Daughter of prime suspect in Rachelle Childs cold case breaks silence about her father

The estranged daughter of a suspected killer in one of Australia’s biggest cold cases has told of “the moment” she believed he had killed a woman. SEE THE VIDEO, LISTEN TO THE PODCAST.

Exclusive: The estranged daughter of Rachelle Childs’ suspected killer has told of “the moment” she believed he had killed her and cut all contact with the “Jekyll and Hyde” man she now calls a “monster”.

Jazz, 41, has also vowed to tell Rachelle’s family first when she learns of Kevin Steven Correll’s passing – and anyone else “that’s been victimised by him” – before allowing herself to shed a tear.

And she thinks her father is responsible for four separate sexual assaults, including rape, on women in Sydney, of which he was acquitted and all of which he strenuously denies, saying “it says a lot about our judicial system in the ’80s”.

In a raw and heartbreaking interview with the Dear Rachelle multimedia investigation team, Jazz breaks her silence for the first time since Rachelle’s burning body was found near a road in Gerroa, on the NSW south coast, in 2001.

She said it was during the coronial inquest into the 23-year-old’s death five years later – when her body was to be exhumed, to examine if her fingers had been cut off, allegedly by bikies – she decided “he’d done it”.

Kevin Correll's daughter, Jazz, talks with the Dear Rachelle podcast team. Picture: Jeff Darmanin

“I’ve never said that,” he said, sitting on her lounge, fuming at media reports highlighting evidence he had spread rumours about Rachelle’s fingers being severed.

“I knew at that moment that he’d done it because he told me the story many times.

“He had said that Rachelle’s fingers were cut off because she was dealing drugs for the bikies … that’s when I realised he’s done this. That was the moment.”

Kevin Correll at Jazz’s wedding day.

The inquest delivered an open finding and Mr Correll, as the prime person of interest, was never charged with Rachelle’s murder. He denies any involvement and says he has always co-operated with police by answering all their questions and supplying his DNA.

“For a long time I tried to have hope that he didn’t do these things,” she said. “Deep down I knew, I’ve always known, not in any way that I have evidence. I just, I knew he did this. I knew that he’s done a lot of other things. But there was a hope as his daughter, as someone who experienced his love. There was that hope that it was all wrong and everyone had it wrong. But I know that’s a fairy tale.”

Jazz told the Dear Rachelle investigation team that she had come to these views through a combination of witnessing her father’s relationship with women and also her complicated relationship with him.

Jazz has been estranged from her father for four or five years, largely because she did not believe Mr Correll’s denials of the crime.

LISTEN TO THE LATEST DEAR RACHELLE PODCAST EPISODES BELOW:

A card shared by Jazz from her father Kevin Correll who she is estranged from. Picture: Supplied

Theirs is a conflicted relationship, as she described it, fashioned by love and fear.

She said her father could be funny and entertaining. He was a doting grandfather who supported her through teenage motherhood.

He also lied, she said, making up stories which both damaged other people and protected him.

Jazz said he could be cruel, especially to loved ones.

Her father was never violent to her.

But he was “Jekyll and Hyde”.

She said his shows of love, usually in front of others, were coupled with acts of contempt.

Jazz never trusted where she stood with him.

“He would act like I hung the moon and I was everything,” she said. “And then I was nothing …

“I never knew what was real and what was true. Even the good things, like him saying he was proud of me, I didn’t know if that was real.”

In episode 13 of the Dear Rachelle podcast, Jazz speaks of her heartbreak for Rachelle’s family. She sounds raw and conflicted.

Jazz says she loves her father, but also thought he was a “monster”.

She didn’t know why her father might have killed Rachelle, who was 23.

Had she laughed at or mocked him, because “probably the most dangerous thing you can do to my Dad is embarrass him”?

Did he fear she suspected his alleged fraud against the company he and Rachelle worked for, Camden Holden?

Was he rejected by her, sexually or otherwise?

“Maybe she humiliated him (by) laughing at him, and he got to a point where she was nothing and she was insignificant,” Jazz said.

Murdered Bargo woman Rachelle Childs, whose burning body was found at Gerroa in 2001.

She also believes her father would be “insulted “ by suggestions that the manner of Rachelle’s body placement, and the discarding of items, implied panic and disorganisation.

“And although I can’t visualise in my head that my dad would be able to burn a body, cut fingers off … I know how he can completely destroy any idea of someone’s humanness when they have disappointed him,” she said.

“He is capable of rendering you as nothing and non-important.”

Jazz’s parents split up before she was born. Staying with dad as a young child was fun-filled. Her father showed more energy for games than kids did.

The sexual assault charges predated her birth. At some point, her father explained them away. He told her that he had cheated on the daughter of a police officer who had then sought to frame him for rape.

She now thinks he committed those offences.

“I think it’s completely unjust that he walked free on them, and I think it says a lot about our judicial system in the ’80s,” she said.

“I mean it’s horrific what those women went through, and the fact that he walks away and they never got justice.”

Jazz felt like a “tool” used to convince people of Kevin Correll’s goodness.

Jazz felt like a “tool” used to convince people of his goodness. His overt shows of care struck her as insincere, as if he was performing for the audience.

His take on women, as she described it, was chilling. If they were kind and compliant, all was calm. But those who fought his coercive control would be menaced.

“I know a lot of women are terrified of him,” she said.

“It’s really hard to reconcile with who I know him to be when he is loving. As cruel as he has been to me, I’ve never experienced those threats, but I don’t have a second’s hesitation in saying that all the accounts these women speak of are 100 per cent true.”

Jazz is a case worker, drawn to her work of helping violent men to temper their outbursts.

She was fascinated at university by the study of sociopaths, especially men who lacked empathy and inflicted pain.

She said her father was “much like a child – if you’re not giving him attention, he gets very cranky”.

“Yeah, he’s very much a sociopath,” she said. “He mimics emotions. He knows when he is supposed to act sad, but you know it’s not genuine.”

Jazz said her work as a case worker sought to balance the sins of her father. Picture: Jeff Darmanin

Jazz said her work sought to balance the sins of her father. As she puts it, if only someone had “interrupted his path”.

“He hates everything I stand for because, as I said, I’ve built my personality around not being all of the things I hate in him,” she said.

She didn’t want to be the daughter of a man she thinks is a killer; indeed, as she puts it: “I wish I had a normal f***ing dad that didn’t have me at a f***ing news station”.

Of the Childs’ family, she said: “I will endure this for the rest of my life if it means they get justice and they get the answers that they deserve … I want him to admit what he did. I think they deserve that from him. I don’t know if it’s ever going to happen.”

When Mr Correll, 69, does pass away, Jazz planned to delay any grieving.

“I know that the day I find out my father has passed, the first thing I’m going to do before I shed a single tear will be to tell Kristy and Anne (Childs), and anyone else that I know that’s been victimised by him,” she said.

“And give them peace.”

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 Daughter of prime suspect in Rachelle Childs cold case breaks silence about her father