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Ex-Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn was arrested in Victoria’s high country after police heard him talking to himself about suicide.
Lynn, 56, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court this week charged with the murders of secret lover campers Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73.
On Monday, the detective responsible for listening to 3150 secret recordings captured from Lynn’s wagon – a blue Nissan Patrol he later resprayed beige – revealed special operations group officers descended on Lynn in helicopters after he heard the accused killer talking to himself about possible self harm.
Russell Hill (pictured, right) and Carol Clay (left) are alleged by police to have been murdered during a camping trip in March 2020
Greg Lynn, pictured in court last week, was grilled by police for four long days
Russell Hill (pictured with his missing drone) is believed to have filmed campers in and about the area where he was allegedly murdered
Detective Leading Senior Constable Daniel Passingham said Lynn had been expected to travel to the Grampians in Victoria’s west when he heard him talking to himself on the other side of Victoria.
In a statement released on Monday evening, it was revealed the experienced detective became concerned when he heard Lynn speaking in a ‘depressed state’.
‘Lynn made comments of his time coming to an end, that Melanie (his wife) had three boys to look after her, a good rum, whiskey or cocktail would be good,’ Leading Senior Constable Passingham stated.
The detective said after listening to Lynn for more than 3000 recordings, he knew something wasn’t right.
‘I had a feeling he was going to commit suicide,’ he told the court.
Lynn had been armed with a high-powered centrefire rifle on the unexpected trip.
Within half-an-hour of the SOG officers taking off, Lynn was in custody.
Daily Mail Australia is unable to report on exactly what Lynn told police during his epic four-day record of interview after Magistrate Brett Sonnet agreed to implement a gag order on it.
A suppression order was also placed on and a statement Lynn provided after yet another secret recording by police.
What can be revealed is that the 3000-question interview went for a gruelling nine hours and 18 minutes – the longest Senior Constable Passingham had ever conducted.
Greg Lynn’s barrister Dermot Dann, KC claims his client’s record of interview to police would be seen as ‘explosive’ by the public
At its conclusion, the court heard Lynn allegedly provided them with a detailed ‘mud-map’ describing the location of where he allegedly dumped the bodies of Mr Hill and Ms Clay.
But it is an interview that may never go before a Supreme Court of Victoria jury amid claims by Lynn’s defence that it is inadmissible.
Leading Senior Constable Passingham told the court he had earlier heard Lynn pondering the alleged murders while driving up to the Wonnangatta Valley shortly before his arrest.
‘He expressed (it) while travelling up across the high plains just prior to his arrest on that day between Glenmaggie and Licola,’ he told the court.
Leading Senior Constable Passingham further revealed Lynn and his wife had been caught on tape watching a 60 Minutes program about the missing campers.
In court documents released last week, prosecutors revealed that homicide detectives had been investigating Lynn for about a year before finally arresting him in November 2021.
The Missing Person’s Squad detective said police had made thousands of recordings of Lynn in his car in the 11 months before his arrest in Victoria’s high country.
‘In what I had listened to of the accused, he had expressed it as a chapter in life,’ Senior Constable Passingham said.
The detective also claimed Lynn had mentioned while driving alone in his vehicle that his ‘book had been written’.
The Missing Person’s Squad detective said police had made thousands of recordings of Lynn (pictured) in his car in the 11 months before his arrest in Victoria’s high country
‘These are in the recordings that are taken while he is driving the Nissan Patrol,’ he said.
Last week, Lynn’s barrister Dermot Dann, KC described his client’s interview as ‘explosive’.
‘It’s just that these items of evidence are potentially game changing in terms of the way the trial will be conducted by the prosecution,’ he told the court.
‘They would have such an impact potentially on how that trial is to be run … there are very real, very live and very substantial issues in respect to those two items of evidence.’
The court heard Lynn was held within the jail cells of Sale police station without legal representation for the duration of the interview.
‘He was fed, he was watered, he was bedded,’ Senior Constable Passingham told Mr Dann.
The court heard police had descended upon Lynn as he entered the rugged wilderness at 5.35pm on November 22.
Upon his arrest, Lynn had asked to make a phone call to his flight attendant wife Melanie Lynn, who tuned into Monday’s hearing via videolink.
The request was allegedly refused, with police taking Lynn back to Sale police station for questioning while secretly recording him.
The charred remains of Russell Hill’s campsite after his alleged murder
Victoria Police and forensics search for remains of missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay in bushland north of Dargo Victoria on November 30, 2021
Senior Constable Passingham said Lynn was not provided access to a lawyer until the next day when he spoke to a female solicitor for an hour and a quarter.
While the contents of the interview must remain a secret, it can be revealed Mr Dann was critical in the way police went about interviewing his client.
Mr Dann repeatedly questioned Senior Constable Passingham’s professionalism and grilled him on his knowledge about what a police officer can and can’t do while conducting a record of interview.
‘Is that a regular practice of yours when an accused person says “look my lawyer just told me to say no comment”, do you then say “hang on, your lawyer is not in the room, she wasn’t there when these events are meant to have occurred, it’s up to you”?’ he asked.
Senior Constable Passingham told the court ‘it wasn’t a regular practice’.
‘But given the rights of a person does not necessarily mean that I will ever stop asking them questions,’ he responded.
Senior Constable Passingham said he suspected lawyers tasked with representing people accused of serious crimes actively worked against police.
Magistrate Sonnet asked the detective what he thought Lynn might have discussed with his lawyer before agreeing to be interviewed.
‘I wouldn’t have a clue … that maybe Victoria Police are untrustworthy … requiring him to make no comment in regards to them, that they will walk you down the garden path, that they will want to take you for drives in a car, that as investigators will do everything to obtain the truth,’ Senior Constable Passingham told the court.
An image of what police believe Greg Lynn’s vehicle looked like when the alleged murders were committed
Greg Lynn had asked to speak to his wife Melanie (pictured) upon his arrest in the high country
Earlier, police reconstruction expert Leading Senior Constable Paul Griffiths told the court it was ‘plausible’ that Ms Clay was shot in the head by a bullet fired from the front of Mr Hill’s LandCruiser.
Leading Senior Constable Griffiths said he reconstructed a scenario where Ms Clay was shot while standing or crouching near the passenger side mirror of the LandCruiser as two men, standing at the bonnet of the car, fought over a gun.
Lynn continues to deny murdering the couple while they were camping in the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020.
According to a prosecution summary, investigators allege Lynn got into an argument with the campers before killing them both.
‘The circumstances of their deaths, and the accused’s behaviour afterwards are consistent with the accused having intended to cause death or at least cause each of them really serious injury,’ the prosecution summary read.
Elderly camper Ms Clay was allegedly shot through the head and killed when Mr Hill attempted to grab a gun away from Lynn, the court heard.
Lynn is then alleged to have stabbed Mr Hill to death before burning their bodies and dumping them at another location.
The preliminary hearing continues.
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