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

[TootsieFootsie]

Police find a new clue in their search for missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay | Daily Mail Online

Police are searching between Harrietville and Mt Hotham as part of their investigation into the disappearance of two campers.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Police find a new clue in their search for missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay | Daily Mail Online

Latest on this from the Daily Mail.
Make of it what you will

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Something about somewhere in the area is niggling away in the corners of my memory too.

Something's coming up in my memory . . . that some months back I was looking on Google streetview at a town between Mt Hotham and Bright, it might have been Harrietville, I'm not sure. Does anyone remember why that would be? . . . was something reported seen in one of those small towns?

 

[JLZ]

Police find a new clue in their search for missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay | Daily Mail Online

Latest on this from the Daily Mail.
Make of it what you will

Wow. "It is an incredibly remote area. There are parts of that bush that have probably never have been walked on by humans - it is that remote." Not just off the side of the road then.

 

[bearbear]

was harrietville where they stopped or presumed to have stopped for supplies?

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Maybe someone driving from Harrietville to Mt Hotham, March last year or maybe later, saw something in another vehicle.
Like what looked like sleeping bags and shovels and the car fitted the white car description.

Maybe they saw it later, without the shovels etc

 

[JLZ]

If the shovels are related to these deaths, I'm thinking the bodies were buried between Wonnangatta and Mt Hotham. Google suggests two routes east out of the valley. Then from Hotham perhaps he continues on in the same (northerly) direction, through Bright, and returns to the general Melbourne area driving west then south. I mean, he'd probably be kind of spooked and feel relieved to be out of the mountains.

Further thoughts . . . if he came from Wonnangatta by either suggested route he'd have to come to the crossroads, Great Alpine Rd, Dargo High Plains Rd, Twins Rd. Then Mt Hotham and Hotham Heights are north-east along the Great Alpine Rd, a route which would eventually take him south-east to Omeo, the opposite way from Harrietville and Bright. (And Melbourne.)

 

[JLZ]

was harrietville where they stopped or presumed to have stopped for supplies?

Russell and Carol? No--a long way away from where they were travelling.

Edit: Unless another occasion?

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I suppose it's not very likely that one of the other high country missing people's remains might be turned up during one of these searches.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Are they using the cadaver dogs for this new search ?

 

[Sher Lock]

I read an interesting comment that Parks Vic have hidden cameras all over Mt Hotham & surrounds and could one of the camera's have picked up on the white ute at one of the intersections (Twins Rd & Dargo High Plains Rd) near the Great Alpine Rd, leading them to a narrow search area.

It was also suggested by the detective (in the latest update) that the shovels 'could' have been thrown out the vehicle window as they went past.

 

[Sher Lock]

Are they using the cadaver dogs for this new search ?

I'm pretty sure the detective said the area was too inaccessible to take the dogs up there. ie extremely steep and thick bushland

 

[TootsieFootsie]

If the shovels were new. Maybe look into any shovels sold around about that time.

 

[JLZ]

I read an interesting comment that Parks Vic have hidden cameras all over Mt Hotham & surrounds and could one of the camera's have picked up on the white ute at one of the intersections (Twins Rd & Dargo High Plains Rd) near the Great Alpine Rd, leading them to a narrow search area.

It was also suggested by the detective (in the latest update) that the shovels 'could' have been thrown out the vehicle window as they went past.

Down a steep bank? Off . . . a narrow track or a made road? That might tell us in which direction they were travelling.

An image of a white ute 70+ difficult kilometres away in a relatively popular area. I think it would have to be more than that.

 

[JLZ]

I'm pretty sure the detective said the area was too inaccessible to take the dogs up there. ie extremely steep and thick bushland

Did they say "up"? Up from the roadway?

 

[Sher Lock]

Did they say "up"? Up from the roadway?

No, I think he mean up as in 'up to Mt Hotham' area where they are searching. Apparently it's only quite a small area they are concentrating on at this stage.

 

[JLZ]

I suppose it's not very likely that one of the other high country missing people's remains might be turned up during one of these searches.

The shovels might belong to any murder, even a discovered one, where the person isn't admitting what he did with the body.

 

[JLZ]

(Why two shovels? Two men digging?)

 

[TootsieFootsie]

'Other parties' suspected of involvement in pair's disappearance

Police have conducted several searches in the Wonnangatta Valley over the past year, and information led police to examine the Great Alpine Road between Mt Hotham and Harrietville on Wednesday.

Shovels were recovered on the roadside but it's unclear if the tools had any links to the disappearance.

Detective Acting Inspector Cambridge said it was possible something had been flung from a vehicle.

He said there wasn't information to suggest the missing pair had been seen at Mt Hotham.

Police have previously asked for assistance to find Mr Hill's missing drone.

A large amount of information has been passed on to investigators, who are keen to speak to people who were around Mt Hotham about the time the couple went missing.

"I think the most likely scenario is still the scenario that there's other parties involved in this," Detective Acting Inspector Cambridge said.

"I think every time the families hear from us, they keenly feel that little flicker of hope that maybe they're going to get some news.

"I think it probably goes without saying, the fact I'm here today shows this is a fairly significant piece of information we're acting on."

He urged people to call Crime Stoppers.

 

[JLZ]

'Other parties' suspected of involvement in pair's disappearance

Police have conducted several searches in the Wonnangatta Valley over the past year, and information led police to examine the Great Alpine Road between Mt Hotham and Harrietville on Wednesday.

Shovels were recovered on the roadside but it's unclear if the tools had any links to the disappearance.

Detective Acting Inspector Cambridge said it was possible something had been flung from a vehicle.

He said there wasn't information to suggest the missing pair had been seen at Mt Hotham.

Police have previously asked for assistance to find Mr Hill's missing drone.

A large amount of information has been passed on to investigators, who are keen to speak to people who were around Mt Hotham about the time the couple went missing.

"I think the most likely scenario is still the scenario that there's other parties involved in this," Detective Acting Inspector Cambridge said.

"I think every time the families hear from us, they keenly feel that little flicker of hope that maybe they're going to get some news.

"I think it probably goes without saying, the fact I'm here today shows this is a fairly significant piece of information we're acting on."

He urged people to call Crime Stoppers.

I don't get it. They found the shovels on the roadside but they're searching where no [white] man has trod before. Because, if you're going to hide a body in the remote mountains, you'd conveniently leave the shovels by the nearest road to point the way.