Chief suspect Kevin Steven Correll blamed bikies for Rachelle Child’s death

The chief suspect in a chilling cold case murder has blamed bikies for a woman’s death within a day of her burned body being identified.

The chief suspect in the killing of Rachelle Childs blamed bikies for her death within a day of her burned body being identified.

Kevin Steven Correll visited a car dealership in a neighbouring district to the one where he worked with Rachelle, on Monday, June 11, “blubbering”, shaking and crying.

Dave Symonds, the sales manager at Paul Wakeling Motors in Campbelltown, recalled Mr Correll “blurting it out, ‘she’s dead’”.

“The only thing that came up in conversations with Kevin after he told me that was the fact that she’d been partying with the Rebels and he thought it might’ve been a drug deal gone wrong,” he told the Dear Rachelle investigation.

Bargo woman Rachelle Childs, whose burning body was found at Gerroa on June 8, 2001.

The day before Mr Correll’s visit, with his then partner, police had notified Rachelle’s family about her death, which was three days after she was last seen, leaving work at Camden Holden, which was also owned by Mr Wakeling.

Rachelle’s body was found at Gerroa, south of Sydney, in the early hours of June 8.

Gerroa is more than 100km from her home in Bargo.

The last nine hours of Rachelle’s life remain unaccounted for.

She was thought to have left work after 5pm, driven home to Bargo, changed clothes, then left her home.

Mr Correll has never been charged with her murder and denies any involvement.

Mr Symonds would see Mr Correll at car auctions, where dealers would buy cars to sell to the public, about once a month.

Sometimes, Rachelle was with Mr Correll.

Person of interest in the murder of Rachelle Childs, Kevin Steven Correll, is questioned by investigative journalist Ashlea Hansen. Picture: Julian Andrews

“It appeared that she was, when I saw her out at the auctions, that looked like she was following him around like a little puppy and he was sort of, I don’t know what you say, showing her off but letting everyone know that she was there with him,” Mr Symonds said.

Mr Correll’s then girlfriend, known as “Alice”, met him at the Camden Holden dealership on the Monday morning.

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Alice told the coronial inquest into Rachelle’s death, which delivered an open finding, that Mr Correll drove the pair to Bargo.

He drove past the Bargo Hotel, she said, and told her “that’s where it happened”.

He stopped at the pub’s carpark and told Alice that Rachelle’s car had been found there.

To Alice, Mr Correll’s interest seemed like “morbid curiosity”.

The Camden Holden dealership where Rachelle Childs worked with Kevin Correll. The yard is now an agricultural machinery sales business. Picture: Google Street

By the time they reached the Campbelltown car dealership, “he was really grieving”.

She watched from the car as the Campbelltown workers, presumably including Mr Symonds, were “really consoling him” and he was “extraordinarily upset”.

“From my perspective, when he got back in the car I was a bit like starting to think this is very over the top,” she told the inquest.

Mr Symonds, too, thought Mr Correll’s shows of grief seemed “strange”.

As he told the inquest: “(I)t was like someone of a close part of the family type reaction, it wasn’t an acquaintance type reaction, which I thought at the time seemed a bit over the top.”

For more information about our investigation, visit dearachelle.com.au.

If you have any tips or confidential information, please contact investigative journalist Ashlea Hansen at [e-mail].

You can also join our Dear Rachelle podcast Facebook group.

Originally published as Chief suspect Kevin Steven Correll blamed bikies for Rachelle Child’s death