Rachelle Childs murder suspect Kevin Steven Correll found on bathroom floor by hotel maid
The chief suspect in the murder of an Aussie woman was found by a hotel maid, whose shock discovery also revealed new details about his final act before he died. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST.
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A chief suspect in the murder of Rachelle Childs was cleaning his dentures after a night out with Thai girls when he had a heart attack and lay dead on the bathroom floor for at least 24 hours before anyone noticed.
Kevin Steven Correll, 69, had a cardiac arrest in a bathroom at The Expat Hotel in Patong sometime after 2am last Thursday, after complaining of a headache and chest tightness while partying at a bar on Bangla Road.
A young woman who was drinking with Mr Correll that night had known him for a number of years because he was always travelling to and from Phuket, the lead Thai police investigator told this masthead.
She said the veins in his face had become prominent, so she tried to take him to hospital but he declined. Instead, she took him back to his hotel room and asked security to contact her if anything happened.
Autopsy results reveal Mr Correll, who was a heavy smoker, had an enlarged heart and arrhythmia, which may have caused the heart to beat irregularly and prevented blood from circulating properly.
By the time a cleaner found him dead on the floor, his face was swollen and purple and his limbs were loose.
The investigator said the cleaner “didn’t panic, not panic – she acted completely normally and calm” despite the gruesome scene.
The hotel receptionist said guests sometimes don’t want their rooms cleaned, so she didn’t think it was odd that his body wasn’t uncovered for more than a day.
Mr Correll’s booking receipt from The Expat Hotel showed he was due to stay for 37 nights, and paid 31,435 Thai baht for the entire stay – the equivalent of about $1485.
The Australian embassy has now collected his possessions to return to the family.
Mr Correll’s family are considering cremating him in Thailand because he didn’t have travel insurance. Otherwise, they would have to fork out tens of thousands of dollars to repatriate his body back to Australia.
Mr Correll was the prime suspect in the murder of Rachelle, a 23-year-old woman from Bargo who was killed, set alight, and dumped by the side of a road in June 2001.
He was her boss at a used car yard in Camden, south-west Sydney, and his alibi couldn’t be corroborated.
He featured in News Corp’s cold case investigation podcast Dear Rachelle, which aimed to reinvestigate the cold case and help bring her killer to justice.
Listen to the Dear Rachelle podcast below:
Throughout the course of the podcast, a number of women came forward and accused Mr Correll of domestic violence, rape, stalking, and assault.
He consistently denied the claims, and insisted he had nothing to do with Rachelle’s death.
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Originally published as Rachelle Childs murder suspect Kevin Steven Correll found on bathroom floor by hotel maid