Rachelle Childs’ murder: Mystery woman seen before suspect Kevin Correll’s death
The prime suspect in the cold case murder of Rachelle Childs went to a bar with an unidentified woman, before he was found dead in his Thailand hotel. See hotel photos.
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The prime suspect in the cold case murder of Rachelle Childs went to a bar with a mystery Thai woman, before he was found dead in his three-star hotel room wearing only shorts.
Kevin Steven Correll – a suspected serial rapist, pathological liar and killer – was found facedown on the bathroom floor of his room at the $50-a-night Expat Hotel in Patong, Phuket, at about 10am on Friday.
The scene unfolded when the local woman arrived at the hotel and told staff she was concerned for the 69-year-old’s welfare because he complained about tightness in his chest when they met for a drink on Wednesday, two days earlier.
She took him back to his hotel and hadn’t been able to get in touch with him since.
It’s unclear how long Mr Correll lay unresponsive on the floor before his body was found, but local police said there were no signs of a search or struggle, and the room was locked from the inside.
Photos from the scene over the weekend showed police gathering around his body in the deluxe room at the hotel, which is promoted online as a “budget friendly” venue with onsite massage studios and a sports bar that closes at 2am.
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Deluxe rooms boast a king-size bed, fully stocked mini bar, cable TV, wireless internet, and an ensuite – they can cost up to $50 per night, but it’s unlikely Mr Correll paid more than $30.
He checked in last Monday, on July 14, and was due to check out six weeks later, on August 20. The length of his stay meant he may have scored a discount, paying about $780 for his entire stay.
The hotel is a nine-minute walk from Patong Beach, and is surrounded by massage parlours, bars, and tattoo shops.
Police said a cleaner at the hotel saw him lazing by the pool on Wednesday, in the hours before he met the Thai woman at a bar later that night. That was the last time he was seen alive.
His body was taken to the morgue, before the Australian embassy was contacted to collect it.
The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation and an autopsy was to be conducted on Monday.
Mr Correll had been the key person of interest in the murder of his former employee, Rachelle Childs, but always denied any involvement.
For for the best part of two decades, the case lay idle until this masthead’s Dear Rachelle multimedia investigation and podcast, launched earlier this year, generating new interest.
And around the same, the investigation into Rachelle’s murder was reopened by NSW Police under Strike Force Telap.
The 23-year-old was last seen alive on the afternoon of June 7, 2001, as she was leaving work at Camden Holden, south west of Sydney.
Mr Correll was Rachelle’s boss in the used car department.
Rachelle had described Mr Correll to colleagues as being like a “father figure” to her, but it’s unlikely she knew he was tried and acquitted of sexually assaulting four women in the 1980s under his birth name, Kevin Cornwall.
On the day Rachelle died, she had phoned her sister briefly and told a friend she was meeting a stranger at the nearby Bargo Hotel that night. It’s unclear who she was meeting, and if she made it to the hotel at all.
At 2am the following morning, a security guard saw flames off a road near Gerroa on the NSW south coast, about 100km south of Bargo. Upon further inspection, he realised a woman’s body was on fire.
The body was later identified as Rachelle Childs. Unleaded petrol had been poured on her face, and she was naked from the waist down – suggesting a sexual motive.
Despite a lengthy police investigation and coronial inquest, no one has ever been arrested over her murder.
For more information about our investigation, visit dearachelle.com.au
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