Speaker 1: Her burning body was found nine hours later, So what happened?
Speaker 1: So the missing nine hours is what we're really trying
Speaker 1: to fill in.
Speaker 2: Is they planned to do this or was it a
Speaker 2: last minute thing done in haste and panic, because the
Speaker 2: disposal of the body seems to meet not to be
Speaker 2: well planned at all.
Speaker 1: Where was she going and who was she going to meet?
Speaker 1: Now we believe that the person that she was going
Speaker 1: to meet is probably the person that killed her.
Speaker 2: I'm Andrew Rules Life in Crimes, and today we welcome
Speaker 2: to our humble studio Ashley Hansen, who is interstate and
Speaker 2: she's been working on a big project that is quite fascinating.
Speaker 2: I clearly don't know as much about it as Ashley
Speaker 2: because she's done a heap of work on this, but
Speaker 2: it is the big story that's currently hitting the airwaves,
Speaker 2: and it is about the murder of Rachelle Child's in
Speaker 2: two thousand and one, and really it's about the failure
Speaker 2: of the system to work out who killed her twenty
Speaker 2: four years ago. Is that about it, Ashley?
Speaker 1: Well, it is a big case. You are right, and
Speaker 1: we do go back to the very beginning of Rochelle's
Speaker 1: life and we focus it on the days and weeks
Speaker 1: leading up to her murder, and then we pull apart
Speaker 1: the investigation and go back over the key pieces of
Speaker 1: evidence to put it back out in the public domain,
Speaker 1: because we think that that is the best way where
Speaker 1: we're out in terms of twenty twenty five to solve
Speaker 1: this case, because it's now been a cold case for
Speaker 1: over twenty three years and the family wants justice.
Speaker 2: Well, no wonder, now, I cheated before I came in
Speaker 2: to talk to you. I did watch some of it
Speaker 2: and get a little bit of an idea. It really
Speaker 2: is a fascinating case because Rachelle, young woman, worked in
Speaker 2: a car dealership and you know, I won't say rural
Speaker 2: South Wales but provincial New South Wales. And she was
Speaker 2: going to meet and you'll tell us better than I can.
Speaker 2: She was going to meet someone we don't know who
Speaker 2: at a particular pub where she had not been before,
Speaker 2: and she vanished. Is that what happened?
Speaker 1: Well, her family say that they found out that she
Speaker 1: was going to meet someone in the days after her disappearance,
Speaker 1: because there was this frantic search for Rochelle. As of
Speaker 1: Friday afternoon they realized that she was missing. But by
Speaker 1: then in the early hours of Friday morning, her burning
Speaker 1: body had been discovered at GIRoA, which is one hundred
Speaker 1: kilometers away from her hometown in Bargo, so police hadn't
Speaker 1: put two and two together, and because the body that
Speaker 1: was burnt at GIRoA, it took days to formally identify
Speaker 1: that victim. So it wasn't until the Sunday did the
Speaker 1: detectives come and inform the family that was still frantically
Speaker 1: looking for Rochelle and say, we've actually found her, and
Speaker 1: sadly she'd been murdered. So we pull apart the case
Speaker 1: and the days leading up to it, as I said,
Speaker 1: and then the days and the weeks and the years
Speaker 1: that followed the investigation. But from the family's perspective, they
Speaker 1: said that they knew that she was going out because
Speaker 1: she had this urgency to go somewhere. She left work early.
Speaker 1: They think that she made it home, so her clothes
Speaker 1: that she wore to work were at home, and the
Speaker 1: police and her friends found them in the days later
Speaker 1: on the Saturday, I think they confirmed that they were
Speaker 1: her clothes. So the belief is and the evidence suggests
Speaker 1: that she did make it home, but where she went
Speaker 1: to after that, nobody knows, and her burning body was
Speaker 1: found nine hours later, So what happened, So the missing
Speaker 1: nine hours is what we're really trying to fill in
Speaker 1: because there are still so many gaps in this case.
Speaker 2: I can see that. So it's conceivable that whatever went
Speaker 2: wrong could have gone wrong even at her own house,
Speaker 2: that someone could have been waiting for her. She gets changed,
Speaker 2: she puts on some other clothes, ready to go out,
Speaker 2: and the bad guy turns up and grabs her or
Speaker 2: something there possibly, or she drives off in her old
Speaker 2: blue Commodore that she drove, is it right, her favorite
Speaker 2: old car, that's right, and she heads off to perhaps
Speaker 2: the pub where she told her sister she was going.
Speaker 2: I think Bargo Pub.
Speaker 1: She didn't tell her sister that she was going there,
Speaker 1: and we really look into where that information came from. Oh,
Speaker 1: in terms of her going to the Bargo Hotel, because
Speaker 1: there aren't any verified sightings of her at the Bargo Hotel.
Speaker 1: So initially because her car was found there in the
Speaker 1: days after her murder, and this was when the family
Speaker 1: was still frantically looking for her. Her car turned up
Speaker 1: parked at the back of the Bargo Hotel. Now back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and one. The Bargo Hotel was a
Speaker 1: bit of a rough pub. The bikes, the local rebels
Speaker 1: bikes used to drink there and it's been renovated now
Speaker 1: and very family friendly, so I want to make sure
Speaker 1: I make that distinction. But at the time, it wasn't
Speaker 1: somewhere where Rochelle would have gone. And a couple of
Speaker 1: reasons for that of this, well, she'd never been known
Speaker 1: to go there before. Thursday night was pull competition night
Speaker 1: and it was also topless waitress night, so mostly the
Speaker 1: pub was full of men. That was the clientele usually
Speaker 1: on a Thursday night. So the fact that her car
Speaker 1: turned up there really stunned her friends and family because
Speaker 1: they were like, what's that car doing here, Like, we've
Speaker 1: never known her to go there, And then the other
Speaker 1: clues that police and family have always have come to
Speaker 1: the conclusion and belief that she didn't drive her car there,
Speaker 1: but possibly it was a staged crime scene, so whoever
Speaker 1: killed her may have dumped her car there to cover
Speaker 1: his tracks in some way, And in the beginning, certainly
Speaker 1: it worked because the media reports all around Rochelle and
Speaker 1: her disappearance was this belief that she went to the
Speaker 1: Bargo Hotel and certainly someone who is a key person
Speaker 1: of interest did say that she was going there to
Speaker 1: meet someone. So we go into that and we explore
Speaker 1: all of that, but it's a vital piece of the
Speaker 1: puzzle because who did drive that car to the pub?
Speaker 1: The pub manager at the time, he gave evidence and
Speaker 1: did a statement with police and he said, there's no
Speaker 1: way she was in this pub. He would have known.
Speaker 1: She was really recognizable because she was blonde, she was attractive,
Speaker 1: she was twenty three, and she would have stood out,
Speaker 1: especially given it was a really bloky night at the pub.
Speaker 1: And there was this other sighting of her at the pub,
Speaker 1: and this is where we think, you know, things could
Speaker 1: have been confused over the years. There was a sighting
Speaker 1: of another twenty three year old that night and the
Speaker 1: bartender said, I did serve this blonde woman and she
Speaker 1: was twenty three because she checked her ID. Now that
Speaker 1: person was identified and just by coincidence, that person looked
Speaker 1: very simil to Rochelle, but wasn't Rochelle Noe. So that's
Speaker 1: all part of it too. So we go back over Yeah,
Speaker 1: the case and the car is just such a yeah.
Speaker 1: As I said, the car is really the key to
Speaker 1: all of this because who drove it and where did
Speaker 1: they go back to? So if the killer drove the
Speaker 1: car there, then how did the killer get home and
Speaker 1: get away? And so we're going we're trying to retrace
Speaker 1: the killer's steps and also Rachelle's to try and ultimately
Speaker 1: bring about new witnesses that could potentially be the breakthrough
Speaker 1: that this case needs.
Speaker 2: Where else could she have been going? She spoke to
Speaker 2: her sister very briefly because the sister was busy. This
Speaker 2: is after work on the night in question.
Speaker 1: So on Thursday, she left Camden Holden shortly after five
Speaker 1: pm and there was this phone call with Christy, her sister,
Speaker 1: and she was talking really fast on the phone and
Speaker 1: Christy was on the other line. So she said, I'll
Speaker 1: call you back, and she never did, cause that plays
Speaker 1: on her mind still to this day, and she holds
Speaker 1: a lot of guilt about not calling her back because
Speaker 1: she didn't really get into what she was doing. And
Speaker 1: obviously Christy had no idea that that would have that
Speaker 1: would be the last time she'd ever speak to her sister.
Speaker 1: So there's that phone call which left Christie believing that
Speaker 1: she was definitely going somewhere because she was excited, and
Speaker 1: she was speaking really fast, and that was something that
Speaker 1: she used to do, and she was obviously heading somewhere
Speaker 1: and heading to bargo her home to get changed, so
Speaker 1: she had somewhere to be And a lot of other
Speaker 1: people gave us that evidence and have said that to us,
Speaker 1: like the last customer that served her, So there's no
Speaker 1: sort of confusion around that she was going somewhere, it's
Speaker 1: just where was she going and who was she going
Speaker 1: to meet. Now we believe that the person that she
Speaker 1: was going to meet is probably the person that killed her.
Speaker 1: And the reason for that is because no one came
Speaker 1: forward afterwards and said, well, Rachelle didn't turn up, she
Speaker 1: hasn't met me. So no one's come forward and said
Speaker 1: that she failed to turn up to meet them. So
Speaker 1: that almost rules out the fact that there was this
Speaker 1: random attacker going around and she just happened to cross
Speaker 1: spas with someone, you know, a really dangerous man just
Speaker 1: by chance that she you know, unlikely, highly unlikely because
Speaker 1: of her actions leading up to it and her excitement.
Speaker 1: But another really important part of this case is her
Speaker 1: excitement about being loaned a hold in Walking Shaw. Now, yes,
Speaker 1: I'd never heard of a walking Shaw Andrew had you, I.
Speaker 2: Had, But then again I'm older and you know, different generation,
Speaker 2: and I had heard of walking Shaws. I think I
Speaker 2: remember the original walking Shaw.
Speaker 1: There you go. Well, you'll probably know a bit more
Speaker 1: than I do. But I have had to do a
Speaker 1: bit of research into walking Shaws because I've never heard
Speaker 1: of them before. But why it's important is because Rochelle
Speaker 1: was a whole and fanatic. She was mad about cars
Speaker 1: and particular Holdens. So she held this belief and had
Speaker 1: set it to a couple of people that leading up
Speaker 1: to the June Long Weekend, which is the weekend before
Speaker 1: she was murdered. She was murdered on the Thursday night.
Speaker 1: The time of her death isn't exactly known, but her
Speaker 1: burning body was found at two just after two am
Speaker 1: on the Friday morning before the June Long Weekend in
Speaker 1: two thousand and one. Now, she'd told her sister, and
Speaker 1: she'd also told a few other people close to her
Speaker 1: at the time that she was super excited about being
Speaker 1: loaned a Holden walking Shaw from Camden Holden. So that
Speaker 1: was her belief for whatever reason. So we really look
Speaker 1: into whether or not there was any truth to that.
Speaker 1: Did a walking shaw exist. Was there ever a walkn saw?
Speaker 1: Why did she hold that belief and why did someone
Speaker 1: promise her a walking shaw for the long weekend? And
Speaker 1: being the car found that she was, she was super
Speaker 1: excited about that.
Speaker 2: Great bait to get her in would be to mension
Speaker 2: something like.
Speaker 1: That possibly, and that is a very very strong theory
Speaker 1: that you know, was that the bait that got her
Speaker 1: somewhere and got her in a place where she was
Speaker 1: vulnerable because she was excited about it. And no walking
Speaker 1: shaw ever turned up. You know, there wasn't one that
Speaker 1: turned up to Camden Holden and that's where she was
Speaker 1: working as a saleswoman. And you can probably give some
Speaker 1: insights on this, but the walkingshur at the time they
Speaker 1: were incredibly rare. And also a car yard bringing a
Speaker 1: walk Inshaw into their yard and onto the lot, it
Speaker 1: would need to be ensured. It's not something that would
Speaker 1: be done in secret. It wouldn't just be a surprise
Speaker 1: to the manager or to the owner of the car
Speaker 1: yard if a car like that was coming in. Everyone
Speaker 1: sort of told us, look, they'd make a big deal
Speaker 1: about it. There'd be a lot of plans in place
Speaker 1: as to where are we going to store it. Even then,
Speaker 1: if there was one coming in, it's highly unlikely they
Speaker 1: would be loaning it out such an expense in sidcar
Speaker 1: to a twenty three year old saleswoman. And what are
Speaker 1: your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2: Well, I suspect you're right. If this was a kosher offer,
Speaker 2: you'd think there'd be some trace of it. Now. I
Speaker 2: don't know whether they'd lend it to her or not.
Speaker 2: Maybe they would if there was a reason, you know,
Speaker 2: but there ought to be someone somewhere that knows which
Speaker 2: car it was and who had the control of it.
Speaker 2: It sounds as if it's a made up car, doesn't it.
Speaker 2: It sounds like a made up bait to hook her
Speaker 2: in by a manipulative person.
Speaker 1: It's it's either true or false, really, isn't it. So
Speaker 1: we look into was there a walking shaw? Did one
Speaker 1: Edward exist?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: And so we follow that path and explore that theory
Speaker 1: as well, because it is a really important part of
Speaker 1: Rochelle's case. The family believes that all the investigators that
Speaker 1: have worked on it have also believed that as well,
Speaker 1: because yeah, why was she promised this walking share and
Speaker 1: what happened to it? What happened to Rochelle. You know,
Speaker 1: the main part of this case and the biggest unsold
Speaker 1: question is what happened to Rochelle. We don't even know
Speaker 1: where she was killed, you know, as I said, those
Speaker 1: nine missing hours from her possibly going home and getting
Speaker 1: changed yep, And it was nine hours later that her
Speaker 1: burning body was found. So in episode three, which is
Speaker 1: are now available, we go through all the witness accounts
Speaker 1: down at GIRoA at seven Mile Beach, which is one
Speaker 1: hundred kilometers away from her home, and some of her
Speaker 1: friends hadn't even heard of GIRoA or seven Mile Beach,
Speaker 1: so again they were shocked that she not only had
Speaker 1: been murdered, but that her body had turned up there.
Speaker 1: So it was a bit of a mystery to why
Speaker 1: that location. So we really look into the location and
Speaker 1: talk to experts about the mind of a killer and
Speaker 1: the disposal of a body and what goes into that
Speaker 1: that thought process, and that's fascinating stuff because you know,
Speaker 1: the experts give that really psychological insights into what people
Speaker 1: do to try and cover their tracks. And so we
Speaker 1: explore the area down there as well, seven Mile Beach,
Speaker 1: and the car sightings as well, because her car or
Speaker 1: a car very similar to Rachelle's. So police have the
Speaker 1: view that her car was used to go to GIRoA,
Speaker 1: whether the killer took her body down there, or whether
Speaker 1: the killer drove her down there and she was murdered
Speaker 1: down at GIRoA. But there was all these car sightings
Speaker 1: of the car moving near where her body was found,
Speaker 1: moving from one side of the road to the other.
Speaker 1: So we look at whether or not burning her body
Speaker 1: was planned b which goes to the mindset of the
Speaker 1: killer as well, which helps to profile this killer as well.
Speaker 1: Was it planned because if her murder was planned, it
Speaker 1: wasn't planned very well. But at the same time, this
Speaker 1: person or these people responsible have got away with it,
Speaker 1: and they had a lot of things go their way, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: because there were so many failures in the initial investigation.
Speaker 2: Sadly, yes, you can see that if this had happened
Speaker 2: in the last five years, parts of this puzzle would
Speaker 2: not be a mystery because there'd be more CCTV footage,
Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera. Now, even the fact that this
Speaker 2: person had accelerant, they had petrol or kerosene or whatever
Speaker 2: they had that already with them because they'd planned to
Speaker 2: do this, or was it a last minute thing done
Speaker 2: in haste and panic, because the disposal of the body
Speaker 2: seems to me not to be well planned at all.
Speaker 2: It's right beside the busy road, as one of the
Speaker 2: investigators points out, if you stand where her body was found,
Speaker 2: people can see you from the road. It's not a
Speaker 2: great spot to hide a body. So it looks as
Speaker 2: if it was done really quick and in haste. And
Speaker 2: they've said, oh, hell, I've got a burner because my
Speaker 2: DNA will be on it. So they've just burnt her.
Speaker 2: But did they go and get some fuel to do that?
Speaker 2: So you know, did they go to a service station
Speaker 2: three kilometers away and buy some fuel and come back
Speaker 2: and burn the body, there'd be all these little possibilities.
Speaker 2: The other thing is I noticed that she was pictured
Speaker 2: with Peter Brock at some stage.
Speaker 1: When was that, I'm not exactly sure, but it was
Speaker 1: a couple of years before her death, and Peter Brock
Speaker 1: was her idol. Yes, and that was even the number
Speaker 1: his number which I think it was number five, was
Speaker 1: on her headstone and it was it was really touching
Speaker 1: when I went to the cemetery with her sister to
Speaker 1: see her headstone, and she has a picture there of
Speaker 1: herself and I think it's Peter Brock's car or a
Speaker 1: picture of her and Peter Brock as well, but definitely
Speaker 1: pays tribute to him because he was her idol and
Speaker 1: as I said, she was a huge Holden fan. So
Speaker 1: we're hoping that we might get some Holden fans following
Speaker 1: us in the podcast as well. Probably will Filling in
Speaker 1: any gaps in the case as well would help a lot.
Speaker 2: It could happen. Sometimes experts can help with subtle things.
Speaker 2: I mean, even putting out the walking Shaw story, it
Speaker 2: might produce someone with specific knowledge out there who goes, well,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you where they all were right then or
Speaker 2: where they weren't, and the people that know all these
Speaker 2: things might be able to help triangulate something about the
Speaker 2: walking Shaw story.
Speaker 1: Yes, we're very much interested in any of that kind
Speaker 1: of information because it wasn't uncommon at the time as
Speaker 1: well to mock up a Holden walking Shaw. So we
Speaker 1: don't know if okay, the fakes and the genuine walking
Speaker 1: Shaws were all checked.
Speaker 2: Of course, there's that. It's a very interesting thing. And see,
Speaker 2: the person that made the offer to her must know
Speaker 2: about walking shores. They must know something, because you can't
Speaker 2: make up what you don't know, really, can you. They
Speaker 2: must have some knowledge in order to raise that who
Speaker 2: attract her attention. So that tells us that this manipulative killer,
Speaker 2: sex killer probably has some knowledge of Australian cars and
Speaker 2: racing cars and hot cars, that sort of stuff. I know,
Speaker 2: that's a broad church.
Speaker 1: I believe that strongly, and I think most of the
Speaker 1: investigators on the case would agree to Yeah.
Speaker 2: So that at least gives them a broad group of people.
Speaker 2: I've noticed in just checking before we've spoke that you
Speaker 2: investigators have found something like nine people ex boyfriends or
Speaker 2: whatever of Rochelle's and eight of them have sort of
Speaker 2: been able to ali by themselves or whatever. That hasn't yes,
Speaker 2: So what can you say about that?
Speaker 1: Well, so there were nine initially, there were nine persons
Speaker 1: of interest in Rochelle's murder. And if you think about it,
Speaker 1: she was a single woman, She worked in a male
Speaker 1: dominated industry. She was a bit of a tomboy, so
Speaker 1: her circle of friends she had a lot of male
Speaker 1: friends as well. Because of her love of cars. She
Speaker 1: rode horses, but she also played cricket, so her social
Speaker 1: circle was quite large. As well as her work circle.
Speaker 1: So they started off with nine persons of interest, and
Speaker 1: then during the inquest, which was held in two thousand
Speaker 1: and six to two thousand and eight, it really just
Speaker 1: narrowed down to one man, her boss. Now he was
Speaker 1: named as a prime suspect in her murder, and still
Speaker 1: to this day he remains the prime suspect in her murder.
Speaker 1: He was her boss at Camden Holden, so she worked
Speaker 1: with him for about a year and according to in
Speaker 1: all of her work colleagues, she really looked up to
Speaker 1: him like a father figure. And there were a lot
Speaker 1: of people that also felt like he had this obsession
Speaker 1: with her, that he had this Yeah, there's just a
Speaker 1: particularly interest in her. He may have been favoring her
Speaker 1: and affording her perks of the job that weren't afforded
Speaker 1: to everyone else, for example, letting her alone whatever cars
Speaker 1: and pushing her into sales. And you know, was he
Speaker 1: being a mentor, because certainly a lot of people say
Speaker 1: that his behavior wasn't really in line with a genuine mentor.
Speaker 1: People have said that he liked her, you know, and
Speaker 1: he was a lot older than her, and I think
Speaker 1: it was the dynamic, you know, she was twenty three.
Speaker 1: She was described as naive and she was also learning
Speaker 1: a lot. She loved her job and he was the
Speaker 1: one that used to teach her. So she had a
Speaker 1: lot of faith in him and a lot of trust.
Speaker 1: And so we look into him and his past and yeah,
Speaker 1: his alibi. We do a deep dive on his alibi.
Speaker 2: Where is he now and why are we talking so
Speaker 2: frankly about him?
Speaker 1: I can't disclose where he is now, but he is
Speaker 1: still considered a suspect in Rochelle's murder, and he has
Speaker 1: always strenuously denied any involvement in Rochelle's death. The coroner
Speaker 1: had an open finding in two thousand and eight, so
Speaker 1: basically didn't identify or didn't refer the matter to the DPP.
Speaker 1: But she did say that Rochelle was a victim of homicide,
Speaker 1: but who killed her was never determined by the inquest.
Speaker 1: But through that process, all the other persons of interest
Speaker 1: by one man were ruled out.
Speaker 2: So we'd perhaps call him a person of interest.
Speaker 1: Yes, you could call him a significant person of interest,
Speaker 1: I think would be very fair.
Speaker 2: So he's still with us, He's up there somewhere in
Speaker 2: New South Wales.
Speaker 1: Yes, he's still he's still in the community. As I say,
Speaker 1: he's never been charged over Rochelle's murder. He did participate
Speaker 1: willingly in three records of interview with detectives and he
Speaker 1: was very closely looked at. His alibi was looked at.
Speaker 1: He gave a very involved alibi on the seventh of
Speaker 1: June two thousand and one, but not a single person
Speaker 1: can back that up. There wasn't another witness to back
Speaker 1: up his alibi. So that's interesting, and we just take
Speaker 1: a deep dive into his past and just re examine
Speaker 1: the evidence that we know about and also look at
Speaker 1: new evidence and people that are coming forward and speaking
Speaker 1: out after all of these years, and they're prompted to
Speaker 1: speak out because of Rochelle and because of the injustice
Speaker 1: that really is centered on this case. You know, someone
Speaker 1: has got away with murder for over twenty three years.
Speaker 1: And someone or the people that would do that to
Speaker 1: a young, innocent, beautiful woman who was loved by so many,
Speaker 1: I mean, they're a dangerous person. And what I will
Speaker 1: say as well is most investigators. The theory is that
Speaker 1: investigators believe that this was a sexually motivated attack. So
Speaker 1: because she was found partially naked from the waist down,
Speaker 1: and because of the fire, you couldn't determined whether they'd
Speaker 1: been a sexual attack. But from investigators and police perspective,
Speaker 1: they always treated this as a sexually motivated attack, and
Speaker 1: the fire was to destroy evidence, to destroy DNA. So
Speaker 1: the killer, you know, essentially has got away with murder
Speaker 1: and a very very dangerous man.
Speaker 2: The person of interest that you refer to have they
Speaker 2: got an interesting past or a dull past.
Speaker 1: I would say it's an interesting past. Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: say it's a very interesting past.
Speaker 2: Interesting and relevant relevant to this sort of thing.
Speaker 1: Relevant. Yeah, Relevant's a good word.
Speaker 2: Probably. We won't say much more about that as my thoughts,
Speaker 2: but that is interesting indeed. I mean in your experience
Speaker 2: of mind, we know that often these matters concerned people
Speaker 2: well known to the victim, usually don't they That's it
Speaker 2: probably eight out of ten.
Speaker 1: And what we do know, as I said before, is
Speaker 1: that we know that her personality was the type of
Speaker 1: person she was a little bit shy. Even though she
Speaker 1: was outgoing in one sense, she had a bit of
Speaker 1: shyness about her. It's been described to me as she
Speaker 1: was someone that didn't like to go places on her
Speaker 1: own and We do know of an instance where she
Speaker 1: met to meet another man in Queensland and she took
Speaker 1: her girlfriends because she didn't know him. She hadn't met
Speaker 1: him before, so it would be out of line of
Speaker 1: her personality. It wouldn't be characteristic of her to go
Speaker 1: and meet someone she didn't know and that she didn't trust,
Speaker 1: So she wasn't a risk taker in that sense.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So that's why police and people closest to Rochelle are
Speaker 1: so convinced that whoever she went to meat she knew
Speaker 1: and she trusted.
Speaker 2: Sketch a bit of a pen picture or perhaps a
Speaker 2: word picture of the Rochelle that you've come to know
Speaker 2: in a secondhand way she come from. One of her parents.
Speaker 2: Do tell us about her sister? What sort of girl
Speaker 2: was she?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Look, she's the sort of girl that I wish
Speaker 1: I would have known because she sounds so lovable and likable,
Speaker 1: and she was cheeky, she was witty, she was she
Speaker 1: was really going and just always up for a good time.
Speaker 1: She loved her animals. She was a big animal lover.
Speaker 1: Has she had horses, she had dogs, she had a cat,
Speaker 1: and she was just that sort of person that everyone
Speaker 1: has a memory of and really fond memories of her.
Speaker 1: So her death had a huge impact and there was
Speaker 1: almost I think it was almost one thousand people turned
Speaker 1: out to her funeral. Beautiful family. And look, I've only
Speaker 1: met her sister, her younger sister, Christie, and she's the
Speaker 1: real driver of this podcast and the person that prompted
Speaker 1: this investigation really because she was the person I went
Speaker 1: to over twelve months ago and said, look, would you
Speaker 1: consider doing a podcast about your sister's unsolved murder? And
Speaker 1: the timing was just right for her. So her sister's
Speaker 1: an assistant principal and she's incredible. You know, she's so motivated,
Speaker 1: she's so determined to get this case solved after so
Speaker 1: many years, and we'll just keep fighting and won't give up.
Speaker 1: And her mom's the same and she's beautiful too. They
Speaker 1: lost their dad. Christie lost her dad a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago during COVID Sadly, he died of brain tumor,
Speaker 1: which was really sad because he was the leader, the
Speaker 1: advocate for the family. He was the one that dealt
Speaker 1: with police. He had interactions with detectives down at Goldburn
Speaker 1: when they were training to be officers, and he would
Speaker 1: give that insight into dealing with victims' families. He's a
Speaker 1: really strong, stoic just a really likable guy as well
Speaker 1: from the sounds of it. So it really fell into
Speaker 1: Christie's possession this baton that she's you know, has taken
Speaker 1: on to be the charge and the leader to try
Speaker 1: and get this solved and to keep it out in
Speaker 1: the public domain and to motivate police as well to
Speaker 1: re examine her case. But not just relook at it.
Speaker 1: We're talking about reinvestigating it, so just doing things that
Speaker 1: could lead to a breakthrough in the case. And they're
Speaker 1: just things like the reward. I mean, it's sitting at
Speaker 1: two hundred thousand dollars and you know what house prices
Speaker 1: are in Melbourne and Sydney that you know that is well,
Speaker 1: it sounds like a lot of money. It's still not
Speaker 1: a life changing amount of money if you're going to
Speaker 1: break a loyalty or go out on a limb and
Speaker 1: speak out about someone who maybe you're very fearful of
Speaker 1: as well. But relationships change over the years, and that's
Speaker 1: what we're hoping that maybe someone who knew something at
Speaker 1: the time but was too scared to come forward or
Speaker 1: didn't have the confidence. Maybe maybe an increase in the
Speaker 1: reward could bring them out, could.
Speaker 2: Loosen tongues over time. And is there anybody in particular
Speaker 2: that might have helped with an alibi? Is the reward
Speaker 2: aimed at certain people?
Speaker 1: Do you think, well, we're hoping that an increase of
Speaker 1: the reward could reach anyone that has any intimate knowledge
Speaker 1: about someone's behavior. Either on the night that Rochelle was murdered,
Speaker 1: or the days that followed, or even the weeks and
Speaker 1: the months that followed, there would have been a suspicion.
Speaker 1: You would think that there may have been people that
Speaker 1: thought or heard things over time that maybe didn't add
Speaker 1: up or they sounded a little bit strange. And yeah,
Speaker 1: we're just asking for this reward to be increased. The
Speaker 1: family is pushing for it, and we certainly believe that
Speaker 1: it's not money that you have to pay unless somebody
Speaker 1: is convicted. Usually that's what a reward is only ever paid,
Speaker 1: and it would be well worth it and money well
Speaker 1: spent in my view. So we're just asking for that reward,
Speaker 1: and we think it's important because you just don't know
Speaker 1: what that money could motivate someone to do. To tell
Speaker 1: the truth to come forward and maybe just give a
Speaker 1: little piece of information that could potentially solve this case.
Speaker 2: Ashley, what attracted you to it or who attracted you
Speaker 2: to this?
Speaker 1: Well, I just remembered it as a young journalist. So
Speaker 1: I was working in Woollongong at the time, and I
Speaker 1: think it must have been the time when her inquest
Speaker 1: was on in two thousand and eight or around that time,
Speaker 1: and reading a story about it and just I remember
Speaker 1: just feeling shocked and sad. And then I went on
Speaker 1: and I did TV reporting for years, and I worked
Speaker 1: at Channel seven for about ten years, and then when
Speaker 1: I left Channel seven, I went into and was doing
Speaker 1: a bit of freelance news reading. And I was just
Speaker 1: in this sort of spot in my career where I
Speaker 1: wanted to do something new and different but still be
Speaker 1: a journalist, but just delve into one case. And so
Speaker 1: I thought I'd love to do a podcast. I was
Speaker 1: inspired by Headley Thomas's work yep, as you know his success,
Speaker 1: and I just really got into podcasting and I thought
Speaker 1: I'd love to just yeah, have a look at one
Speaker 1: case and see if I could do a podcast. So
Speaker 1: I reached out to Christy because this is the first
Speaker 1: case that came to mind was Rochelle's case, and I
Speaker 1: did a bit of googling, obviously that's how you start,
Speaker 1: and one of the first articles that came up was
Speaker 1: about Christie just a few years earlier saying I would
Speaker 1: look at doing a podcast and I'm wondering if Headley
Speaker 1: Thomas might be interested in this case or whatnot. So
Speaker 1: I reached out to her and she was already talking
Speaker 1: to Headley but he hadn't really started on her case
Speaker 1: because she didn't know at the time, and obviously Headly
Speaker 1: didn't say it at the time, but he was very
Speaker 1: much invested in Bronwin's case, which is the podcast that's
Speaker 1: now out, so you can see the huge amount of
Speaker 1: work that went into that podcast. So yeah, so Christy
Speaker 1: thought about it and she's sort of agreed, No, now's
Speaker 1: the time. I'm ready to do it now, because it's
Speaker 1: a huge investment emotionally and time wise as well to
Speaker 1: have a journalist go back and through the case like that,
Speaker 1: you're opening wounds. But she's been so forthcoming and it's
Speaker 1: just been an absolute joy to work with her. She's
Speaker 1: an incredible person and I would love for them to
Speaker 1: get the outcome that they so desperately want.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, where did those girls grow up with
Speaker 2: their parents at Bargo.
Speaker 1: No, they actually grew up at Glenfield. They grew up
Speaker 1: in Glenfield in Sydney's southwest, I believe near Campbelltown area, Glenfield,
Speaker 1: and they grew up out there. They were into dancing
Speaker 1: and I think they had horses when they were growing
Speaker 1: up as well. And what prompted Rochelle to move She
Speaker 1: was going out with the guy and they wanted more
Speaker 1: space because she wanted to have the horses on her property.
Speaker 1: And I think because of house prices and whatnot, she
Speaker 1: rented at Bargo because she could get this, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of acres there. And she was living there
Speaker 1: with her boyfriend for a little while, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: how long, and then they broke up and so that
Speaker 1: that's what prompted Christy to move in. But Christie'd only
Speaker 1: be living there for sort of a month or six
Speaker 1: weeks so, and Christi is Rochelle's youngest sister, so she'd
Speaker 1: only been living there for about six weeks and then
Speaker 1: this tragedy happened. And yeah, the story sort of goes
Speaker 1: from there.
Speaker 2: It goes from there. Actually, how can our listeners tune
Speaker 2: in and listen to this.
Speaker 1: Well, they can visit the website dear Rochelle dot com
Speaker 1: dot au. So that's d e A r r A
Speaker 1: c h ewl e dot com dot au.
Speaker 2: Perfect and that name is yes as you spelled it
Speaker 2: out at Rochelle r A not that's it. We will
Speaker 2: put the URL in the description of the episode. Actually,
Speaker 2: wish you all the best and we look forward to
Speaker 2: tuning into your most excellent work. It's a fascinating case
Speaker 2: and if there's any justice or luck in the world,
Speaker 2: something that you do will loosen someone's tongue and get
Speaker 2: a result.
Speaker 1: Thanks Andrew, that would be an absolute dream.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. Life and Crimes is a Sunday Herald
Speaker 2: Sun production for True crime Australia. Our producer is Johnty Burton.
Speaker 2: For my columns, features and more, go to Heroldsun dot
Speaker 2: com dot au forward slash Andrew rule one word. For
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Speaker 2: com dot au. That is all one word news podcasts
Speaker 2: sold And if you further information about this episode, links
Speaker 2: are in the description