Speaker 1: I don't want to use my real name, so let's
Speaker 1: just call me Evelyn. So the first seven weeks that
Speaker 1: I was with Kevin, he was extremely charming, extremely smooth,
Speaker 1: pedantic in a home, in his personal dress, the way
Speaker 1: he smelt, the way he looked. You know, there wasn't
Speaker 1: a hair out of place, and you know he was
Speaker 1: the epitome of the Prince Charming.
Speaker 2: I'm Ashley Hanson.
Speaker 3: You're listening to episode seven of Dear Rochelle, a podcast
Speaker 3: by True Crime Australia. This is the untold story of
Speaker 3: Rochelle Charles, a twenty three year old who was brutally murdered.
Speaker 3: Per killer has never been caught. Evelyn met Kevin Stephen
Speaker 3: Carell when she was thirty eight at a singles mingles
Speaker 3: party in Sydney. They dated for about six weeks, just
Speaker 3: over a year after Rochelle's murder. You'll be hearing a
Speaker 3: lot more from Evelyn and another key witness in this episode.
Speaker 3: We've given both pseudonyms. Let's go back to two thousand
Speaker 3: and two. Publicly, the police investigation had gone very quiet.
Speaker 3: Behind the scenes, it was turmoil. The strikee force was
Speaker 3: in disarray and there was a growing pool of persons
Speaker 3: of interest. By this point, Kevin Correll, Rochelle's boss at
Speaker 3: Camden Holden, was under intense pressure. Detectives had formally interviewed
Speaker 3: him and raided his home, and he was considered a
Speaker 3: suspect by police, but he was carrying on with his
Speaker 3: life as normal. Kevin Correll denies any involvement in Rochelle's murder,
Speaker 3: and he has provided police with a detailed account of
Speaker 3: his movements on the night in question.
Speaker 2: When did you meet Kevin?
Speaker 1: I met Kevin at a singles night in Sydney. He
Speaker 1: was there with quite a lot of people and one
Speaker 1: of them turned out to be my uncle.
Speaker 2: And how would you describe Kevin?
Speaker 1: Extremely smooth, charismatic, attentive, not what you would think, not
Speaker 1: your average man on a mission. Every time I've seen him,
Speaker 1: as far as women were concerned, because obviously I didn't
Speaker 1: date him immediately, he was very like the prince of
Speaker 1: the party, floating about lighting cigarettes for people and getting
Speaker 1: drinks and pulling out chairs and all that sort of chivalry.
Speaker 3: You're going to hear a lot more about Kevin Correll
Speaker 3: and allegations about how he attracts women, treats them and
Speaker 3: reacts when they leave him. Remember, Kevin changed his surname
Speaker 3: from Cornwall to Correll after being acquitted of multiple sex
Speaker 3: attacks on young women across Sydney in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 3: Kevin has always maintained his innocence over these attacks. This
Speaker 3: episode focuses on two of his ex girlfriends. You just
Speaker 3: met Evelyn. The other we're calling Alice another fictitious name.
Speaker 3: Alice's former boyfriend has agreed to be interviewed. We'll call
Speaker 3: him Colin. Alice met Kevin a year before Rochelle's death
Speaker 3: and was still seeing him when Rochelle was killed, but
Speaker 3: the relationship was well and truly over by the time
Speaker 3: she met Colin. And when you've spoken to her in
Speaker 3: recent days about participating in the podcast or talking to.
Speaker 2: Me, what was her reaction about that.
Speaker 4: I've had one conversation and asked her, and she said
Speaker 4: it was a very dark.
Speaker 5: Time and.
Speaker 4: Obviously because she'd had to give evidence a coroner's inquest
Speaker 4: and that sort of thing, and a lot of intimate details,
Speaker 4: she said I couldn't go through that again, and so
Speaker 4: has declined to come to this.
Speaker 3: That gives you a bit of an insight into how
Speaker 3: traumatized she is about that experience in her life.
Speaker 4: Yes, it would have had to have played heavily on
Speaker 4: the mind. And also that it was her partner, very
Speaker 4: hurtful and yeah, deeply distressing.
Speaker 5: Poor.
Speaker 3: Remember this is two thousand and two, a year after
Speaker 3: the murder. Detectors were ramping up their investigation into Kevin's
Speaker 3: possible involvement. By this time, Kevin had voluntarily participated in
Speaker 3: two interviews with police. Alison Kevin had broken up and
Speaker 3: shed just begun dating Colin, but there was a shift
Speaker 3: in Kevin's behavior when Colin came onto the scene.
Speaker 4: Alice had received phone calls from a gentleman who was
Speaker 4: a previous partner or boyfriend had objected to me being
Speaker 4: around might spend most of my time at her place
Speaker 4: at this time, and so I suppose he saw it
Speaker 4: as a I'd moved in there, and so he objected
Speaker 4: to that, and then he then started bringing Alice and
Speaker 4: making abusive phone calls at that time and saying that
Speaker 4: you know that he objected to her seeing me.
Speaker 3: We're going to bounce between Colin and Evelyn's recollections in
Speaker 3: this episode. Evelyn and Colin's partner Alice both gave evidence
Speaker 3: at the coronial inquest into Rachelle's death. At the conclusion
Speaker 3: of the inquest in two thousand and eight, the coroner
Speaker 3: made an open finding in relation to Rachelle's death.
Speaker 1: So, over a few weeks, you know, probably four or
Speaker 1: five weeks, I went to Sydney with my girlfriends. He
Speaker 1: would be at the events, of course, because he'd say, oh,
Speaker 1: I'll see you there, and how it went. So I
Speaker 1: never stayed at his house or went to his house
Speaker 1: at all in that time, because obviously I've got children responsibilities.
Speaker 1: But he did eventually as we dated more, he came
Speaker 1: up for barbecue three or four times through the week
Speaker 1: after work at one of the many jobs apparently that
Speaker 1: he had. And then now it progressed from there.
Speaker 3: And so what did he tell you about himself when
Speaker 3: he first met you.
Speaker 1: He told me that he was a psychologist, psychiatrist, one
Speaker 1: or the other. I can't exactly say, but he did.
Speaker 1: At one barbecue in particular, I had my sister there
Speaker 1: and he offered to write a script for her for
Speaker 1: medication for you know, being a little bit depressed or
Speaker 1: upset or whatever. And I didn't challenge that at all.
Speaker 1: And then he told me that he worked at a
Speaker 1: car salle yard on the weekend occasionally for a mate
Speaker 1: and helped him out. So he disclosed he had those
Speaker 1: two jobs.
Speaker 4: When I was asked Alice about details, that he was
Speaker 4: mad on these science like detective books where he was
Speaker 4: very well versed on, you know, how evidence was collected,
Speaker 4: and I think at some stage he claimed that he
Speaker 4: was a security worked in security and was armed with
Speaker 4: a firearm and things like that. It was like he
Speaker 4: was sort of fixated on that type of darker side
Speaker 4: of life.
Speaker 3: Did he tell Alice that he was a private investigator.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, she did mention that to me at one stage.
Speaker 4: The way you spoke sometimes is thought he's some sort
Speaker 4: of big time gangster.
Speaker 2: And did you believe him that he was a psych
Speaker 2: car for a stoor a psychologist.
Speaker 1: Yeah? I did. Yeah, stupid as that sounds, I did,
Speaker 1: because the clothing and the mannerism, you know, the jewelry,
Speaker 1: all the finery went along with that job. You know,
Speaker 1: I knew he wasn't a truck driver.
Speaker 3: And when did it become apparent to you that he
Speaker 3: wasn't a psychologist or a psychiatrist.
Speaker 1: Probably about three or four weeks later. It was when
Speaker 1: we got invited to a Christmas party that was at
Speaker 1: planned Hollywood in the city. A beautiful night, very well
Speaker 1: catered for, and everyone was dressed to the nines, and
Speaker 1: a lot of the colleagues of his there, friends and
Speaker 1: what not talked to him and he had a couple
Speaker 1: of drinks. He was, you know, discussing cars and what's
Speaker 1: been sold and what hasn't been sold. And I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: this is a full time job. This is not just
Speaker 1: helping a mate out of a Saturday or a Sunday.
Speaker 1: You're a car salesman. I didn't really confront him with
Speaker 1: that because that particular night was when he became very
Speaker 1: left of field, got very aggressive through the night verbally.
Speaker 1: And I'm a bit of a social butterfly. I'm not
Speaker 1: a flourish by any means, and never have been. You know,
Speaker 1: I talked to everybody. I'm courteous and kind. And he
Speaker 1: found that extremely offensive, especially at the end of the
Speaker 1: night when I was going to get into the car.
Speaker 1: He basically said, you acted like a slut. You looked
Speaker 1: like a slut. My previous partner was extremely wealthy. I
Speaker 1: was wearing like a three thousand dollars black Fasaci dress.
Speaker 1: It was beautiful. I'm not the person who has brass
Speaker 1: straps hanging out or boobs or any of the rest
Speaker 1: of it. And I thought I conducted myself with his
Speaker 1: work colleagues amazingly because I don't drink. You know, he
Speaker 1: was having a few scotches, and in hindsight, I probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't have gotten the car, but I was actually a
Speaker 1: bit nervous because he was really it was like a
Speaker 1: penny had been flipped. So we did drive home and
Speaker 1: he stayed that night. Didn't speak the whole time in
Speaker 1: the car, except for when we're out of the car
Speaker 1: when he spoke to me like he did. And knowing
Speaker 1: that I had my parents at my house looking after
Speaker 1: my daughter and my other children at the time, I
Speaker 1: was a bit concerned that if I ruffled the boat
Speaker 1: that it mightn't be nice, that I want the children
Speaker 1: hearing anything like that. That had already been through enough
Speaker 1: of hearsaying, so I kept I tried really hard to
Speaker 1: keep the peace and diffuse the situation. I got up
Speaker 1: and would like coffee, and it was basically I'm going,
Speaker 1: I'm going, and I went, okay, So that really really
Speaker 1: unnerved me. And I decided straight away. I think I
Speaker 1: remember having coffee downstairs with my parents and saying, look,
Speaker 1: I'm just not okay with this. He's something's not right here.
Speaker 1: He's told me that he's this, and he's definitely not.
Speaker 1: He's definitely a car salesman. It was like a Jacqueline
Speaker 1: Hide personality and frightening.
Speaker 3: Do you remember the kinds of things that he was
Speaker 3: saying to her on the phone that was making her upset.
Speaker 4: When I then took the phone and had words with him,
Speaker 4: he then continued ringing, and they were quite abusive. I
Speaker 4: tiled him, told him off a couple of times. He
Speaker 4: then became threatening.
Speaker 3: I know in your evidence he said that he threatened
Speaker 3: to kill you. Is that correct?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 4: Yes, he did that on a number of occasions. Yes,
Speaker 4: he had told me on one occasion that he was
Speaker 4: involved in some sort of organized crime synding it. The
Speaker 4: intimated that he had friends who would get rid of me.
Speaker 4: He'd have his friends take care of me. I'd be
Speaker 4: dead by the end of the month. He then started
Speaker 4: to bring up, bring up, and he bring up stuff
Speaker 4: that Alice and I had discussed privately, and then I
Speaker 4: came to the realization that he was somehow listening to
Speaker 4: our conversations, and he had made comment to Alice that
Speaker 4: he had the house bugged and that he was listening.
Speaker 3: Let's return to Evelyn's recollections of her brief relationship with Kevin,
Speaker 3: which started over a year after Rochelle's murder. She wanted
Speaker 3: to stop seeing Kevin after the Christmas party incident, but
Speaker 3: he would her back in.
Speaker 1: So, you know, a few phone calls and big bunches
Speaker 1: of flowers and I'm so stupid, like I shouldn't have
Speaker 1: had those drinks. That ridiculous me even saying those things.
Speaker 1: And so I got past it, you know, because he
Speaker 1: hadn't touched me or anything. I was very wary from
Speaker 1: that moment.
Speaker 3: During our investigation, we've discovered Kevin moved back to the
Speaker 3: South Coast not long after Rochelle's murder. He settled into
Speaker 3: a seaside suburb called Gorilla south of Woollongong. He lived
Speaker 3: in this area before and wanted Evelyn to come and visit.
Speaker 1: He rang and said, look, how about on the weekend
Speaker 1: I come and pick you up and I drive you
Speaker 1: to see my home. And I said, oh that's ours away.
Speaker 1: Oh I don't mind that's okay, and I went, oh,
Speaker 1: that would be lovely, very pretty. I remember driving down
Speaker 1: the big road and you could see the whole harbor.
Speaker 1: So we got to his he said it was house,
Speaker 1: but it was three units together joined together. Anyway, went
Speaker 1: into his apartment and you know, he had prawns in
Speaker 1: the fridge. Brought out this platter of prawns and champagne
Speaker 1: and Lolli's for my daughter. He poured me a glass
Speaker 1: of pink champagne and brought the prawns out and I
Speaker 1: had probably half a glass. And he said, oh, how
Speaker 1: about if we go and take a walk over and
Speaker 1: I'll show you the beach and where I live. And
Speaker 1: I went, oh lovely. When we were going out to
Speaker 1: go over to the beach, I remember him saying, oh,
Speaker 1: come and have a look at my car. And I
Speaker 1: sort of looked at him and I said what do
Speaker 1: you mean. He said, oh, no, I've got a really
Speaker 1: fancy car. Oh okay, sorry, I thought you meant your
Speaker 1: car that we drove him. No, no, no, you need to
Speaker 1: come and have a look at this beautiful car. And
Speaker 1: it was fancy car. I had nothing about cars at all. Well,
Speaker 1: that's really lovely and I wasn't very impressed. Was that, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not a car person. I'm a glitter girl.
Speaker 1: And he said, I said, oh, it's lovely. I said, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, what kind of car is it? For some reason,
Speaker 1: the name of the car always stuck with me because
Speaker 1: it was a really nice name. It was fancy, and
Speaker 1: he said it was a walk Control.
Speaker 6: Had big plans for the weekend and she was supposedly
Speaker 6: getting a vel ss group a otherwise knowed as a
Speaker 6: walking Shaw.
Speaker 1: Rachelle spoke to me on the weekend about getting a
Speaker 1: vel walking Shaw, but I knew how excited she was
Speaker 1: about a walking Shaw. She told me that Camden Holden
Speaker 1: had just bought one and she was getting it as
Speaker 1: a loan car.
Speaker 2: I remember walking Trolls were by far her favorite car.
Speaker 7: She told me Kevin was going to loan her the car.
Speaker 1: This particular name stuck in my head and I never
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't think about it again.
Speaker 3: We'll further explore Evelyn's claim Kevin shot off a walking
Speaker 3: Shore in the next episode. Let's continue to listen to
Speaker 3: Evelyn's account of her visit with her young daughter to
Speaker 3: Kevin's Whirrila apartment.
Speaker 1: So over we went, and probably, I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: there was a grassed area and then you went down
Speaker 1: onto these sort of pebbles on the beach, and I
Speaker 1: started to feel really unwell, like almost a migrain, but
Speaker 1: nauseous as well. Then I started to feel very bizarre,
Speaker 1: like I was not myself, but my headache was like
Speaker 1: somebody had hit me in the head with a hammer,
Speaker 1: and I didn't feel right, and I never felt like
Speaker 1: that in my life, and I knew that it couldn't
Speaker 1: have been half a glass of champagne. That's just not possible.
Speaker 1: So with that, we walked for a little bit and
Speaker 1: I said, look, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have
Speaker 1: to go back. I feel quite unwell. And he went,
Speaker 1: oh do you And I went okay, well let's go back.
Speaker 1: So he sort of okay, you know, hurried his back
Speaker 1: and he said, oh, look, you know, maybe you need
Speaker 1: to go and lie down for a while. I'll keep
Speaker 1: an eye on your daughter. Which you know, I didn't
Speaker 1: really have any issues there. There was never any thinking
Speaker 1: appropriate or creepy about her. And I said, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to go to the bathroom because I
Speaker 1: actually feel like i'm going to be sick. So while
Speaker 1: I was in the bathroom, I could hear him talking
Speaker 1: to my daughter, and I ran my ma from the
Speaker 1: phone I had in my pocket, and I remember turning
Speaker 1: the tap on so it was loud. I made noises
Speaker 1: like I was vomiting, but I wasn't. And I said
Speaker 1: to my mother, I'm this is where I am, and
Speaker 1: I think somebody needs to come and get me because
Speaker 1: I'm extremely ill and something is not right. She said,
Speaker 1: I can get somebody to come and get you. That's
Speaker 1: not a problem. And I walked out of the bathroom
Speaker 1: with the phone in my hand, and with that he said,
Speaker 1: who's on the phone, and I said, it's my mom.
Speaker 1: I've just rang hercose. Look, I'm really not well and
Speaker 1: I need to for us to get picked up. I
Speaker 1: need to go home, really really not happy about the
Speaker 1: conversation that I had my mother on the phone, and
Speaker 1: he said, no, no, no, that's okay. I will take
Speaker 1: his home. At this stage, I'd put my mum on
Speaker 1: loudspeaker so that he could hear her, and he just said, look,
Speaker 1: you know I'll bring them home. That's not a problem.
Speaker 1: She said, well, like I know exactly where you are,
Speaker 1: so I can have somebody there in half an hour
Speaker 1: to collect her if it puts you out, like she
Speaker 1: was trying to keep things calm, No, I don't know.
Speaker 1: That's okay. I'll pack her up now and I'll bring
Speaker 1: her straight up. So I probably took I don't know
Speaker 1: over the three hour drive home with not a words,
Speaker 1: said nothing, two lots of panidole and newroth, and I was,
Speaker 1: you know, the headache was just nothing like I'd ever felt.
Speaker 1: And he basically got me to home. Mum came out
Speaker 1: the front door, he handed the bag to mum, and
Speaker 1: my daughter got out of the car and ran inside
Speaker 1: to my mom. And mom came out the front door
Speaker 1: and got me, you know, seeing that I was there,
Speaker 1: and he handed my mum my bag and just basically
Speaker 1: said to mum, I'm going, and that was it gone.
Speaker 3: Have you ever reflected on your decision to ring your
Speaker 3: mom in that moment when you thought you'd been drugged,
Speaker 3: and how things could have been differently if you didn't
Speaker 3: do that.
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely, for myself. Sorry for myself, I would have
Speaker 1: been okay with whatever was the hand that I was
Speaker 1: to be dealt, but not for my daughter. So I
Speaker 1: had to fight, you know, And it was hard because
Speaker 1: I felt really sick, and it wasn't just a normal sick.
Speaker 1: It was frighteningly sick, and I knew that I had
Speaker 1: to get out of there or get to someone or
Speaker 1: around someone. At first I thought, maybe, you know, I
Speaker 1: would say, oh, look, could we go and have you know,
Speaker 1: an early dinner so that I was in a public place,
Speaker 1: so that if I lapsed or something, And then I thought, no,
Speaker 1: I'm way too sick. I couldn't hold my head up.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, it felt like my
Speaker 1: brain was going to explode. Disorientated, and you know, I've
Speaker 1: probably been drunk twice in my entire life.
Speaker 3: Let's return to Collins interview. He's telling me about threatening
Speaker 3: phone calls Alice was allegedly receiving from Kevin Correll after
Speaker 3: they'd broken up. The new couple was suspicious somebody was
Speaker 3: listening to their private conversations in Alice's home.
Speaker 4: What he'd been doing is because I thought it'd be
Speaker 4: pretty game of somebody to be coming in the front
Speaker 4: of the house and listening at the front window or
Speaker 4: at the door, because it'd be fairly risky if somebody
Speaker 4: was to go out that way. But then I felt
Speaker 4: what had happened as he'd been coming in through the
Speaker 4: back fence from the lane way and then coming down
Speaker 4: the yard and listening there so that people didn't see him.
Speaker 5: Going in and out.
Speaker 4: And then I sort of surmised then that was how
Speaker 4: he was listening to the conversations.
Speaker 2: What do you think was his motivation to do that?
Speaker 5: Oh, just intimidation.
Speaker 2: And so you've been dropped off now after this experience.
Speaker 2: And what happened next, you.
Speaker 1: Know, phone call started coming, texting, whatever, and I was
Speaker 1: very adamant that this was no more. I was not
Speaker 1: right frightened. When he rang me, it was very sweet
Speaker 1: and how are you feeling? And da, da da, And
Speaker 1: I said, look, I'm feeling much better, thank you, and
Speaker 1: I'm very grateful for you driving me home, and so
Speaker 1: is my mum and dad. But look, I'm in a
Speaker 1: position where I have got a very close family and
Speaker 1: a lot of things to do and sport and not
Speaker 1: what not with my children, and I really am not
Speaker 1: in the right headspace to be dating anyone. You know,
Speaker 1: It's not you, it's me. And he did try to
Speaker 1: persuade me, Oh, don't you know, don't be silly like you,
Speaker 1: I'm a good person and you know you're lovely and
Speaker 1: all the rest of it. And I just said, no, look,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I can't. I just can't do this. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I really can't. So we just hung up. And then
Speaker 1: the text messages started coming and they got they got
Speaker 1: a little bit nasty, you're a bitch, and you're like,
Speaker 1: you know, I've done nothing wrong, and just the general
Speaker 1: crap that someone says when their feelings are hurt. And
Speaker 1: he rang me and he said, oh, you know, I
Speaker 1: want to talk to you, and I said, look, it's
Speaker 1: not going to change my mind. Just to reiterate at
Speaker 1: the very beginning of the phone call, when he's swearing
Speaker 1: and whatnot, he said to me, oh, you shouldn't let
Speaker 1: your daughter play in the street. And I said, what
Speaker 1: are you talking about? And he said, oh, she's out
Speaker 1: there in a little yellow T shirt and no shoes
Speaker 1: on her feet. So that frightened the daylights out of
Speaker 1: me because that's exactly what she was, out front with
Speaker 1: the friends in a little yellow T shirt.
Speaker 4: There matters that we had discussed around his past. I
Speaker 4: found out that he had worked at the Holden Dealers
Speaker 4: with this Rachelle. At the time that she was killed.
Speaker 4: Alice had said that she had been questioned about it,
Speaker 4: and I thought didn't think.
Speaker 5: Too much of it at the time.
Speaker 4: What colleagues would have been questioned about her movement, So
Speaker 4: I didn't think too much about it. When she was
Speaker 4: telling me about his demeanor and his actions at the time,
Speaker 4: I started to think, this is quite strange and asked.
Speaker 5: Her for more details. And so we had.
Speaker 4: Discussed it, and then there was another phone call, and
Speaker 4: then I was warned, you shouldn't have stuck your nose
Speaker 4: into it.
Speaker 5: You know, he'll be dead before long.
Speaker 4: Anyway, it came a time that he rang and made
Speaker 4: threats against my son. So obviously the night before we
Speaker 4: had been Alice and I had been discussing what we
Speaker 4: were going to do on the.
Speaker 5: Weekend, we take my son to the zoo or something
Speaker 5: like that.
Speaker 4: And then the following night he then rings up and
Speaker 4: makes threats against my son.
Speaker 5: And then that.
Speaker 4: Sort of then pretty made it pretty clear that he'd
Speaker 4: been listening to our conversation at the time, and then
Speaker 4: I had an argument with him over the phone about this,
Speaker 4: and then I thought at that time, I said to Alice,
Speaker 4: we i think we need to go and have a
Speaker 4: chat with the local police and just let them know
Speaker 4: what's happening in case he does become more aggressive, because
Speaker 4: at one time she did say that he had tried
Speaker 4: to force her off the road when she was believe
Speaker 4: it was coming home from work one day.
Speaker 1: I got very angry and I said, you just keep
Speaker 1: right away, and don't you dare call my phone again.
Speaker 1: And with that he said, you're just a prick tease
Speaker 1: and one of these days they're going to find you
Speaker 1: slip from the fanny to the throat in a car
Speaker 1: park debt. I think. I said to him, that's charming,
Speaker 1: and I hung up, and I called out to my
Speaker 1: child and said you are to come inside straight away.
Speaker 1: Rang my mother and got her to come straight round,
Speaker 1: and I rang the police and told them exactly what
Speaker 1: he had said to me, and that I was concerned
Speaker 1: about my will there and my child and I had
Speaker 1: to go and do a statement, which I did and
Speaker 1: it was filed and he was given warning by the
Speaker 1: police to stay away, not contact me or any of
Speaker 1: the above.
Speaker 3: It sounds like he was stalking and threatening Alice. And
Speaker 3: this behavior is incredibly concerning for you as a partner
Speaker 3: at the time to Alice, what was going through your mind?
Speaker 4: I did draw the line when he made threats against
Speaker 4: against my son. Yeah, that was I thought I was
Speaker 4: going to have to deal with him then. And that
Speaker 4: was when I did say enough's enough. Instead of harassing women,
Speaker 4: which seems to which seems to be your form, I said,
Speaker 4: and threatening children. I'll meet you somewhere and we'll sort
Speaker 4: this out right now. And he hung up at that time.
Speaker 3: So at that point did you go to the police station?
Speaker 3: Which police station did you go to? And what happened next?
Speaker 5: Pickton Police?
Speaker 4: I just wanted to make them aware of what was
Speaker 4: going on at that time. We went in, introduced ourselves
Speaker 4: to a constable that was on the counter on the night,
Speaker 4: and started to tell him about instances that were happening,
Speaker 4: and he asked for the name. We gave him the
Speaker 4: name Kevin Correll, and then a sergeant came from a
Speaker 4: back room and said, excuse me, what was that name
Speaker 4: that you just said, repeated it, and then he said,
Speaker 4: I'll take it from here.
Speaker 5: I think we need to have a chat.
Speaker 1: And probably a couple of days later, I got a
Speaker 1: phone call from what I was told was his brother
Speaker 1: but I would probably state my life this conversation with
Speaker 1: his brother trying to ask me to you know, don't
Speaker 1: be silly. He would never do anything to you, would
Speaker 1: never hurt you. He's just angry that you're not together
Speaker 1: in data DA. I would stake my life that I
Speaker 1: was talking to Kevin. It was not There's no way
Speaker 1: it was his brother. And after that I didn't get
Speaker 1: any more phone cause I think I might have even
Speaker 1: blocked the number out. I think that's sort of where
Speaker 1: him and I the demise was there.
Speaker 3: What is it about that statement that you think police
Speaker 3: were particularly interested in.
Speaker 4: Not so much about the things that were happening at
Speaker 4: the time, but caused Alice to go back things that
Speaker 4: she described to me that I thought were very odd
Speaker 4: about his actions and his demeanor at that period of time.
Speaker 5: And I then.
Speaker 4: Started to think he had been using her to at
Speaker 4: one point when she described on the night that the
Speaker 4: girl disappeared, that he had been using her for an alibi.
Speaker 4: And then I thought, had you told the police this before?
Speaker 4: She had said no. I asked why she hadn't. They
Speaker 4: hadn't asked me, So I said, I think you need
Speaker 4: to have a chat to him, and start to give
Speaker 4: him a few more details, and.
Speaker 5: Then it went from there.
Speaker 3: Can you specifically recall what it was about what Alice
Speaker 3: said that made you think someone is using her as
Speaker 3: an alibi.
Speaker 4: His actions on the night going and calling up fairly
Speaker 4: late to come around for dinner, which he said was
Speaker 4: out of character. Then there was another incidents where he
Speaker 4: had come around and he was so distraught about the
Speaker 4: death of this Rochelle that she felt it was over
Speaker 4: the top. And then from there she had asked him
Speaker 4: to leave on that night, then became concerned about him,
Speaker 4: went looking for him and he was in the local
Speaker 4: pub playing in the POKERSH thinks it was quite happy
Speaker 4: after being so distraught on a short time earlier, so
Speaker 4: that I thought was very quite unusual, and that's when
Speaker 4: I suggested we go and have.
Speaker 5: A chap to the police.
Speaker 3: Those allegations in early two thousand and two prompted police
Speaker 3: to put an apprehended violence order in place to protect Alice.
Speaker 3: It was in that same year Evelyn was dating Kevin
Speaker 3: and learned about Rochelle's debt.
Speaker 1: He brought it up in a conversation. He said, I've
Speaker 1: had a rough day today. I've had to go and
Speaker 1: give DNA sample. And I went, what a young girl
Speaker 1: actually at work has been murdered. And I went, oh,
Speaker 1: my god, that's so frightening. And he said yes, he
Speaker 1: said she was found and she was burnt, and she
Speaker 1: used to work at the car sales yard and everybody
Speaker 1: who worked with her obviously has to give DNA of course,
Speaker 1: you know, they're trying to find out what's going on.
Speaker 1: And I went, oh, that is so terrible. And I said,
Speaker 1: you like, you know, you all right with oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's just sad. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: people being called in. I really didn't think anything of it.
Speaker 2: And what was Kevin's demeanor when he told you this, Oh.
Speaker 1: Very somber, like, you know, he was just discussing with
Speaker 1: me something that happened at work. It wasn't like he
Speaker 1: was broken hearted or anything. Later on down the track,
Speaker 1: and I can't remember when I asked these questions. It
Speaker 1: was starting to bug me. So I sort of said, oh,
Speaker 1: have you heard any more about that young girl? And
Speaker 1: he said, oh, yeah, you know, it's really awful. You
Speaker 1: know that they found her body and it was burnt,
Speaker 1: and you know, they cut her fingers to her fingers
Speaker 1: off because you know, when you steal from the bikes,
Speaker 1: that's what they do, So that's probably the track that
Speaker 1: they're going to go looking down, and I went, oh
Speaker 1: my god, that's so terrible. It wasn't emotional at all,
Speaker 1: very stonefaced. It was just a conversation.
Speaker 3: Alice would later tell Colin and police about a worrying
Speaker 3: trip to the South Coast that she made with Kevin
Speaker 3: not long after Rochelle had been killed. According to Alice,
Speaker 3: Kevin drove her through seven Mile Beach at GIRoA, pointing
Speaker 3: out where Rochelle's burning body had been discovered.
Speaker 4: She had told me about an instance where he had
Speaker 4: taken her for they'd gone for a drive one day
Speaker 4: and he'd taken it to the site where Rachelle was found.
Speaker 4: Details that he'd given about it, and in particular, there
Speaker 4: was one where he had said he had been blaming
Speaker 4: bikes for it. He'd been sort of pushing that pitch.
Speaker 4: And then also it was at that time that he
Speaker 4: said that fingers had been removed, which was a calling
Speaker 4: card of the Bikis. He had sort of emphasized that
Speaker 4: in conversations with her to sort of make her think
Speaker 4: that he had nothing to do with it. It was
Speaker 4: that old bikey related He said that this is where
Speaker 4: it was, which again that I.
Speaker 5: Thought was quite odd one.
Speaker 4: How did he know the exact location? And how would
Speaker 4: he have certain details like that that were not publicized?
Speaker 5: How would he have those sorts of details.
Speaker 1: She's so young, why would she be involved with bikis?
Speaker 3: And did he tell you why he believed that or
Speaker 3: why he held that view?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: What was his demeanor when he was telling you this
Speaker 2: story about the bikis who?
Speaker 9: It was?
Speaker 8: Smooth?
Speaker 1: He was, you know, cook of spaghetti, I think on
Speaker 1: the stove, and would you like a cup of coffee?
Speaker 1: And I actually felt like, Okay, this is this is
Speaker 1: this is actually all right.
Speaker 3: Kevin was blaming bikies to anyone who asked questions about
Speaker 3: Rochelle's murder. And this was all laid bare at Rochelle's
Speaker 3: inn quest, which began at Glebe Coroner's Court in Sydney
Speaker 3: in two thousand and six. Rochelle's initial autops who revealed
Speaker 3: at least one of her fingers had been detached from
Speaker 3: her hand, but investigators thought this was a tightly held
Speaker 3: secret until key witnesses started to tell police information Only
Speaker 3: investigators and the killer would likely know. So take me
Speaker 3: to the inquest. When were you told that you were
Speaker 3: needed to give evidence? And what was that experience? Like
Speaker 3: what happened?
Speaker 1: I remember the detectives wringing me and speaking to me
Speaker 1: about what would happen when I got there and who
Speaker 1: would be there, and that I was safe and that
Speaker 1: I wouldn't run into heaven or really anyone else I knew,
Speaker 1: which I was really happy about. I think they just
Speaker 1: wanted to make me feel comfortable because I was really scared.
Speaker 1: So I arrived at the coroner's court. Then when I
Speaker 1: went in myself and the next person who was going
Speaker 1: to give evidence, this particular lady was allowed to listen
Speaker 1: to what I had to say, and I spoke about
Speaker 1: Kevin's demeanor and his behavior and how I was told
Speaker 1: that Rachelle had died, but I left out the fact
Speaker 1: that I knew that her fingers were severed.
Speaker 8: Sorry, because I was looking at a mom and dad.
Speaker 1: And I felt sick, and I thought that it wasn't
Speaker 1: necessary for me to say that the details weren't important,
Speaker 1: and that's how I thought. And you know, I remember
Speaker 1: sitting there in that dock looking at them thinking, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I've got to talk about your baby. This
Speaker 1: is just like awful. So I gave my statement and
Speaker 1: it was sorry at my evidence that day, and I
Speaker 1: remember walking in and my hair was pulled back in
Speaker 1: a bun, and I had a black suit on with
Speaker 1: a white blouse underneath and a pair of pearl earrings.
Speaker 1: When I walked out of the dock where I was
Speaker 1: sitting into my back into my seat, the next witness
Speaker 1: was called and she stood up and she walked to
Speaker 1: the dock and I thought I was looking at myself.
Speaker 1: She had the same suit on, the same earrings, the
Speaker 1: same hair pulled back. I think her hair was lighter
Speaker 1: than mine, and I was.
Speaker 3: Shocked Evelyn was looking at Alice. It would be the
Speaker 3: first time Kevin's ex partners would cross parts inside the
Speaker 3: courtroom during the inquest of Rochelle Charles. It was a
Speaker 3: surreal moment for both of them.
Speaker 1: She'd obviously already seen me. I was allowed to stay
Speaker 1: in the courtroom because I'd already given my evidence and
Speaker 1: she was the last person I'm pretty sure of the day.
Speaker 3: But in terms of your evidence, so you've finished your evidence,
Speaker 3: you've sat down, and Alice has got up to give
Speaker 3: her evidence, and how did that sit with you when
Speaker 3: you were listening to her elections?
Speaker 1: Like quite shocking, but not because it sounded like mine.
Speaker 1: It was very you know, there was probably more the
Speaker 1: things that I had said. I did hold back because
Speaker 1: I was so emotionally distraught over these parents sitting there.
Speaker 1: It was very eye opening to see this lady up there,
Speaker 1: but I did feel like I was looking at myself.
Speaker 4: Clearly upset about having to do it. And then I
Speaker 4: wasn't in the room, but there was a conversation between
Speaker 4: her and Rachelle's family.
Speaker 1: And I remember the detectives coming over to me.
Speaker 5: Girl.
Speaker 1: Detective Heywood asked whether Rachelle's mom and dad could speak
Speaker 1: to me and.
Speaker 10: Alice, and we said yes, of course, And I remember
Speaker 10: her put her hand over the top of my hand
Speaker 10: and she said, I'm so.
Speaker 1: Glad that you're here to be able to tell your story.
Speaker 1: She said, I really truly am. And it was heartbreaking.
Speaker 1: Just all of it was heartbreaking, and it rocked, you know,
Speaker 1: it rocked my world for a very long time.
Speaker 4: And I believe they thanked her for coming forward.
Speaker 1: And it ate me away to think that there was
Speaker 1: things that I you know may have been able to remember,
Speaker 1: but I tried. But when I was leaving, Detective Haywood
Speaker 1: said to me, you know you can go and if
Speaker 1: there's anything at all that you can remember, no matter
Speaker 1: how difficult it is or how sad you think it's
Speaker 1: going to make somebody, I need you to call me
Speaker 1: and I need you to tell me what it is.
Speaker 1: And I remember coming home and I couldn't sleep that
Speaker 1: night because I keep remembering, you know, oh my god,
Speaker 1: you know this has happened, that's happened, listening to Alice's
Speaker 1: story as well. And I rang the detective and I said,
Speaker 1: I don't know whether this is significant or not. And
Speaker 1: I didn't want to say it in front of the
Speaker 1: parents yesterday. But Kevin, on a few different occasions too
Speaker 1: that I can recall, said to me that Rachelle's fingers
Speaker 1: were severed by bikeys. That's what you do when you
Speaker 1: steal from bikeys. Now, I said, I'm sorry, but I
Speaker 1: just didn't want to say that in front of her parents.
Speaker 1: I just didn't want to. So with that, she said, okay,
Speaker 1: I don't want you to talk about this to anybody,
Speaker 1: and I will contact you tomorrow morning. So twenty four
Speaker 1: hours had passed and she contacted me and said that
Speaker 1: there's been a decision to exhume Rachelle's body.
Speaker 7: It's been a dramatic day and the murder in quest
Speaker 7: of Rochelle Childs's burnt body was found five years ago
Speaker 7: on a lonely South Coast road.
Speaker 1: Broke my heart. I felt sick that the parents would
Speaker 1: have to go through that.
Speaker 7: The court was told have her body has been exhumed,
Speaker 7: revealing that one of her fingers was missing.
Speaker 1: To my knowledge, no one else had said that.
Speaker 7: And one of the few who knew that was the
Speaker 7: major suspect in the case.
Speaker 9: He's now the prime suspect in the murder of Rochelle
Speaker 9: Child's grandfather of two, Kevin Corell.
Speaker 3: So what did Alice say that Kevin would bring up
Speaker 3: about Rochelle in terms of their relationship.
Speaker 4: She did feel that it was odd that he did
Speaker 4: talk about it quite a bit.
Speaker 9: Kevin Corell is the last person of interest and it's
Speaker 9: a position he'd rather not be in.
Speaker 3: But you were left feeling that Alice felt like he
Speaker 3: had some sort of fixation on Rochelle Yes.
Speaker 2: Sitting in the stand.
Speaker 9: Kevin Corell was told Rochelle's body has recently been experiened.
Speaker 3: How would you describe him from what you know and
Speaker 3: your experience with him?
Speaker 1: He's the devil.
Speaker 9: In course, mister Correll's lawyer declared, it's trench warfare.
Speaker 1: He's the devil and that is the nicest word that
Speaker 1: I can use.
Speaker 3: On the next episode of Dear Rochelle.
Speaker 5: Mister Carell was the witness.
Speaker 4: Our purpose is not to trap him unfairly, but to
Speaker 4: persuade him to tell the truth.
Speaker 6: When we went to Leppington to assume her, I wasn't
Speaker 6: allowed to tell anyone because Kevin did put a rumor
Speaker 6: out that that's for bik is dear And she was
Speaker 6: actually with the medical examiner at the time that Kevin
Speaker 6: was on the stand giving evidence.
Speaker 5: The walking Shaw featured heavily in this inquest.
Speaker 6: Evan her boss, told her that a walking shaw was
Speaker 6: coming into the car yard.
Speaker 1: He said, oh, come and have a look at my car.
Speaker 1: I said, it was a walking shaw. Kevin Carrell's got
Speaker 1: one in the scene a year later in a garret.
Speaker 5: Was that ever discovered at the time.
Speaker 6: I think that the walking shaw is the key to this.
Speaker 3: Dear Rochelle is a multi media production from True Crime Australia.
Speaker 3: If you want to be one of the first to
Speaker 3: find out what happens next, go to Dear Roshelle dot
Speaker 3: com dot a you. That's where eligible Digital News Corp
Speaker 3: Australia subscribers get early access to podcast episodes and breaking
Speaker 3: news in our live investigation and you will also find
Speaker 3: exclusive videos, interactive evidence, feature articles and more. That's de
Speaker 3: Roshelle dot com dot au. If you have any tips
Speaker 3: or confidential information to share with me, Ashley Hanson, please
Speaker 3: send an email to Deroshelle at News dot com dot
Speaker 3: a you. Our supervising producer and audio editor is Rehys
Speaker 3: Gunter Rachel Fountain. His executive producer and audio director. Our
Speaker 3: executive editor is Sarah Blake. Our senior jour list is
Speaker 3: Patrick Carline. Video editors are Jillian McNally, Ohwen Yang and
Speaker 3: Stephen Woods. It is our jeff Armannin and Christy Miller.
Speaker 3: Signior camera operators are Daniel Andrews and Oscar Vieira. We
Speaker 3: sound designed by Martin Perolta, Thanks also to Greg Thompson
Speaker 3: and Lennie Panerz. Showbur Reo Feyguld, Vanessa Graham, Hailey Goddard
Speaker 3: Stephen Grice, Charlotte carp Tina Coggins, and Harry Hughes.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to the Daily Telegraph editor Ben English and
Speaker 2: dear Rochelle.
Speaker 3: Would not be possible without the help and I'm wavering
Speaker 3: support of Christi and Ann Childs, Mindy Wicks, Damien Loon
Speaker 3: and Rochelle's friends. This podcast series is hosted and investigated
Speaker 3: by me Ashley Hanson