Carol Clay, Russell Hill’s theories emerge a year after a couple disappeared in the Wonnangatta Valley

It has been 12 months since Russell Hill and Carol Clay left their Victoria homes for a camping trip in the quiet but remote Wonnangatta Valley.

The couple, who had been having an affair for decades, were last seen on March 20 of last year.

After a year of investigations, with police leaving no stone unturned, detectives believe they could be close to a potential breakthrough in the mysterious case.

Talking to A current issueDetective Inspector Andrew Stamper said police were targeting multiple people, including the driver of a white pickup truck.

“It may seem like a very small possibility that the members of the white chain have information about the disappearance of Russell and Carol, but we cannot afford to leave a stone unturned,” he told the program.

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The vehicle was seen in a public restroom in the valley the day before the couple last made contact with friends.

Police are also investigating whether the couple was ambushed early considering that the bathroom at their camp had not been used, suggesting that the couple had only spent a short period of time in the area before their deaths.

Hill called his friends using his high-frequency radio on March 20, and police believed the couple may have been killed shortly after.

In what has become one of the most puzzling missing persons cases in Australian history, Stamper said he had doubled his investigation time.

The latest theory police follow is whether the pair were shot by deer hunters.

Police have speculated whether the couple witnessed something they were not supposed to have done, perhaps illegal hunting, and tragically paid for it with their lives.

Hill’s $ 2,000 drone, which he used regularly while camping, is still missing, and police question whether the high-tech device inadvertently filmed something illegal.

“There are a number of scenarios that we are looking at,” he said, referring to the pair having an encounter with the hunters.

“Certainly that’s one we can’t eliminate. I’m not married to any specific scenario.”

Police had hoped they stumbled upon a breakthrough in the case last week when a drone similar to Hill’s was found in the valley and turned over to officers in East Gippsland, but the drone did not match.

Hill, 74, and Clay, 73, had been in a relationship for years when they set out on their camping trip to the scenic valley.

But in a horrible twist, the couple’s camp was found burned to the ground with their tent destroyed and their sleeping bags gone.

One of Hill’s close friends, who went camping with the 74-year-old man over the years, offered a sinister theory about what might have happened to the couple.

Speaking about Nine’s Under Investigation, his friend Rob Ashlin said he didn’t have much hope that the pair would be found.

“The fact that those sleeping bags were reported missing makes me feel like those sleeping bags were taken out of there and … used as body bags,” Ashlin said.

“There are many places, the country is very rugged, where they can be undone to never find them again.”

Ashlin also knew that her friend would not set up camp the way it was found, with items strewn everywhere.

“I knew immediately in my own mind that something really relentless had happened,” he said, having seen photos of the destroyed camp.

Ashlin’s theory was supported by Lachlan Culican, who assisted the police during their difficult search for the terrain.

Culican works like a great member of the country and is an expert in navigating that part of Australia. He also believes the couple could have stumbled upon something illegal or had an encounter with a deer hunter.

During his search with the police, Culican came across a dead deer every 200 to 300 meters.

Hill left his home in Drouin in the Gippsland region of Victoria on March 19 of last year.

He traveled to pick up Clay from their home in Pakenham, south-east Melbourne, before the couple traveled in Hill’s Toyota Land Cruiser to the Wonnangatta Valley.

The couple spent a night in the Howitt High Plains before driving into the rugged terrain of the valley.

Hill called his friends on March 20 at 6.30pm on the radio and told them he was camping in the valley. Clay told his friends that he was going camping and would be back on March 29.

The next day at 2 p.m., other campers found the couple’s camp on fire, with Hill’s car nearby.

Detectives have long been confident that the couple was not involved in a murder, suicide and have found no evidence that the couple attempted to fake their own deaths or even leave the camp.

Police believe the camp was burned down in an attempt to destroy any potential forensic evidence.