Greasy alibi | 10

First of all, we were just seeing the car park by itself. We must have heard something because David's turned off the car and we listen. Then we heard screaming. My name is Wayne Nielsen, or was a policeman for close on twenty years.

Wayne is taking us back in time to a Saturday night in May nineteen eighty three. It's just past midnight and he's patrolling the streets of Liverpool in Sydney Southwest with Constable Dave Stephenson.

Turn the truck around to face the vehicle. I met the young woman running from the vehicle, extremely distressed, clutching her dress and saying that the guy's got a gun.

He's threatened to killer.

Immediately, we drew our revolvers and told him to get out of the vehicle with his hands so we could see them so that he was an armed He got out of the vehicle and as he did so with his hands up, his pants came down and then got him to go against the vehicle. At that stage he still got his hands up. After he's got his pants

And what did the alleged offenders say.

Well, he said something in relation to she deserved it or something like that she was only a mole That's how he was behaving towards her at the time. At some stage with searched the vehicle. Well, Dave searched the vehicle was still with the truck and the victim Dave didn't come up with anything under the seat. She lledged that the weapon was under a sept that he reached for it a couple of times during the assault.

Was a weapon foul? So did you take this man back to the police station and did he identify himself to you?

Yes, we found out his identity.

What did he say?

His name was Kevin Cornwall.

I'm Ashley Hanson and you're listening to episode ten of Dear Rochelle, a podcast by True Crime Australia. This is the untold story of Rochelle Charles, a twenty three year old who was brutally murdered. Her killer has never been caught. In your experience, how common is it to make an arrest during an alleged attack.

Yeah, not very often. You get people in the act of it, you know, breaking an as you do and things like that, but certainly not sexual assaults. I can't think of any other ones which happened at the time we actually wrestled them. Basically in the act.

Wayne is recalling his arrest of Kevin Stephen Cornwall more than four decades ago. Kevin, who later changed his surname to Correll, became the key suspect in Rochelle's murder. You've already heard about two other sexually motivated attacks in which Kevin was charged but later acquitted. Wayne is talking about a third case, in which Kevin was also acquitted. The alleged victim is a young woman whose identity is protected. She'd met Kevin at a popular Liverpool nightclub called Scaramouge.

Well, first he leant over and started trying to kiss me and that, and that's when I said to him, I've got a husband. And he said, you're nothing better. He called me a lesbian, a tramp, and all those sorts of things. And he said, one minute you've told me you're engaged, next thing, you told me you're married.

I said you better leave me.

Alone, and he moved back and then started undoing his pants and then he grabbed me by the hair and I just started crying. And the more I cried, the angrier he got. And he started slapping me in the face and said stop crying. And then I got back up and I was just sitting there, and then he leant over again and grabbed me by the neck and he says, I've got a gun underneath the front seat if you don't come across. And all I kept on thinking was this couldn't be happening.

I just kept.

Crying, and he got worse and worse, and he started bending my neck right back and I was just sitting there and then his eyes sort of lit up. I tried to get out of the door, but it was locked, so I unlocked it and I got out of the car.

Walk began as a standard night for Constable Wayne Nielsen more than forty years ago patrolling Sydney's Southwest, has stayed with him to this day.

Well, sure, wholly upset. I mean, she just went through a very traumatic time where she obviously felt her life was threatened. She was violently sexually assaulted.

Wayne was struck by how Kevin, who was twenty seven at the time, was acting towards the young woman.

Well, he was pretty offensive towards the female in his language and his demeanor, and how he related to her. It seems like that was a very common attitude of his, you know.

And would it be fair to call him an extreme misogynist the way that he was describing her behavior.

I mean a total disregard for respect of a female.

Kevin claims the alleged victim agreed to go for a drive after she was denied entry to the nightclub, but she claims he'd offered to give her a lift home. Kevin says inside the cup the pair got into an argument and she became upset. Kevin took the stand to defend him. Here's part of what he told the court, voiced by an actor.

I stopped the car at Woodward Park and told her to settle down. She was crying by then, upset, and we took from maybe five minutes, and she seemed to appear to me to settle down a little bit. Then I put my arm around her, and I first kissed her on the cheek, and then I started kissing her on the lips. She responded to that, she seemed to settle down a little bit again, and I again put my arm around her and kissed her. The response was

She said, you told me you'd said a while ago that you'd take me home. I said that was before you started carrying on like an idiot, and I said, I'm going to drop you back up to Scaramouge. We were arguing, as I said, and a light came up the driveway. As it got closer, I was sewing the police light on top of the truck and I said something like it's the bloody copper is not to worry, they'll go straight past.

And the police stopped and she started screaming.

Kevin denies having a gun in his car and no weapons were found. A jury later found not guilty of the attack. Let's return to Wayne Nielsen. I asked him, generally speaking, how vulnerable is a woman in a car with a dangerous man?

Extremely vulnerable? I think a lot of times females may not realize how dangerous a male can be, how strong and driven.

Let's bring in retired detective Damien Loon to get his thoughts on this third sexual assault case.

Well, when do you look at the circumstances of how he's arrested a gunpoint? It's a smoking gun brief, as I say, you know, here he gets out of a car. He's been accused of a sexual and motivated attack against a young intoxicated woman, and he gets out of the current and the cops pull him out a current gunpoint in his pants fall down around his ankles. You know, you couldn't get a better evidence. Police had enough evidence

Matters, and now it's probably the time to tell you about the first rape allegation leveled against Kevin. The year was nineteen eighty and Kevin was twenty four DJing in Sydney's Southwest. On this occasion, a seventeen year old told police Kevin had offered to drive her home from a Liverpool nightclub. She alleges he pulled a knife on her, ordering her into the back seat, where he allegedly raped her before dropping her home. Kevin was charged with rape

I had gone in to see Rochelle about purchasing a vehicle off the lot, and she was her usual beautiful self, and we spoke about it. I think I was trading in a vehicle as well, which she loved, so we spoke about that. My daughters were with me and my sister was with me. I think also, you know, we would have got there about three pooty five, and Rochelle

Did she give you any reason as to why she had to leave early that day?

No, she didn't. I've thought about this. No, she didn't give me any reason. She was very happy though, but every time I saw Rachelle she was happy.

Did she take a car for a test drive with you? What car were you looking at? And who else was there with you that day?

Because I had a familiarity with Campden Hold and my husband at the time had worked there for many years, and although he had left, we still remained in close contact with some of the people that worked there, so I was well known to the dealership. So usually if I liked a car, I was just allowed to take it out myself drive it around. No, she didn't come with me. There was Kevin Carell. He was there. He wasn't too far away at any point of in the background,

Do you have any recollections about doing any paperwork with Rochelle in terms of buying the car I did.

I builed out paperwork might have been done the day before or the day before that. They said the paperwork had gone missing, And I remember sitting there with Rochelle and she couldn't find our paperwork, She couldn't find our own application. She was asking Kevin if he'd seen them, because they were definitely on her desk. They would have been in a file, I'm sure, And he said no,

What was your impression of Rochelle's reaction to that?

She was frustrated, and I think that it made her look unprofessional, which she didn't like because she was very professional.

Did you ever wonder what had happened to that paperwork that you'd filled out?

So when I rang back early the next week for the application to be processed and lodged, and that's when they told me that I asked to speak to Rachelle, and that's when they told me that Rachelle had passed away. I think I was so shocked to hear that. I did wonder why I had to basically apply for this

Do you think that Rochelle had anything to do with that paperwork being lost?

No?

Why are you so confident of that?

I really don't think.

So.

She seemed exasperated that she couldn't find it. Kevin was lase a that it couldn't be found, and no, look, that's just a gut feeling. I doubt it very much. And when we were out on a lot, I could see he was watching her again, and I thought to myself at the time, I think he had a little crash on her. And the way he did used to watch Rochelle, I can picture him now, just sort of like leering at her at the corner of his eye. I didn't like it, and she seemed quite oblivious.

Both Rochelle and her boss Kevin were last sighted at Camden Holden on the night in question. It's June seven, a winter's night in the historic Australian country town of Camden. This time of year, the sun begins to set just before five pm, so it's getting dark and chilly.

We know.

Rochelle leaves work just after five and heads towards her home in Bargo, that's a thirty minute drive south. On the way, she calls Christie, who was staying at their parents' place in Glenfield, a suburb in Campbelltown. So Rochelle is home alone.

I remember she called me on her way home from work. I was on you know when you used to have like the second line on the landline. I was on the phone to my best mate from school and I heard the call come through, and I said, I'll just answer this quickly. So I jumped over to the other line and it was Rochelle and she was driving.

Because she always spoke so far.

She just said hey, Chris, Michelle, and I said, hey, I'm on the other line. Erin and she went, oh, right here, call me back. I said, okay, bye, and that was it.

I hung up.

That was the last time I spoke to her.

That's Rochelle's last known phone contact with anyone on the evening. She was murdered a minute later. Her blue hold and Commodore was spotted by a council ranger driving through Camden at five sixteen pm. A friend who knows Rochelle from work later tells police she flicked her headlights at him as they drove past each other through Camden. All clues to this point tell us she's heading home, and it's believed she had somewhere to go. We're pretty sure she

When I arrived at her house, the lights were all on and the telly was still on, and the windows.

Were like the blinds were open.

I could see it looked like she'd literally just left, gotten changed and left.

We don't know where she went, with who, or if she went willingly. This is where we lose any trace of Rochelle. Now we're going to explore Kevin's alibi in close detail. Kevin voluntarily participated in three interviews with police in relation to Rochelle's murder, and we've gathered the following timeline from his evidence as well as police evidence, including mobile phone data. I want to foreshadow two points. Kevin wasn't immediately forthcoming with police about his address at the

We had his phone being used south of Picton at a time when he said that he was on the other side of the Razorback Mountain range in Campbelltown or MacArthur Square. Whilst not conclusive, tended to suggest that his alibi was not truthful. And my recollection is there was no supporting evidence for his shopping trip and that the independent evidence tended to suggest he was gained towards Bargo when he denied it. So it was obviously a matter of great interest and importance to explore it as much

By a mountain. He's retired to teaket if Damien Loon unpacking what we know so far.

Some of the most baffling questions in Rochelle's case are where did she meet a killer? When? And where was the fatal encounter? Did it happen in Bargo or down around Giroua.

Let's go back to our analysis of Kevin's alibi.

That six o eight pm phone call is important, and when you look at Kevin's shopping trip, there's no proof of it. He's gone to a couple of shops but never bought anything.

For a closer look at the topography of the area we're referring to, there's an animated map with key locations on our website. Go to Dear Rochelle dot com dot au. That phone call Kevin made at six oh eight pm is a great significance. The number he dialed is almost identical to Rochelle's mobile number, but with two of the digits switched around, as if he going to type the number and mix them up. Here's Damien again.

There's two digits that have been swapped around at the end of the phone number. So that number Kevin called went to someone in Queensland and it was a wrong number. Now I firmly believe that Kevin was trying to ring Michelle, but why when Kevin was first questioned by homicide detectives he didn't mention this phone call. He had to be reminded of it in his police interview.

I obviously didn't get through and never bothered it again. So obviously the reason I rang was just was something to do with work relation. There was no answer, he was engaged or something. I don't know if I spoke to anyone. I don't recall anyone saying you've got the wrong number. I obviously didn't try again, and if it's if you've got the phone records there, so I obviously would have been discussing it with her the next day.

I don't think.

So.

To recap Kevin's last verified sighting is around five point thirty PM, when he leaves work. His phone then pings south have Picton, yet he says he was in the Campbelltown area. After leaving Campbelltown, Kevin says he drives to Picton to visit his partner, Alice. That's about a half hour drive southwest. He says he arrives at Picton wanting to stay the night, but Alice isn't home. Kevin makes a further two phone calls from his mobile that evening.

Cake, bat it sav a bag of chips and a cake.

And a quick note. Tamil is in the opposite direction to Kevin's home. There's also takeaway options in Picton. Now. Remember in nineteen eighty three when Kevin was questioned and later acquitted over the attempted sexual assault of a young mum at Darlinghurst. This was his alibi. This is not his voice.

Well, stop to take away food bar in Terminus Street, Liverpool, where I purchased about it save a piece of fish, a bag of chips and a loaf of bread.

Detectives questioned Kevin about the similarities between his alibis eighteen years apart.

Well, yeah, I love fish and chips.

Once I'll change that and get a fish cake and a battered savon chips.

I've done it twice this week.

When Detective Inspector Mick Ashwood was in charge of reviewing Rochelle's case in two thousand and three, he re examined Kevin's alibi alongside his mobile phone data.

Just swapping the cantercoat full the loaf of bread.

But to pull those exact words out on a recording interview, what's in a statement from the I think it was the eighties, he's quite well. It stands out to you that it could be a manufactured account of where they were, because we do know that independent evidence he was down towards Pargo. We don't know exactly where he was, but this is important. It's independent evidence that puts him down there.

And he's paid a singleton. Again.

It is not unknown for criminals to fall back upon a comfortable alibi that's worked for them before. In this case, one possibility is that mister Carrell fell back upon an alibi that had worked for him before and decided to use it again. Not because it was true, but because he was comfortable with it. He would be able to sustain it, not change his story, not forget not the possibilities. It was true and it's just a coincidence that he

According to Kevin, after he gets fish and chips from Tarmil, he heads back to Picton to see if Alice is home yet, but she's not. His phone records show a call to Alice from his mobile at seven thirty eight pm, which pings off a Norellan cell tower, which police belief suggests he was somewhere near Camden at that point in time. Now, this is a vital detail to highlight. At the time of that phone call, Kevin says he was at his unit in Camden. It was news to police that he

I don't know why he would have withheld that information from police. It was important, I don't know, And that's one of the mysteries of the brain.

Do you think he could have withheld that information because he was trying to hide that he could have been watching Rochelle.

Look, it also could have been a crime, saying, that's what disturbs me. And obviously the police didn't know about the location of that unit near Camden Holden and for me that would be very worrying now knowing that happened, and I know that the investigators at the time would have been looking for something like that. But for him to withhold that information and sometimes you can do that, it's easy to do and I could have been possibly have been a crime, say his.

Former partner told the inquest he had not a lot of furniture in that unit, but there were binoculars. Does that concern you at all?

A sparsely furnished flat overlooking the car with a pair of binoculars here, that does concern me.

One more thing about that Camden unit that Kevin rented in two thousand and one, we managed to track down the owner, David. Our picture editor Jeff dar mannin caught up with David at the property, where he says he made a bizarre discovery hidden inside the unit. After Kevin moved out.

Do you have any memories when Kevin rented the unit?

He rented the unit, he worked next door and it was very convenient being in that location. That and I did meet him a few times which it would run into him, and that we always struck me as being quite a red rolled sort of a person.

In two thousand and one, could you see Camden Holden from where the unit was?

Yes, you could from that unit.

You can see it from both the bedroom window and the landroom window. But they have since built a silo there on the adjoining block.

Can you describe the view from the unit into cant and Holding itself?

You saw into the parking lot and some of the building.

Actually saw a fair bit of the place, really of the exposed place.

And could you see the red train carriage?

You see the red train carriage from me?

Yet? And when did you discover police and search Captain's unit?

Well, it wasn't a discovery more so than they arrived forensic squad and went through the place and top to bottom marked the walls with paint and not paint but stuff to see fingerprints and all the stuff they used in for its forensic investigations.

How long after Rachelle's murder. Did Kevin move out?

Look, I can't honestly remember. To be Quotles, I can't remember, but I know he did leave.

Yep.

The state the flat was left in was Yes, we had to do the paint the walls because of the stuff and the marks on for a the forensic people had been through. There was marks on the carpet and everything else. So he then decided to do up the place and strip it and paint it and get it ready for the next tenant.

And while you were doing that, did you discover anything?

This?

Well, this, it's just it. We went pulling up the carpet, the carpet went into the wardrobe and tucked in where it lifted in the wardrobe, found a lot of newspaper clippings, all directly associated with the murder. I took them home and said to my wife, I found these, and she said take it to the police, which I did the very next day and gave it to the detective and all of it was and I said, this is.

What I've found. He's moved out, and this is what I found.

And where they were. What was the detective's reaction when you showed him that.

Yeah, they took it on board and that was about it. And basically that's the last I heard of it for a while.

And when you look through those clippings, was there any handwriting on anything any just straight straight clippings.

Look from memory, it was the page of fold pages of the stuff. Whatever was on the page was on that newspaper page.

And when Kevin had left the apartment and he had cleaned up, how did everything finalize?

Well, Kevin left there in a bit of a hurry, obviously rent and left it. And like I said, the place probably not accordingly, but the police had left it, you know, as they would find a forensic place afterwards. It was in need of a bit of TLC.

And did you have to chase Kevin for any money or anything else there?

Since you said?

I did, And ironically I had a couple of because he disappeared. I had a couple of mates that are in the car industry and I just rang them and said, look, if you ever know where this bloke is, can you just let me know. I want to collect some rent and I can't find him anywhere. Well, I think now from memory it was in within days.

One of the blakes.

He said no problems dated he's working at time down at Narah, So I fronted down there and to his credit or anything at the time, I got paid straight away. The check was there. Assuming they'd be going on with a check that abounds. It didn't and and that was my last doelings. But ironically I was in marellin shopping center and I ran into the detective that I got to know from the case, and I said, were are you up to with that? And he said, oh, we can't find him. I said, he got to be choking.

And it was just he was a suspect. That was all it was to it.

Getting back into Kevin's alibi. On the night in question, at seven forty three pm, Alice calls Kevin. They speak for exactly fifteen minutes and twenty seven seconds. Kevin says he asked Alice if he come over to her place, but she says she's tired and going to bed. Kevin claims he then heads out. He jumps in his car and drives past Camden Holden because it's right behind his unit. He claims he sees the cleaner and stops to speak with him, asking.

Him, is everything okay? You're the cleaner. The cleaner says, yeah, everything he's okay.

But when the cleaner, Raymond Kusheba, is interviewed by police, he.

Says, whilst I was carrying out my cleaning outside, no person approached me at any stage.

Kevin's next unverified stop is at the service station at the end of the street, where he says he buys a bottle of milk and he engages in some small talk with the service station's staff member, who he knows is David. During his statement to police, the staff member said while Kevin Correll was a familiar customer, he could not recall whether or not Kevin had come into the

Looking back, when he came to work on that Friday morning, he was late and he looked like shit.

He looked really crappy, really like he hadn't slapped.

And he left early on that Friday afternoon and saying he had a doctor's appointment too.

Another colleague, Kerrie Thorpe, also noticed Kevin's appearance on Friday. This is her evidence, but not her voice.

I recall upon seeing him that day that he looked like death. By that, I mean that he looked unwell, He looked tired and like he hadn't been to bed I remember that although he looked that way, his clothing appeared normal and not disheveled, and he was wearing a long black coat.

Kevin denies any involvement in Rochelle's death, and the coroner delivered an open finding after conducting a coronial inquest. Rochelle's initial investigation was dogged by police bungles, including lost CCTV and misstop tunities. Potential witnesses when interviewed early enough, and will never know exactly what forensic evidence was overlooked, but a major misstep centers around DNA. In two thousand and three, police held a mass DNA screening in the local area

The testing is not compulsory, but probably say they can still rely on conventional methods of investigation.

Investigators had identified an unknown male DNA profile through their sampling of exhibits, including a bedsheet. At the time, detectives thought this was a major breakthrough in the case, but it turned out to be another blow to police and Rochelle's family.

Here's Mick Ashwood unfortunate.

What didn't come through before that operation was the results of an internal.

Searching of DNA.

Police don't hold their own officers with DNA database, but it was established at an officer at seoel Haven. It was their DNA when they were processing the exhibits that got on to each of the items. Now by this stage you'd.

Come around, would come around to an inquest.

So were now a few years into the case. So that leads to some fundamental problems. And I'm talking here from outside the investigation. Besides, no longer part of the investigation at that time, apart from coordinating the DNA database. But when the information came through that the DNA belonged to an officer, first thing you do is eliminate the officer, which was done. Then you look at the procedural mistake in the handling of the exhibits, which is what occurred

I also asked FBI trained criminal profile at Chris Sillingsworth her reaction to the DNA mix up.

Yeah, it's unfortunate that that happened because it was turned out being being reherring in itself. But you know, he may well have had the gloves on and wiped his brow and then it's contemporated when he's touched the next exhibit. So procedurally it wasn't the right thing, but on a human level, you can understand how it would happen.

I remember just not being surprised. I think I would imagine that Dad would have told me, because everything went through Dad first, and then Dad told me and Mum. Yeah, I imagine that he would have told me. And I don't remember being surprised a because the DNA profile hadn't matched anybody, and we tested everybody. You know, they stuffed up a lot of things. And I'm not running the police down. They worked really hard, but there were a number of things that were yeah, stuffed up, things lost,

Would have been a gut wrenching kicking. The guts are let down because you're on the verge of saying, well, this may break, well, this may break the case. We may find the offender or offenders, and yet then to only to find that because there was poor crime scene examination without being properly kidded up with your personal protective equipment, and you've left your own DNA behind. It's somewhat not any terrible and gut riching from the investigators, but an embarrassment.

In the course of this investigation, we've discovered Kevin Stephen Carrell has had quite a lot of different jobs over the years, or at least he claims he's had them. Car salesman, DJ detective of laborer, security guard, psychologist, garage door salesman, private investigator and lifeline counselor. Now we can

So sign in, We have to sign in normal?

Good?

Thanks?

Yes?

Please?

Giving you a hard time?

Is that.

We come face to face with Kevin at the club's entrance within seconds of arriving.

Oh it always does.

No entire.

Is there any entertain No, that's die, have love evening, Thank you?

What are the fucking chances?

Like?

I literally was putting in my address wrong because I saw him and I started typing and then I saw him and I was like fuck, and I was pressing spaces where I couldn't and I couldn't fucking remember where I live.

And then he come over.

I was My heart was racing, like that's you, that's it. Yeah, what do you make of seeing him to Yeah?

Do you know?

And this is probably gonna sound silly, but seeing him in the flash, face to face, having him literally inches from me, it makes it even more fucking important to figure this out.

It's like a power thing.

I feel like he he needs, like he needs to control the room. He and to a degree. He kind of does because he's in and around everything, like he's just there, you know, literally walking the place, and very he's standing right next to me.

It was confronting, Yeah, I was. My heart was racing. Keep in mind, early on, when I was investigating Rochelle's case as a solo freelance journalist, I'd been warned to tread very carefully. And the more I uncovered, the more I understood.

Why what you were suggesting you were going to do, I wouldn't carry that out.

I fear for you.

I thought that you should be aware of what you were doing. Sometimes you get lost in.

Your work and you don't realize what you've done until it's too late.

Well, as I said to you before, you're poking a beer.

Now, more than a year into the investigation, with news Corps backing and so much fresh evidence, it's time for us to approach Kevin Carrell. Since the inquest more than seven ten years ago, Kevin's moved on with his life out of the media spotlight, but Rochelle's family deserves answers and Kevin deserves the chance to speak. We have a lot of questions for him, so we wanted to approach him out in the open, and you're behind him.

Yeah, turning left onto a whale road which is still heading in your direction.

You're hitting a lot when he gets.

There, aren't you.

Yeah, I'm right behind him, roughly eight a.

Couple of minutes.

Okay, he's just jumped a red light to turn the left.

I'm not going to do it.

No, do you think he'll be turning into the village road?

Really soon?

Coming soon?

On Dear Rochelle, who was in an envelope, who was basically accousing her of Rochelle's murder.

He has a hatred for all this, other than the fact he wants the truth to come out.

The person who killed Rochelle Childs would have a similar motive towards you, also hatred if you actually managed to expose him schizophrenic.

I've never seen a man treated a woman like that.

I felt fear for my life.

I'm sure there is something out there or someone who knows something that will bring essentially a monster to be arrested.

Watch your dad.

Get out of like that other way.

Dear Rochelle is a multi media production from True Crime Australia. If you want to be one of the first to find out what happens next, go to Dear Rochelle dot com dot a you. That's where eligible Digital News Corp Australia subscribers get early access to podcast episodes and breaking news in our live in investigation and you will also find exclusive videos, interactive evidence, feature articles and more. That's