‘I haven’t behaved well’: Watch camper killer Greg Lynn’s police interview

In a bitterly cold Sale police station interview room, camper killer Gregory Lynn sits wrapped in a blanket and with a COVID mask down under his nose.

It’s November 2021. Lynn has just been arrested over the disappearance of Russell Hill and Carol Clay, and he’s calmly telling police what he says led to the pair’s deaths.

Gregory Lynn’s police interview.

The Supreme Court of Victoria released footage on Friday of about half of Lynn’s record of interview with detectives, which ran over three days, after he was convicted this week of murdering Clay, 73.

It’s the first time the public has heard Lynn’s voice telling his story, which the jury ultimately rejected.

In it, he speaks of Hill and Clay arriving at Bucks Camp in the Wonnangatta Valley, where the three exchanged pleasantries.

The next day, Lynn says, he went hunting in the bush nearby, where he discovered a drone was flying above him. When he returned to the campsite he again saw the drone, this time with Hill.

Lynn told police that after dinner he confronted the older man about being recorded, with Hill alleging the 57-year-old had been hunting too close to camp and threatened to take his drone footage to police.

Lynn says he returned to his campsite after the argument and turned up the music to annoy the 74-year-old.

What followed were the deaths of Clay and Hill. While Lynn told police these occurred in separate accidents, a jury this week found him guilty of murdering Clay but not guilty of murdering Hill.

The interview is punctuated by pauses in Lynn’s story while he looks at maps, draws diagrams and helps police identify the area where Hill and Clay’s remains can be found.

With glasses perched on the end of his nose, he also demonstrates with police how he says the fight with Hill over a gun unfolded and Clay was killed.

Lynn said he then drove the bodies to a second site, called Union Spur Track, a few hours away and over the following months returned there to burn the remains.

He also revealed that while stoking the fire from sunset to sunrise in November 2020, eight months after the deaths, he was physically sick but focused on the task at hand.

“I just focused on getting the job done,” he said.

When challenged about why he didn’t go to police if the deaths were an accident, he matter-of-factly replies that he feared being blamed for the deaths and losing the things in his life that meant the most to him.

“I panicked to save myself,” he tells detectives.

At the end of the interview with Detective Senior Constable Brett Florence and Detective Leading Senior Constable Daniel Passingham, Lynn was told he would be charged with murder.

“I haven’t behaved well, I’ve made some poor decisions, but murder, as I understand it, I am innocent,” he replied.

While it was not known how Hill was killed, the prosecution said police believed Hill died first, and then Clay was shot in the head because she was a witness.

The families of Hill and Clay later issued a statement thanking the prosecution and police for their efforts, but expressed devastation at the not-guilty verdict for Hill.

Lynn was remanded in custody to appear in court in July for a pre-sentence hearing.

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.