The prime suspect the cold case murder of Rochelle Childs has reportedly been found dead in Thailand, sixty nine year old Kevin Stephen Carell.

He's a man police believe was likely responsible for the two thousand and one murder of twenty three year old Rochelle Childs.

It's unclear exactly when and how he died.

Welcome to our latest bonus episode of Dear Rochelle.

I'm your host Ashley Hanson.

On Friday the eighteenth of July ten am local time in Pouquet, Thailand, the body of key murder suspect Kevin Stephen Carell was discovered inside his Botong hotel room.

When the news of his death filtered back to Australia, many people were left stunned.

When Thai police realized he was a murder suspect in Australia, they expedited his autopsy.

The cause of his death can now be revealed.

The initial post mortem reports nine year old died following a cardiac arrest.

He'd been dead for twenty four hours before his body was found.

It's believed Kevin complained of chest pain in the days leading up to his death while holidaying in the Red Light district in Poquette Hotel.

Staff say he was found alone and unresponsive on the bathroom floor.

Police say there was a bowl of wet towels in his bedroom.

This is known to alleviate chess paint.

His family is receiving consular assistance from the Australian Embassy and they will now have to decide what to do with his body.

But what does Kevin's death mean for Rochelle's case?

There are so many people who feel at a loss right now.

His daughter Jazz explains how she found out.

So, my brother was trying to call me on Saturday.

We haven't spoken in quite some time, and I assumed it was in relation to our rift, and I wasn't ready to talk to him, but he persevered and I answered the call Saturday night, just got home and yeah, he told me, But yeah, he'd been trying to call me since some morning.

And what did you do after you heard that news?

I ran Christie And it's funny.

I was messaging her at first and asking her to call me, and I saw that she saw my message and she hadn't called back.

And in that time I called other victims of my dads who don't want to be named, and had a few conversations, but I couldn't let myself cry until i'd spoken to Christie.

And when she did call, I assumed she would have known what I was calling for because of the promise I had made her and we hadn't spoken on the phone prior to Saturday night.

I just assumed she'd know.

But she answered in and her beautiful, jovial voice, asking how it was, and I couldn't bring myself to say the words.

I just told her that I was making the call I promised i'd make her and she was confused by that, and yeah, then had to say the words, and that's when the tears just wouldn't stop.

You must be feeling a lot of mixed feelings at the.

Moment, Yeah, yeah, lots of I think the anger I felt sort of kept me together initially, and some of his supporters are helping me maintain that anger.

I'm being told that certain family members hope that I'm proud of myself and messaging my children and telling them that I'm responsible for their grandfather's death.

He comes from a long line of pieces of shit.

Yeah, there's been a lot of harassment, so that anger sort of, I don't know.

It contains me a little bit, but it's red hot rage.

But there's anger for the lack of justice for Rochelle.

There's anger at all that he's done and the way that he's gone out, and there's no I don't know, it's just I feel really angry.

But yeah, last night, the sadness really started hitting.

I think as soon as I really let those tears flow, they just won't stop.

Now it's not a I don't know, it's not a normal grief of a person losing a parent.

I've grieved my relationship with my dad for a very long time, and he even my children mentioned but you know, they obviously they're pretty shaken up by what's happened.

But it doesn't feel like that typical death.

It is a sense of finality, I suppose, But yeah, we'd grieved him for a long time.

What do you think is your father's legacy.

I think that's what really hurts that.

You know, I'm not letting myself remember the good stuff at the moment, but I know that will come, and I know there's people out there that wouldn't remember the good and you know, but that's fine.

That's completely okay, and I wish them all their good memories.

But denial of the harm he did, he's not okay.

It's not right.

He harmed a lot of people.

There are a lot of people who are justifiably celebrating his death, and I support them one hundred percent, even though it hurts you, I mean pain.

I support them.

They're allowed to be happy that he can't hurt anyone anymore.

Is there some level of satisfaction that the man who your father was was in some way exposed?

Yes?

Yeah, for me personally, and I'm sure I'm sure christian Ann.

You know that exposure means something to them, and I'm so glad that they got that.

For me personally, it's a different level.

You know.

I have stated I don't have any regrets about my participation in the podcast.

I know a lot of people think I should, that I should feel regret, and that I should have healed things and I should have left it alone.

This year was my first step towards healing, and I have openly said to people that I won't.

I won't have to carry this anymore.

It's going to him when he's grave.

He's taking it to his grave.

To carry, and he owes me that he owes me, and I didn't want to spend the rest of my life carrying all these secrets and all this hurt and all these feelings.

And if he had died without me saying what I said in the podcast and him never hearing it, because I did try for many years to try and sit down and have conversations with my dad to tell him how I felt in an attempt to repair everything I was feeling.

But every time I did, I was shut down.

I was told it was wrong and me participating in the podcast and he had to hear it, and he couldn't tell me I was wrong, and he couldn't shut me down.

And I know he would have listened every word, and it was the only chance I ever got to say how I felt, and he needed to hear it, as hard as it would have been to hear, and how much I would have hurt him, he needed to hear those things.

It didn't change anything, and the podcast gave me that opportunity.

The exposure in his involvement with Rochelle's death was so important for them, But my involvement is it on a different scale.

Can that make sense?

Let's hear from Rochelle's family, her mum and her sister Christy, and what was your reaction when you heard the news?

Total complete shock.

Just felt like, you know, I've been cheetedly.

It's the last thing I expected to hear.

I didn't really know what to feel at the time.

The first feeling I had was just concerned for Jazz, because she must have some really conflicting feelings about her father dying.

I know how she feels about him and her opinion of him, but he's also still her dad, so I was just mainly concerned for her.

For me, I didn't really know how to react to it.

I didn't really know how I felt about it.

I think it's going to take a really long time for it to sink in.

I don't know what it means for the investigation.

I kind of feel like it's freedom for his victims, particularly those beautiful women that came forward from their eighties.

I think that they must feel a sense of relief knowing that he's gone, and I'm really.

Happy about that.

I'm concerned that secrets have died with him, but at the same time, I don't think he would have shared that with us.

Anyway, I think he would have taken it to his grave, which he actually in fact did.

I'm hoping that if there was anyone who has information regarding Kevin in relation to Rochelle's case, that they can now come forward without fear of backlash from him.

I guess I'm sad for his loved ones.

I have no sympathy for him whatsoever.

I wish that he suffered more than he did.

How does it sit with you that he has taken secrets to his grave?

Oh?

I hate it.

I hate the thought of that, because they may well be doing just that.

We may not hear anything from else, anything new, from any money else at this point, I don't know.

I don't know what to expect.

A brain's just mush.

How long have you been convinced that Kevin Correll took your sister's life?

Probably twenty years.

But as I've always said, there's always part of me that says, you know, what, you could be wrong because it needs to be proven beyond reasonable doubt within a court of law.

And it is possible that it wasn't him, and I think we all need to recognize that.

But when all most of the evidence continually points back to him.

And when you consider how he ran down her character immediately after she died and his actions immediately after she died, it kind of screams guilt.

So that's really hard to ignore.

So to be convinced nearly one hundred percent, to be convinced at least ninety percent that he killed my sister, and now he's dead, and I feel like I might have failed because we didn't get justice for her.

And do you believe that Kevin Correll is responsible for Rochelle's murder?

I do?

How long have you believed that?

For pretty much day one?

I suppose.

So for a very long time you've believed that he was responsible.

Yeah, it's just too much for not to be him.

What do you think it means now for Rochelle's case.

It feels like it's just up in the air.

I don't know.

I'm hoping some people will still come forward.

Perhaps we're too scared to come forward before.

If it was him, I think that we've probably got the best chance now to actually get those answers because he's not there preventing us from getting them.

So if there's someone who knows information or he has something of Rachelle's on his person or with his belongings where he lived on the Central Coast, that could potentially tell a story that we would never have heard had he not died.

But the fact that it's impossible for us to get justice if he is in fact responsible for her murder, Oh, that's just gut wrenching.

I don't even have words for that.

But as for trying to find answers if he was responsible or if he had a part in it, I actually think we have more of a chance now.

Retired New South Wales detective Damien Luhne was on the same call too to share his thoughts on the death of Kevin Correll and how it might impact Rachelle's case.

Oh, initially I was surprised and it was a bit of a wow moment.

The police has said they're still going to investigate Rachelle's murder under Strikeforce t LAP.

Does that give you any hope that we could get some answers?

Look, missus great news to hear that they're not going to just drop the case now.

I do understand that there are a financial restraints in starving restraints, but for them not to drop the ball now is glad news and I'm just happy to hear that, and it should be looked thoroughly and at some stage they will make a determination if it If it will continue, we'll go with the strike force to be disbanded.

But you know, we can cast aside all these aspersions about who's done what, etc.

But I'm just glad that this is going to be continuing.

There may be other evidence that we don't know about that homicide squad is keeping under wraps, and I can understand those reasons why.

But to get to the bottom of everything, I think the key was to Kevin.

But he's no longer unfortunately, no longer alive, and as I said, there'll be some things that will we just may never know, and it's just unfortunate the family have to live through this now.

It's very sad and I feel for the family.

I also spoke to retired homicide detective Mick Ashwood.

Quite surprise, not shocked, but certainly unexpected.

My mind goes to points of what the police will do next, but really the main folkus is the family.

I feel sorry for Evan's family.

Significant loss doesn't matter the circumstance, who they are.

What do you think it means for a Shechelle's case.

It leaves a lot of answered questions that may be difficult to get an answer out.

There's always open that although he's main suspect, he may have been there but have witnessed it, or may know a lot of information that perhaps he could have told police, but he chose not to seem to, in my reflections, seem to have been quite deceptive about what his movements relates to Michelle that day in that afternoon, and I just spope some other way and get that those facts out, whether he did or with someone else he knows did it, whether he was watching or following someone else.

It is a challenge is we'll have to rethink their lines of inquiry, adjust them, and hopefully go forward.

When you were on the case, what stood out to you as strong evidence that pointed towards Kevin.

Strong evidence was contact with Michelle on the day of a disappearance.

His evidence that was being collated, like I've conducted the review a year later.

There's a favorite of evidence about his movements that were suspicious.

Accounts to the vescoes at the time where he was what he was doing, which proved to be not true.

They had significant weight to the only circumstances that make it an issue relation to whether it's him or not.

Still, the time gap between her last known movements and her discovery does make it a challenge.

If Kevin was responsible for a Shechelle's murder and he can now no longer be charged, do you think justice is possible?

I think yes, that that term is obviously has to vary in past cases where people are passed and on site investigation.

It does come down to the inquest.

In quest though, on the other hand, does have that opportunity for a vast range of evidence and information that's seen as relevant can be heard before a magistrate for a state coroner.

But the other family can right to hold an inquest, write to the coroner and say we have an inquest in this manner?

Are there all factors for the coroner?

Christie's best friend, Mindy, who's been a driving force behind teamshell is gut it.

First it was shock.

Now I'm just angry.

Where does that anger come from?

Just want to answers, just we've got so far twenty four fucking years.

It's really frustrating, it's gut ranching, it's so fucking unfair.

It's just so unfair.

I feel like he's escaped again.

It doesn't matter where he goes and lands on his well, God it did this time, but still fucking got away with that, don't have to face up to anything.

Just infuriating.

So many brave women who accuse Kevin Correll of terrible crimes have reacted with mixed emotions.

Remember Evelyn who believes Kevin spiked her drink before stalking and threatening her.

Evelyn, what's your reaction to the death of Kevin Terrell?

A bit of a double edged sword.

Relieved, but not relieved for the people that.

It needed the answers.

I think it's just sad to think that it's ended at this stage this way that it may give the opportunity for people who were frightened of him to come forward and maybe tell their truth, which would be just amazing.

I do feel that there is a lot of people out there that are scared of him.

I definitely wasn't one of them.

You know.

I think that it's an awful position for the family to be in.

My heart goes out to Christian and and you know, everybody who has been involved with this jazz as well.

She's half broken in so many different ways.

But for me, the only thing that I hope is that it wasn't quick, it was long, And I hope that the last thing that he thought of was the life that he lived on this earth and suffered as much pain as he inflicted on other people.

How will you remember him as.

The evilest person that's ever walked the earth, just pure, pure evil.

With no remorse for anything or anybody.

As someone who has accused Kevin of terrible crimes, stalking, emotional abuse, You've accused him of sparking your drink and threatening to harm you and your family, how do you feel knowing that he's now no longer on this arch?

So immensely relieved, borderline joyful.

I raised a glass of champagne last night to the skies, thanking whoever took him for everything.

I know that it isn't giving us the answers now, but it will.

But I was joyful because I thought, he can't do this to another person.

There's not going to be another beautiful girl hurt stalked.

Ever again.

So that was my joy.

That that part was just my joy.

And I know that sounds a terrible thing to say, but you know, the devil has two faces, and he definitely did.

We'll have more news to share about key suspect Kevin Correll's death in Thailand soon.

New South Welles Police say this strifeforce investigating Rochelle's murder continues and we won't stop searching for the truth.

Remember Eligible News Corp Australia Digital subscribers get early access to breaking news and developments on Rochelle's case.

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