High Country mystery: where are the missing secret lovers in the mountains? | Under Investigation

it's time for the truth to come out tonight she was a highly regarded senior member of the cwa the country women's association he was a married family man grandfather and amateur radio club enthusiast no one knew that carol clay and russell hill both in their 70s were lovers whose affair spanned 60 years no one it was thought knew about their secret camping trips to victoria's wild and beautiful high country until they vanished last march the couple's romantic campsite by a river at wanangatta in the alpine national park was found abandoned and burnt out and despite intense searching by police russell and carol have not been found these people have just vanished where are they so were they murdered did they get lost in the rugged and hostile bush or have they run away tonight our experts investigate this mystery of the high country none of that seems to make sense the campfire hiding secrets how did those gas bottles get into the fire the missing drone everything that takes an image is gone the marauding wild dogs i was sure that we were going to find bodies and at the heart of it all the effect they thought that they were being discreet but it was obvious they were a couple [Music] good evening i'm liz hayes and this is under investigation joining me the reality is putting together a jigsaw puzzle greg kelly is a former new south wales police detective and one of australia's most experienced and respected fire forensic examiners someone set fire to it then tipped all the pieces out and they put it back together lachlan cullican it's haunting a contract musterer who has lived in victoria's high country his whole life and on horseback took part in the search for carol and russell i'm there talking to the last person that probably seen people that will never be seen again it doesn't look natural that's for sure valentine smith is a retired victorian police senior sergeant who ran crime stoppers for 15 years really want to know what's happened to you valentine now investigates cold cases and in particular missing persons cases now if we're dealing with a psychopath very rare but it does happen this is more than an affair isn't it yeah it's a big love story and rachel walden is a new south wales psychologist who brings her expertise in relationships to the table it sounds like love it sounds like in love love carol and russell were childhood sweethearts who carried their secret love into their 70s but in some respects they were also an odd couple especially in the remote victorian high country where russell had spent many years working as a logger his best mate rob ashland is president of the east gippsland amateur radio club of which russell was an enthusiastic member russell was i would say a caring sort of a fella very careful with how he went about doing things yes he had a deep understanding of the bushland that he ultimately went missing in oh yes i don't think any one of us knew they or do know the country and the landscape and the behavioural weather patterns up there any better than russell but carol the hard-working very glamorous even prim cwa leader was cut from very different cloth she was a lady she was always dressed up funny pretty still pretty in her 70s energetic kind knowledgeable [Music] this was a long time love affair which holds uh some 50 60 years but even though they were very discreet russell hill and carol clay did come into contact with others when camping including rob ashland russell uh just um introduced carol as a friend and uh when he uh said uh just as a friend i thought to myself are you uh i've been around for more than five minutes uh it looks more than a friend to me what made you think that you could see the closeness between the two of them so what was your impression of carol a very uh dressed up sort of a lady for in the bush did she have a lipstick on oh yeah most absolutely this was a woman that you felt slightly out of place for the bush i must say i'd have to agree with that so even though they went to great lengths to be discreet uh they didn't hide when when they came into contact with others does that tell us anything well i think what it is is that when we have that sensation of being in love which we often think is a emotion it's more of a chemical reaction and it's a chemical uh process in our brain that's similar to addiction so our judgment's a bit off and so maybe they thought that they were being discreet but as rob's just said it was obvious they were a couple well as rob said he you know he'd been around more than five minutes yes he had been around more than five minutes so perhaps to some people it was quite clear that this was a couple actually it's one of the lures of the country up there it's literally there you can be whatever you want to be well that's what they tell me i think we i think what i'm trying to suggest is that you know no one's there to judge no one's there to even see you necessarily yeah i guess you could say that [Music] while the couple's love affair was not common knowledge according to rob ashland russell's wife robin was aware of the relationship robin knew this before they went missing oh yeah yeah robin told me straight had been going on for 20 years and she let me know that um in their teenage years russell and carol were teenage sweethearts and how was she about that information was she upset about that i was a little bit surprised that she wasn't more upset about um like i mean i'm afraid if somebody was sniffing around my loved one i'd be wanting to know you know why don't you go and find somebody here she wasn't surprised then that russell was camping with carol when he went missing no she wasn't surprised it was uh no she didn't actually know she was up there with him but i don't think she was really surprised this is more than an affair isn't it yeah it's a big love story isn't it it's a long time i think your research shows that it's not unusual for those over 55 to have affairs there's a lot of research into the aging population and sexuality and what we're finding is that people are actually having a lot of affairs in retirement homes and in their neighborhoods and we know that this was a strong relationship because russell did have a a logging business and he drove a truck and carol apparently would meet him in various places and go on the truck trip yeah which seems kind of extraordinary for somebody who's so neatly a tired a rule-following woman to do something that seems so um what's kind of romantic but also i don't know how many people you would tell that i meet my boyfriend and you know we're getting the truck together well it's love isn't it it sounds like love it sounds like in love love carol was divorced but russell was still married and both it's understood were financially secure after a lifetime of secret love one theory is that it's possible carol and russell disappeared to begin a new life together [Music] was he wealthy yes he was he was comfortable and he wasn't worried about his financial future oh no no russell was uh going to line up to um a t-bone steak uh next week not a uh a piece of bread with a bit of dripping on it russell was really wealthy we have to raise that uh and i the reason i raised that is uh whether or not they uh could have run off together they had the means yeah i'd have i'd have trouble with that why why would you you know where would you go they're not 20 year olds not 25 year olds that can disappear into the sunset and turn up in the bahamas you know it's a different world we've got the world where you need passports you need all sorts of different types of identity cash flow accessing accounts it just just doesn't fit a couple in their 70s who've been living with this arrangement for some time now how likely is it they're gone you know what let's get out of here it just doesn't seem likely carol's such a rule follower has been except for this affair really she's been a rule follower all of her life from what we can see apart from her love for russell and her family the cwa was everything to carol the venerable country women's association counted her amongst its superstars she was elected as a cwa member of honor with an overwhelming vote her commitment to the organization as well as her elegance and glamour were legendary she was a lady she was always dressed up you couldn't really imagine her in a pair of dracky decks and runners they just weren't her type of clothes but you really wouldn't wear high fashion out in the bush would you hair done face two dart up and always had olivia always had the lippy in the pocket as i understand margaret casimir is a former member of the victorian cwa he was a woman who gave her all to the cwa loved being a part of it reveled in it it seems and had a shining reputation she was 110 in everything she just gave everything everyone thought the world of her but it seems the cwa the organisation carol devoted her life to has taken a curious attitude to their missing superstar her name as one of only six cwa members of honor has been taken off the cwa's monthly newsletter do you think the cwa's are worried about reputational damage you have an affair you know it's just it's not okay in our society and we're not those kind of people at the cwa we hold ourselves to a higher standard or something like that obviously there was some discomfort about this relationship and even at the amateur radio club um rob ashland had some thoughts about this as well were members of the radio club a little upset about what russell was doing then oh they were the boys were a bit upset in regard to it i did discuss it with a couple of other radio friends that are in the group because i felt they deserved to know simply for the reason that we needed our wives to know that we weren't doing what russell was doing in the way of uh taking a girlfriend away on camping trips as president of the group i thought it was my duty to make sure that was known so i was that we could keep the uh the name of the radio cub club uh clean so it's it's a tough world out there don't you think uh valentine um it but it is so these are the truths of of these situations and they do impact in investigations because people feel uncomfortable uh i look i understand all of that and sometimes that can actually work against you in an investigation where someone is less likely to tell you something that might impact on their integrity or the integrity of the group they belong to but when you're investigating a mystery yeah it i guess it can close doors well it can lines of conversation can absolutely yeah yeah you do and then you've got to keep finding the one that's open and sometimes it's not the front door it's the back door coming up this is the clearing that we're in it's certainly isolated if things go bad not many people can find out about it one picture started rolling in the burnt out campsite and knew straight away that something really unforgiving that's next on under investigation twinkle twinkle little for almost a year now a couple in their 70s has been missing since setting up camp in an isolated location in victoria's high country the clues are few and their disappearance baffling do you think they could have run off i hope they ran off the only thing police know for sure is that 74 year old experienced bushman russell hill and 73 year old carol clay a glamorous and hard working member of the country women's association were secret lovers what do you know about them valentine well russell's 74 years of age spent a lot of time in the bush a lot of time with big boy toys trucks and chainsaws and all that sort of thing and he's a ham radio enthusiast as well so he's in his domain exactly and that's what makes this so intriguing because it's just unusual that he wouldn't be found close to that campsite thursday march 19th last year russell leaves his home in his land cruiser and collects carol from her home only a half hour drive away [Music] phone data shows the route they took towards the high country it's the most remote corner of victoria nearly 400 kilometers from melbourne in the heart of the alps the next day friday the couple head into wanangata valley along a 23 kilometer logging track called the zika spur track it's rough and slow going four-wheel drive vehicles usually can't travel much more than 10 kilometers per hour i mean he's got all the maps and he's got radio contact and he knew that country no problems at all so he had no doubts about what he was going to get himself into no not none at all he'd been there before he'd been there on at least uh two occasions we have documented and i'm obviously more than that we've worked there he worked on forming the zika spur track i think didn't he lock him up yeah tell me about that track that's a pretty rough old track it drops you straight down the bottom there's not much room for error in order to turn around or stop so it's known that russell has with him his drone which he calls fred and loves flying our experts will later consider the drone as key evidence russell and carol arrive at a location he enjoys and near to where he had been to on his own just the week before as far as camping destinations go it's probably one of the most rugged i'd say there was a stage where it was named the most isolated cattle property in the southern hemisphere it's certainly isolated what i'm suggesting is no one's going to find them yes right would that be part of the thinking yeah it's a an affair they're trying to keep it quiet that's right and if you we got a photograph here which is an excellent photograph you know this well lachlan yes sir and this is the clearing that we're in somewhere in is that correct yeah just right on the dry river yeah so here's the one and get a river in the background yep and then we have the main one and the track going through here but from that track you you can't see that campsite yeah what a perfect spot [Music] at 6 p.m russell who is also an avid member of the east gippsland amateur radio club joins their regular evening call on the radio is also his close mate rob ashland the radio club members talk for about half an hour then russell stays on the line telling rob his plans for the next day's trip it's the last time rob will hear from russell russell was his normal self when he was in the bush he was happy no hint of any issue no no nothing at all no mention of others no there was no mention that carol was with him or or anyone else there near the campsite russell and rob ended their radio call at around 6 40 p.m and that's when this mystery begins whatever happened to russell and carol occurred either during the night or the following morning saturday at 2pm that afternoon a passerby comes across russell and carol's campsite it has been completely destroyed by fire the passerby takes this photo but it will be over a week before it's handed to police well 6 40 p.m was the cut-off time for the conversation with rob ashland and there's some suggestion that the drone may have been flying that night but it was sunset at 7 24 p.m so there's a pretty short wind-up opportunity to cook fly the drone and do all those sort of things before it's pitch black hearing nothing over the next few days rob ashland is worried by russell's radio silence he passes on his concerns to russell's wife robin who reports her husband missing when he fails to come home but five days have already passed the photo of the burnt out campsite is finally given to police a married man and his female companion gone without a trace but by the time they muster a team to the remote high country eight days have passed since russell's last radio call we really don't know what has caused russell and carol's disappearance a lot of clues gone by then i would think valentine that's one of the biggest problems with these type of cases is that gap so eight days we're talking eight days a lot can happen to contaminate that scene both natural and through other you know human interference during that time local masterer lachlan cullikan was called in to help police search for the couple what he saw convinced him an intruder had most likely come into the campsite so when you came up what did you see so for one the car was locked and both of their wallets in the footwell of the car russell and carol's wallet um all the cards thrown out of it and when i say cards i mean like membership cards and that sort of thing no debit credit cards or cash neither of them so someone had come past and taken advantage of an empty campsite or what but it it seemed strange to lock the door on your way out obviously the cruiser was facing broadside as you drive in so you just see the blackened canopy on the car and then just the burnt campsite and deck chairs and tents and yeah very it just just doesn't look natural and by the end of it when we were riding around i was sure that we were going to find bodies not missing people while scouring bushland lachlan encountered a worker spraying blackberries who claimed to have seen carol and russell driving by and that her drone had been flying he told you he had seen russell and carol on the friday night and of course we know that we're no longer there by lunchtime saturday so to my knowledge he's the last person that actually saw him he went on to tell me that um they flew or russell flew his drone over his camp that night which he thought was a bit disrespectful you recall if he said it was russell's drone the question comes to mind why would he know it was russell's drone rather than anybody else's drone i'm not sure he was just adamant that that was his drone that he flew it over his camp on friday night i think one of the biggest things that i focus in on certainly what's the intent what was on their mind at the time of their reported missing christopher young one of america's most renowned missing persons experts particularly those lost in the wilderness says it's conceivable russell or carroll might have been injured while camping and possibly in rough bushland if russell's drone had been lost and they'd gone looking for it say one of them gets hurt so if she gets hurt i'm guessing that he would try to you know give her first aid whatever needs to be done make her comfortable he may seek additional help or try to carry her or something like that now if it's the other way around where he's injured and he's immobile uh she may panic especially if he's unresponsive you know if he's knocked out or something then she may not have any idea what to do she may panic she may start running and then she may hurt herself trip over something then she gets hurt and then nobody's going for help this relationship is actually important to the investigation isn't it valentine exactly if something unexpected happened in this environment to these two people at that time how do you think they would react there's no mobile phone reception absolutely not i just think given its its location and isolation that if things go bad you know not many people know about it or can find out about it i mean what do they do when something goes wrong what what is available out there lachlan not much there's a couple of toilets there's the remains of the homestead then there's a horse camp up one end and that's it there's a couple hours away from phone service and yeah not much help if you need it unless you get into trouble what what do you do well i just try not to get into trouble but very good answer rob ashland believes russell would never walk into dense bushland and if he was injured he's sure carol would have tried to call for help over the radio instead rob believes it's clear his friend faced trouble because of what he saw in the pictures of the fire when pictures started rolling in of the burnt out campsite i could see characteristics in my opinion that weren't russell you look at that tent where the fire was it's like as if all the chairs and everything were thrown inside the tent and it was satellite and that i believe was man-made in your opinion russell would never light an open fire anywhere near his tent and car is that correct that's corrected if he uh he had enough brainstorm to uh have it far enough away from his um his car and when i say far enough away and it'd only be a small fire and it would be at least 20 meters or so away so this could not be a campfire that got out of control no no that scene as rob suggests it looks like stuff's been tossed into the area where the tent was and set fire to the question now for former policemen fire forensics expert greg kelly and missing persons investigator valentine smith is what vital clues lay in the ashes of the campfire drums tables chairs it's just a big rubbish thing it looks like it's been designed to fuel the flame or just get rid of stuff i mean it's totally different to the way russell would would set up the camp that then makes it a very suspicious fight sure look using fire to destroy physical evidence where something underwater has been known in in criminal investigation for as long as it existed coming up the gas bottles are in the fire how did those gas bottles get into the fire none of that seems to make sense and why would they have done that themselves you did some testing in regards to this part yes i did it's a very hot quick fire that developed through that an accelerant yeah that's next on under investigation [Music] it's dense and potentially deadly country [Music] but the sudden disappearance of experienced bushman russell hill and his secret lover carol clay in victoria's high country remains a mystery the answers our experts believe may lie in the ashes of the fire that destroyed the couple's campsite it seems to me that fire holds the key for someone who's an experienced bushman and looking at the debris there's a drum in there an empty drum and from what we understand and certainly at this time of year in around march last year with the bushfires around australia anyone that had any experience in the bush you'd be thinking they'd be very concerned so i wouldn't expect russell's the type of guy that's going to walk away and leave a fire burning for that to then become an uncontrolled fire and burn the tent down and everything around it i would find highly unusual why is all this stuff piled in the middle none of that seems to make sense and why would they have done that themselves [Music] and rob ashland russell's mate from the amateur radio club agrees he'd been deeply concerned ever since their final radio call the club was a big part of russell's life and to rob russell's radio silence was deeply suspicious the i3 xl three million people out there russell when you hadn't heard from russell for two nights did you try to call him oh yeah well we're all on the same frequency on the amateur band and um you know just uh jokingly you'd say come on russell you're about you having a feed or something you know uh but no there was um there was no uh response whatsoever you knew that wasn't what russell would normally do it wasn't normal behaviour lisna robin russell had camped together many times on club weekends away and rob knew him to be extremely capable and cautious in the bush so your heart sank ultimately when you saw pictures of that campsite oh yeah yeah i knew straight away in my own mind that you know something really uh unforgiving had happened and the things you could see in that fire told you something was not right it was not right that's most definitely true if we look at the photograph of the location of the fire to where the land cruiser is i don't have fire developing into the tyres i don't have the esky melted so i don't have a lot of heat coming across to the vehicle i don't have burn patterns in the doors but to have this amount of intensity suggest that it's a very hot quick fire that developed through that used up all the fuels and then extinguished an accelerant could have yeah for our experts all the evidence is pointing to an intruder at carol and russell's campsite and for rob ashland seeing gas bottles sitting inside what was russell and carol's tent is very telling the gas bottle wouldn't have been inside the tent it just never ever happened he's gas bottle if it wasn't any struck and it'd be just sitting underneath the truck outside russell had a very clear plan of his campsite he did things the same way every time yep so those gas bottles were always in the same place yep look if we go back to the plan how russell sets up his camp and the gas stoves and things are at the at the rear of that vehicle but in the first photo that we see which was taken on the 21st of march at 2pm the gas bottles are in the fire how did those gas bottles get into the fire would those gas bottles if they were on and burning would they generate the sort of heat that you're talking about to create this sort of fire scenario is it possible should there be an external fire that causes the gas bottle to start to heat up the lpg inside will start to expand and the pressure release will give way and you'll get like a flamethrower effect with the bottle sitting there with a flame coming out of it you did some testing in regards to this fire didn't you yes i did fire forensics expert and former policeman greg kelly looked closely at all the elements of the fire and carried out his own tests to see what might have happened i've been able to go out and actually have a look at the tent because one of the questions is could an accidental fire have started and then slowly worked its way through the combustible materials that were on site to have everything within this scene destroyed by fire i wanted to know whether or not the tent could work as a wicking mechanism to help the fire to develop from one area to another i conducted a number of test burns on the guy wraps which nylon i was using a gas torch on these and as i lit this the orange color on the outside started to ignite self-extinguished and just dropped away so i couldn't keep it ignited similarly with the tent material i've got a number of holes here i tried different positions with a gas torch i was able to look at the ribbing or the webbing here and i lit that i let some of the tie downs around as well as directly on the material and each time i took the flame away it would continue to burn for a very short period of time and then extinguish valve mentioned to me before that was it possible that the lp gas bottles could be actually utilized and certainly all you need to do is sit in the middle of that fire turn the gas on and have that as a fuel and now you've got this conflagration developing of this intense fire fed by lpg that whilst that pressure's coming out it's just going to keep igniting and continuing to burn [Music] if as it appears that the fire which destroyed russell and carol's camp was deliberately lit then by whom and why what might have been the motive for murder coming up the drone's missing their phones are missing everything that takes an image is gone what are you getting to hear they will be in store without knowing about it you won't even see a light you just hear a gunshot this extraordinary cover-up and it does happen it absolutely happened that's next on under investigation there are few clues explaining the mysterious disappearance of russell hill and carol clay last year in victoria's high country police have not found their bodies nor revealed any motive for their possible murder forensics expert greg kelly believes the fire that consumed the couple's campsite was lit deliberately [Music] and the contents from russell and carol's wallets suspiciously scattered in their vehicle points to an intruder or intruders but what could have been the motive to attack this elderly couple in their remote campsite russell made what would be his last call to his mate rob ashland at the radio club on friday night march 20th and 19 hours later when a passerby found their campsite there was no sign of the couple and nearly everything had been burned we know when the fire occurred from 6 40 p.m on the 20th till the 21st two o'clock in the afternoon the 21st now the random camper that saw and photographed that fire said that the fire was cold so how long would it take for a fire at this time to go cold it was a cold night so that's going to help it's getting off the heat 13 degrees overnight yeah this is a surface fire um if it burnt relatively quickly it'll be hours later but within those time frames that's very opportunistic for someone to come along he misses the last radio call and by the next day the fires the fires there's a fire there but you're saying some hours some hours so i'm leaning towards that the fire happened maybe late in the evening of the night before on the 20th and the other thing i'm really interested in is the drones missing their phones are missing so everything that takes an image is gone and the other thing is is these boots we've got to focus on the boots because leather plastic side work type boots which are bushmen are wear they'd be pretty decent boots and i've seen so many bushfires and things where you find those curled up soles folded up soles they're not there so i'm picking that they were up and about up and about the night before it's something to do with the drone maybe something to do with the fact that drones take images maybe something's happened here there's been an altercation here someone's pulled the phone out and started doing the you know the uh stuff and then something's happened there's been some sort of confrontation or altercation with a third party or something that's uh created some sort of conflict i mean russell's a he's a big guy he's used to the bush i don't think he'd take any rubbish from anyone he'd be the protector wouldn't he well yeah he's been driving plant and trucks and things like that he'd know how to sort of mix it with the boys so if you know if there's a couple of young bucks or jacked him up or caused some problems i think he'd have him on as best as he could and it's got out of hand something like that and sadly they both suffered as a result to our experts the missing drone is particularly mystifying it adds weight to the theory that russell saw something or someone involved in an illegal activity you're not thinking drugs are you as in that drone's picked up uh something that somebody doesn't like look you know i've i've done a reasonable amount of um hiking in the bush to look for drug crops in my my youth young as a young police officer goodness you said that and um this is this area to me is so remote to put in a sort of a a crop say over 100 plants or a couple hundred plants or whatever that's hard work be pretty infertile to be trying to grow anything bigger than that my experience is is the drug crops would be closer to a major centre in if they're going to be in a bush area uh easily accessible i'm saying no not drug problems okay so was the drone saw you mimicking a trigger finger there before so what what does that mean lockland well when you said that the drone might have picked up something right was a deer hunter taking the head off of staggering and then followed it back to camp um and then like you said oh he's got you on camera and yeah i've been led to another so he's going to stand there argue with him about handing it over whatever however that could potentially unfold based on just the drones picked up something high country musterer lachlan cullikan believes there may have been hunters operating illegally in the area where russell and carol were camped while searching for the couple he found large numbers of dead deer the loch and you were saying about the the deer that fascinates me you're saying every two or three hundred meters there was a carcass yeah two questions is that was any of those carcasses stags with the antlers gone yeah yeah a lot of people were gone yeah what are you getting to here someone's hunting well a lot of hunting yeah yeah this is not these are not wilderbeast on the serengeti plate i mean we're in they're pretty cunning animal to the old sandbar yeah they are to it to an extent that's why spotlighting's illegal because it supposedly makes it easier but yeah the amount of bodies in there was so what are we talking numbers-wise and what you saw couldn't even put a number on it about from the camp i reckon i walk 50 meters the first day i got there and i found a beheaded sag like a couple of days old and then the days old yeah if they were spotlighting they'd be doing it late at night and with today's technology with infrared out you won't even see a light you'll just hear a gunshot yeah it's not a um uncommon thing so does that open and up then to consider hunters and even a stray bullet's taken one or both out and now they're panicked and have to cover up that's an extraordinary cover up yeah would you panic to that degree and if you just shot someone you might and there are people that get into the bush into this sort of country that they get a feeling of freedom to do whatever they want so there's you know the crazies get up there and they're shooting guns around it does happen it absolutely happens [Music] well certainly the disappearance of russell and carol has raised the fears of campers who have been in the same area russell's friend rob ashland tells this story about a mate who was in the area with a group to deer hunt they had finished for the day and was sitting around the campfire having a couple of beers and i went up and looked up and here in the edge of the light uh starring adam was this person and so one of them shot over to his vehicle and um this person that was standing there just wandered behind the shadow of a tree and was gone and it frightened the living bilio out of these blokes and uh they haven't been back so uh they were being stalked without uh uh knowing about it for probably some time so there is potentially someone in those uh mountains in that high country who might be a suspect that's what is driving me liz because these people have just vanished where are they we want answers as to where they are coming up there's a lot of dogs a lot of dogs if they did cornea i wouldn't like chances if you couldn't get up police said the sleeping bags were missing the country is very rugged there's a lot of places where they could be got rid of never to be found again that's next on under investigation when lovers russell hill and carol clay disappeared from their campsite in the high country of victoria last year so too did a number of their possessions their mobile phones a set of car keys and russell's drone but chillingly their sleeping bags were also missing you have tried to hide away your sins there's one thing that you said greg that sort of makes you one of the police said the sleeping bags were missing even if the tent burnt there was no like residue of the sleeping bags or anything that's a bit unusual you know crime scene worked for as long as i've been around nearly 40 years um still talks about trace evidence being left you're normally going to get left with something i would still expect to find zippers that comes down to a good crime scene examination so even if the fabric and the insulating material has been destroyed by fire i'll still find the remnants of zippers and other things associated within that spot whatever has happened to russell and carol police and our experts now believe they've fallen victim to foul play russell's mate rob ashland agrees and fears carol and russell may have been attacked and removed from the campsite inside their sleeping bags in the event of an attack of any kind how would he have protected himself well he would have tried to protect himself and obviously protect carol but if for instance they were asleep you're behind the eight ball before you start and the fact that uh it's been reported that um their sleeping bags are missing i that's what more say that makes me feel that um they've they've been carted out of there in those sleeping bags used as body bags there's um a lot of places that country is very rugged where they could be got rid of never to be found again victorian police tell us they're planning to resume the search for russell and carol as soon as the weather and conditions allow but what will they find if anything is unclear there's one aspect of the high country that may be working against police forensic investigators the high country's large and growing population of wild dogs if i was out in that environment with wild dogs around if i was lost and cold and potentially injured i'd be very concerned about what the wild dogs could do mgot is paid to eradicate wild dogs in the victorian high country he says they're dangerous and will completely devour their prey they form in in packs that are fairly large they get up to a dozen i've seen in in one pack of dogs they're quite intelligent to how they hunt i've found deer standing in the middle of a dam with a pack of dogs around the outside of the dam attempting to to swim out to the to the deer to pull it down in the water so lachlan do you see these wild dogs out there see them not so much um only because they're so cunning and street smart but that doesn't mean they're not there i'd just like you to hear something that mick recorded hmm there's a lot of dogs up there a lot of dogs yeah but are they a threat would that be a threat to humans i guess it depends if they're hungry enough yeah sure they could probably have a go you know if they did cornea i wouldn't like chances if you couldn't get up or [Music] long before russell hill brought carol clay to their remote and final campsite this far corner of victoria already held its dark secrets [Music] well it certainly is one of the biggest mysteries of recent times in that area and the complexity has been added to because of this relationship but tonight this is what we do know late in the afternoon of friday march 19th last year russell made his final radio call to his mate rob ashley a worker spraying blackberry says he saw the couple and a drone he believed was russell's flew over his camp much of the campsite was destroyed by a suspicious fire and in the ashes were unusual items a drum seats and gas bottle the couple's mobile phones and russell's drone were missing it's possible the drone captured images someone didn't like there was evidence of illegal deer hunting near the couple's campsite russell's car was locked but inside the vehicle contents of the couple's wallets were scattered on the floor along with the drone and mobile phones a set of car keys were missing as were the couple's sleeping bags and if russell and carol were murdered and disposed of in nearby bushland wild dogs in the area might ensure their bodies will never be found do we think that carol and russell are lost forever forever's a long time my point is russell and carol are dead on probabilities and what we're looking at here so that's more likely than not i'd agree with that they're not going to walk out and talk to us yeah i agree i'm saying people go in here to sort of get lost i suppose but maybe they got lost than they thought thank you all for your time and we've enjoyed your company i'm liz hayes good night [Music] hello i'm liz hayes thanks for watching our brand new event series under investigation subscribe to our channel now for more great stories from both under investigation and 60 minutes australia for other exclusive under investigation content visit ninenow.com.eu and the ninenow app

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 660,367

Rating: 4.718679 out of 5

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Tom Steinfort, Sarah Abo, karl stefanovic, 60Mins, #60Mins, Carol Clay, Russell Hill, Under Investigation, murder, crime, mystery, unsolved, cold case, mysterious, fire, camping, isolated, affair, secret, lovers, High Country, victoria, mountains, hunters, accident, disappearance., investigators, experts

Id: lJFSy9ijLyc

Length: 49min 0sec (2940 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 06 2021