Three ways that Rachelle Childs’ killer covered their tracks and how DNA testing could help police
Rachelle Childs’ killer made three “panicked” but critical moves that could provide police with a way to use modern DNA testing to find a suspect. See the video, listen to the podcast.
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Rachelle Childs’ killer made three “panicked” but critical moves in disposing of evidence which could have implicated him in her murder, it can be revealed.
Criminal profiler Kris Illingsworth said the 2001 police investigation was impeded because he dumped the 23-year-old’s handbag, shoes and a bed sheet at three separate locations across a wide area in the hours after her death.
And, almost 24 years on, she – along with former Chief Inspector Mick Ashwood, who led a homicide squad review of the initial investigation – believes fresh DNA testing of those items could finally incriminate the murderer.
“Surely with the (hand)bag located, her shoes located, the bedsheet located, the car located, surely they could hold some sort of DNA profile in that evidence with DNA advancements,” Ms Illingsworth said.
“I’d be redoing all the exhibits – the handbag, the shoes and the car, as well as the items in the car,” Mr Ashwood said, agreeing DNA testing technology had improved exponentially.
The revelations come as True Crime Australia releases a 10-part cold case podcast series, called Dear Rachelle, examining her death near Gerroa, south of Sydney.
Watch the video of the Dear Rachelle investigation above.
Her burning body was found in bushland off the Crooked River Rd early on June 8.
The grizzly murder has been overlooked for decades, with not a single serving NSW officer across the brief of evidence until our podcast recently launched.
LISTEN TO EPISODES 1 AND 2 OF THE PODCAST BELOW:
The placement of the discarded goods, according to Ms Illingsworth, begs an important question: was the killer heading home when he disposed of the evidence?
A bed sheet that had been stored in the boot of her car was found in a roadside paddock a couple of kilometres away from her body.
Her shoes were dumped in Tahmoor, near a pub, more than an hour north or about 100km away.
A groundsman noticed the shoes amid rubbish on the morning of Rachelle’s death, but they were not reported to police for another few weeks.
Months later, her black handbag was found in a paddock by a farmer slashing his property’s grass beside the Old Hume Highway, a further four or five kilometres to the north of Rachelle’s dumped shoes.
Here, during the day, that road is filled with trucks and cars travelling at 80kmh.
Late at night, the theory goes, the killer pulled over and hoicked the handbag, which fell short of a second fence line, before continuing home.
Rachelle’s Nokia phone and credit cards were inside the handbag, along with the faceplate of her prized car stereo.
Ms Illingsworth believes the bed sheet was probably used to drag Rachelle’s body by the ankles from the boot of the car to her final resting place.
“It was actually found fairly quickly,” she said.
“So it’s not an intelligent site to put it. Again, it reflects haste and inexperience of how to deal with getting rid of physical evidence.”
But the choice of the other disposal sites worked in the killer’s favour, Ms Illingsworth said, given they were found at different times and had been exposed to heat and moisture, thereby degrading the scientific evidence.
Why didn’t Rachelle’s murderer destroy the items more carefully, though? Why not throw them into the fire set in Gerroa?
“He’s thinking, but he’s not thinking clearly, he’s not thinking well,” Ms Illingsworth said.
If, on dumping the bed sheet, the killer avoided turning around to drive back past the site of Rachelle’s body, he would have navigated the slopes and hairpin bends of Moss Vale Rd.
Sections of this road, favoured by car and motorbike enthusiasts, are difficult to drive quickly.
Ms Illingsworth surmises that the killer was driving home after killing Rachelle, heading for a “safe place” after the dramatic events of the previous hours.
If so, the clues lead a trail to a home base north of Tahmoor.
Tahmoor is north of Rachelle’s home in Bargo, and south of the towns of Picton and Camden to the south-west of Sydney.
Rachelle’s body was partially clad, and Ms Illingsworth points out that her missing clothes were never recovered.
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.
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