Dear Rachelle investigation: Close friend reveals Rachelle Childs’ boss ‘looked like shit’ the day she went missing

A crucial detail has been revealed about the man who is the chief suspect in the murder of Rachelle Childs. Listen to the podcast.

Rachelle Childs’ boss arrived at work “looking like shit” the day she went missing and did not offer to search for her, a close friend has claimed.

Kevin Steven Correll, who would go on to become the prime suspect in the 23-year-old’s murder, also fought with her in their last workplace exchange, and “appeared to be more interested in the (direction of) police investigation” when he called the family in the weeks after her 2001 death.

It follows revelations by the Dear Rachelle investigation that Mr Correll changed his surname – from Cornwall – after being acquitted of four sexual assaults on women in the 1980s.

Kevin Correll leaves Coroner's Court at Glebe in Sydney, during an inquest into the death of Rachelle Childs.

Rachelle Childs’ burning body was found at Gerroa on June 8, 2001.

Rachelle was last seen on Thursday, June 7, 2001, when she left work at Camden Holden, where Mr Correll was her manager.

The following day, her friend and colleague Fiona raised concerns that Rachelle, a livewire who was always on her phone, could not be contacted.

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Fiona and Rachelle’s sister, Kristy, rang Rachelle’s friends and colleagues, as well as hospitals and police stations.

Mr Correll, when contacted, did not ask questions or offer to help search for the employee who had treated him as a mentor.

“He just did not care,” Fiona said.

“And that is weird coming from someone who seemed so concerned about every other aspect of her life.”

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

Her identification was delayed by the burned state of her remains, and her family was not notified of her death until Sunday, June 10.

Rachelle was last seen on Thursday, June 7, 2001, when she left work at Camden Holden, which is now a Farm Machinery Sales Yard. Picture: P. Mylrea / From Camden Images Past and Present

Mr Correll turned up to work on the morning after Rachelle was killed.

As Fiona later put it, the used car manager “looked like shit”.

“He looked really crappy, really like he hadn’t slept,” she said.

Mr Correll had hired Rachelle the year before. She was young, new to the car trade, and very good with people.

Rachelle, 23, trusted Correll, 45. She had confided in him, she told her sister.

Mr Correll let her take home cars from the used car lot on weekends.

In the weeks after Rachelle’s death, Mr Correll rang the Childs family twice.

According to Mr Correll’s casual romantic partner of the time, “Alice”, Mr Correll told her that he and Rachelle had fought in their last workplace exchange.

“Kevin had told her that she couldn’t leave until she did something and they had an argument,” she told the Coroner’s Court.

“He told me that she said she was going to meet somebody at the Bargo Pub and that he had made her complete whatever work was requested prior to going to that meeting, and then she had got really annoyed with him.

“He said to me that she had snapped back at him … Oh that’s great, now I can’t wash my f**king hair’.”

Mr Correll’s workplace proximity to the victim made him a logical person of interest to police.

Detectives first visited him on the same day her body was identified.

He voluntarily participated in two police interviews in the following weeks, and his unit was searched.

Mr Correll has always denied any involvement in Rachelle’s death.

Alice said that Mr Correll criticised Rachelle’s choices of clothes and make-up.

“There was a very marked change with him, his attitude towards her,” she said.

“I couldn’t tell you exactly when but I know it was in that, maybe, that six month period preceding her death.”

At work, Mr Correll’s projected mood after Rachelle’s death would shift, from withdrawn to griefstruck. He would be excused from work meetings because of his outbursts of grief.

In the weeks after Rachelle’s death, Mr Correll rang the Childs family twice.

These conversations were striking, Rachelle’s father Graham told police, because Mr Correll “appeared to be more interested in the police investigation and what the police had determined at that stage”.

Mr Correll did not offer assistance to the family or appear to be ringing on behalf of Camden Holden.

Rachelle Childs was described as being very good with people.

Mr Correll left work in the early afternoon of Friday, June 8, and said he went to his partner’s place, apparently loaded with crime movie videos to watch.

That night, Mr Correll went to a Rodney Rude comedy show with Alice, along with his son and his son’s girlfriend.

He was light, but Alice wondered at the sincerity of his good cheer.

“Was he acting?” she was asked in the witness box at the Coroner’s Court.

“I think he always acted,” she replied.

A coronial inquest was held into Rachelle’s death. The coroner made an open finding at the end of the inquest.

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 Dear Rachelle investigation: Close friend reveals Rachelle Childs’ boss ‘looked like shit’ the day she went missing