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Police have found more than 2,000 bone fragments in their search for the remains of missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay, a jury has heard.
Photographs of the bones were shown in the High Court in Melbourne on Wednesday as airline pilot Greg Lynn stood trial for the pair’s murders.
He is accused of murdering Hill and Clay in March 2020 while they were camping in Victoria’s Wonnangatta Valley and then burning their remains in the bush.
The 57-year-old has pleaded not guilty to both counts of murder.
More than 2,100 bone fragments were found by police at two sites in Victoria, forensic anthropologist Dr Søren Blau told the jury.
One of the locations was Bucks Camp, where the pair disappeared from, while the second location was on the Union Spur track, east of the valley.
Dr. Blau analyzed the fragments and was able to confirm the original skeletal position of about 600 bones.
These include skull fragments found at Bucks Camp, which Dr. Blau said showed signs of trauma around the time of death.
When asked whether this injury could have been caused by a gunshot, Dr. Blau told the jury that he did not have the expertise to make that finding.
But she said the skull fragments showed “radio opacity” when examined with X-rays, a sign of metal.
Defense barrister Dermot Dunn told the jury a fight broke out at Bucks Camp after Hill took a gun from Lynn’s car.
He claimed Ms Clay was accidentally shot by Hill and the older man then turned on Lynn with a knife and was accidentally stabbed in the chest as Lynn defended herself.
Prosecutors dispute those claims, saying Lynn intentionally killed the couple after Hill threatened to send police drone footage of Lynn hunting deer near the camp.
Lynn admits to later dumping and burning the couple’s bodies at Union Spur in what Dan describes as “a series of horrible choices”.
Dr. Blau told the jury that most of the bone fragments were found at Union Spur in a fallen tree trunk.
Most of the fragments had been burned and were extremely damaged, so she was unable to determine the man’s age, sex, or when he died.
But the anthropologist can confirm that there are the remains of two people because two fragments come from the same part of a person’s forearm.
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