Arrest Made in Connection to Camping Septuagenarians Who Vanished in Australian Alps
CRIKEY
A man has been arrested over the 2020 disappearance of campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay, Victoria Police said Tuesday. A 55-year-old man from Melbourne was detained on Monday evening, and was being questioned by the next morning. He has not been charged, a spokesperson said. Hill, 74, and Clay, 73, were last heard from on March 20, 2020, when they radioed a friend from their remote campsite in a rugged stretch of Victoria’s High Country. Hikers came upon the pair’s abandoned campsite the next afternoon, discovering the remains of a fire that had engulfed their tent and blackened a nearby vehicle. Hill and Clay had vanished without a trace. Though the High Country has played host to numerous disappearances over the years, Hill knew the terrain well, having worked in the region as a contract logger at a younger age. Authorities have made repeated appeals for information, saying the pair’s families remain “desperate for answers.”