Dear Rachelle investigation: ‘Explosive evidence’ could blow open murder investigation

New analysis casts doubt over the alibi of the chief suspect in one of Australia’s biggest cold cases. See the video and listen to the podcast.

EXCLUSIVE

Australia’s pre-eminent forensic phone data expert has torn apart the alibi of the chief suspect in Rachelle Childs’ murder.

In one of the most significant developments yet in the Dear Rachelle multimedia investigation into the 2001 cold case – which police are being urged to investigate – the University of Adelaide’s Dr Matthew Sorell has, in his view, determined it “impossible” for Kevin Steven Correll to have been where he said he was early on the night of June 7.

Dr Sorell, who has given evidence in dozens of big trials in Australia, including the ongoing the Mushroom Cook murder trial, said advanced mobile phone tower analysis pointed to Mr Correll being up to 40 kilometres from where he claimed – potentially in Bargo, south of Sydney, where Rachelle lived.

WATCH VIDEO IN PLAYER ABOVE: EXPERT SHATTERS ALIBI IN RACHELLE’S CASE

Australia’s pre-eminent forensic phone data expert shows investigative reporter Ashlea Hansen describes how a key aspect of the chief suspect’s alibi for the night of Rachelle Childs’ killing in 2001 is “impossible”. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

In what has been described as “explosive evidence”, Dr Matthew Sorell, from the University of Adelaide, has found that Kevin Steven Correll could not have been where he said he was early on the night of Rachelle’s murder. He is pictured here with investigative journalist Ashley Hansen. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

His 6.08pm call has been pored over by the Dear Rachelle team, which on Friday launches its podcast series finale, containing the new evidence, which ex-detective Damian Loone, who famously helped crack the Teacher’s Pet case, has described as “explosive”.

Mr Correll, who was Rachelle’s manager at Camden Holden, told police that he was shopping at Campbelltown Mall when he made the call.

Murdered Bargo woman Rachelle Childs, whose burning body was found at Gerroa on June 8, 2001.

Person of interest in the murder of Rachelle Childs, Kevin Steven Correll, seen here with a friend. Picture: Facebook

“Our conclusion is that that alibi that he could have been in Campbelltown is just impossible, just could not happen,” Dr Sorell, who used advanced technology to make his conclusion, said.

“It’s rare that I’ll say it’s just impossible, but it’s just impossible.

“That connection just can’t happen.”

LISTEN TO THE LATEST DEAR RACHELLE PODCAST EPISODES BELOW:

After Rachelle’s death, police verified that Mr Correll’s phone connected to the southern sector of a phone tower in Picton for the phone call.

Picton lies south of both Campbelltown and the Razorback mountain range, which blocks phones north of the ridge line from connecting with the Picton phone tower.

Mr Loone urged NSW Police to speak to Dr Sorell about this “significant breakthrough”.

“Wow,” he said, “that’s explosive evidence.”

“The reason it changes things is because the science doesn’t lie.”

Rachelle’s partially-clad burning body was found nine hours after she left work at Camden Holden.

Her work clothes were found in her Bargo laundry, suggesting she got home from work before leaving home again.

Repeated police investigations, and a coronial inquest into Rachelle’s death, failed to determine where she went in those final hours or with whom.

Rachelle Childs with Missy the Horse

Rachelle Childs was murdered in June 2001. Her killer has never been found.

Mr Correll was the last remaining person of interest at the coronial inquest, which made an open finding.

He has always strenuously denied any involvement in Rachelle’s death and has never been charged.

Despite intense police investigations, Mr Correll’s involved alibi has never been verified or disproved.

Kevin Steven Correll is the prime suspect in the murder of Rachelle Childs, who's burning body was discovered in bushland near Gerroa in 2001. Picture: Jeff Darmanin

Dr Sorell has worked on 400 court cases, including the Greg Lynne murder trial in Melbourne and the high profile death of English millionaire businesswoman Paula Leeson in Denmark seven years ago. He is currently an expert witness at the murder case against Erin Patterson, known as the Mushroom Cook trial.

Dr Sorell’s breakthrough is based on mobile phone tower data sourced from the brief of evidence into Rachelle’s death.

He stressed that greater access to raw technical data collected by police from Vodafone at the time could furnish more insights into the case.

He said line-of-sight phone tower analysis was very reliable in determining where a phone could not be when it pinged on a phone base tower.

It sets out where a phone could be, by applying the scope and limit of the base tower’s range, but could not pinpoint an exact location.

The phone could have been in Bargo at the time of the call, although Bargo was also served by another base phone tower, to the south, at Yanderra.

“What we don’t know, and can’t tell, is how far away the phone was from the base station when the call was made,” Dr Sorell said.

“The radio signal could reach all of Bargo, as far as our modelling can tell, but the phone could also be in Tahmoor, or Picton itself, or on Remembrance Driveway as it heads south of Picton.”

LISTEN TO EARLIER DEAR RACHELLE PODCAST EPISODES BELOW:

Former Detective Inspector Mick Ashwood, who led a homicide squad review of the investigation from 2002, described Dr Sorell’s finding as “one of the most significant validations of the evidence”.

“Now you have independent evidence that you can work with.

“It gives him opportunity, and puts (Mr Correll) close to Rachelle.”

Dr Sorrell said that 2001 phone technology – as well as the means of analysing phone pings – were primitive by today’s standards.

He used high resolution mapping by Bailey Heading, a PhD candidate at the University of Adelaide.

Such hi-tech tools have replaced what once were manual processes of investigation.

“The technology wasn’t really there to do the simulation and modelling that we’re capable of doing with modern computers and modern big data,” Dr Sorell said.

“So this is an example of what happens when a case gets put aside but the technology moves forward.”

Counsel assisting the coroner, Peter Singleton, examined the phone ping evidence in 2006.

Mr Singleton told the Dear Rachelle podcast that topography was important for assessing phone tower pings.

“You can be pinging on a cell tower far away if it’s all flat in between you and the cell tower … ” he said.

“It’s not conclusive, but as a matter of probability, you generally ping on a cell tower that is close to you and not obscured by a mountain.”

Police were still chasing down the phone tower ping lead, without success, six years after Rachelle died.

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: ‘Explosive evidence’ could blow open murder investigation