The jury in the double murder trial of a former airline pilot has been shown photos of a crime scene where he burned the bodies of Russell Hill and Carol Clay.
Gregory Stuart Lynn has pleaded not guilty to murdering the elderly couple at a remote camping site in Victoria’s alpine region in March 2020.
Lynn’s lawyer, Dermot Dann KC, said it was the defence case that the pair died as part of a “tragic accident”, and Lynn then undertook a series of actions to evade the detection of police.
One of these “terrible acts” committed by Lynn was setting the bodies of Hill and Clay alight in November 2020, Dann told the court.
The court has previously heard Lynn dumped the bodies on the side of the Union Spur Track while returning home to Melbourne from the Wonnangatta Valley, where the couple died.
Dann said Lynn had told police he set the bodies alight with a small amount of kerosene.
George Xydias, a forensic officer at the Victoria Police Forensic Services Centre, inspected the Union Spur Track scene near Dargo in late 2021, about a year after Lynn said he had lit the blaze.
He was shown a series of photos of items found during an examination of the site, including three teeth, various human bones and what appeared to be the face of a watch.
Xydias, who specialises in the investigation of fire and explosion scenes, told the court he could not discount the version of events Lynn provided to police about when and how the fire started.
Xydias also inspected the burnt-out campsite of Clay and Hill in April 2020, and provided evidence about this inspection. He said he identified three possible causes for the blaze, and noted the site contained gas bottles and a solar panel.
Dr Dadna Hartman, a molecular biologist at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, also appeared in court on Thursday.
She confirmed she completed DNA analysis of bone fragments in the case which were matched with a high degree of likelihood to Clay.
Dann told the court that Lynn’s account of the deaths was that a shotgun accidentally discharged, with the bullet hitting a side mirror of Hill’s car, and then striking Clay in the head, dislodging part of her skull.
The court heard the bone examined by Hartman included a cranial bone found at Buck’s Camp, where the deaths took place.
Dann asked Hartman whether she could confirm that her testing provided “extremely strong support” for Lynn’s account of Clay’s death.
But she said that she was only able to confirm the potential identity of the person whose DNA was found on the bone, not how the bone was detached nor explain where it was found.
The court also heard from Greg Cogan, a Det Sen Con who did a video-walk through at the campsite on 28 March 2020, only days after the couple were allegedly murdered.
The video taken by Cogan, which included commentary he provided about what he saw at the scene, was shown to the court.
Under cross examination from Dann, he confirmed he did not notice any blood or “human tissue” at the scene.
The court had previously heard that such material, linked by DNA to Clay, had later been found by police on an inside section of the canopy of Hill’s LandCruiser.
The material was not visible during the video taken by Cogan of the same area.
The hearing continues.
