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Thread: Carol Clay (73) & Russell Hill's (74) remains found 18 months after the went missing; a suspect has been arrested

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    Carol Clay (73) & Russell Hill's (74) remains found 18 months after the went missing; a suspect has been arrested

    I could've sworn there was a thread for them but I can't find one

    Edit : this article has a lot of pix & graphics that I can't add here so you'll have a much better experience reading it at the orig link below

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-.../12455124?nw=0

    By Elise Kinsella

    Updated 19 Jul 2020, 12:54pm
    Published 19 Jul 2020, 4:55am


    It's not unusual for people to get lost in Victoria's remote and rugged High Country - but it is strange for them to remain missing. In the past 12 months, four people have disappeared within a 60-kilometre radius, leaving police and locals baffled.



    It's what wasn't found in the search for Russell Hill and Carol Clay that stands out to Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper.

    The veteran officer knows the pair's camping trip had initially gone to plan.

    Russell picked Carol up from her house in Pakenham on the outskirts of Melbourne on March 19 and the pair headed east, bound for the remote Wonnangatta Valley.

    Russell, 74, and Carol, 73, had given slightly different return dates to their families, a point Inspector Stamper puts down to Russell having a fairly flexible schedule.

    It's also true that Russell's family, including his wife, thought he was camping alone.

    Friends say since Russell's retirement two years ago, he's been known to head off on solo road trips.

    It was only with his disappearance that those close to him learnt that Carol, a former Country Women's Association president, was on some of those getaways.

    After their disappearance, police were asked if the pair, who have reportedly known each other for more than 20 years, could have run away together.

    Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper is leading the investigation into the disappearance of Russell Hill and Carol Clay.
    It's a prospect Inspector Stamper sees as "highly unlikely".

    "I mean these were two people who were very close with their families, had good, independent, comfortable lives," he says.

    "They are not in my view people who are just going to decide to run away and live off the grid somewhere."

    Russell and Carol are among four people who have gone missing over the past 12 months within a 60-kilometre radius of each other as the crow flies.

    The others are Niels Becker, who did not return from a hike near Mount Stirling in October, and Conrad Whitlock, who was last seen on Mount Buller last July.

    The Wonnangatta Valley lies between Mt Buller and Mt Hotham in the Victorian High Country.

    The Wonnangatta Valley lies in the dense bushland between the popular ski resorts of Mount Buller and Mount Hotham.

    You can only access the valley with a 4WD and in winter the roads are completely closed.

    On this trip, Russell drove into the valley on a rough 4WD path known as the Zeka Spur Track, a road he'd built decades earlier while working as a contract logger.

    The valley is a place with a dark history.

    Sometime in December 1917 or January 1918, the manager of the Wonnangatta cattle station, James Barclay, was shot dead.

    James Barclay was the manager at the Wonnangatta Station, considered one of the most isolated homesteads in Victoria, when he was murdered.

    The station cook John Banford was suspected of the murder, but in November of 1918 he was also found dead with a bullet lodged in his skull.

    The murders have remained unsolved for the past century.

    Wonnangatta Valley has become a sort of dark tourism attraction - a spot where campers can sit around a fire in the black of night and scare each other with ghost stories.

    The trip to Wonnangatta Valley was Russell's third visit to the region in a month.

    At the end of February, he and Carol had travelled through the High Country, stopping at a camping spot called Pikes Flat, about 60km from the Wonnangatta Valley.

    Then on March 11, Russell told friends and family he was heading to camp alone on the King Billy Track between Wonnangatta and Mount Buller.



    Russell's friend of almost 30 years, Robbie Ashlin, says it was on the King Billy Track about a year earlier that Russell and another mate had an encounter with a bushman who has been dubbed the Button Man.

    He's a man who reportedly spends weeks camping alone in that remote country and gets his nickname from his habit of shaving down deer antlers to make buttons.

    Robbie says Russell encountered a man who was "agitated" and "let them know he didn't want them to be camping there".

    "They just called him the angry deer hunter because they didn't know him as anything else".

    But others see this elusive bushman differently.

    Roxanne had a holiday house in Mansfield, one of the nearest towns to the Wonnangatta Valley, and would run into the Button Man while shopping at the supermarket.

    She describes a man in a torn duffle coat who was always friendly to her and her son and would chat to supermarket staff and locals on the main street.

    "I just saw a guy who was down on his luck," she says.

    She thought he simply looked like a man without a home.



    Inspector Stamper says police have spoken to a number of people who live in or spend time in the bushland around the Wonnangatta Valley, including some with "concerning and anti-social habits".

    But the detective says police have no suspects, and have not been able to connect anyone with the disappearance of Russell and Carol, or any of the other disappearances in the area.


    Robbie Ashlin (centre) and Russell Hill (right) were in a radio club that would camp together.


    Robbie Ashlin is the last person known to have spoken to Russell.

    They were part of an amateur radio club that would chat on their radios each day at 6:00pm.

    The group is made up of men who like camping, hunting and fishing: outdoors types who use the radio to communicate when they are out of phone reception.

    On the night of March 20, while Russell and Carol were camping in the Wonnangatta Valley, Russell spoke to three or four club members including Robbie.

    When Robbie didn't hear from Russell the next night, he wasn't worried.

    "But when he was missing the second and the third night that is when I said to his wife, "It's time to go to the police.""

    Russell Hill and Carol Clay's campsite was discovered burnt on March 21 and arson detectives have been unable to determine the cause.

    When police got to Russell's camp they found the remains of a fire that had burnt so hot it had swallowed up his tent and left black stains down the side of his 4WD.

    There was no trace of Russell or Carol.

    Police have since narrowed their disappearance down to an 18-hour window between that radio call that ended at 6:30pm on March 20, and 2:00pm the next day, when other campers came upon the burnt campsite.

    Police chemists have not been able to determine the cause of the fire, but Inspector Stamper says it is being treated as suspicious.

    "The fire is a big part of what makes us concerned about this incident."

    Russell's drone has become an object of intense interest to the police investigating his disappearance.

    Most of Russell and Carol's belongings were found in Russell's distinctive 4WD.

    The only things police couldn't account for were Russell's drone and his mobile phone.

    Inspector Stamper says both items could have been destroyed beyond recognition in the fire, but it would have been out of character for Russell to leave expensive items in a tent.

    Friends say Russell Hill never ventured too far from his campsite while out in the bush.

    Russell's drone has become an object of intense interest to the police and an object of intense speculation for the public.

    There are plenty of people in the High Country who will tell you Russell and Carol would be alive if not for that drone.

    As Roxanne, the holiday-house owner in Mansfield puts it, there are lots of people worried that Russell accidentally saw something he wasn?t meant to while flying the drone overhead.

    What she's referring to is a drug crop.

    The theory might sound wild, but others in Victoria will remember the case of hiker Warren Meyer, who disappeared in the Yarra Ranges National Park in 2008.

    Warren Meyer was 57 years old when he went missing during a hike near Healesville in 2008.

    Police found a cannabis crop while searching for him, and later received a tip-off alleging he was murdered when he stumbled across a marijuana operation.

    Could something similar have happened to Russell and Carol?

    "We know the community has those concerns," Inspector Stamper says.

    But he says police are not aware of any drug activity in the area, and the search effort - which involved rescuers on foot and horseback as well as helicopters and drones - had found no evidence of a drug crop.

    The other issue that casts doubt on this theory is the drone itself.

    Russell had an app on his phone for the drone, but had not uploaded any footage to his account from that Wonnangatta trip.

    Another theory is that if Russell's drone went down in bushland, the pair might have got lost looking for it.

    But police have not been able to find any flight path data from the trip.

    While Inspector Stamper says that doesn't mean a flight didn't occur, it does mean if it did happen, it's a flight that has also left no digital trace.

    <<continued>>
    Last edited by blighted star; 03-04-2021 at 10:52 PM.

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    <<Continued>>

    After months of searching and investigating the disappearances, what Inspector Stamper has been left with is a long list of things that haven?t been found, including Russell?s phone and drone, any drug crops, any hint that this was a staged disappearance, any suspect or any item at all connected to Russell or Carol.

    And it is all that missing information along with the burnt-out tent, that leads Inspector Stamper to suspect foul play.

    ?I find it more likely that there has been some involvement of a third party or third parties and something has happened to Russell and Carol and they have either been concealed in that area ? or taken from that area,? he says.

    ?We are looking at four-wheel drivers, hunters, fishers and campers, but people who are competent travelling in that area and have the equipment to do so,? Inspector Stamper says.

    Police are still calling for anyone in the Wonnangatta Valley on the days around March 20 to contact them, even if they didn?t come across Russell and Carol.

    They believe somewhere there is a someone who knows what happened to Russell?s drone, how that fire started and what happened to Russell and Carol.

    A young man who loved the mountains, but never made it home
    About 20km from the Wonnangatta Valley is a section of the Australian Alpine Walking Track (AAWT), where 39-year-old Niels Becker was last heard from before he disappeared in October last year.

    Niels set off on what was to be a five-day hike through the High Country as a birthday present to himself.

    He?d spent six months training for the gruelling hike by taking long walks with a heavy pack near his home in Melbourne.

    Melbourne man Niels Becker, who went missing while hiking in Victoria's High Country in October 2019.
    Niels knew the area well.

    He?d gone to Timbertop, the mountain campus that year 9 students at Geelong Grammar attend, and he?d continued to hike in the High Country as an adult.

    His father Peer Becker described Niels as an independent person with a passion for Christian country music.

    Speaking to media after his son disappeared, Peer said Niels?s love of the mountains could be seen in his poetry.

    ?A lot of the writing is about the High Country around Mount Buller,? he said.

    This camping spot off the Australian Alpine Walking Track shows how difficult it can be to spot the path.
    Senior Sergeant Damian Keegan, who helped coordinate the search, says Niels was well-prepared and well-equipped for his hike.

    He took a mobile phone with him and told family of his plans, which he also lodged with Mansfield police.

    For the first three days of his hike Niels followed the AAWT, one of the premier long distance hikes in Australia.

    The track follows the Australian Alps from Victoria all the way to the ACT.

    Niels started at Upper Jamieson Hut, south of Mount Buller, and then hiked to Vallejo Gantner Hut, his last known location.

    Here Niels sent a text message to his family saying he would head to Mount Stirling before looping back to his car.

    Niels Becker had hiked to Vallejo Gantner Hut on his five-day trek, but police don't believe he ever made it to Mount Stirling.
    Like the Wonnangatta Valley, the Vallejo Gantner Hut has a story of its own.

    It was built in the early 1970s in honour of Vallejo Gantner, the grandson of businessman Sidney Myer.

    Vallejo was an arts student at Monash University and just 19 years old when he was killed in a shooting accident in the Victorian High Country in 1962.

    The hut was built as a place of shelter and a memorial to a young man who loved the mountains and lost his life too soon.

    Senior Sergeant Keegan believes something happened to Niels on the fourth day of his hike after he sent his text to his family.

    He says Niels had planned to leave the AAWT that day and follow a smaller track to Mount Stirling.

    Senior Sergeant Keegan believes Niels may have delayed the start of his fourth-day hike because of poor weather, and then had to cram a long and difficult walk into fewer hours of daylight.

    He says this could have affected Niels?s ability to distinguish a walking path from a track formed by deer, wombats or wild dogs.

    A police helicopter can just be seen as it flies over the Australian Alps Walking Track, searching for Niels Becker.
    The experienced police officer doesn?t think Niels made it to the end of his hike that day.

    He says the spot Niels intended to camp on his fourth night was close to Mount Buller and has phone reception.

    He believes Niels would have made phone communication with his family again if he made it to the end of that fourth day.

    Much of the police search was focused on an area of about 7,000 square kilometres around Mount Stirling.

    The searchers also went back to the beginning of Niels?s journey, retracing his trip along the AAWT on foot.

    Police were looking for a clue, no matter how small, that Niels had been through a particular area.

    They were hoping to find a food wrapper, a hat or piece of clothing belonging to Niels, or another hiker who saw him after he left the Vallejo Gantner Hut.

    Passionate hiker Marty Felber happened to be on the track the weekend after Niels went missing, while police were still searching.

    His experience shows how quickly conditions can change up in the mountains.

    Marty took off from the Vallejo Gantner Hut in relatively warm weather with the temperature in the low 20s.

    ?I was starting to get a bit worried that I was going to get a bit sunburnt,? he says.

    But the sunshine didn?t last.

    Marty set up his tent about 1:00pm on the Sunday. Within about 20 minutes, he estimates the temperature dropped 10 degrees.

    ?It just suddenly chilled up and you could see the weather coming, you could see the front coming,? he says.

    Marty had just made it back to his tent from collecting water when the hail started.

    ?Then that stopped and it started to snow,? he remembers.

    He estimates the temperature dropped by about 20?25 degrees that day.

    Police never found a sign of Niels around Mount Stirling.

    It?s why the case has stayed with Senior Sergeant Keegan.

    ?That is the big thing you struggle with each day, you know, have we missed something?

    ?How does someone like this go to an area he knows, but there is no sign, no trace of him??

    Senior Sergeant Keegan says he doesn?t believe there was foul play involved.

    ?I personally believe it is an unfortunate hiking accident and that, coupled with the weather, has impacted on his ability to survive,? he says.

    He remains hopeful there?s a hiker who saw something that could help police find Niels?s final resting place.

    ?I try and put myself in the family?s shoes and that drives me to keep going,? he says.

    Heavy snow fell along the Australian Alpine Walking Track while rescuers were searching for Niels Becker.
    A mysterious Monday morning drive
    Perhaps the most inexplicable of all of the High Country disappearances is that of Conrad Whitlock, who was about 30km from Vallejo Gantner Hut when he went missing.

    The Melbourne businessman was driving up the road to Mount Buller early on the morning of July 29 last year when he stopped his car on the side of the road at a spot called Unnamed Corner.

    He has not been seen since.

    The story of how he wound up at Unnamed Corner is just as odd as his disappearance.

    Conrad?s wife Mandy Whitlock says the day before her husband went missing, the pair went for their usual Sunday lunch at a restaurant.

    They met as children in Melbourne, both kids who had migrated to Australia from the UK with their families.

    They had been married for more than 50 years when Con went missing.

    Mandy says they were a close couple.

    For much of their working lives they ran businesses together. Before Con disappeared, they were operating a bullbar business.

    He?d oversee the work in the factory and Mandy took care of the books from their home.

    The pair also had a love of adventure. For 20 years they headed up to Mount Buller every weekend of the ski season before they turned to car racing.

    Conrad Whitlock had been a keen skier. There was a 20-year period where he was at Mt Buller every weekend of the ski season.

    The road Conrad disappeared from is one that Mandy estimates he had driven hundreds of times in his life.

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    <<Continued>>


    During that last Sunday lunch, Mandy says they chatted about car racing and a possible trip back to Mount Buller for a visit.

    When they went to bed that night Con warned his wife he might be out of the house before she woke.

    For years he had been in the habit of rising early, heading out for breakfast and starting work at the factory early.

    Mandy Whitlock was married to her husband for more than 50 years before he disappeared from the side of the road at Mount Buller.
    But that Monday was a little different.

    Con had been battling a persistent headache for a couple of weeks and his doctor had said he needed a scan.

    He couldn?t get an appointment until the Tuesday, but Con told Mandy he?d go in early on the Monday and see if any spots had opened up.

    When Mandy woke the next morning she was alone, but didn?t worry. She thought she knew where her husband was.

    That day she was with an accountant all day working on the end-of-financial year accounts for the business.

    Mandy left messages on Con?s phone a couple of times and checked if he was at the factory.

    In the afternoon, when she hadn?t heard from her husband, she rang the medical centre, but was told Con hadn?t been there that day.

    Mandy spoke to their business manager who said he would try to track Con?s phone using an app.

    ?He called back and said, ?It is nearly at Mount Buller,?? Mandy says.

    ?That is when I went ?Oh my God ? something is really wrong.??

    Conrad Whitlock's car was found on the side of the road, near the Mount Buller ski village.
    Police found Con?s BMW at Unnamed Corner, right where the phone tracing app had indicated.

    Con?s jacket, phone and wallet were all in the car, but he was not.

    Mandy says police were able to use road cameras to trace Con?s movements, from him leaving the estate where the couple lived at 3:00am until he drove through the Mount Buller ticket point at 6:00am.

    After that police relied on dashcam footage from passing cars.

    Mandy says he was sighted until his car pulled over about 6:30am.

    ?Then there was like a 10 or 15 minute gap where no cars went past him,? Mandy says.

    Those 10 to 15 minutes are crucial, because when the next car went past, Con?s car was empty.

    Police still don?t know what happened in those minutes.

    They set up a search from the car, but this was not the kind of place you?d take a stroll.

    ?When I went up with my friend we had a look over the edge and it is just this sheer drop that is a complete and utter jungle of fallen trees and shrubbery and so dense that no-one in their right mind would want to step off there and walk any distance,? Mandy says.

    Con knew Mount Buller well but he had never been a hiker.

    The searchers went over and over the area around the car but didn?t find a trace of Con.

    They also searched the nearby Howqua River, but found nothing.


    Con?s disappearance has left Mandy, his wife of five decades, his skiing partner and race-car navigator, with many more questions than answers.

    Mandy says she?s had to think of all possibilities, including whether Con had intended to end his own life.

    But Mandy says that simply didn?t make sense.

    ?We had just bought this new race car, he was so enthusiastic about it, he had arranged for some coaching in it and had already raced it,? she says.

    Conrad and Mandy Whitlock enjoyed racing cars together. The pair raced in events in Tasmania and in the Victorian High Country.
    ?The business was going fine, we didn?t have any hassles, there was just nothing to indicate that he was concerned about anything.?

    She dismisses the idea of foul play.

    ?They [police] went through his computer and his phone and they couldn?t find anything that indicated that there was something not right,? she says.

    ?It is not like he had enemies.?

    But still there are the questions.

    She doesn?t know why Con got up at 3:00am and drove without stopping to Mount Buller.

    She doesn?t know why Con stopped at Unnamed Corner, when he should have known he was just a couple of minutes away from the ski village resort and car park.

    ?If he had stopped to go to the toilet, he would have known he was so close to proper facilities,? she says.

    She doesn?t know why Con didn?t go to the medical centre for scans as he had planned.

    But she thinks that headache had something to do with his disappearance.

    Mandy believes Con must have had some kind of medical episode, because there is no other way to explain his behaviour that morning.

    She still hasn?t had a funeral for her husband, but says she now thinks of him as having passed away up there on Mount Buller.

    Senior Sergeant Greg Paul is a specialist search and rescue officer with Victoria Police.
    Police are still hopeful that they will one day be able to tell the families of Carol Clay, Russell Hill, Niels Becker and Conrad Whitlock what happened to their loved ones.

    Senior Sergeant Greg Paul, who leads Victoria?s Search and Rescue Squad, says having no answers at all is the worst possible outcome for the families.

    ?It is the not knowing ? it is the cruellest result of all,? he says.

    Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online.


    https://amp.abc.net.au/article/13221...mpression=true



    Police search for 'mystery' white ute in investigation into missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay


    By Elise Kinsella
    Posted 34mminutes ago, updated 25mminutes ago


    Carol Clay at a Country Women's Assocation event holding up a cook book
    Carol Clay was an active member of the local Country Women's Association.(Supplied)



    Victoria Police is appealing for public information about a mystery ute seen in the area where two people went missing in the Victorian High Country last year.

    Key points:
    Police want to speak to the people in the ute to see if they have any new information

    The make and model of the vehicle is not known

    Russell Hill and Carol Clay disappeared after going camping in March 2020

    Russell Hill and Carol Clay were camping in the remote Wonnangatta Valley in March before they disappeared. They have not been seen since.

    They are among four people who remain missing, after disappearing within 12 months of each other, in the same area.



    Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper of Victoria Police last year told the ABC that he considered the baffling disappearances of Mr Hill and Ms Clay to be suspicious.

    "I find it more likely that there has been some involvement of a third party or third parties and something has happened to Russell and Carol and they have either been concealed in that area?or taken from that area," he said.


    A man looks into he camera wearing a hat and standing in front of a van.
    Russell Hill was a keen camper who had spent much of his career as a logger in Victoria's remote High Country.(Supplied)


    The pair was last heard from on the night of March 20 when Mr Hill made contact with friends who were part of an amateur radio club.

    At 2:00pm the next day, other campers found their campsite burnt out, with Mr Hill's car still there.

    Police chemists could not identify the cause of the fire.


    A composite image of an older man and an older woman smiling.

    It's not unusual for people to get lost in Victoria's High country but it's strange for them to remain missing. That's why the past year has left police and locals baffled.


    Mr Hill's drone was not found in the wreckage.

    A large police search of the region failed to find any trace of Mr Hill or Ms Clay.

    Police are now appealing for information about a white dual cab ute that was seen in the area on March 20.

    Police said after 12 months of work, they had identified all other vehicles in the area on that day.

    The make and model of the white ute is not known.

    Police said that there was nothing to indicate the white ute was linked to the disappearances, but they said those travelling in the area may have new information.

    camp site burn out, with burnt tent, chairs and other camping equipment. ute with minor fire damage.

    Mr Hill's car was left behind at the campsite which had been burned the day after they were last heard from.(Supplied Exclusively To ABC Gippsland)


    Police also want to speak to anyone who was in the Wonnangatta Valley, or travelling through the area, on March 20 last year, regardless of whether they saw or heard anything.

    Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers.

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    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Maybe someone found the missing drone ...



    https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2021-...ances/13226702

    Victoria Police say an item of interest has been handed in to detectives investigating the disappearances of two people in the Victorian High Country.

    Key points:

    Russell Hill and Carol Clay have been missing for nearly a year

    The pair disappeared from a camping trip in the Victorian High Country

    Police say an item of interest has been handed in

    Russell Hill and Carol Clay were camping in the remote Wonnangatta Valley last March when they went missing.

    They were last heard from on the night of March 20, when Mr Hill made contact with friends who were part of an amateur radio club.

    At 2:00pm the next day, other campers found Mr Hill and Ms Clay's camp site burnt out, with their car still there.

    Mr Hill and Ms Clay were missing from the camp site, along with Mr Hill's drone and mobile phone.

    Today, Victoria Police announced an item of interest had been handed in to police over the weekend, but have not confirmed what that item is.

    Police are still determining whether the item is connected to Mr Hill and Ms Clay's disappearances.


    Police have long suspected foul play

    Victoria Police conducted an extensive search of the Wonnangatta Valley and surrounding areas at the time of the disappearances, but did not find a trace of Mr Hill or Ms Clay.

    They were also unable to determine the cause of the camp site fire, but did consider it suspicious.


    Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper, who has led the police investigation, last year told the ABC he suspected other people were involved in the disappearances.

    "I find it more likely that there has been some involvement of a third party or third parties and something has happened to Russell and Carol and they have either been concealed in that area ? or taken from that area."

    Last Friday, police put out a public appeal for help identifying a white dual cab ute that was in the Wonnangatta Valley at the time Mr Hill and Ms Clay were camping there.

    The ute was seen near a suspension bridge and long-drop toilet in the camping area on March 19, and was the only car in the area at the time that police had not been able to identify.

    Inspector Stamper said police didn't have any information connecting the ute to the disappearances, but said police needed to be able to identify it.

    He also told ABC Statewide Drive that police had considered the possibility a "rogue shooter" had harmed the pair.

    "There are a bunch of what I would say are rogue hunters, rogue shooters who go into these areas, and within any group or community, there are always those who don't do the right thing and are reckless," he said.

    "Certainly the shooters group have an element, same with the four-wheel-drivers.

    "So yeah that is definitely one theory we have looked at, that it could be that rogue shooter or hunter."

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    Captain of Fuckery captainjillian's Avatar
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    Man, all of these are interesting. I think the one kid probably died in a hiking accident but the other three are super weird.


    I never try anything, I just do it. Wanna try me?

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    https://7news.com.au/news/missing-pe...time-c-4267406


    It?s a mystery that?s captivated Australia, and a case Victoria Police say is unlike any they?ve ever encountered.

    Russell Hill and Carol Clay set off on a camping trip in the remote Wonnangatta Valley in March last year.

    But they never returned.

    They left very few clues, among them a burnt-out campsite and a locked car. But hardly a crime scene, police say.

    Speaking for the first time since the pair vanished, Hill?s daughters, Debbie and Colleen, told 7NEWS they knew something was wrong when their father failed to make contact.

    ?When mum rang us ... we could tell in her voice she was really worried and that something bad happened,? Debbie said.

    ?Things just weren?t adding up. Now we look back at it, It doesn?t make sense ... we don?t know why the campsite burnt ... we don?t know where they are and what happened to them.?

    Carol Clay?s sister Jill has a similar feeling of dread.

    ?Things just weren?t adding up. Now we look back at it, It doesn?t make sense.?

    ?I immediately knew there was something horribly wrong. Why would someone premeditate such a vile act on two people who were intelligent, responsible and prepared?? she said.

    ?So, what?s the reason? That?s the main question that isn?t solved?.

    577 days later ... Police believe they are closing in on those responsible.

    When asked how the ?persons of interest? should be feeling, head of the Missing Persons Unit Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper was quick to respond:

    ?I?d be uncomfortable ...? Stamper said.

    Acting Sergeant Brett Florence echoed his sentiment.

    ?Very uncomfortable, we will leave no stone unturned,? he said.

    ?This has been like a massive jigsaw puzzle we?ve had to put together.?

    The pair have been leading a dedicated team who are determined to solve, what they?ve described as one of their more unique cases.

    ?This has been like a massive jigsaw puzzle we?ve had to put together. Now it?s a question of focusing our efforts more directly,? Stamper said.

    But for now, Hill?s daughters and Clay?s sister reflect on precious memories.

    ?I think a memory that just keeps popping in my mind is the last time we saw him ... at my daughter?s birthday ... thinking of the things he said and what I said and the things I wish I had said,? Hill?s daughter Colleen said.

    For Debbie, it?s about the unanswered questions.

    ?It?s hard, it?s really hard and it?s not getting any better not knowing. It?s the unknown, he just disappeared, and you?re just stuck,? she said.

    Hill was a grandfather of seven, and retired five years ago.

    His family said he often escaped to Gippsland for the serenity.

    ?When I was a child it just seemed like it was his favourite place,? Colleen said.

    ?When he did retire and started to go camping it just made sense to us that he would do that.?

    His friend, Clay, has been described as a vibrant, with a larger-than-life energy, who had a sense of adventure and was always looking for the next thrill.

    ?She had a great sense of community responsibility. She always volunteered her time, whether it was school activities with her children, or the church,? Jill said.

    ?If there was a fire in Victoria, she would be there for the support crew cooking and preparing meals.?

    Now, it?s a waiting game. A call to Crime Stoppers, an anonymous tip ? but for now, two families anxiously await answers.

    ?You?ve undertaken a heinous act and you?ve got to live with that for the rest of your life and it?s time to turn yourself in,? Jill said.

  7. #7
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Fucking hell. November 2021 is turning out to be a pretty dramatic month for unsolved Australian missing persons cases


    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-...clay/100642224

    Police arrest man over disappearance of missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay in Victoria's High Country


    Police have arrested a man over the disappearance of campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay.

    In a statement, Victoria Police said detectives arrested the 55-year-old Caroline Springs man about 5:30pm on Monday and were interviewing him this morning.

    "The investigation into the matter remains ongoing and further information will be released when operationally appropriate to do so," police said.

    Detectives have made repeated appeals for information since Mr Hill and Ms Clay disappeared while camping in the remote Wonnangatta Valley in north-eastern Victoria in March 2020.

    Police said hundreds of people across the state had provided information or assistance to the investigation.

    More to come.

  8. #8
    Senior Member KimTisha's Avatar
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    Is this the Button Man?
    You are talking to a woman who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom and chuckled at catastrophe.
    ...Collector of Chairs. Reader of Books. Hater of Nutmeg...

  9. #9
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KimTisha View Post
    Is this the Button Man?
    That's what I was wondering, but unless he leads a dual life, I'm guessing it's not


    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-...pers/100643906

    It is the case that has held Australia in suspense for more than 18 months and left two families waiting and waiting for answers.

    So when police on Tuesday announced a man had been arrested in relation to the disappearances of Russell Hill and Carol Clay, it was always going to be big news.

    But few could guess the details that would emerge later from one of the country's major airlines.

    Jetstar confirmed it had stood down 55-year-old pilot Greg Lynn in connection to the disappearances.

    "Jetstar has been advised by Victoria Police that one of its employees is under investigation for a serious crime and will work to assist in this due process in any way we can," it said.

    "As a matter of course, the employee has been removed from duty as a result of their arrest."

    It was a dramatic day that followed a long investigation.

    Police first became involved back in March last year, after Mr Hill and Ms Clay set off for a camping trip in the Wonnangatta Valley in East Gippsland.

    It is about as remote a spot as you can find to camp.

    In the valley, you are a long way from help if you get in trouble.

    There are just three very rough four-wheel-drive tracks in and out, there is no phone reception, and the closest town is hours away.

    Russell Hill was a bushman, a former contract logger who helped to build one of the main tracks into the valley.

    He knew this part of the world better than most.

    But two days after he left for the Wonnangatta Valley, his camp site was found burnt out.

    His car was there, but a drone was missing, along with the couple.

    Mr Hill and Ms Clay have not been seen since.

    Investigation heats up as police make arrest
    For police, this has turned into one of the country's most high-profile missing person cases.

    Robbie Ashlin was mates with Mr Hill. They were part of an amateur radio club together.

    "It has been a long haul," he said of the past 18 months.

    Without answers, the disappearances have been difficult for him to understand.

    "I think you are in sort of like a lost mind," he said.

    The public interest in the baffling disappearances has also been intense, and media across the country have followed every step of the investigation ? an investigation that clearly heated up in the last couple of weeks before police arrested Mr Lynn.

    We know that arrest occurred at a campground near Moroka Road at Arbuckle Junction.

    It is a small dot on the map, south of the Wonnangatta Valley and north of Licola.

    The man's Nissan Patrol was seized by police, which included members of the force's special operations group.

    No charges have been laid.

    Remote area makes any progress difficult
    The police officer who has led the long and arduous investigation into the disappearances for the past 18 months has been Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper.

    His team has faced plenty of challenges.

    Initially, the location of the Wonnangatta Valley proved difficult ? it is a long drive into the valley, and the bush there is vast and dense.

    Some of the undergrowth is impenetrable on foot, and supplies are a long way off.

    In July last year, he spoke to the ABC after initial searches had failed to find the pair.

    "I find it more likely that there has been some involvement of a third party or third parties, and something has happened to Russell and Carol, and they have either been concealed in that area ? or taken from that area," he said.

    Since then, police have spent more than a year piecing together who was where at the time Mr Hill and Ms Clay disappeared.

    They have used CCTV cameras as well as interviews with campers to identify all the cars that were in the valley at the time and track down the owners one by one.

    Early this month, police went public with a photo of a four-wheel drive. It was in the valley last March, but officers had not been able to identify the driver.

    It was a blue Nissan Patrol, seen towing a trailer in the valley late on the night that Mr Hill and Ms Clay disappeared.

    Inspector Stamper told the media at the time that police did not know if it was connected to the disappearance.

    "We have witness statements that put this blue vehicle and its trailer in the valley at the time Russell and Carol were there and, indeed, near the spot that they had set up their camp," he said.

    "Detectives have also been given information that a vehicle attempted to leave the valley late at night on the evening of Friday, March 20, but the Myrtleford gate was closed because of the bushfires, meaning that the driver had to make a complicated turn back in the direction from which they had come."

    Hope for answers as families stay away
    The vehicle was also seen on two cameras at the top of Mount Hotham, where police believe a driver would exit the valley if the Myrtleford gate was closed.

    At this stage, police have not confirmed if that is the vehicle they have now seized.

    For the residents of the sparsely populated high country, any development in this case has been welcomed.

    Charlie Lovick, a well-known cattleman in the area, said the disappearances had been deeply felt.

    "The reality is, and quite rightly, it scared a lot of people out of the bush," he said.

    "Families are not as willing to travel into the bush and camp and to explore the bush and learn about it anywhere near as much as they were before it happened."

    Like many, he hopes this is a case that will be solved.

    But for now, family and friends of Russell Hill and Carol Clay and those in the high country are again waiting for more information and waiting for answers.

  10. #10
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    https://www.9news.com.au/national/ma...f-825086c6a3f7

    A Nissan Patrol has been seized from the man arrested over the disappearance of Victorian campers Carol Clay and Russell Hill in March last year.

    The man has been identified as 55-year-old Greg Lynn, a Jetstar pilot from Caroline Springs, in Melbourne's west.



    Greg Lynn. (Nine)


    He is being interviewed by police after special operations officers flew to the High Plains area, part of the Victorian Alps, in helicopters yesterday and arrested him at a campsite near Moroka Road, Arbuckle Junction.

    No charges have been laid against Mr Lynn, but police will allege his car is the dark blue Nissan Patrol police have been searching for as part of the investigation.

    Jetstar has confirmed the pilot had been stood down.

    "Jetstar has been advised by Victoria Police that one of its employees is under investigation for a serious crime and will work to assist in this due process any way we can," a spokesperson said, in a statement.

  11. #11
    Senior Member KimTisha's Avatar
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    WTF?! He has to have known them somehow.
    You are talking to a woman who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom and chuckled at catastrophe.
    ...Collector of Chairs. Reader of Books. Hater of Nutmeg...

  12. #12
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    https://www.theguardian.com/australi...issing-campers

    Russell Hill and Carol Clay may have been murdered after drone dispute, police say in court documents

    Two campers may have been killed after a fight over a drone before their alleged murderer left a hotel room covered in blood, court documents show.

    Greg Lynn, a former airline pilot, is charged with murdering Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, who went missing in March 2020 while camping in the Wonnangatta Valley, east of Melbourne.

    Lynn, 56, faced the Melbourne magistrates court this week for a committal hearing, which will determine whether there is enough evidence for him to stand trial.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/mel...nal-hours.html

    Fresh details of secret lover campers' final hours: Witnesses tell of the last moments they saw couple alive before they were allegedly shot dead by ex-Jetstar pilot and their bodies burned

  13. #13
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    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...arol-Clay.html

    Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn has Caroline Springs house restrained by police as he prepares to face trial over deaths of Russell Hill and Carol Clay

    In June, it was revealed Lynn was struggling to fund his legal defence with the restraining order placed on the house a further blow.

    What happens to the house he lived at with his wife and children depends on the outcome of his murder trial in February.

    If Lynn is found guilty, it could be sold with the proceeds being given to family members of Ms Clay and Mr Hill, the Herald Sun reported.

    If he is acquitted, the restraining order on the house would be lifted and return to the control of Lynn's wife Melanie, who was made its sole proprietor in January 2022, after her husband's arrest.

  14. #14
    Senior Member marshmallow's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...arol-Clay.html

    Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn has Caroline Springs house restrained by police as he prepares to face trial over deaths of Russell Hill and Carol Clay


    What a long wait for their families. Sadly they will have their answers now.
    Marshmallow here is the one I liken to Ed Gein... Originally Posted by Heartbroken1


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