Gunshots and a drone were heard near the remote alpine camp ground where a Melbourne couple was allegedly murdered, a court has heard.
Russell Hill and Carol Clay were reported missing after going camping at a remote site in the Wonnangatta Valley area of the Victorian Alps in March 2020.
Their bodies were discovered in bushland outside Dargo in November 2021, several days after their accused killer Greg Lynn was charged with their murders.
He faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday for the beginning of a five-day committal hearing, testing the evidence against him.
Lynn, a former airline pilot, has pleaded not guilty to the murders.
Hunters Damir Jovar and Goran Miljkovic believe they saw Mr Hill and Ms Clay in the Wonnangatta area when they camped there in March 2020.
Through a Serbian translator, Mr Miljkovic told the court he heard gunshots early one morning of their trip, just before dawn. He then corrected himself.
“Just one gunshot,” he said.
In his statement to police, Mr Miljkovic had described hearing gunshots regularly in the area over many years of camping. He believed them to be coming from poachers trying to kill stags.
He had been in the area to hunt deer.
Mr Miljkovic and Mr Jovar both described following an older couple in a white Landcruiser ute during their trip. It pulled into a camp area with toilets. Mr Miljkovic said, strangely, it parked closer to two other vehicles than the toilets.
One was a white ute, according to both men. Mr Jovar said the second was a blue Nissan Patrol while Mr Miljkovic said it was a blue station wagon.
Mr Miljkovic believed he saw the same couple the following day, walking from a graveyard to the ute parked near a river.
Contract weed sprayer Robert Williams was working in the area the week the campers were reported missing.
He said a “grumpy” man sped past him near the Bucks Camp before lunch on March 20. Others driving past had stopped to chat, but this man “put his foot down, zoomed past me”, he said.
Hours later, as he phoned his boss about 5pm, Mr Williams said he saw a drone flying overhead.
He waved as it flew over him, filming, and it circled several times before flying over nearby campsites, describing it as rude.
“You’re going there to have a peaceful camp and somebody’s flying a drone over top of you,” he said.
He watched it for 35 or 40 minutes before it continued on out of sight.
The following morning he smelled burning plastic, but didn’t think much of it at the time because he said campers often burnt rubbish in their campfires. He had only taken note to check that it was none of his fellow workers.
Later, when news reports revealed two campers were missing in the area, Mr Williams recognised the image of Mr Hill as the “grumpy” man.
“I could tell straight away by looking at him – mid-70s, had that grumpy look about him,” he said.
“I remember the vehicle very well. A V8 Landcruiser, decked out.”
The hearing is continuing.
