How elderly camper was shot dead in her pyjamas – as accused killer reveals the crucial role his Jetstar pilot skills played in the decision to cover-up their gruesome deaths

Former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn used his experience as an airline captain make a quick decision to cover up the “accidental deaths” of secret campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay.

Lynn claimed that Ms. Clay was wearing her pajamas when Mr. Hill made the fateful decision to steal his shotgun from the back seat of his Nissan Patrol.

He told the court that the subsequent struggle for control of the gun led to the death of the elderly couple.

Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty in the case High Council of Victoria until the murders of Mr Hill, 74, and Ms Clay, 73, in the Wonnangatta Valley, in the Alpine region of Victoria, on March 20, 2020.

On Tuesday, a jury heard Lynn’s story to investigators about how he came up with the plan to cover up the couple’s alleged murders by using his expertise as a pilot.

Greg Lynn claimed he used his expertise as a pilot to quickly make the decision to cover up the campers’ bodies

The Barathrum shotgun that Lynn claims was stolen by Russell Hill.

‘I thought: what am I going to do?’ and my company, my profession, works with decision-making processes,” he told the police.

“I mean, you might think I made a terrible decision here, but making quick decisions to get the best outcome is what I do.”

The video recording of Lynn’s police interview showed the former pilot wearing a gray windbreaker, goggles and surgical mask as he recalled police’s fateful late-night claim that he had killed the couple.

Lynn claimed he was engaged in a deadly struggle with Mr Hill as they fought for control of a 12-gauge shotgun when it went off, killing Ms Clay.

Mr Hill was then killed in a fatal struggle after coming at him with a knife, Lynn claimed.

Presented with the bloody aftermath, Lynn said he did what he did to keep his career on the air.

“I tried to save myself,” Lynn said.

Lynn claimed that if he had been a doctor or trader, his actions might have been more easily accepted by the police.

Greg Lynn had a permit to carry weapons and shoot deer

Detective Sergeant Brett Florence (pictured on Tuesday) was tasked with interviewing Greg Lynn

The former pilot said the incident occurred when he was at a high point in his home life and career as a pilot.

‘And so for me this was a disaster and I thought, “What else can I do?” and if I covered it up, not so much of a cover-up [the crime scene], but cover me. To make me disappear,” Lynn said.

‘I quickly made this assessment. This is the only one that offered any hope, no guarantee, any hope of avoiding that.”

Lynn told police he made himself a list of tasks to complete after leaving the campers’ bodies under a pile of branches.

“And I decided to do it,” he said. “I packed up my gear, hitched up the trailer, packed up camp, put them in the trailer and then looked around at the evidence.

“There was no evidence that I was there, there were questions about who had seen me there, but I never actually spoke to anyone other than the blackberry sprayers and that was two days earlier,” Lynn said.

“So I chose that path, but it fell apart very quickly at the first turn.”

The jury has heard that Lynn was undone by CCTV cameras on the mountain which captured him in the area at the time of the alleged murders.

Carol Clay and Russell Hill were in a secret relationship when they met Greg Lynn in the remote wilderness

Data from his and the campers’ phones would also point police in his direction.

The jury heard that detectives traveled to Lynn’s property in July that year where they noticed his Nissan Patrol had changed color from what they had observed on CCTV footage at the time of the alleged murders.

But he was free to return in November to the scene of the crime, where Lynn burned the remains of the couple’s bodies.

Lynn claimed that he set the bodies on fire with a small amount of kerosene and firewood, and burned their corpses all night until nothing remained of the shattered remains.

The jury heard that Lynn’s first contact with Mr Hill had been a ‘jovial affair’, despite him camping near his own riverside campsite at a location known as Bucks Camp.

Things went wrong the next day when Lynn claimed Mr Hill started filming him with his drone.

Lynn told police that Mr Hill had accused him of hunting too close to the camp and told him he planned to take the drone footage he had captured to police.

Tensions escalated later that evening after Lynn claimed to have irritated Mr Hill by turning up the volume on his car radio.

On Tuesday, the jury heard new details about how Lynn claimed the elderly couple spent their last moments alive.

Lynn claimed that Ms. Clay was wearing her pajamas when Mr. Hill made the fateful decision to steal his shotgun from the back seat of his Nissan Patrol.

Lynn told police the shot fired by Russell Hill in a deadly struggle blew the side mirror of his Landcruiser (pictured) and struck Carol Clay in the head

Greg Lynn changed the color of his dark-colored Nissan Patrol (pictured on CCTV the night after the alleged murders) to a tan using paint from his garage and a roller

The charred remains of Russell Hill’s campsite after Lynn set it on fire

Lynn alleged that Ms. Clay begged Mr. Hill to drop the gun when he tried to disarm him.

“Stop it, Russell,” she reportedly shouted.

While sitting outside the couple’s tent, she was allegedly shot in the head by Mr Hill and killed instantly, Lynn claimed.

The jury heard Lynn had become involved in a deadly struggle over the loaded shotgun, which carried ammunition designed to quickly kill a large deer.

Lynn told police he looked Mr. Hill in the eye as he pulled the trigger.

Moments earlier, Lynn claimed he begged Mr Hill to drop the shotgun.

‘I told him to give it back to me, but he refused. he tilted it and let one go – not at me, but over my head, so me was terrified,” Lynn later told police.

The jury heard Mr Hill grabbed and loaded the shotgun after becoming enraged by the volume on Lynn’s car radio.

Lynn told police he turned up his stereo to irritate Mr. Hill after their earlier confrontation over the drone.

“He’s trying to have fun in bed and I played the music loud and he lost his temper,” Lynn said.

Gripped by the personal struggle with the angry camper, Lynn told police he couldn’t drop the gun and run away.

“I thought I was going to get shot in the back if I ran there,” he said.

The process continues.

Russell Hill’s antics with a drone indirectly led to his own demise, Greg Lynn has claimed

The deadly battle is said to have taken place at the front of Mr Hill’s Landcruiser (pictured)