Rachelle Childs’ family letter ignored by NSW Police Minister as they fight for 24 years to find her killer
Rachelle Childs’ family has fought for almost 24 years to find her killer. Their plea to the NSW Police Minister has been ignored — and cops say it’s “disgusting”. Listen to the podcast, see the video.
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Exclusive: The family of a young woman murdered more than 20 years ago has received “disgusting” treatment in their fight for justice, according to an acclaimed cold case investigator who helped solve one of Australia’s biggest mysteries.
Damian Loone, a retired detective sergeant whose work helped convict Chris Dawson for the murder of his wife Lynette as part of The Teacher’s Pet podcast series, said the family of 23-year-old Rachelle Childs had been repeatedly let down.
Rachelle’s family has fought for almost 24 years to find her killer but received no personal reply from NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley in their bid to increase the reward from $200,000 to $500,000.
It can also be revealed that Ms Catley, who received the letter from Rachelle’s younger sister Kristy Childs early last year, is overseeing a force where until January, not a single serving officer was actively investigating the cold case.
The extraordinary indictment is laid bare in a gripping new True Crime Australia podcast, called Dear Rachelle, which across 10 episodes explores Rachelle Childs’ 2001 murder.
“I’ll find him,” Kristy said of the family’s determination to find the killer.
Watch the video of the Dear Rachelle investigation above.
Mr Loone, who is part of the Dear Rachelle investigation team and considers the case “solvable”, describes Ms Catley’s lack of a personal reply to a victim’s grieving family as “disgusting”.
“Minister Catley has been elected by the people of New South Wales and is highly paid to respond to victims of crime like Kristy,” he said.
“I think it’s disgusting the minister hasn’t replied directly to Kristy …
“The minister has a team of staff, dedicated to drafting letters and booking meetings with people like Kristy. So it’s inexcusable that the minister couldn’t find a few minutes in her day to reply to her directly.
“Where’s the compassion?”
Rachelle, 23, was last seen leaving work in Camden, to the southwest of Sydney, in her 1978 Holden Commodore VB, apparently running late for a catch-up at a pub.
Her body was discovered nine hours later in bushland at Gerroa, 110km away.
Her car was found parked in the carpark of a pub in Bargo, also southwest of Sydney, where she lived with her sister.
Popular and bubbly, Rachelle had no known enemies or risky lifestyle choices which might have endangered her life.
It is thought that she knew and trusted the person who killed her.
Former NSW Detective Inspector Mick Ashwood joined the investigation about a year after Rachelle’s death, and immediately noted shortcomings in the police response.
“The NSW police failed in this case,” he said.
“We let down the family, and we let down Rachelle.”
Kristy Childs wrote her letter to Ms Catley on March 16, 2024.
“Her partially clothed body was dumped on the side of the Crooked River Rd, Gerroa, in the middle of the night,” Kristy’s letter reads.
“Her murderer then set fire to our beautiful Chelle. She was so badly burned that we were advised not to see her body …
“Losing Rachelle in such a horrific manner is indescribable, and this is compounded by the knowledge that her killer remains at large.”
Kristy received no acknowledgment or reply from the police minister, which she describes as “very disappointing”.
Instead, on the minister’s behalf, she was contacted by the NSW unsolved homicide unit.
Over many years, Kristy, along with her family, have repeatedly pleaded with police for the reward to be upped and the case reopened.
The reward for finding Rachelle’s killer, which was doubled after 10 years to $200,000 in 2011, has not increased in 14 years.
In 2021, Kristy was told that the case was being reviewed by an experienced ex-homicide detective.
When she followed up, she received no email reply.
Three years later, after sending her letter to Ms Catley, she was finally told that the 2021 review could now be “identified as a review that was not getting completed”.
Last year, Kristy met with an officer of the unsolved homicide unit, and recounted the exchange a few minutes afterwards.
“So you’re not across this case?” she asked the officer.
“No, I’m not,” he replied.
“Who is?”
“No one.”
“So no one in unsolved homicide is across this case at all?”
He answered: “No.”
Kristy feels like her sister has been “ripped off” in both the taking of her life and the investigations into her death.
LISTEN TO EPISODES 1 AND 2 OF THE PODCAST BELOW:
“I just want everyone to know that she was one of the good ones,” Kristy says. “She didn’t deserve it. She was in the prime of her life. She was having fun. She really cared about the people around her. We just all got ripped off.”
Mr Ashwood said a heftier reward might, finally, prompt someone to share a tiny, yet critical, insight into Rachelle’s final hours.
“I can’t understand why this is not a $1m reward,” he says. “What this family has gone through because of the police department’s mistakes, it’s terrible.”
Kris Illingsworth, an FBI-trained criminal profiler, also thinks the current $200,000 reward is too low.
“Rewards don’t always work but they can work,” she says.
“I just hope something comes out of it because Rachelle’s family and friends need some resolution on this. They deserve to get justice.”
Mr Loone says a claimed reward in Rachelle’s case would be a fantastic result.
“It only gets paid if the killer gets caught and usually hinges on a conviction,” he says.
“That would be a million dollars well spent to get a dangerous killer off the streets in my humble opinion.”
In a statement, Ms Catley extended “her deepest sympathies to Kristy Childs and her family”.
“The Minister ensures all correspondence receives a response, either directly or through the most relevant body,” she said.
“The Minister has no role in setting rewards.”
NSW Police said it launched a re-investigation into the case in January.
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 dearrachelle@news.com.au.
You can also join our Dear Rachelle Facebook group.
Originally published as Rachelle Childs’ family letter ignored by NSW Police Minister as they fight for 24 years to find her killer
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