How Rachelle Childs’ former colleague Fiona was accused of her murder in graphically worded letter

A former receptionist has described the terror of receiving an anonymous letter falsely accusing her of murdering her one-time colleague.

Exclusive: A former receptionist has described the terror of receiving an anonymous letter falsely accusing her of murdering her one-time colleague, Rachelle Childs.

Fiona became friends with Rachelle when they worked together at Camden Holden in 2001, and was horrified when the 23-year-old’s burnt body was found near a coastal road in Gerroa, about 100km from her home in Bargo.

She told the Dear Rachelle multimedia investigation that she had not felt uncomfortable about anyone in that workplace until police requested Kevin Steven Correll voluntarily attend the station for questioning.

Mr Correll was released without charge but would be named as the prime suspect in the murder at an inquest years later. No one has ever been apprehended over Rachelle’s death.

“I can’t remember whether Kevin came back,” she said. “But I remained there for three years.”

Kevin Steven Correll remains the prime suspect in the murder of Rachelle Childs. Picture: Jeff Darmanin

By 2004, the killer had been on the loose for three years and Fiona was still working for the car yard when she got a letter in the mail.

“It said I was jealous of Rachelle’s money and they referred to me as ‘fat’, and I immediately told my manager, Jim (Morrison), and he came and took it to the police station,” she recalled.

“I don’t even know what else was in the letter, but I know Rachelle didn’t have money … that was nothing to be jealous of.”

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A number of Rachelle’s friends and family members – including her mother Anne Childs and her sister Kristy Childs – have previously described Rachelle as being terrible with money, to the point where she struggled to fill her prized car with petrol.

Kristy, left, and Rachelle Childs.

Mr Morrison also recalled the day Fiona received the letter. He said “it was kind of the exact wording that was basically accusing her of Rachelle’s murder”.

“And it was pretty, pretty graphically worded. It was pretty nasty stuff. It was in an envelope, so it got to Fiona and it didn’t get opened by me or anyone else prior … She was devastated,” he said.

He gave the letter to the police, but tried to analyse its composition to work out who sent it.

“Not like the old detective movies where people had cut letters out of newspapers and placed them together to make words – it wasn’t quite that far, but it looked like someone had gone to a lot of trouble just to make it look totally random,” Mr Morrison recalled.

Fiona said part of her fear over the letter was that it referred to her by her little-known nickname, ‘Fi’. It was also addressed to Camden Holden – but, by that stage, the business was called Paul Wakeling Holden.

Paul Wakeling with Jim Morrison at the 2002 opening of Paul Wakeling Holden.

Fiona resigned two weeks later and said the terror she felt when she received the letter has stayed with her.

“Still to this day I don’t know who did this or who’s out there,” she said.

“It was just scare tactics I suppose, and it worked.”

Mr Correll denies any involvement in Rachelle’s death and says he has always co-operated with the police investigation.

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 How Rachelle Childs’ former colleague Fiona was accused of her murder in graphically worded letter