Police step up search for missing campers’ remains
A CRUCIAL search will begin on Monday in the latest phase of the marathon high country murders investigation.
Detectives, specialist searchers and forensic officers will work in the Grant Historic Area in east Gippsland, where they believe the killer of campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay disposed of their bodies.
The friends disappeared while on a trip to the neighbouring Wonnangatta Valley on March 20 last year.
Jetstar pilot Gregory Lynn, 55, was last week charged with murdering them and has been remanded.
The search area is about 15km north of Dargo, where locals have been called on to lend earthmoving equipment for the operation.
Campers who had unknowingly set up camp in the search zone have been moved on by police.
Investigators want to return Mr Hill and Mrs Clay’s remains to their families so they can be farewelled.
But there is also the possibility of retrieving evidence in their case against Caroline Springs man Mr Lynn.
He was charged last Thursday with two counts of murder after a 20-month investigation.
He was arrested last Monday when special operations group officers converged on a remote campsite near Arbuckle Junction, also in east Gippsland.
Mr Lynn spent three days in custody before being charged, during which he was questioned at length.
Police have declined to say whether they homed in on the search zone because of information from that interview.
Mr Hill, 74, of Drouin, and Mrs Clay, 73, of Pakenham, set off for the high country on March 19 last year, arriving at Wonnangatta a day later.
Their campsite was seen the next morning by a passer-by who noticed their tent and furniture had been wrecked by fire.
One theory is that they were murdered within hours of Mr Hill making a final amateur radio call to a mate.