Found Deceased Australia - Russell Hill, 74, & Carol Clay, 72, Wonnangatta Valley, 20 March 2020 #3

[spiritseeker31]

A Current Affair can also reveal Mr Hill went on a solo camping trip a week before he vanished.

Since I'm assuming this long time affair was kept on the down low, some of these 'solo camping trips' could have been cover stories. For example, he could have been staying with CC at her new home. IMOO **or is there absolute proof he went by signing a log of some sort??

 

[Puzzles]

I wonder if that’s a red herring.

View attachment 290271
Robbie Ashlin (centre) and Russell Hill (right) were in a radio club that would camp together.

Robbie Ashlin camping - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

I've been fishing for the red herring you mentioned, @they'll get you. I haven't been able to catch it. Are you able to tell us more about it?

 

[Marchalot]

Maybe you could provide a link for that? I read only about one previous visit the week earlier. I think that could have been scouting out a good site for his later visit with Carol. I don't recall how long he was said to have stayed.

I did read 4 times somewhere ? I kept googling and found 3 times from a newspaper which was conveyed as accurate.. Could have mates up there as well..

 

[they'll get you]

I've been fishing for the red herring you mentioned, @they'll get you. I haven't been able to catch it. Are you able to tell us more about it?

Lookimg at every scenario.

 

[Marchalot]

I did read 4 times somewhere ? I kept googling and found 3 times from a newspaper which was conveyed as accurate.. Could have mates up there as well..

I will try find that link again . Said three times in the one month RH was up there .

 

[srper2]

Something that has just come to mind is that RH could have had more than one woman on the side. I had always thought he went to Wonnangatta a week before his trip with CC to prepare a camp site, but now also wonder if he could have been on a romantic trip with another secret woman? Maybe one that CC and his mates did not know about. Where someone reported talking to RH a month before while camping at Pikes flat, but not talking to CC, was it even CC who had been with RH the month before? (sorry cannot download link, but channel 7 news on 25/5/2020) Missing Victorian Campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay Seen Camping Together Month Before Disappearance. Often people who are comfortable having affairs behind their spouses back will do it with more than one person.

 

[Kemug]

Hi, this is my first post, but have been following this story since it happened. I found it really interesting that RH had been up just the week before. Have been reading back through but can’t remember if this theory has been discounted before - imagine for a minute RH gets to the camp site intending to do a clean up before he returned with CC the following week. RH arrives, finds someone else in that spot already, he tells them to clear out/they better be gone before he comes back in a week.. a big blow up happens, the camper threatens that if RH does come back again he’ll regret it. The furious camper later packs up but doesn’t go far, setting up camp nearby to keep watch on the spot.

The pissed off camper has a full week to plot and plan what he might do if RH does come back. A week later RH & CC pull in, the camper watches, getting angrier and angrier, then eventually explodes and confronts them..?

It's possible I suppose, but I wouldn't think personally that RH would behave like that - it would be very rude behaviour to claim a campsite as your own, also I would think he would likely not to have wanted to put Carol at discomfort, let alone risk.

 

[Marchalot]

Maybe you could provide a link for that? I read only about one previous visit the week earlier. I think that could have been scouting out a good site for his later visit with Carol. I don't recall how long he was said to have stayed.

I'm still searching . Either was another forum i looked at or a news source? I definitely read 3 times though bc I read it twice

 

[Marchalot]

After my last post where I was confident a murderer had planned to kill Carol and Russell before they left on their camping trip, now, just a few hours later, I reconsider a possible involvement of The Button-Man in the couple's disappearance.

This switch in my focus only shows how I can have absolutely no idea what befell them, but I'm fascinated by reviewing the article about Button-Man, link below, and particularly intrigued by the reported bizarre shot found on the wildlife photographer's camera.

"...They say no one knows he is near until he decides to make himself known. A wildlife photographer spent days taking shots in the area near the Button-Man’s camp. When he returned home and downloaded his photos to his computer there was one unexplained shot of the photographer asleep inside his tent. No one knows who took the shot..."

Reports about Button-Man tell of an extraordinary character – an expert bushman and stalker, a fierce protector of his remote habitat, and adept at crafting and hunting with "Indigenous-style spears."

I imagine he wouldn't well tolerate any stray drone potentially recording his activities.

No doubt LE located and questioned him, and I wonder whether they learned of any encounter between him and Russell +/or Carol, or Russell's drone.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/...ounting-mountain-mystery-20200521-p54v4p.html

Can you say what shifted your thoughts about it ? .. the wildlife photographer could have been sheer exhausted and slept thru a visit, also i read somewhere ? The story could be a myth

 

[K9Enzo]

Was the campsite first come first serve or by permit? I'm assuming no permits.

I have seen folks get bent out of shape (of course not at the level to murder anyone) over campsites and what they claim as "theirs" and not follow hiker/camper etiquette.

Example: some Lean-to's in the Adirondacks have a max occupancy limit. You could end up sharing with people you don't know at all. You would be a big jerk to tell someone they couldn't crash for the night because you're a party of two and the sign says max occupancy of 4 or 6. (I know a Lean-to is not at play in this case) IMO

 

[Satchie]

Something that has just come to mind is that RH could have had more than one woman on the side. I had always thought he went to Wonnangatta a week before his trip with CC to prepare a camp site, but now also wonder if he could have been on a romantic trip with another secret woman? Maybe one that CC and his mates did not know about. Where someone reported talking to RH a month before while camping at Pikes flat, but not talking to CC, was it even CC who had been with RH the month before? (sorry cannot download link, but channel 7 news on 25/5/2020) Missing Victorian Campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay Seen Camping Together Month Before Disappearance. Often people who are comfortable having affairs behind their spouses back will do it with more than one person.

Interesting thought, I agree that could be the case. Certainly there could be other secret aspects to RH's life, apart from CC, or secrets in CC's life, too - as is true in many non-stranger killings.

Makes me wonder how CC was positively identified as being his companion. Anyone recall?

 

[srper2]

Was the campsite first come first serve or by permit? I'm assuming no permits.

I have seen folks get bent out of shape (of course not at the level to murder anyone) over campsites and what they claim as "theirs" and not follow hiker/camper etiquette.

Example: some Lean-to's in the Adirondacks have a max occupancy limit. You could end up sharing with people you don't know at all. You would be a big jerk to tell someone they couldn't crash for the night because you're a party of two and the sign says max occupancy of 4 or 6. (I know a Lean-to is not at play in this case) IMO

"Ghost" campsites are a problem in the free camp sites in Vic, Tas, NSW and Qld. People go and set up a tent and mark out their camp site and then leave it there, sometimes for weeks, blocking out other people from taking the site. I had wondered if RH had gone the week before to set up the camp site before he took CC, but it appears that she was used to camping with RH. (I have been told about people driving over other peoples tents to scare them away, so they can then take their sites - bad luck for the person who was still in the tent when this happened). A man died recently after being severely beaten after a campsite altercation in Victoria - the offenders have never been found as far as I know.
https://www.news.com.au/national/vi...a/news-story/b2185efeb31a5ed35e588089b36bfe24

 

[Marchalot]

I wonder about the missing side mirror? It seems there's police tape over it , could Russell have accidentally got too close to a tree driving up , if so he'd have stopped & picked it up & it was found in the truck . Or maybe a strangers boot kicked it off somewhere.

 

[JLZ]

"Ghost" campsites are a problem in the free camp sites in Vic, Tas, NSW and Qld. People go and set up a tent and mark out their camp site and then leave it there, sometimes for weeks, blocking out other people from taking the site. I had wondered if RH had gone the week before to set up the camp site before he took CC, but it appears that she was used to camping with RH. (I have been told about people driving over other peoples tents to scare them away, so they can then take their sites - bad luck for the person who was still in the tent when this happened). A man died recently after being severely beaten after a campsite altercation in Victoria - the offenders have never been found as far as I know.
https://www.news.com.au/national/vi...a/news-story/b2185efeb31a5ed35e588089b36bfe24

There's plenty of space. Several square kilometres of grassland bordered by river, forest and mountains. In the peculiar event of someone else occupying his preferred spot, I'm sure he could have adapted without loss of amenity. Google Maps

 

[Marchalot]

I'd imagine the wife would be pretty devastated internally and maybe choosing not too show it bc she may just be a private person . sometimes it's the friend your more angry with than the husband, going behind your back all those years while you've devoted your life raising a family while they are keeping up a pretence, looking respected in the community too others & getting accolades whilst privately causing you a lot of pain . . I'm swinging btw the subject & generalising and mentioning this bc I've backtracked on some posts catching up. . Id be pis'd .. most ppl would think I've done my time , they're your prob now. And won't do any more time for you .. doesn't always go that way either. . my brief time around there i saw those white twin cabs everywhere

 

[srper2]

There's plenty of space. Several square kilometres of grassland bordered by river, forest and mountains. In the peculiar event of someone else occupying his preferred spot, I'm sure he could have adapted without loss of amenity. Google Maps

Unfortunately, you have missed my point. None of us here can be sure we know what RH was like. There were hundreds of people reported to be there at the time and RH would have known he was going with CC in a peak time. I was wondering if he had left a camp set up there when he was there a week before, so when he arrived with CC, they didn't have a lot to do. This may have enraged somebody else.

 

[JLZ]

I'd imagine the wife would be pretty devastated internally and maybe choosing not too show it bc she may just be a private person . sometimes it's the friend your more angry with than the husband, going behind your back all those years while you've devoted your life raising a family while they are keeping up a pretence, looking respected in the community too others & getting accolades whilst privately causing you a lot of pain . . I'm swinging btw the subject & generalising and mentioning this bc I've backtracked on some posts catching up. . Id be pis'd .. most ppl would think I've done my time , they're your prob now. And won't do any more time for you .. doesn't always go that way either. . my brief time around there i saw those white twin cabs everywhere

Personally I think the wife more or less knew about the R & C relationship since years back and pretended--at any rate publicly--that she didn't because, as you say, she may be a private person and didn't want bitchy sympathy. Her experience might have been a mixture of pain and somewhat comfortable satisfaction that he was out from under her feet and having a good time.

 

[JLZ]

Unfortunately, you have missed my point entirely.

Since you haven't explained what I missed, I'll have to take your word for it.

 

[srper2]

Since you haven't explained what I missed, I'll have to take your word for it.

I have updated my post explaining, hope this helps! I am trying to keep my mind open to all possibilities, not rule anything out at this stage. Seeing their ruined camp site is very sad, as it seems they were going somewhere that held fond memories for RH and where they thought nobody would see them - and they would not risk embarrassing RH's wife, but this proved to be a deathly mistake.

 

[Marchalot]

Personally I think the wife more or less knew about the R & C relationship since years back and pretended--at any rate publicly--that she didn't because, as you say, she may be a private person and didn't want bitchy sympathy. Her experience might have been a mixture of pain and somewhat comfortable satisfaction that he was out from under her feet and having a good time.

That's true..happy days ( generalising)...it's not so much that you/yourself aren't ok with it, it's the roll-out it can have on others that you feel very protective over, and the mere fact that possibly everyone knew before you but were still your friend? How belittling, berating & embarrassing.