Elderly camper Carol Clay met her demise when her clandestine paramour, Russell Hill, endeavored to wrest a firearm from the grasp of the former Jetstar pilot, Greg Lynn, resulting in a fatal shot through her cranium.
Gregory Lynn, 55, made an appearance in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Monday, facing charges for the murders of Mr. Hill, 74, and Ms. Clay, 73.
Forensic expert Mark Gellatly disclosed Lynn's contention that Ms. Clay met her demise instantaneously when his shotgun, in an unintended discharge, propelled a round into her head. This revelation marks the initial disclosure of the alleged events leading to the murders. The charred remnants of the elderly couple were discovered by Victoria Police Missing Persons Squad detectives on November 30, 2021, just days after Lynn's apprehension.
The circumstances surrounding Mr. Hill's purported murder by Lynn remain ambiguous.
Lynn's barrister, Dermot Dann, QC, posited to Mr. Gellatly that Mr. Hill had seized Lynn's shotgun.
"The two engaged in a struggle over the firearm, resulting in an accidental discharge... striking Ms. Clay's head while positioned on the near side of Hill's vehicle," Mr. Dann stated.
"Yes," affirmed Mr. Gellatly, "It is a plausible explanation at this juncture."
The court learned that traces of Ms. Clay's blood, confirmed through DNA analysis, were discovered on Mr. Hill's Toyota Landcruiser, although many presumed traces were obliterated by fire.
On Monday, the court was informed that the elderly lovers had visited a remote wilderness graveyard and used a drone to survey fellow campers.Weed sprayer Robert Williams testified that he believed he had seen Mr. Hill in the wilderness days before the alleged murder.
Describing Mr. Hill as a 'cantankerous elder,' Williams recounted being buzzed by a drone.
"I was being incessantly observed," he later informed the police.
Mr. Williams observed the drone hovering over other campers, suspecting that they were being filmed.
While Mr. Hill had a drone during the trip, it was never recovered.
Mr. Williams gestured as it filmed him, circling above for 35 to 40 minutes before disappearing near Wonnangatta Cemetery.
Although he did not identify the operator, he found it intrusive.
"You venture there for a tranquil camp, and someone is maneuvering a drone overhead," he lamented in court on Monday.
The subsequent morning brought the scent of burning plastic in the air.
Lynn purportedly shot the campers before incinerating their bodies and disposing of them in bush graves.
Campers Damir Javor and Goran Miljkovic had sighted the couple as they parked at a campsite believed to be shared by Lynn.
Mr. Miljkovic conveyed that the couple, perceived as grandparents on a leisurely drive, impeded their progress down a forest track in the Wonnangatta Valley in the Victorian Alps.
"They seemed to be an elderly couple out for a drive," he relayed through a Serbian interpreter.
Stuck behind the slow-moving duo, they reached their campsite, already occupied by two vehicles—a white Landcruiser and a blue Nissan Patrol, the latter matching the type of vehicle confiscated by the police upon Lynn's arrest on November 22 last year.
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