02 Huntsman | The pig

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Perched on the edge of the wilderness around Mount Massedon in Victoria is Zigzag Road.

True to its name, the road zigs and zags between thick bush, narrow in in some places with barely room for two cars to pass. Kangaroos occasionally surprise you, jumping out from the bushes.

Most of the houses are set back from the street and it's quiet. It hasn't changed much since Lisa and Greg Lynn moved here in 1995.

It was an unmade road. that was the bane of everybody's life because in summer it was a dust bowl but it was heavily wooded

with

the forest coming right down to the roadside in places.

And we overlooked a thoroughbred training facility. And it was just magic to hear the horses galloping through the fog in the mornings.

Terry Hollingworth lived on Zigzag Road and walked it twice daily. Her kids grew up there.
in the foothills of the mountain. We taught the kids to ride their bikes up and down the road.

My kids used to race their ponies up and down the road. This dusty road was a bit isolated, but it was also highly prized.

There were school teachers, a school principal, a couple of lawyers around the corner. There were no blue-collar workers at all.

It was, well, I think that is understandable when you consider the land prices as well in that area. They were fairly significant even then.

But the other price of the postcode was maintaining a certain image. It was so important to have a Mount Massodon postcode to so many people.

And it translated into property value and

people's perception of

who you were.

Saving face, I think,

was part of the whole Mount Macedon culture. I think it went with the postcode.
Lisa and Greg Lynn lived at number 11. It was a bluestone, double-story bluestone, gingerbread house.

I think the house was striking in its own right.

Lisa waved to Terry sometimes, but Terry noticed the Lynns kept to themselves. I just wanted to reach out because I'd never seen any visitors visitors as such to the house.

Like my household was always a riot and kids hanging out of trees and, you know, riding around the roads. But

I just didn't ever see her.

Many of the neighbours on Zigzag Road went for a daily afternoon walk together. with dogs, bikes, horses, whole families along for the ride.

Terry had heard some things that worried her about Greg Lynn. You'll hear about those things later.
And so one day, Terry decided to invite Lisa.

So I went up to the door and I knocked on the door, and Lisa came to the door, and she just said, Oh, hi, you know, how are you?

And I started to talk to her about

joining us for walks.

And her husband, Greg, came to the door

and

he initially said,

you need to mind your own business.

I do remember that

he pushed in front like shot with his shoulder in front of Lisa

so that she was more behind him and

he had one arm on the door frame.

sort of leaning out. Terry had her dog with her, a very large, but she says very well-behaved wolfhound.

Fairly abruptly, he warned me to keep my dog under control and she was sitting, in fact, at one stage she lay at my feet, totally bored and disinterested.

And he said to me, if she came onto his property, he'd shoot her.

And I just sort of thought, whoa.

And I didn't even get to ask Lisa if she wanted to come walking I just left

what did Lisa look like when he said that she just went back a bit stood back a bit and didn't say a thing he was just delivering a fact

it's like if that happens this will happen not negotiable at all I said something really inane it was ridiculous I think like

I won't keep you any longer or something stupid like that and just called the dog to heal and and off we went. I just realised that it wasn't a safe place to be.

Terry's a counsellor and she's seen a lot of bad behaviour, but this really rattled her. I sort of chewed it over and I thought, oh wow, I didn't give her my phone number.

And that bothered me for quite a while. I'd always prided myself on not being intimidated by men

and

that

was really disappointing that he had really intimidated me.

Terry never went back. She always talked herself out of it and she never checked on Lisa again.

Behind the fence at number 11, life ground on in private.

You could hide a lot because the blocks were so big.

And so it's not like you were living cheek by jowl in inner Melbourne where you could hear between walls and in the garden. All sorts of stuff could go down in those properties and you wouldn't know.

The man at number 11, Greg Lynn, would go on to become a murderer.

He would stage a cold and brutal cover-up, destroying the remains of two missing campers.

But I wanted to find out how someone becomes a person like that. What were the signs and who was paying attention?

I'm Rachel Brown and this is Huntsman, the latest season of Unravel.

In this episode, what happened behind the fence on Zigzag Road? Everyone was shit scared of him. Like he really, really put the fear of God into everybody.

Yeah, there were people that were scared and Lisa most of all.

Before our team started investigating what happened at Zigzag Road, we thought it was important to work out as much as we could about where Greg Lynn came from. We dug for months.

None of Greg Lynn's friends or family that we managed to track down would do an interview with us. But a few of them were willing to speak to us behind the scenes.
Here's what we found out.

Greg Lynn grew up on a small suburban lot in Western Sydney, right near the edge of the Blue Mountains. He was the eldest of four and he grew up with guns.

Shooting and hunting was a big family pastime. It appears it was a pretty normal childhood.
A producer on this story, Charlotte King, called me to talk through what she'd found.

It was like suburban, comfortable, happy family, loving parents, loving mother. Like he was like revered as like the sort of golden child of the family, apparently.

You know, you and I have sat through court many times reporting on crimes that take place and more often than not, the criminal, the person who's in the dock, has had a horrific life and they've had abuse in their childhood or, you know, witnessed abuse or violence.

It's not apparent here. Yeah, the banality of what you're hearing just makes it all the more confusing.

It does.

But that peaceful family situation doesn't seem to have lasted into Greg's adulthood.

We've been told that deep fractures emerged in the family even before Greg Lynn became known as a killer, and that now he's estranged from some of his family.

Greg became a pilot in the 1980s. Charlotte and I called so many people who've worked with him.
But no one would do an interview with us.

The people that sort of knew him around that time were really elusive. Like we've found a couple of them, but they're just really insistent that they do not want to talk.

Some of them seem actually genuinely sort of frightened, but also just don't want any association with the story, I guess. I'm struggling with pilots.
Like I reached out to numerous ones.

No one will go on tape. you know, who worked with him.
Those who could shed some light just in a background sense, though,

I've been told he was unflappable, you know, like very thorough and diligent, meticulous with detail and training. You know, I was just hearing he's a very competent aviator, albeit a bit quiet.

But then the few pilots who offered a little bit more,

some spoke of a strange feeling that you couldn't put your finger on. So one told me, you know, don't mistake quietness for niceness, that he was calculating and manipulative.

And another said he gave me the creeps. We were, of course, speaking to these people after Greg Lynn had been charged with murder and of course they may now remember him differently.

So I also wanted to find someone who was a friend of Greg's, someone who might be in his corner. Eventually I did find one person.

I explained, look, I don't have many people saying nice things about him and they replied well you'll have a biased picture and I said yeah I completely agree with you.

That's why I'm calling you back. Let's go.
Tell me some good stories. And they wouldn't.
So it's like, I just feel we're a bit stuck.

And this person ventured that perhaps Greg's friends don't feel like they should speak at the moment ahead of potential future court action. So

yeah, maybe, maybe that's the reason.

The people who would speak to us release his neighbours and friends from the time she lived with Greg on Zigzag Road in Mount Macedon. How are you?

Key dogs.

Number 11 is still there. It hasn't changed much in nearly 30 years.
Conifer trees tower over the Bluestone Cottage. Agapanthas line the drive.

She'd have a beautiful Indian curry simmering on the stove in this kitchen that looked like something out of Martha Stewart.

You know, she'd run you a bubble bath, you know, with all these beautiful things.

You just went out there and went, wow.

Yeah,

and we'd be on the couch in our pajamas, eating whiz-fizz, lollipops, because that was her favourite. Heather Quinneville met Lisa at work.

Lisa had started working as a flight attendant, and Heather was a flight attendant, too. They'd have great fun working on the planes together.
And then Heather would visit the house on Zigzag Road.

She had this wicked sense of humour, and I always felt like she was a little bit more childlike when she was with me.

Maybe we bought that out in each other, or maybe we just felt we could just be, you know, kids again or yeah we just we just had fun greg lynn was off and away he'd got a new job too as a pilot with ansett airlines but eventually greg came home on a night when heather was there i remember him coming through the door and i know he wasn't what i expected i don't know why he um

he's certainly charming and and you know easy easygoing i expected someone um

probably a little bit more dashing, I guess. He was polite, but distant.
I kind of got the feeling he liked to remain as

anonymous as possible, you know, where there was just a bit of a facade and you never really, you know, got to know anything really. Heather's husband was also called Greg and was also a pilot.

But when he met Greg Lynn, they couldn't find anything else in common. He was remote.
Whenever we'd be there, he'd find some excuse to be out planting sequoia trees or redwoods or some other thing.

And he was so eccentric or so odd that

you kind of left there going, was that just me? Yeah, is that odd or is that the way, or should I be planting redwood trees? I don't know.

Greg Lynn made him feel uncomfortable. I think he felt threatened by other males.
I think he liked being being the boss and the head guy. Yeah, he liked being the big dog.
Yeah. I mean,

I try not to buy into the rank nonsense in airlines, but it's real, right? So I was a captain and he was a first officer, and he made every encounter about power.

And

that's not right. That's not normal.
Heather Quinneville and her husband Greg lay photos of Lisa across their dining room table. Sunglasses on.

Yeah, that's a picture of her.

So that's outside in the backyard. In one, Lisa sits in her backyard with a fiery red perm and overalls, cradling a little pig like you would a baby.
Its snout nuzzles into the crook of Lisa's elbow.

She had a little pig,

a little mini pig that she just adored.

You know, obviously Greg didn't like dogs, so they didn't have a dog, they didn't have a cat. So yeah, she had this little pig.

she's holding it she's nursing it she's you know used to go wherever she went we don't know whether greg considered the pig livestock or a pet or what their agreement was but people on the street say greg built an enormous structure for it in their yard with a hutch and space for it to run around

the hutch was concreted into the ground it took a lot of work The neighbours called it the pig palace. It was just like a puppy.
They're really intelligent. It was her baby.
They have the cutest

noises it used to make. We used to laugh about it.
Like puppy noises, like little grunts and stuff. Yeah, they have these funny little,

yeah. Whenever she was nursing it, it'd get, yeah, make these cute little noises.

And I'd never seen anything like it. So it was quite unique.
That was that was Lisa, unique.

And so, yeah, then the next time I went out to see her,

yeah, there was no pig.

And I said,

where is Sim? She said, oh, yeah,

Greg didn't like him. So

I remember she had tears in her eyes and she said, yeah,

Greg just got rid of him.

Lisa told friends and neighbours that Greg Lynn killed her pet pig.

I spoke to multiple people who had independently heard this story from Lisa.

Some had been told that it got into Greg's prized native garden bed and that an enraged Greg just snapped. The pig ate some of his vegetables, got into a vegetable patch.
It's only being a pig.

It's only doing what it's designed to do. A lot of people seemed unsure how the pig was killed.
Some said he might have beat it to death. Some thought it might have been an axe.
Some heard he shot it.

But whatever the method, every story ended the same way. He killed Lisa's pet pig.
She told me that he'd killed the pig. Greg lost his temper with the pig and he just killed it.

Greg had killed the pig.

He killed the pig in a fit of temper.

We've heard quite a few other stories about Greg Lynn and animals. Multiple people in multiple states said that he threatened to kill kill pets.

Back in Tasmania, he'd been fined $500 for aggravated cruelty and causing unnecessary pain to an animal over a lamb that he bought and slaughtered to cook.

But this pig, this was personal. I remember being so horrified.

I think I was in shock.

I just couldn't conceive.

of how you could do that. But it was always to hurt her.
There's always the most traumatic way possible

so that she would feel the full effect of it.

The horror of it. Yeah, and

the more she loved something,

the more he'd do it. And I think she was scared too.

I think that, you know, if anyone told Greg that, you know, they knew about it or called him out on it or, you know, it would not have been good for her.

Domestic violence comes in lots of different forms, as well as physical abuse. Perpetrators can use psychological tactics to establish power and control over their victims.

We've heard Greg Lynn was physically violent towards Lisa, but we've also been told that he used fear as a method of controlling her.

She was always taking care of or pre-empting every single need that he had.

So, you know, the washing had to be done. The meal had to be cooked.
The red wine that he liked had to be there.

She said that, you know, if you ever have a fight, you just say that it's all your fault. You just don't even bother arguing.
It's just all your fault.

And then I think he had a friend staying with him or something, and she got into trouble for washing his socks,

not paired together or something. And she asked me if that was odd.
These days, a lot of people are aware that the use of violence or fear to control someone is called coercive control.

The coercive control, well, no one really knew much about that at the time, you know what I mean? But yeah, there definitely was. Like

he didn't even have to say anything. She knew exactly what to do before he even said it.
He would just look at her a certain way. You could tell, because everything he did was behind closed doors.

So you knew something was going on, but you just never knew the full story or certainly the extent of it. There's a lot of research that shows a link between animal abuse and violence against people.

And sometimes people hurt animals, including family pets, as a way of controlling their partners.

Lisa and Greg Lynn's old neighbour, Terry Hollingworth, is a former counsellor. And across her career, she encountered many people who'd experienced family violence.

Especially for women, if they've got a treasured pet, the perpetrator will often direct a lot of violence towards that pet as a way of controlling the female in particular.

But Terry says the targets of this violence often stay quiet about it. We're masters of disguise when it comes to our relationships frequently.
When you reveal, you shatter.

And there's always the possibility that in revealing you actually

place yourself in greater danger.

I'm walking along Zigzag Road with Broadwan Will. She used to live just opposite Lisa and Greg.

The wind has whipped up and the sun has set, so it is icy here in Mount Massodon.

That's

Lisa and Gregg's place. Yeah, that driveway on the left there.

In rural locations, like Mount Massodon was at the time, isolation can breed a certain type of vulnerability. There's no public transport.
People live on big blocks distant from each other.

Because Bronwyn was just across the road, she and Lisa spent a fair bit of time together.

And Bronwyn remembers on one visit, Lisa, very casually, as though it wasn't a big deal, finally opened up to her about what was really happening at home.

I was over at her place and we were probably having a cuppa or just, you know, chatting. Lisa told Bronwyn a story she will never forget.
On this one particular night, Greg is angry.

She said that she had too much to drink this night. He asks Lisa if she wants to play a little game.

Greg binds her hands and feet with masking tape and carries her to the backyard.

He puts her near the backsteps. And Greg had...

locked her outside and tied her up and hosed her down. He continues continues spraying her with the hose until she's soaking wet.

Her clothes are now covered in grass stains.

Greg sits with her and time passes.

Lisa gets extremely cold. I recall her saying that she was out there a good part of the night, that she was out there quite a while.
Now, even on a

even on a warm night in Mount Assiden, it's cool. I mean, we had, we got snow a couple of times where we were, even though we're down on the flats.

Eventually, Greg unties Lisa, takes her inside, drives her off, and puts her to bed.

When Lisa later tells this story, Bronwyn can't believe what she's hearing. It was quite matter of fact.
I remember thinking,

you're very calm about this.

As though it wasn't a big... Not that it wasn't a big deal,

but it probably wasn't the only thing that was, yeah. I remember her being quite calm about it.
Lisa seemed to be fishing again, just like she did with her mate Heather on washing socks wrong,

asking Bronwyn, is this normal? Is this the kind of thing that happens in relationships?

She was looking for me to give her a bit of guidance about whether that was an appropriate response.

I think I probably just said, you know, what the hell? And, you know, why did he do that? You know, that's weird. It was never part of my upbringing to

treat people like that. I'd never seen any friends or family be treated like that.
So I think

that was really surprising. And I just didn't understand

the significance of it, to be truthful. I was just, I was a bit...
dumbfounded and I didn't I didn't inquire enough

and say look you know, what else is going on? And I think, like, my marriage was going down the toilet too.

And

I also didn't sort of have the understanding of people in abusive relationships because most of it's done behind closed doors.

Years later, when Greg was questioned by police about a separate incident, this story came up. Greg didn't sign the statement typed up by police, but their notes have him admitting to this incident.

According to the unsigned statement, he said,

I don't know why, but I did something that I thought would teach her a lesson. But when I told friends what I did, they seemed to consider it quite bizarre and cruel.

I agree this action was quite unusual, but my intentions were for her to never drink like that to excess again.

I mean, look, it's an asshole thing to do.

It's a shocking thing to do. Lisa told this story about being hosed down to a few friends, not just Bronwyn.

Some compared it to a military punishment or to water torture. Eventually, Lisa will take steps to disentangle herself from Greg Lynn after she discovers another secret Greg's been keeping from her.

But it won't be easy. That's next episode on Huntsman.

This season of Unravel is intended to be listened to as a whole. So, if you haven't heard all the episodes, you shouldn't draw any conclusions because you haven't heard all sides of this story.

If you need help with any of the issues raised in this podcast, please check the show notes for phone numbers you can call.

If you'd like to get in touch with me or my team about this story, please email us on unraveltruecrime at abc.net.au.

This season of Unravel is hosted and reported by me, Rachel Brown. We've been making this story on Gadigal, Wurundjeri and Wadurawongland.

This story was developed in collaboration with the ABC's Regional Investigations team under editor Edwina Farley. Research and production by Charlotte King, Andy Burns and Ayla Darling.

Our supervising producer is Yasmin Parry.

Sound design and additional music by Hamish Camilleri. Theme and additional music by Martin Perelta and Ashley Cadell.
And our executive producer is Tim Roxbrough.

From Hitler's secret drug addiction to a wrong turn that started a world war, the past is littered with hidden stories of turning points that changed the world.

I'm Mark Finnell, and it is my mission to find them and bring them to you each and every week. No One Saw It Coming is the podcast that will change how you think about history.

Find it now on the ABC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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