Current Trial Wonnangatta - Russell Hill & Carol Clay vanish *Pilot Greg Lynn charged with murder

[Kurve]

Disappearance of Barwon Prison Boss David Prideaux - High Country Mount Stirling
Hit and Run Death of Bryce Airs - High Country Jamieson

Israel Keyes

On the Greg Lynn committal proceedings Crown Prosecutor Mr Dickie said 'It is clear hopefully from the document, and if it's not clear from the document it's clear hopefully from the charges put before the court, that it is alleged of course that the accused acted with murderous intent when he allegedly killed the two victims.'

 

[webbo_83]

the drone is still missing right ? I’m going with the theory they saw something they shouldn’t have.

This gets trotted out a lot, but I reckon it's a furphy. I spend a fair bit of time up there for leisure, as well as a bit of time up there with work - either walking or on horseback - and whilst I've seen quite a few things that could be deemed illegal, they're certainly not in the quantities that anyone's getting killed over (especially an elderly couple). Maybe I'm being naive, and my familiarity with the area and the people that inhabit it, make me too optimistic.

To follow on from some of the other posts here though, there's no big weed crop being grown in this terrain by anyone, but if there was then it would be by someone who was very confident and capable in the surroundings. Also, and maybe I'm betraying a bit of my own lived experience here, it's my understanding that marijuana plants require lots and lots of light to grow effectively - this is thick forest and scrub besides occasional clearings.

Way easier, and cheaper in the long run, to just rent houses and hook them up like a greenhouse, than plant crops in some of the most isolated and challenging terrain in Victoria

 

[Alberto_Magnifico]

This gets trotted out a lot, but I reckon it's a furphy. I spend a fair bit of time up there for leisure, as well as a bit of time up there with work - either walking or on horseback - and whilst I've seen quite a few things that could be deemed illegal, they're certainly not in the quantities that anyone's getting killed over (especially an elderly couple). Maybe I'm being naive, and my familiarity with the area and the people that inhabit it, make me too optimistic.

To follow on from some of the other posts here though, there's no big weed crop being grown in this terrain by anyone, but if there was then it would be by someone who was very confident and capable in the surroundings. Also, and maybe I'm betraying a bit of my own lived experience here, it's my understanding that marijuana plants require lots and lots of light to grow effectively - this is thick forest and scrub besides occasional clearings.

Way easier, and cheaper in the long run, to just rent houses and hook them up like a greenhouse, than plant crops in some of the most isolated and challenging terrain in Victoria

I agree, no one is planting anything in there, but you'd be surprised where some people plant their stash, in about 1996 my old man and I came across some of the biggest plants I've even seen near the top of Mt Skene at the back of one of the huts, these things were as thick as trees and in full bloom, they were only about 100m from the hut.
But nah not a commercial crop anyway, probably some happy campers entertainment

 

[Belnakor]

Way easier, and cheaper in the long run, to just rent houses and hook them up like a greenhouse, than plant crops in some of the most isolated and challenging terrain in Victoria

When I was on a school camp we came across a massive crop near Albany, but the growing conditions would have been excellent i'd imagine, sounds like this area isn't great for growing.

nonetheless, doesn't need to have been a crop - that also would have been found during this search. But it could have been something else. Drones are configured to fly back or just hand safely if the controller stops. It just disappearing seems pretty strange.

 

[MauroFogheri]

To follow on from some of the other posts here though, there's no big weed crop being grown in this terrain by anyone,

Way easier, and cheaper in the long run, to just rent houses and hook them up like a greenhouse, than plant crops in some of the most isolated and challenging terrain in Victoria

Apologies if it has been mentioned but wasn't a bloke shot dead - in Gippsland I believe - after discovering a crop? Maybe 15 years back?

 

[webbo_83]

Apologies if it has been mentioned but wasn't a bloke shot dead - in Gippsland I believe - after discovering a crop? Maybe 15 years back?

That was Warren Meyer, near Narbethong, which is between Healesville and Marysville. Approximately 160kms (as the crow flies) from Wonnangatta, so I'm not really seeing the relevance of it?

 

[austcrime]

Has there been any info on what he typically used his expensive drone for throughout his past years of ownership?

eg over the years? of him shooting drone footage; was it of sweeping vistas he was generally interested in; or did he fancy himself as some sort of amateur investigative journalist?

Point being if it was the latter; then he may well have been up there on the hunt for some illegal activity to find and shoot; (or that he already knew about/had been "tipped off" about)? ... which then put the couple in harm's way..

Then what; if anything; can be made of his hobby passion for ham radio / long distance communication? ... or is that a stretch?

Did perps or crims; (who were scanning/monitoring ham radio communications up there overhear a conversation the victim was having over his ham radio about some illegal activity that he had seen...

As most know: it always boils down to motive and opportunity ... So what was the motive behind disappearing that unfortunate couple?

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Kwality]

Another article in magazine of The Weekend Australian, a good 15 minute read.

NoCookies | The Australian

www.theaustralian.com.au

Kicks off with:
Mountain cattleman Graeme Stoney stands on a ridge looking out across Victoria’s High Country and shrugs. “There are a lot of coincidences in these mountains, a lot of answers you never get, a lot of things that don’t make sense,” he says, pointing across the valley towards snow-capped Mt Buller. “Over there you’ve got the bloke halfway up Buller who left his car on the side of the road and has never been seen since. You’ve got that bloke Niels [Becker] who left Jamieson’s Hut and vanished, you’ve got the bloke at Dom Dom Saddle who has never been found. Now you’ve got the disappearance of Russell [Hill] and Carol [Clay]. That is the biggest mystery of all. But we are not locking the gate and keeping a gun under the bed. We don’t think anyone is on the loose.”

The background is explored:
In October 2019, 39-year-old hiker Niels Becker disappeared on a walking track in the middle of a five-day hike about 20km from the Wonnangatta Valley. Three months earlier Conrad Whitlock, 72, vanished after his abandoned car was found halfway up Mt Buller. Whitlock had inexplicably left his home in the middle of the night to drive from Melbourne up to the mountain. No trace of him was ever found. In 2011, Melbourne prison warden David Prideaux, 50, went missing while hunting in the mountains, while three years earlier Warren Meyer, 57, vanished while on an easy 10km walk at Dom Dom Saddle. “It is not hard not to be found,’’ says cattleman Stoney. “You just have to walk off the track into the bush to have a crap and slip on a log and hit your head and no one will ever find you out there.”

Speculation:
.... the escape route out of the valley that he thinks the killers took. “I reckon they would have taken the bodies out that way,” he says, drawing a crooked line to the north.

The drone:
... the absence of the drone doesn’t offer clear evidence either way. “We can’t track it down. Potentially the drone could have been destroyed in the fire.” Police have tried and failed to find iCloud footage from its previous flights. The only theory they have put to rest is that the drone spotted a drug crop. “You’re not going to grow a drug crop in Wonnangatta, there is one road in and one road out essentially,”

Well worth a read .

 

[LK Metro]

Another article in magazine of The Weekend Australian, a good 15 minute read.

NoCookies | The Australian

www.theaustralian.com.au

Well worth a read .

I grabbed the paper to get the magazine. Jaysus. What rock have I been under? $4.50 for a newspaper? That's up there with $8 pies. Likely to burn the rest of the rag, but looking forward to article you linked. Thanks.

 

[MiguelM]

Another article in magazine of The Weekend Australian, a good 15 minute read.

NoCookies | The Australian

www.theaustralian.com.au

Kicks off with:
Mountain cattleman Graeme Stoney stands on a ridge looking out across Victoria’s High Country and shrugs. “There are a lot of coincidences in these mountains, a lot of answers you never get, a lot of things that don’t make sense,” he says, pointing across the valley towards snow-capped Mt Buller. “Over there you’ve got the bloke halfway up Buller who left his car on the side of the road and has never been seen since. You’ve got that bloke Niels [Becker] who left Jamieson’s Hut and vanished, you’ve got the bloke at Dom Dom Saddle who has never been found. Now you’ve got the disappearance of Russell [Hill] and Carol [Clay]. That is the biggest mystery of all. But we are not locking the gate and keeping a gun under the bed. We don’t think anyone is on the loose.”

The background is explored:
In October 2019, 39-year-old hiker Niels Becker disappeared on a walking track in the middle of a five-day hike about 20km from the Wonnangatta Valley. Three months earlier Conrad Whitlock, 72, vanished after his abandoned car was found halfway up Mt Buller. Whitlock had inexplicably left his home in the middle of the night to drive from Melbourne up to the mountain. No trace of him was ever found. In 2011, Melbourne prison warden David Prideaux, 50, went missing while hunting in the mountains, while three years earlier Warren Meyer, 57, vanished while on an easy 10km walk at Dom Dom Saddle. “It is not hard not to be found,’’ says cattleman Stoney. “You just have to walk off the track into the bush to have a crap and slip on a log and hit your head and no one will ever find you out there.”

Speculation:
.... the escape route out of the valley that he thinks the killers took. “I reckon they would have taken the bodies out that way,” he says, drawing a crooked line to the north.

The drone:
... the absence of the drone doesn’t offer clear evidence either way. “We can’t track it down. Potentially the drone could have been destroyed in the fire.” Police have tried and failed to find iCloud footage from its previous flights. The only theory they have put to rest is that the drone spotted a drug crop. “You’re not going to grow a drug crop in Wonnangatta, there is one road in and one road out essentially,”

Well worth a read .

Yeah, very easy to disappear in the area. As locals have said, 10 metres off a track you could never be seen again, even if the reason not sinister.

This case obviously sinister though.

 

[Awakening]

Camping in a tent, missing sleeping bags...any locals with a bratz doll obsession?

 

[Kurve]

The fire was set to conceal a crime, on 60 Minutes now.

 

[Awakening]

WTH!!!! Why are they only telling us about the car now?!

 

[Drakescoffeecake]

Clearly the driver of that car is the killer - honestly should be quickly solved from here with that information.

 

[Killer Power]

You would think those cameras are good enough to get plate numbers so suspect fitted with stolen plates. Still a reasonably distinctive set up.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[latinoheat]

How many blue Nissan patrols made before 2000 would there be in Victoria? Surely not that many they couldn’t knock on a few doors

 

[Awakening]

You would think those cameras are good enough to get plate numbers so suspect fitted with stolen plates. Still a reasonably distinctive set up.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

I wondered the same thing. It looked possible that with some computer forensics you'd be able to enhance the image & get the plate number.


I don't get why they didn't release this earlier? Did they say why & I missed it?

A distinctive vehicle like that, someone could well remember seeing. But ask them 18 months later what the occupant/s looked like, and unlikely anyone would remember.

‘There could have been somebody else’: New clues in mystery of missing campers

Police say they are closing in on the person who could tell them what happened to Russell Hill and Carol Clay.

www.theage.com.au

 

[webbo_83]

Firstly, the reference to the 20 or 30 point turn is interesting as apparently it can be attributed to the button man!

Secondly, when police release this kind of information (I.e. CCTV where the images are relatively clear and anyone who is familiar with the person/vehicle will know who/what it is) it's usually because they know plenty but not quite enough to actually cuff someone. By releasing this image they've now placed the onus of proof (in any situation bar a court!) on the owner/driver of the blue Patrol to come forward and prove they're not guilty. It also means that anyone who is familiar with anyone who has a blue Patrol (and anyone who is a regular camper in the general vicinity will often recognise others by their vehicles - noting that I am a regular but a quick scan through the campsite photos on my phone just now doesn't show any blue Patrol's) and camps is now questioning everything about that individual. Did they act strangely in March 2020? Come home earlier than they said theywould? Abruptly stopped visiting the same spots or stopped camping altogether? Etc etc

 

[BomberManU]

Didn't watch 60 Mins, but sounds like a reasonably stunning development! I'm a bit unclear on a few things though - it's a remote spot and they arrived late, yet someone saw the Patrol near their campsite? Does that mean others were there, or the site can be seen by passing cars?

 

[Zidane98]

Firstly, the reference to the 20 or 30 point turn is interesting as apparently it can be attributed to the button man!

Secondly, when police release this kind of information (I.e. CCTV where the images are relatively clear and anyone who is familiar with the person/vehicle will know who/what it is) it's usually because they know plenty but not quite enough to actually cuff someone. By releasing this image they've now placed the onus of proof (in any situation bar a court!) on the owner/driver of the blue Patrol to come forward and prove they're not guilty. It also means that anyone who is familiar with anyone who has a blue Patrol (and anyone who is a regular camper in the general vicinity will often recognise others by their vehicles - noting that I am a regular but a quick scan through the campsite photos on my phone just now doesn't show any blue Patrol's) and camps is now questioning everything about that individual. Did they act strangely in March 2020? Come home earlier than they said theywould? Abruptly stopped visiting the same spots or stopped camping altogether? Etc etc

Any blue Patrol owners in the deer hunter community would be a good place to start investigating.

 

[Zidane98]

How many blue Nissan patrols made before 2000 would there be in Victoria? Surely not that many they couldn’t knock on a few doors

Could be from interstate but even then numbers of late 90s Blue Patrols must be a few thousand at most.

Most of thosr could easily be eliminated which makes me believe the coppers have a decent idea of who the culprit is.

 

[FR0GGY]

Looks to be a sticker on the drivers side rear 1/4 window.

 

[FrankGrimes]

I wondered the same thing. It looked possible that with some computer forensics you'd be able to enhance the image & get the plate number.


I don't get why they didn't release this earlier? Did they say why & I missed it?

A distinctive vehicle like that, someone could well remember seeing. But ask them 18 months later what the occupant/s looked like, and unlikely anyone would remember.

‘There could have been somebody else’: New clues in mystery of missing campers

Police say they are closing in on the person who could tell them what happened to Russell Hill and Carol Clay.

www.theage.com.au

Unfortunately it’s not like tv, you can’t just make a blurry picture clear as day.. number plates are especially hard due to lighting etc…

 

[Trucker Tiger]

Surely the police know the identity of the owner of the Patrol and always have…

 

[Awakening]

Unfortunately it’s not like tv, you can’t just make a blurry picture clear as day.. number plates are especially hard due to lighting etc…

I've watched every episode of See No Evil!

 

[Alberto_Magnifico]

This matches up with the search area near Hotham last year, they know this car went that way and were either looking for clues or trying to flush then out.
IMO the patrol looks like a bit of an 'old mate' setup, could have been a heated clash involved as two stubborn codgers argued about camping ground rights.