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

[TootsieFootsie]

Major breakthrough in search for campers missing for a year

Police move investigation to Mount Hotham

Det Act Insp Combridge said “multiple sources” were behind police’s decision to move the investigation to Mount Hotham.

He said it was a “fairly significant” piece of information which led the search to the area.

 

[Intriguedbymissingpersons]

Link to vicpol press conference

https://go.vic.gov.au/jTpcPM

live stream
Missing Russell Hill and Carol Clay

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Police Press Conference Video.

Missing Russell Hill and Carol Clay

No actual suspects at the moment

The search area is not large

Hopeful of finding something

Likely the search will continue tomorrow.

 

[Sher Lock]

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.

I'm guessing that the shovels were probably hidden by/in the dense undergrowth not far from the roadside and there's been a tip off plus other info that has led them to search the Mt Hotham area. Or perhaps they were literally on the roadside and someone has reported it.

 

[JLZ]

I'm guessing that the shovels were probably hidden by/in the dense undergrowth not far from the roadside and there's been a tip off plus other info that has led them to search the Mt Hotham area. Or perhaps they were literally on the roadside and someone has reported it.

Just hypothesizing--I think they were searching the remote areas and came across the shovels on the way in or out. They couldn't be overlooked. But it doesn't make sense that someone would go to immense trouble to hide the bodies and then leave the shovels walking distance from the bodies and near the side of the road.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

And how many things like that, if they were at the side of the road would still be there a few days later, let alone a year.

That's if they were in ok condition and the one that can be seen sticking out of the bag looked like it was in not bad condition.

Unless they were well hidden.

 

[JLZ]

Perhaps they can find out from soil analysis where the shovels had been digging.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I don't want to be gruesome but what if some blood had got onto the shovels. Plus the soil and vegetation which they can test for.

Maybe that's a reason to get rid of them. In some other cases they took the shovel back home and they were able to test what kind of soil they had been digging.

 

[JLZ]

I suppose they would have been snowed on since last March, if they were there so long. Rust, rot?

 

[JLZ]

I don't want to be gruesome but what if some blood had got onto the shovels. Plus the soil and vegetation which they can test for.

Maybe that's a reason to get rid of them. In some other cases they took the shovel back home and they were able to test what kind of soil they had been digging.

I can understand them getting rid of the shovels all right, but not near the bodies and near the road.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I know that a free tool in good condition would be a big magnet to many men.

I read somewhere that even second hand tools are much in demand.

So I can't see a tool lying on the ground somewhere lasting long. That's if it could be seen.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Poor little Khandalyce in the suitcase by the side of the road keeps popping into my head.

Maybe the shovels were hidden futher in the vegetation. Someone found them and then changed their mind and left them closer to the road.
Perhaps they had rusted away.

 

[curiouser and curiouser]

I wouldn't like to have to dig a very big hole with one of those shovels (I saw a white square mouth one on the news), but for hitting someone... As good as any, I'd imagine. Also if you flung shovels down a hill they'd go a fair way if you wanted them to, so there's nothing to say they were lying within eye sight of the road or that someone stopped long enough to duck in and hide them..
The news I heard this morning all said they're searching on the great alpine road so expect delays, that made me think someone spoke up and said, the shovels were ditched on the great alpine road between x and x, rather than at a particular location marker etc. I'm probably dreaming though.

Fingers crossed for a quick resolution now!

 

[Sher Lock]

I can understand them getting rid of the shovels all right, but not near the bodies and near the road.

Just thinking aloud but maybe the bodies are located somewhere down in the valley where the soil would be a lot easier to dig as opposed to on the mountain where I think it could be shale and very difficult to dig hole/s, especially large holes to fit human bodies.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

New clue uncovered in missing campers case

The shovels were placed into plastic evidence bags and will be forensically examined by specialist police in Melbourne.

Other items have been retrieved from the area and taken away by police in brown paper bags.

I wonder what the criteria is to using a plastic evidence bag as compared to a brown paper bag.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I'm hopeless with shovels. I think I've never had the strength needed to dig a hole or even make a dent in digging one.

I'm waiting on the day when they invent self digging shovels

 

[JLZ]

I wouldn't like to have to dig a very big hole with one of those shovels (I saw a white square mouth one on the news), but for hitting someone... As good as any, I'd imagine. Also if you flung shovels down a hill they'd go a fair way if you wanted them to, so there's nothing to say they were lying within eye sight of the road or that someone stopped long enough to duck in and hide them..
The news I heard this morning all said they're searching on the great alpine road so expect delays, that made me think someone spoke up and said, the shovels were ditched on the great alpine road between x and x, rather than at a particular location marker etc. I'm probably dreaming though.

Fingers crossed for a quick resolution now!

One of the articles said the shovels were found "on the roadside". I wouldn't have thought items flung a fair way down a hill would be described as "on the roadside". The article might be wrong.

 

[JLZ]

I'm hopeless with shovels. I think I've never had the strength needed to dig a hole or even make a dent in digging one.

I'm waiting on the day when they invent self digging shovels

There are cordless electric shovels.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

You're kidding! I want one, right away.

There are cordless electric shovels.

 

[JLZ]

New clue uncovered in missing campers case

The shovels were placed into plastic evidence bags and will be forensically examined by specialist police in Melbourne.

Other items have been retrieved from the area and taken away by police in brown paper bags.

I wonder what the criteria is to using a plastic evidence bag as compared to a brown paper bag.

The brown paper bags are taken in case nothing is found, but they want a mysterious photograph. MOO.