An Australian pilot has been convicted of murdering an elderly woman who went missing in Victoria in March 2020, but a jury has acquitted him in the death of her fellow camper.
Greg Lynn, 57, was found guilty of killing Carol Clay, 73, during an altercation in Victoria’s Wonnangatta Valley.
Lynn pleaded not guilty but had admitted to moving the bodies of Ms Clay and Russell Hill, 74, before torching their campsite and later burning their remains.
The case, which sparked one of the state’s largest missing person operations at the time, has gripped Australia.
During a five-week trial which began in May, Lynn told the jury in Victoria’s Supreme Court that he had gotten into an altercation with the couple because he was hunting in the area.
His lawyers said that he had then killed the two during two separate struggles for control of a shotgun and a knife – but that it was not murder because the deaths were accidental.
But prosecutors had argued he had likely shot Ms Clay after killing Mr Hill.
The court heard that Mr Hill and Ms Clay were high school sweethearts who had rekindled their relationship later in life although Mr Hill was married.
It was Mr Hill’s wife Robyn who reported the pair’s disappearance, when she called police on 25 May 2020, after five days of not hearing from her husband, who usually made a nightly radio call.
The jurors delivered the split verdict after six days of deliberation but did not comment further on them.
Lynn is expected to be sentenced on 19 July. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
