Victoria Police say a drone handed to detectives on the weekend is not the device that went missing with Russell Hill and Carol Clay, when they disappeared in the Victorian High Country in 2020.

Mr Hill and Ms Clay disappeared from a camping trip to the remote Wonnangatta Valley – an area Mr Hill knew well from his career as a contract logger.–

The pair’s camp site was found burnt out, but there was no trace of them or Mr Hill’s drone and mobile phone.

Last weekend, a drone was handed to an East Gippsland police station.
Detectives had been investigating whether it was Mr Hill’s missing drone.

Police led an extensive search for Russell Hill and Carol Clay in 2020, but the pair was never found.

But in a statement on Tuesday morning, police said the Missing Person Squad had determined it was a different device.

“Despite this, investigators will continue to analyse the drone to determine its origins,” police said.

Last Friday, detectives appealed to the public to help identify a white dual cab ute that was seen in the Wonnangatta Valley at the time of the disappearances and had not been identified.

The ute was seen near the long-drop toilet and suspension bridge at the camping ground.

It is the only vehicle that was in the area at the time of the disappearances that police have not been able to identify.

Mr Hill and Ms Clay are among four people who have disappeared from within a 60-kilometre radius in the High Country.

-ABC