Introducing Dear Rachelle

For two decades, the family of murdered 23-year-old woman Rachelle Childs have fought for answers. Though her killer is still at large, they believe her case case can be solved. 

Dear Rachelle is hosted and investigated by journalist Ashlea Hansen, together with retired detective and cold case specialist Damian Loone, who appeared in The Australian’s award-winning podcast series The Teacher’s Pet and The Teacher’s Trial.

Search 'Dear Rachelle' to listen now.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, It's Kristin from The Australian. I wanted to let
you know about a new investigative podcast series produced by
some of our colleagues. It's called Dear Rochelle and it's
available now. Here's the trailer.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm dopings through. I've seen this fire on the right
hand thought grabbed me to torch and all of a sudden,
I got this flash of gold in the face and
I've gone back and there was a Bengal on a head.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Bird body was found on a lonely South Coast road.
The twenty three year old disappeared from a pub in Bargo.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
The callous way that she was dubbed here and just
discarded like a piec of rubbish and set on fire.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
A young woman in a prime of alive. Her name
was Rochelle Chance, and her killer has eluded police for
more than two decades.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
My big sister was vivacious.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
She was everything to me growing up. She was attractive, friendly, funny,
but loved cars.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
One of the members of Rocky Team. She really cared
about the people around her. We just all got ripped
off and and her especially.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
This case should never have been left to run cold.
It has been twenty three years.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
It's time for the truth to come out.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Join some of Australia's sharpest criminal minds in this live investigation.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
I think the person who killed her would be worried
about this podcast. I'm absolutely sure that we've interviewed the
crow us in that brief.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Have we got a serial kill on the hand.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
When you're dealing with sex offenders, it takes years of
experience to realize how clever they are.

Speaker 4 (01:52):
What would it mean to find justice everything? I'd just
love to see person off the streets.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
There's no doubt about it. I read suspect.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Rochelle was killed by someone she knew.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
She was very trusting and I think she'd trust to
the wrong person. People say to me, oh, you know
you're going to be a suspect, and they're like, oh,
you're the ex boyfriend.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
What do you mean?

Speaker 4 (02:11):
Like, I'll help, They'll think about it.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
What sorry?

Speaker 4 (02:15):
People too afraid to speak out for decades of breaking
their silence for Chelle, he doesn't scare me at all anymore.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
What you're doing is potentially very valuable to the public,
but potentially.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Very harmful to a dangerous person. I'm afraid you fit
the profile.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
He's in and around everything like he's just there. My
heart was racing, it was confronting.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
I will never have peace until my sister's murderer is found.
My worst fear is that person who Hil Rochelle has
killed again.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
This is solvable. If Fender responsible for this crime, it's
still alive. He's the devil.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Dealershell a groundbreaking podcast series exclusively from true crime Australia,
hosted by me Ashley Hanson, available now.

Speaker 4 (03:13):
Visit Dealershell dot com dot au for more. That's d
E A R R A c h E w l
E dot com dot a U. You can run away,
but you can't hide