The jury in the trial of a former Jetstar captain has heard police had a difficult time locating the site where Greg Lynn said he dumped the bodies of two missing campers.
Mr Lynn, 57, is facing trial in the Victorian Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to murdering Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, in March 2020.
Prosecutors allege he killed the pair “without lawful justification”, while Mr Lynn has asked the jury to accept they both died accidental deaths “not of his choosing”.
The elderly couple vanished while on a camping trip, with their remains discovered 20 months later in November 2020 following the former pilot’s arrest.
This week the jury was shown a three and a half hour video of Mr Lynn’s interview with police, in which he gives an account of the couple’s accidental death and advises detectives where he dumped their remains.
But, in the recording, he said he’d returned in November the same year and burnt the bodies, telling police there was “nothing left”.
On Tuesday, the lead investigator in the case, Detective Sergeant Brett Florence, gave evidence he drove about 180km to the Union Spur track early in the morning on November 25.
“We left Sale Police Station about 6am or 630am and arrived about 9am,” he said.
“It was difficult to find because it was extremely foggy.
“We went along the Union Spur track …. and took some video while I was there.”
He told the jury he sent two videos back to a police officer at Sale Police Station, with Mr Lynn providing guidance on where the remains were.
Days later, the jury heard, forensic officers would discover more than 2100 burnt bone fragments at the base of a fallen tree.
Detective Florence also gave evidence police had placed a live tracking device on Mr Lynn’s car almost a year before his arrest.
He told the jury the device was installed on December 3, 2020, about two weeks after Mr Lynn returned to where he had hidden their bodies and burnt them with kerosene.
Detective Florence said the device was providing Mr Lynn’s GPS location to police up until his arrest on November 22, 2021.
He said he had combed through Mr Lynn’s Gumtree records after he confirmed during his police interview he’d sold the trailer used to move the two bodies.
The jury was told 10 days after the alleged murders, Mr Lynn listed the trailer, a Jayco camper and an antique sleigh bed on Gumtree.
In the interview, Mr Lynn said he listed the items because he was stood down from work during the Covid-19 pandemic, and sold the trailer to an “Asian” man.
Detective Florence also said Mr Lynn had been photographed by his wife repainting his car on June 4, 2020.
The jury heard he told police on November 24, Mr Hill had stolen a gun from his Nissan Patrol after earlier accusing Mr Lynn of hunting too close to camp and threatening to go to the police.
On his account, as the two men fought over the gun it discharged, killing Mrs Clay as she crouched near Mr Hill’s car.
Mr Hill then came at him with a knife, leading to a second struggle that ended when the two men fell and the blade pierced Mr Hill’s chest, he said.
In the interview, Mr Lynn then confirmed he had burnt their campsite and dumped their bodies off a dirt track in an effort to “save himself”.
None of my decisions, whichever pathway I took, was going to make any difference to those two,” he told the detectives.
At the start of the trial, Mr Lynn’s barrister Dermot Dann KC told the jury that there was no dispute between the prosecution and defence that on Mr Lynn’s account he was not guilty of both murders or the alternative charge of manslaughter.
“As a matter of law, the prosecution will have to disprove his account,” he said.
The trial will return on Wednesday as Detective Florence continues giving evidence.