill’s white ute, were torched by Lynn, who bundled their bodies into his trailer and drove them out of the valley.

The missing pair’s burnt remains were later found at a second site off the remote Union Spur Track, near the small township of Dargo.

Hill’s eldest daughter, Debra Hill, told the jury she was aware her father was going on a camping trip to Wonnangatta towards the end of March 2020, but also believed he was going alone.

She recalled her mother calling her on March 25 after they hadn’t heard from him in days.

“She was concerned that she hadn’t heard Dad on the radio because she often listened to check everything was OK,” Debra said.

“I said, ‘I think you should call the police’ because I could tell in her voice she was very worried.”

Police officer’s tour of campsite: Burnt remains but no blood

During other evidence on Tuesday, crime scene officer Sergeant Matthew Tanner described Bucks Camp to the jury.

He said that on March 28, 2020, he visited the campsite and found a white Toyota LandCruiser with fire damage to one side and a wire strung off the back and high into a nearby tree. He believed this was an antenna for a high-frequency radio.

New photos of the burnt Wonnangatta campsite were shown to the jury for the first time on Monday.Credit: Victoria Police

In photographs shown to the jury, Tanner pointed out items in the fire wreckage including burnt solar panels, a camping stove, gas cylinders, an electronic tablet and buckets.

Inside the cabin of the ute was a black leather wallet in the driver’s side footwell, with cards scattered underneath, and an open green wallet in the passenger footwell with Clay’s driver’s licence and Medicare card inside.

Dann asked about the canopy of the ute, which Lynn claims was open when Clay was accidentally shot. Tanner said he did not see any blood stains or human tissue in that area.

Trial loses juror to illness

A juror has been excused from the missing campers murder trial during the second week of evidence.

Justice Michael Croucher told the remaining 14 jurors on Tuesday morning that while it was not clear how long the woman would be unwell, he had decided to continue without her.

“That juror has contacted us this morning and explained that she’s not well,” he told them.

“I’ve formed the view that it’s better to carry on with 14 of you, rather than wait to see what happens with her health. That juror has been discharged.

“The reason we empanelled 15 is just for that eventuality.”

Croucher said he hoped the trial would not lose any more jurors. Twelve jurors are needed to deliver a verdict.

The trial continues.

A new podcast from 9News, The Age and 9Podcasts will follow the court case as it unfolds. The Missing Campers Trial is the first podcast to follow a jury trial in real time in Victoria. It’s presented by Nine reporter Penelope Liersch and Age reporter Erin Pearson.