The sentencing of Greg Lynn was a definitive chapter, but an appeal ...

The shocking details of the missing campers case could have been plucked from a Hollywood script.

Greg Lynn was cast as the villain — a role confirmed when he was found guilty of Carol Clay's murder.

For some viewers, he got his comeuppance on Friday, jailed for a maximum of 32 years in what might have been this extraordinary story's final scene.

But with an appeal all but guaranteed, a sequel will follow.

This courtroom drama was all too real for the families of Ms Clay and Russell Hill.

A Supreme Court jury found Greg Lynn guilty of murdering Carol Clay.  (Supplied)

They gasped with delight when a judge declared the brutal, selfish and calculating killer could remain behind bars until he's almost 90 years old. At the very least, he will have to serve 24 years of his sentence in prison. 

For the families, it was a moment of relief in a case that has wrought so much misery.

For Lynn, it barely warranted a reaction. He will now plot a new legal fight from prison as he continues to insist he's no killer.

Greg Lynn was acquitted of the murder of Russell Hill.  (Supplied)

He does not accept the jury's verdict that he murdered Carol Clay, and his legal team have 28 days to formally lodge an appeal they've already promised.

Last month, Lynn's barrister Dermot Dann KC argued the jury travelled down "a forbidden pathway". In his view they made an "improper and irrational compromise" by finding Lynn guilty of shooting Ms Clay in cold blood, but not guilty of murdering Mr Hill.

The jury's verdict placed Justice Michael Croucher in a bind. There were no witnesses to the deaths and barely any useful crime scene and forensic evidence — because Lynn had destroyed it. 

In deciding the prison term, the judge was left to consider largely theoretical prosecution arguments and the version advanced by a convicted murderer.

Russell Hill and Carol Clay's campsite at Bucks Camp in the remote Wonnangatta Valley was burnt following their deaths.  (Supplied: Supreme Court of Victoria)

The judge acknowledged that he could not determine the order in which the pair died, and said there was insufficient evidence to support the prosecution theory that Ms Clay was assassinated because she witnessed Lynn killing Mr Hill. 

Despite a two-year investigation and a lengthy trial, many of the events that unfolded in the Wonnangatta Valley on March 20, 2020 remained unclear.

It then came as a surprise to many when he turned around and imposed a penalty that was seven years higher than the 25-year standard for murder.

All of this will now be weighed up by Lynn's lawyers, who will be planning exactly how to frame their appeal. The killer's team may even take an optimistic view that their job to free Lynn is half-complete.

Prosecutors almost certainly won't have legal grounds to appeal the jury's decision to acquit Lynn of murdering Mr Hill. 

But Lynn's team can go to the Court of Appeal and challenge the verdict regarding Ms Clay's death. If the state's most senior judges allow a re-trial, Lynn will have another shot to clear his name and walk free.

Dermot Dann KC, who some regard as Victoria's leading criminal barrister, is spearheading Lynn's campaign. Mr Dann is in such demand that he is often seen rushing between buildings in Melbourne's court precinct armed with folders plastered with sticky notes. Within an hour of Lynn's sentencing, he was back in court representing another client.

The barrister has built a reputation as a skilled advocate who meticulously pokes holes in prosecution cases before ripping them to shreds. 

His dissection of the police case against Daylesford crash driver William Swale was so convincing that a magistrate dismissed the charges at a preliminary hearing last month. 

Mr Dann's dogged approach was perhaps best typified by a legal victory in 2020, when he secured permanent freedom for Katia Pyliotis, who had been jailed for murder and endured four Supreme Court trials.

Defence barrister Dermot Dann (right) has indicated an appeal.  (AAP Image: James Ross)

Without question, passengers put their lives in the hands of an airline captain even if they don't know their name or see their face. 

Evidence from the trial shattered Lynn's carefully crafted facade of being a person who always has the situation under control and is trustworthy. 

He has been exposed as a duplicitous liar, willing to go to extreme lengths to protect himself at the expense of others.

Lynn has undeniably left a trail of devastation that will haunt the Clay and Hill families. His obliteration of the campers' bodies and cover-up of their deaths added an extra shock-factor for those already dealing with a near-incomprehensible situation. 

"He destroyed my mother," Ms Clay's daughter Emma Davies said last month. "He burned her beyond all possible recognition".

Ms Davies does not want her mother's legacy to be that of a murder victim.

 In her 73 years, Carol Clay was a woman of action. She was a mother-of-three and an adored grandma who read books, climbed trees and rode bikes. 

Ms Clay served as president of the Country Women's Association of Victoria, a life governor of the Box Hill Hospital, and a director of Foodbank Victoria. 

She had been president of a tennis club and a kindergarten. Her sponges, Christmas cakes, pudding and zucchini pickles were renowned by those lucky enough to taste them. She had more to give.

Mr Hill is not considered a victim in a legal sense but common sense says otherwise. He died a violent death and his remains were obliterated. 

Mr Hill was a strong, tall 74-year-old retired logger and had a love of the outdoors. He was a father to three daughters and had been married to his wife, Robyn, for more than 50 years. 

Ms Clay, however, was a high-school flame who remained part of his life and was there when it all ended so abruptly in the Wonnangatta Valley.

While Lynn's future hangs in the air, one certainty that remains is the grim fate of Russell Hill and Carol Clay. As Ms Clay's sister Jillian Walker put it, "there is no humanity or reality in this".

A jail sentence can't wind back the clock but it can evoke a sense of finality. 

The day of sentencing is supposed to be the closing chapter of a criminal case. 

Offenders' prison arrangements are finalised. The lawyers, judges and the media turn their minds to the next day's court list. Victims and their families, hopefully, can draw a line in the sand and try to move forward.

Lynn's forthcoming appeal means none of that can occur.