Speaker 1: M hm.
Speaker 2: Hm.
Speaker 1: And you're behind him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm right behind it, turning left onto my road,
Speaker 3: which is still heading in your direction.
Speaker 4: You're hitting a lot when he gets there, aren't you.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 6: So we're just going past the shops in Karate.
Speaker 7: Road.
Speaker 1: As soon as we get eyes on him. As soon
Speaker 1: as he pulls in, I'm going to duck down.
Speaker 7: Do you want me to buck down?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 8: Son right into Brook Road.
Speaker 1: We just don't know if anyone's looking at that.
Speaker 3: We just passed Brook Avenue Public.
Speaker 4: School and.
Speaker 1: Have you still got eyes on his car?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm right behind.
Speaker 8: Him roughiet eight couple of minutes.
Speaker 6: Okay, he's just jumped the red light to turn left.
Speaker 8: I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 3: He's just pulled into my head. He's just pulled into
Speaker 3: Bavillage Road.
Speaker 4: So you should see him very soon.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 1: Can someone check the revision just in case he's coming
Speaker 1: which way? This way, he's coming that way? Okay?
Speaker 6: Cool?
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in event with a cameraman, a photographer, and
Speaker 1: a security guard. We're waiting for Kevin Stephen Carrell to
Speaker 1: emerge from his four wheel drive.
Speaker 4: He's looking around for some reason. He's looking for a park,
Speaker 4: so he's looking straight at us. Stay down, he's sus
Speaker 4: on us. He's three cars up on this on this side.
Speaker 1: It's a Friday night and Kevin has just arrived at
Speaker 1: a leagues club on the New South Wales central coast.
Speaker 1: He's wearing his black security uniform and he's minutes away
Speaker 1: from starting his shift as a Responsible Service of Alcohol Marshal.
Speaker 1: And remember we want to approach him out in the
Speaker 1: open the moment he gets out of his car, which
Speaker 1: is parked just a few meters away from ours, facing us, so.
Speaker 4: He's going to be looking at us through the wind screen.
Speaker 1: It's ten to two.
Speaker 8: And he's right there working on my twelve o'clock where
Speaker 8: I'm looking.
Speaker 1: Can you see his driver's door happen to see the
Speaker 1: window screen? Kevin lights up a cigarette.
Speaker 8: I should be able to see the car move on
Speaker 8: the door open, but I got behind on the back
Speaker 8: as well, just in case. It just appears there's still
Speaker 8: smoke coming out this window. All right, his doors happened.
Speaker 8: Stand by, stand by, stand by.
Speaker 1: He dropped me out first. Yeap, Just wait comes down.
Speaker 4: Staying to stake Throe Defender down with them.
Speaker 1: We head straight towards Kevin. As he makes his way
Speaker 1: through the car park towards the club's entrance, I can
Speaker 1: see his face change as he realizes what's about to happen.
Speaker 1: Kevin Farrell. I'm actually Hanson. I'm a journalist from News Corp.
Speaker 1: I'm investigating the murder of Rochelle Charles. Did you kill
Speaker 1: Rochelle Charles? He turns around quickly and heads back to
Speaker 1: his pajero. Did you lure Rochelle to her death? With
Speaker 1: the promise of a walking shot? Kevin gives me a
Speaker 1: little nudge with his elbow to get the microphone out
Speaker 1: of his face. Why did you change your name, Kevin?
Speaker 1: Why did you change your name?
Speaker 9: Get out of lake, Get out of the way.
Speaker 5: Watch out, Dan.
Speaker 1: I'm Ashley Hanson and you're listening to episode eleven of
Speaker 1: Dear Rochelle, a podcast by True Crime Australia. This is
Speaker 1: the untold story of Rochelle Childs, a twenty three year
Speaker 1: old who was brutally murdered. Her killer has never been caught.
Speaker 1: You just heard our approach to Kevin Correll. This day
Speaker 1: was the culmination of fourteen months of rigorous journalism, planning,
Speaker 1: surveillance and careful consideration, Kevin drove off in a fury.
Speaker 1: If you want to see the full video, it's on
Speaker 1: our website, Dear Rochelle dot com today you A short
Speaker 1: time later, though, Kevin returned to the club and began
Speaker 1: his shift. We didn't get the answers we came looking for, so,
Speaker 1: I said Kevin. A follow up email with forty questions
Speaker 1: about his suspected involvement in Rochelle's murder, as well as
Speaker 1: the allegations from multiple people of stalking, intimidation, fraud, sexual assault,
Speaker 1: and rape, I offered to talk to Kevin, including a
Speaker 1: sit down interview with him, but received no response. Kevin
Speaker 1: was acquitted of all four sex assault charges in the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. He strenuously denies any involvement in Rochelle's murder
Speaker 1: and has never been charged, and in a recent email
Speaker 1: response to further questions, Kevin said, over the past twenty
Speaker 1: three years, I've been interviewed by detectives numerous times. I've
Speaker 1: attended the inquest and cooperated with police, supplying my DNA
Speaker 1: and answering all their questions. And Kevin vehemently denies the
Speaker 1: allegations of domestic abuse leveled against him by his former
Speaker 1: wife Elites. To date, Kevin hasn't taken up my invitation
Speaker 1: for an interview, but his close friend and former partner,
Speaker 1: who will call Marion, did agree to be interviewed. I
Speaker 1: spoke with her at length just days after a photograph
Speaker 1: of Kevin from our approach at the club was published
Speaker 1: on the front page of the most widely circulated newspaper
Speaker 1: in New South Wales, the Daily Telegraph. Is Kevin still
Speaker 1: working at the moment.
Speaker 7: No, he got fired because of this.
Speaker 1: Do you know why.
Speaker 10: The justification for firing him was, Yes, the reporters were
Speaker 10: going and talking to staff members and they all felt
Speaker 10: like that they were being hassled.
Speaker 7: So the club had said that they're just going to
Speaker 7: go in a different direction and just wait for six
Speaker 7: weeks to see if it quins down. So I think
Speaker 7: he's suspended, not fine. So suspended.
Speaker 1: And how did Kevin take that news that he was
Speaker 1: being suspended.
Speaker 7: Well, he wasn't happy. He loved his jong, He loved
Speaker 7: his job and they loved him.
Speaker 1: Do you think Kevin might be interested in talking with
Speaker 1: me and doing an interview.
Speaker 7: He has a hatred for all this, other than the
Speaker 7: fact he wants the truth to come out. He has
Speaker 7: bought the paper, especially when he's plastered on the front.
Speaker 7: Keep in mind, I mean when the case had come
Speaker 7: was first on. Obviously he lost his work, he lost
Speaker 7: his home, he lost a lot of things. But he's
Speaker 7: always said it's nothing compared to what Rachelle's family has lost,
Speaker 7: and he just feels that it's going down the same
Speaker 7: road again. So mentally is not doing too well. I
Speaker 7: know for a fact Kevin feels for the family. Put
Speaker 7: it this way, Kevin's embarrassed. He's totally embarrassed with the
Speaker 7: people that he not his old friends because they all
Speaker 7: know what had happened all that time ago. But his
Speaker 7: new friend's new work associates. Yes, here's embarrassed about all
Speaker 7: these things that are coming up.
Speaker 1: I just want to pause Marian's interview for a few
Speaker 1: moments to make sure you're up to speed with some
Speaker 1: fresh police developments. So what Marion tells me next makes sense.
Speaker 1: Since Rochelle's case was reopened, police seized and forensically tested
Speaker 1: the petrol cap from her car for fingerprints. They tested
Speaker 1: the fueld cap. I believe it was only for fingerprints
Speaker 1: and they didn't glean anything from that, but the family
Speaker 1: is anxiously waiting to be shown by police. Two segments
Speaker 1: of CCTV from the night Rochelle was killed. The security
Speaker 1: video is currently being enhanced. The vision is from the
Speaker 1: Bargo train station, which covered the front entrance of the
Speaker 1: Bargo Pub and driveway into the back car park in
Speaker 1: two thousand and one. The second segment is a mystery
Speaker 1: blue v B or VH commodore captured with an unidentified
Speaker 1: young woman and man at a service station at South
Speaker 1: Nauro at ten forty pm, just over twenty minutes from
Speaker 1: seven Mile Beach. Our publication News Corp. Only just reported
Speaker 1: this CCTV development days before my phone interview with Marion.
Speaker 7: The last time I spoke to Kevin a few days ago,
Speaker 7: he was happy that they have found footage of a car.
Speaker 7: I think is it Rachelle's car? I'm not sure, but
Speaker 7: he's happy about that. He was over the moon. Over
Speaker 7: the moon a man, A guilty person would shick themselves,
Speaker 7: wouldn't they. They said, I'll be proved that I'm innocent.
Speaker 1: If it's unrelated and it's somebody else, say it's another
Speaker 1: woman at the petrol station with another man, then that's
Speaker 1: not going to prove Kevin's innocence.
Speaker 7: Why not if it's a different man, a different woman,
Speaker 7: and it's not Kevin.
Speaker 1: Well, if it's a different woman and it's a different man,
Speaker 1: then it means it's completely unrelated to Rochelle's case. In
Speaker 1: Rochelle's car, well, it might they might realize that the
Speaker 1: car is unrelated as well.
Speaker 7: Oh okay, Well, I guess he wasn't thinking on those terms.
Speaker 7: Neither was I. I just assumed that.
Speaker 1: It was her car, and we don't know if it
Speaker 1: was her car. That's why believe it's taking a closer
Speaker 1: look at it. Oh okay, does that change things for you?
Speaker 7: Well, that's a bit sad because I think both he
Speaker 7: and I are thinking, you know.
Speaker 1: It's Russia.
Speaker 7: It is Rochelle's car that they've got footage of, and
Speaker 7: they're going to see who's in that car. Okay, Ah,
Speaker 7: that makes a big difference, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: When was the last time you saw Kevin in person?
Speaker 7: Yes, we went to Thailand this time last year, and
Speaker 7: probably a couple of times after that. When it came
Speaker 7: down to visit the times.
Speaker 1: I don't know were you in a relationship with Kevin
Speaker 1: when you went to Thailand.
Speaker 7: No, we're just friends when there's nothing physical between us.
Speaker 7: There's nothing sexual, nothing physical. We're just friends, good friends
Speaker 7: and not with benefits.
Speaker 1: When did you meet Kevin Correll?
Speaker 7: End of two thousand and nine Boxing Day. My first
Speaker 7: impressions of Kevin. I liked him. He was funny. He
Speaker 7: had a great group of people around him that I
Speaker 7: enjoyed all of their company. That was the first time
Speaker 7: I met him, and then I only en't met up
Speaker 7: with him at men on a Friday night, and I
Speaker 7: got to know him a little bit better. And then
Speaker 7: things went further as far as starting to see each
Speaker 7: other on dates and stuff.
Speaker 1: And did you get into a relationship with Kevin and
Speaker 1: how long did that last for?
Speaker 7: We were dating for a year, then we lived together
Speaker 7: for two years. Then he had issues with his daughter
Speaker 7: and he just felt that he should have his own space. Look,
Speaker 7: I had issues with his daughter. I loved a bit,
Speaker 7: but there are a lot of selfish things happening, which
Speaker 7: angered me a little bit. So Kevin wanted to keep
Speaker 7: seeing his grandchildren freely, so then we stayed together but
Speaker 7: didn't live together. He's supportive, his gentle He will do
Speaker 7: anything for you without even asking he'll just go through
Speaker 7: and don't know. He's just so gentle, romantic, caring, supportive, generous.
Speaker 7: I mean, my roof was collapsing and he just voarded
Speaker 7: money to me to get it, get it fixed.
Speaker 1: I just I don't know.
Speaker 7: I just I cannot see anything bad. I just can't.
Speaker 7: And I don't think you can keep up a facadel
Speaker 7: like that for as long as since two thousand and nine.
Speaker 7: But let me tell you, when I first met Kevin,
Speaker 7: he was never, ever, once inappropriate, forceful, touchy feely. Now
Speaker 7: how does a person like that refrain? I don't know,
Speaker 7: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Multiple people have described to me that Kevin has a
Speaker 1: split personality. There's a good Kevin and there's a bad Kevin.
Speaker 7: Yeah, me too, I'm like that pissed me off. I'm
Speaker 7: not a nice person. Oh look, I've seen the angry
Speaker 7: side of him. And when I say angry, let's say
Speaker 7: it's it's an argument between he and I. He will
Speaker 7: raise his voice, but then he'll turn around and walk away,
Speaker 7: which is frustrating to me. I'd like to nut it out,
Speaker 7: but no, never in my face, ever, ever? Ever?
Speaker 1: Are you aware that he was charged over four attacks
Speaker 1: on women in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 7: I have heard of it again. When I first met Kevin,
Speaker 7: I had hell to pay from several women at mingles.
Speaker 7: I've had threats from them. They said they would not
Speaker 7: that they want to be going out, but they had
Speaker 7: gone out with him, and it's not right that he
Speaker 7: didn't call them again. And there was a lot of
Speaker 7: jealousy there. There are a couple of women that said
Speaker 7: I was jealous of them, but I didn't know them
Speaker 7: from Adam, and I said to them, I don't know you.
Speaker 7: Why would I be jealous because we dated and I thought, well,
Speaker 7: good for you. Like everyone's got the past, I don't know.
Speaker 7: There was a lot of a lot of women that
Speaker 7: were jealous that he saw somebody else and not them.
Speaker 1: So why did Kevin change his name? According to him,
Speaker 1: what was the reasoning for that.
Speaker 7: To disassociate with what's happening? What was happening with his brother?
Speaker 1: What does he say about these allegations that women had
Speaker 1: accused him of very serious offenses, including rape.
Speaker 7: We all know that people call sexual assault quite easily
Speaker 7: not I haven't asked any of those questions.
Speaker 1: I'll just tell you in all of these cases, these
Speaker 1: women didn't know Kevin. In two of the cases, he
Speaker 1: offered to drive them home, and while these women were
Speaker 1: in his car, he allegedly attacked them, actually raped them.
Speaker 1: That is the allegation that he raped those young women
Speaker 1: in the car who were dropped home by him. He
Speaker 1: was acquitted at those charges.
Speaker 7: Why why was he acquitted?
Speaker 1: He stood trial and it was back in the nineteen eighties. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the jury didn't believe there was enough evidence to
Speaker 1: convict him. But I do know that a police officer
Speaker 1: who arrested him in one of those cases, when he
Speaker 1: arrested him, his pants fell down and the woman was
Speaker 1: screaming for help running from his car. I have not
Speaker 1: for help. Yeah, that's not good. Another woman claims that
Speaker 1: in punch Bowl in nineteen eighty that Kevin responded to
Speaker 1: an ad in the paper for a room to rent.
Speaker 1: Kevin admitted to turning up to the home to look
Speaker 1: at the house, and then allegedly Kevin has returned and
Speaker 1: pulled the knife on her and raped her in the
Speaker 1: home where her two young children were sleeping in a
Speaker 1: near black bedroom. Now he denies it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, but I cannot see that one. As soon as
Speaker 7: you mention knife, no way and children n he loves kids.
Speaker 7: There is no way if he knew there were kids
Speaker 7: in there, she will never attempted anything like that. I
Speaker 7: think that's bullshit.
Speaker 1: Well, what did Kevin and tell you about who killed Rochelle?
Speaker 7: Oh, he hasn't said he doesn't know who killed her.
Speaker 7: He hasn't said, he hasn't said anything like that.
Speaker 1: Has Kevin ever told you that her fingers were missing
Speaker 1: or detached?
Speaker 7: No, we discussed it when I was reading the transcript.
Speaker 1: You've read the transcripts from Rochelle's inquest.
Speaker 7: Yeah, like I said, I did ask him questions. But
Speaker 7: what those questions were right now, I can't remember until
Speaker 7: I probably read it again and then something might gel.
Speaker 1: Does Kevin like fire? No, he's really bad.
Speaker 7: With it too. I mean he had a platty at
Speaker 7: his place and he went near the fire and he
Speaker 7: wanted to stoke it or put something on it to
Speaker 7: get the fire going a little bit better, and all
Speaker 7: blew back on him and Bertie's arm. So no, he
Speaker 7: has version to follow up.
Speaker 1: And what about Kevin's like for movies? What sort of
Speaker 1: movies does he like? And TV shows?
Speaker 7: Well, that's something we have in common, and I love
Speaker 7: watching crime shows. Like, who done it not? Try and
Speaker 7: solve them? And Kevin enjoyed them with me and he
Speaker 7: likes the same as what I like.
Speaker 11: So it's.
Speaker 7: I love them. I love them.
Speaker 1: And what about your children and your friends? What do
Speaker 1: they think about Kevin?
Speaker 7: They love him, they love him. Look, even at the
Speaker 7: time of my brother's death death, which was twenty nineteen,
Speaker 7: I had a niece post something on Facebook how grateful
Speaker 7: she was that he was in my life and the
Speaker 7: support that he had given me and the entire family.
Speaker 7: I'm just getting emotional because I'm thinking of my brother.
Speaker 7: But he was nothing but supportive for everyone, and they
Speaker 7: were so glad and I are still glad that he's
Speaker 7: in my life.
Speaker 1: Well, he's lucky to have you.
Speaker 7: Yeah, But what's that say of me? If I'm wrong?
Speaker 7: I don't know. Maybe my bubble will be First.
Speaker 1: We've reached out to the Lees Club to clarify Kevin's
Speaker 1: employment status. We were told he's employed by a private
Speaker 1: security company and has not received any further shifts from
Speaker 1: the club since our podcast investigation was brought to their attention.
Speaker 1: Kevin's career change as an RSA marshal has shocked many people.
Speaker 2: Well, why has he changed his profession into doing that
Speaker 2: rather of work. It seems from one to the end
Speaker 2: of extreme sort of employment opportunities. But that does consume
Speaker 2: me as well of his prior arrests, perhaps some without conviction,
Speaker 2: but I was similar sexual nature. He's disturbing.
Speaker 1: And here's Jane, who you heard from in episode six.
Speaker 1: She accused Kevin of rape in nineteen eighty. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I don't know why you would employ this person.
Speaker 6: Ah, that's just that's wrong, so wrong.
Speaker 1: Here's Kevin's ex wife Elisa's reaction.
Speaker 11: He's taking young girls out to the car. Oh my god. Okay,
Speaker 11: he should not have been in that job. And I
Speaker 11: could see why I probably took that job on because
Speaker 11: that would have made him feel really good about himself.
Speaker 1: I have watched him in the job, and he does
Speaker 1: love controlling a room.
Speaker 11: Oh yes, if you'd ever seen him be in a
Speaker 11: DJ when he was younger, Yeah, he totally had control
Speaker 11: of the room.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 11: He's a performer through and through. Yeah, he didn't just
Speaker 11: spin the records. He dance and he'd mime and like
Speaker 11: put on a show. He'd put on a full show.
Speaker 11: I've never seen a DJ do that before. He'd have
Speaker 11: girls hanging around him all the time. Girls flocked over
Speaker 11: it like around him and wanted to be around him.
Speaker 1: Since Dear Rochelle went live, we've received many emails from
Speaker 1: people sharing tips and information about Rochelle's case. Bear with us.
Speaker 1: This investigation is moving fast, but we want to bring
Speaker 1: you as many updates like these as we can.
Speaker 12: Ian Watson's my name and in the mid to late
Speaker 12: nineties I came across a man named Kevin Carrell through
Speaker 12: the motor trade in Nara.
Speaker 1: I'm interested to pick your brain, not just because you
Speaker 1: knew Kevin through the car game, but also as a
Speaker 1: former detective. What's memorable about him to.
Speaker 12: You at the time that I met him, And, like
Speaker 12: I said, I didn't have any dealings with him at
Speaker 12: that point. I did later on when he worked at
Speaker 12: Camden Hold years later. When I first met him, we
Speaker 12: ended up about forty people maybe from the car game,
Speaker 12: in a restaurant called the Boat Shed in Nara, just
Speaker 12: over the bridge. It was a social gathering and on
Speaker 12: this particular night everyone ate had a drink and later
Speaker 12: on in the night, a young girl I can't remember
Speaker 12: who she was, but she obviously worked in a car
Speaker 12: yard and she screamed out, yelled out in front of
Speaker 12: everyone in the place. Everyone looked around, and she said,
Speaker 12: he grabbed me. A couple of the guys walked up
Speaker 12: to him, said what happened? She said, he put his
Speaker 12: hand up my dress and grabbed me. She was about eighteen,
Speaker 12: and I'm presuming he would have been forty at that point,
Speaker 12: maybe a bit younger.
Speaker 1: Anyway, he was evicted.
Speaker 12: They tossed him straight out. He's always wore black, black shirt,
Speaker 12: black pants, black tie. Almost like your first impression was
Speaker 12: like he wanted to be like a bad cowboy in
Speaker 12: a western. There was something about him that was just sleazy.
Speaker 12: He wasn't a person that you'd want to associate with.
Speaker 1: When you refer to the he he grabbed me? Who
Speaker 1: was this woman referring to to Carell.
Speaker 12: They were standing in the back of the room in
Speaker 12: a group of people and he put his hand up
Speaker 12: address and everyone, the guys that I was with, turning
Speaker 12: around and said what happened? And she just pointed straight
Speaker 12: out of him and said, he just put his hand
Speaker 12: up my dress. I guess it shows a pattern.
Speaker 1: A pattern of behavior with Kevin. And what also interests
Speaker 1: me about Ian's interview is Kevin's connection and geographical knowledge
Speaker 1: of the South Coast. If you have any tips or information,
Speaker 1: please email me at de Rochelle atnews dot com dot au.
Speaker 1: Soon after Rochelle's murder, Kevin was fired from Camden Holden
Speaker 1: for financial discrepancies and the business was renamed Paul Wakeling Holden.
Speaker 1: Kevin headed back to the South Coast. Rochelle's friend fi
Speaker 1: owner stayed at the car yard alongside their manager, Jim Morrison.
Speaker 13: I remained there for three years. Afterwards, I got a
Speaker 13: letter sent to me from somebody. Three years later, in
Speaker 13: two thousand and four, I used to opened the mail.
Speaker 14: I was a receptionist and I received a letter in
Speaker 14: the post that said I was jealous of Rochelle's money
Speaker 14: and they referred to me as bat Fee in the letter.
Speaker 5: I do remember that was in the.
Speaker 13: In the letter or addressed on the en flap, I
Speaker 13: don't know, but it was, yeah, definitely Camden Holden and
Speaker 13: we were poor Wakeling Holden by then.
Speaker 5: So Jim's office was right next to my desk, and
Speaker 5: he came and I said to him, I've just got
Speaker 5: a letter.
Speaker 3: It was basically accusing her of Rachelle's murder. And it
Speaker 3: was pretty pretty graphically worded. It was pretty nasty stuff.
Speaker 6: It was in an envelope. It got to fi own.
Speaker 3: It didn't get opened by me or anyone else price,
Speaker 3: So it's first to for your own no reason to
Speaker 3: not open it as she would in the normal La
Speaker 3: scheme of things. So she's open and she's just yeah,
Speaker 3: she was devastated.
Speaker 5: And he came and straight away just took it straight
Speaker 5: to the police station.
Speaker 13: I know Rachelle didn't have money, mum, and used to
Speaker 13: bring groceries to the train, like to the carriage for
Speaker 13: rachel to take home, like she didn't have money. Like
Speaker 13: that's the one thing that just stuck with me. She
Speaker 13: didn't have money.
Speaker 5: There was nothing to be jealous of of her money
Speaker 5: or anything like.
Speaker 1: That like this.
Speaker 5: I don't know where this letter came from. Three years later, but.
Speaker 1: What kind of an impact did that letter have on you?
Speaker 5: Massive It's just remained with me. I mean, the whole
Speaker 5: experience is just changed the person I was.
Speaker 13: I'm very guarded, I'm very yeah, just a very different
Speaker 13: person to the person that I was.
Speaker 3: I passed it on to the business owner and I
Speaker 3: think subsequently went to the detectives. I tried to do
Speaker 3: my own little investigation. I suppose I looked at things
Speaker 3: like the handwriting. I looked at things like sentence, structural,
Speaker 3: all that sort of thing, see if it reminded me
Speaker 3: of anyone.
Speaker 6: But I vaguely remember it was done.
Speaker 3: In a sort of manner that it couldn't be or
Speaker 3: wouldn't be related back to a style as such.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, I don't know where. I didn't know where it.
Speaker 13: Came from, didn't I who sent it, didn't know that
Speaker 13: whoever sent it still knew that I still worked there
Speaker 13: at the time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, just fear that's never left.
Speaker 1: Can you picture the letter today.
Speaker 13: I've blocked that out. But I didn't want to touch it.
Speaker 13: I didn't want I wanted it to be fingerprinted. I
Speaker 13: wanted like and I guess back then snail mail, every
Speaker 13: man and their dog had handled a letter. So my
Speaker 13: manager at the time, Jim, he just took it straight
Speaker 13: up to the police station that same day, and I
Speaker 13: resigned two weeks later.
Speaker 1: And why did you resign?
Speaker 7: Fear?
Speaker 5: Just fear still to the day, don't know who did
Speaker 5: this or who's out.
Speaker 7: There or.
Speaker 1: Yeah, looking back now, what do you think the motivation was?
Speaker 1: Of the person who wrote that letter.
Speaker 5: Just scare me, just fear scare tactics, I guess, and
Speaker 5: it worked.
Speaker 1: Who would want to do that to anyone, let alone
Speaker 1: to one of Rochelle's good friends. Fee was still struggling
Speaker 1: with Rochelle's sudden loss. Who knew Fiona opened the mail
Speaker 1: and who would think that business was still trading as
Speaker 1: Camden Holder. Remember, she was a key witness in the case.
Speaker 1: Detectives never identified who sent that hateful letter to her.
Speaker 1: In February two thousand and four, when the letter arrived,
Speaker 1: Rochelle had been gone two and a half years. By
Speaker 1: this point, police had held a mass DNA screening and
Speaker 1: detectives had a renewed interest in the case. That letter,
Speaker 1: along with other incidents centered around the workplace, were explored
Speaker 1: at the inquest.
Speaker 15: This inquest will investigate the circumstances of the death of
Speaker 15: Rachelle Childs. As Childs was born on the twenty sixth
Speaker 15: of May nineteen seventy eight, I anticipate that the evidence
Speaker 15: to be led at this inquest will support the conclusion
Speaker 15: that she died on the evening of seven June two
Speaker 15: thousand and one. I anticipate that the evidence will support
Speaker 15: the conclusion that she was murdered.
Speaker 1: Next, we're going to present part of a young woman's
Speaker 1: testimony who applied for a job at Camden Holden about
Speaker 1: six months before Rochelle's murder. She met Rochelle briefly, but
Speaker 1: it was her experience with the used car manager, Kevin
Speaker 1: Carell the court was interested in. On the fourth of
Speaker 1: December two thousand and six, she took the stand and
Speaker 1: her identity was protected. She told the court her interaction
Speaker 1: with Kevin left her so fearful she moved house afterwards.
Speaker 1: Here is some of her evidence. This is not her voice.
Speaker 1: I saw an ad in the paper and I rang
Speaker 1: Kevin Correll answered and invited the young woman into Camden
Speaker 1: Holden for an interview.
Speaker 9: He was looking at my chest. He just kept staring
Speaker 9: at me a lot. He looked at my hair a lot.
Speaker 9: He commented on my clothes, he commented on my hair,
Speaker 9: He commented on that I was good.
Speaker 1: Looking a lot.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it was really creepy. He said he wanted me
Speaker 9: to meet Rachelle.
Speaker 1: She did meet Rochelle, but not on that occasion. The
Speaker 1: court heard Kevin spoke fondly of Rochelle that she was
Speaker 1: a terrific person. She did things out of character that
Speaker 1: she didn't need to do, like work on her day off.
Speaker 1: Things like that she had her favorite car there. He
Speaker 1: always provided her with a car. He always provided her
Speaker 1: with everything that she wanted, anything she wanted. She was
Speaker 1: asked by counsel assisting the coroner, Peter Singleton, if Kevin
Speaker 1: indicated that Rochelle did anything outside the employment that was
Speaker 1: beyond the call of duty.
Speaker 9: Yes, well, I felt that the way he said, the
Speaker 9: way he spoke about her. I think I felt it
Speaker 9: because of the way he spoke about her. He said,
Speaker 9: you know, she does things that she doesn't need to do,
Speaker 9: you know what I mean, you know, that kind of
Speaker 9: thing with his the way he finished his sentences, the
Speaker 9: way he looked at me, the way, you know, as
Speaker 9: if he was asking me, are you going to be
Speaker 9: like that?
Speaker 1: The witness went on to tell the inquest she wasn't
Speaker 1: working at the time, she was broke and was desperate
Speaker 1: for a job. A second interview followed on another afternoon.
Speaker 1: She was invited back into the train carriage.
Speaker 9: I was interviewed by Kevin. First, he sat me down,
Speaker 9: he had a beer. He asked me if I wanted
Speaker 9: to sit when I got there, I said no. He
Speaker 9: kept sort of gazing out the window as if he
Speaker 9: was thinking of what to say to me. He was
Speaker 9: saying he didn't know how to He wanted to create
Speaker 9: a management position.
Speaker 7: That's right.
Speaker 9: He didn't know how to create this without the other
Speaker 9: staff knowing. He kept saying that everything that we talked
Speaker 9: about had to stay in the carriage, and I wasn't
Speaker 9: allowed to pit anything. Anything that happened in the carriage
Speaker 9: had to stay in the carriage.
Speaker 1: She ran Kevin to find out if she got the job.
Speaker 1: The following day, she says, he asked to meet her
Speaker 1: at the Marino Hotel in Camden. The witness told the
Speaker 1: court the pair sat down and Kevin began looking all
Speaker 1: creepy and propositioned her for sex.
Speaker 9: If you're interested in getting involved with me, you don't
Speaker 9: have to worry about money, he meant. I said, what
Speaker 9: on a sexual basis are you asking me to have
Speaker 9: sex with you? And he kind of looked around the
Speaker 9: pub like to see if anyone was listening.
Speaker 1: He said, the off is there if you need it.
Speaker 9: I said, I need a job.
Speaker 6: What about a job?
Speaker 9: I'm not going to make up my mind about that
Speaker 9: until you make up your mind about whether or not
Speaker 9: I've got a job. He said, I'm going to go
Speaker 9: and see my girl at Norellan, who I see once
Speaker 9: a week. I'll give you one hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 9: instead of her if you want to suck my dick
Speaker 9: instead of her. He said, you'll have to let me
Speaker 9: know in the next couple because I'm going to.
Speaker 7: See her this afternoon.
Speaker 9: I thought I knew right then and there that I
Speaker 9: was not going to take the dog. But then I
Speaker 9: said to him, my answer is I don't know I've
Speaker 9: have I got a job or not.
Speaker 1: The court heard she told Kevin she wasn't that desperate
Speaker 1: for money, but she was desperate for a job. He
Speaker 1: then told her to come in for a trial the
Speaker 1: following day, and she did.
Speaker 5: Kevin came walking up the yard.
Speaker 1: He gave me the filthiest look. That's right.
Speaker 9: He shoved past me, physically shoved past me. And I
Speaker 9: said good morning, and he said nothing. I felt a fight,
Speaker 9: that's right. We started fighting. I stood in the yard
Speaker 9: at this time. I went into the yard, and when
Speaker 9: Kevin went back into the carriage, I followed him, and
Speaker 9: I said, what's wrong with you? And he threw something
Speaker 9: and said, what do you mean, what's wrong? I said,
Speaker 9: your attitude.
Speaker 5: You're completely ignoring me. What's going on?
Speaker 9: He raised his voice and he said, I didn't even
Speaker 9: want you to start today. I said, what, You only
Speaker 9: just finished telling me that you wanted me to start
Speaker 9: this trial today and tomorrow starting at eight thirty. And
Speaker 9: here I am, I've got.
Speaker 1: Here, and I was in amazement.
Speaker 5: He was yelling.
Speaker 9: He was still yelling, saying I had all these forms
Speaker 9: they wanted you to fill in. I said, what forms?
Speaker 9: Where are these forms?
Speaker 11: Give them to me.
Speaker 9: I'll fill them in now. He said, I haven't got
Speaker 9: them prepared. There was a tax form there.
Speaker 1: I said, give me the form.
Speaker 9: I've got a tax phone number in my head. I'll
Speaker 9: fill it in now.
Speaker 1: It'll take me five seconds.
Speaker 9: He said, oh, don't worry about it now, and he
Speaker 9: started waving his arms around. And there was at least
Speaker 9: two other staff I could see in the yard that
Speaker 9: were aware of this argument that we were having. It
Speaker 9: was beyond belief argument. It was schizophrenic. It was I've
Speaker 9: never seen a man treated woman like that.
Speaker 1: Ever, the witness was asked if anything else happened.
Speaker 9: I said to him, that's it. I grabbed my handbag
Speaker 9: and I yelled, I said, I yelled back. I just
Speaker 9: let him have it. I said, you've done nothing but
Speaker 9: stuff me around for the last two weeks.
Speaker 7: There you go.
Speaker 9: I put up with the timing. I put up with
Speaker 9: the timing you've used, meeting you in stupid places.
Speaker 1: This is what I said to him.
Speaker 9: The only reason I put up with it is because
Speaker 9: I thought you were going to give me a job.
Speaker 9: Don't yell at me. And I was pointing at him
Speaker 9: and yelling, and I was yelling this out. I said,
Speaker 9: don't you remember asking me to come in here today?
Speaker 9: Do you have too many beers at the interview last night?
Speaker 9: You should have placed an added the personal's column, not
Speaker 9: the employment section. What a cheap way to find girls,
Speaker 9: I said to him, don't think that everything you've told
Speaker 9: me in your stupid little stay in the carriage line
Speaker 9: is going to stay in the carriage.
Speaker 1: Sorry, the woman told the inquest. She left in tears.
Speaker 1: The court heard Kevin later phoned her parents' home, but
Speaker 1: she'd moved out pretty quickly after the incident.
Speaker 9: I felt scared, I felt threatened, I felt fear for
Speaker 9: my life. I felt that if I was ever in
Speaker 9: the house that he had my address, he might just
Speaker 9: want revenge because I had to go back at him.
Speaker 9: And yeah, I felt scared for my life, so I
Speaker 9: moved bash kill.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yep. It was then put to the witness that
Speaker 1: someone had claimed she'd told Kevin she had a gun
Speaker 1: in her car.
Speaker 9: No, just my son's order pistol.
Speaker 1: Peter Singleton then asked her, did you tell Kevin that
Speaker 1: you were going to shoot him? No, The witness says
Speaker 1: she reached out to Narrow police with her story immediately
Speaker 1: after hearing about Rochelle's murder. Let's hear Peter Singleton's take
Speaker 1: on this woman's evidence.
Speaker 15: Well, in my experience, it's very unusual to go to
Speaker 15: a job interview and end up in fear of your life.
Speaker 15: In the context of this case, what it is is
Speaker 15: a part of painting a picture of one of the
Speaker 15: people of interest, as I said before, a part of
Speaker 15: it of a thorough investigation tries to understand the victim
Speaker 15: and tries to understand the various people who might have
Speaker 15: come across her path in order to work out who
Speaker 15: it is. But it's worth pointing out that there are
Speaker 15: different legal tests applicable at an investigation stage, at an
Speaker 15: inquest stage, and a trial stage. But the basic idea
Speaker 15: is that the person that the accused has a history
Speaker 15: that shows that he or she has a tendency to
Speaker 15: act in a particular peculiar way, or is known to
Speaker 15: have committed prior acts in a particular peculiar way, such that.
Speaker 3: It is likely.
Speaker 15: That the crime with which he or she is charged,
Speaker 15: which was committed in that peculiar way, was committed by him.
Speaker 15: But there has to be a higher level of peculiarity
Speaker 15: or special features that show that it really is very unlikely.
Speaker 11: To be a coincidence.
Speaker 15: The fact that a job applicant applicant was creeped out
Speaker 15: to the point of extreme fearfulness does not line up
Speaker 15: with any anything specific to what happened to Rochelle. In fact,
Speaker 15: it could be said that it goes the other way,
Speaker 15: because Rochelle presumably went for a job interview and wasn't
Speaker 15: for it to out and took the job. That's where
Speaker 15: the similarity is, and it isn't similar. The evidence you've
Speaker 15: pointed out really is evidence that mister Correll might be
Speaker 15: a bad person of the relevant kind. Well, that makes
Speaker 15: him of interest to investigate. It can't be used as
Speaker 15: evidence against him. If it doesn't lead to admissible evidence,
Speaker 15: then it comes to nothing.
Speaker 1: So when you painted this picture of Kevin Correll, what
Speaker 1: did you see?
Speaker 15: I recall that I put to him a list of
Speaker 15: similarities between Rochelle's circumstances and engagement with him, and the
Speaker 15: details relating to at least one, maybe a couple of
Speaker 15: women who had been in mister Carrell's life in the past,
Speaker 15: and they were sufficiently striking in my view to put
Speaker 15: them to him for comparison and for his comment. In
Speaker 15: the end, of course, they were not judged enough to
Speaker 15: prove his guilt of any crime.
Speaker 1: How did you react to that line of questioning from you?
Speaker 15: My recollection, which is subject to the transcription and should
Speaker 15: be checked, is that he at that point approximately that point,
Speaker 15: decline to answer questions on the grounds that it might
Speaker 15: tend to incriminate him.
Speaker 6: Have you ever told any person that you were, or
Speaker 6: ever had been, a private investigator and.
Speaker 16: They have asked mister Johnston or refuse to answer that
Speaker 16: question on the grounds that it may incriminate me the work.
Speaker 6: As a private investigator.
Speaker 16: On the advice of mister Johnston I refuse to answer
Speaker 16: that question on the grounds that it may incriminate me.
Speaker 6: Have you ever worked as a psychologist or psychiatrist?
Speaker 16: On the advice of mister Johnston, I refuse to answer
Speaker 16: that question on the grounds that it may incriminate me.
Speaker 16: Have you ever falsely made a representation to any person
Speaker 16: about your employment or the works that you did or
Speaker 16: had done in the past. On the advice of mister Johnston,
Speaker 16: I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that
Speaker 16: it may incriminate me.
Speaker 6: What was your reason for changing your name to Kevin Corrupt?
Speaker 16: On the advice of mister Johnston, I refuse to answer
Speaker 16: that question on the grounds that it.
Speaker 6: May incriminate me.
Speaker 1: Is there any reason that I should be concerned about
Speaker 1: my safety investigating this case?
Speaker 15: I think you should be a little bit careful. There's
Speaker 15: a reasonable chance that the person who killed Rochelle Childs
Speaker 15: with a sexual motive, if that's what he had, would
Speaker 15: have a similar motive towards you, but also hatred if
Speaker 15: you actually manage to expose him or bring him into disrepute.
Speaker 1: It's a very serious thing to say, and obviously not
Speaker 1: one that you take lightly. No, but.
Speaker 15: What you're doing is potentially very valuable to the public,
Speaker 15: but potentially very harmful to a dangerous person. And I'm
Speaker 15: afraid you fit the profile of his potential victim. We
Speaker 15: do know what Rochelle's profile was, and you're not wholly dissimilar.
Speaker 15: Of course, there'll be vast differences between any two people,
Speaker 15: but at a superficial level, this person's obviously dangerous, whoever.
Speaker 6: It may be.
Speaker 15: You are embarking on it now. The chance for any
Speaker 15: of us is rather small, but you have heightened the
Speaker 15: chance for.
Speaker 1: Yourself coming soon on de Rochelle. And I remember one
Speaker 1: of the last things I said to him was I'll
Speaker 1: find him.
Speaker 6: I drew Peter on the side of the lake and say, well,
Speaker 6: it's your job to draw that crocodile out.
Speaker 12: Mill's dad was fed a lot of lies about the
Speaker 12: homicide squad.
Speaker 8: Which would so strange that you would give a young
Speaker 8: girl like that that sort of vehicle for a weekend.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you, Mill, And we're about the sirch we.
Speaker 6: Look at someone with psychopathic personality.
Speaker 1: You have more strength than you give yourself.
Speaker 14: For.
Speaker 7: There were quite a few years that I know I
Speaker 7: protected him.
Speaker 1: Dear Rochelle is a multi media production from True Crime Australia.
Speaker 1: If you want to be one of the first to
Speaker 1: find out what happens next, go to Deroshelle dot com
Speaker 1: dot a you. That's where eligible Digital News Corp Australia
Speaker 1: subscribers get early access to podcast episodes and breaking news
Speaker 1: in our live investigation and you will also find exclusive videos,
Speaker 1: interactive evidence, feature articles and more. That's Deroshelle dot com
Speaker 1: dot au. If you have any tips or confidential information
Speaker 1: to share with me, Ashley Hanson, please send an email
Speaker 1: to Deroshelle at News dot com dot a you. Our
Speaker 1: supervising producer and audio editor is Rees Gunter Rachel Fountain.
Speaker 1: His executive producer and audio director. Our executive editor is
Speaker 1: Sarah Blake. Our senior journalist is Patrick Carline. Video editors
Speaker 1: are Gillian McNally, Owen Yang and Stephen Woods. Picture editors
Speaker 1: are Jeff R. Mannin and Christy Miller. Signior camera operators
Speaker 1: are Daniel Andrews and Oscar Viera. We sound designed by
Speaker 1: Martin Perolta. Thanks also to Greg Thompson and Lenni Panerz.
Speaker 1: Showbur Reo Fayguld, Vanessa Graham, Hailey, Goddard, Stephen Grice, Charlotte carp,
Speaker 1: Tina Coggins and Harry Hughes. Special thanks to The Daily
Speaker 1: Telegraph editor Ben English and dear Roschell. Would not be
Speaker 1: possible without the help, and I'm wavering support of Christy
Speaker 1: and Ann Childs, Mindy Wicks, Damien Loon and Rachelle's friends.
Speaker 1: This podcast series is hosted and investigated by me Ashley
Speaker 1: Hanson