WHO MURDERED RACHELLE CHILDS?
TWO DECADES AFTER HER LIFE WAS BRUTALLY CUT SHORT, RACHELLE’S KILLER IS STILL OUT THERE
Taking their first steps, riding horses and dreaming up their futures, best friends Antonia* and Rachelle Childs did everything together.
The neighbours, whose family homes shared a fence, lived an idyllic Australian childhood. But all that came crashing down when Rachelle was brutally murdered 20 years ago at age 23.
On June 8, 2001, her body was found in a shallow ditch, on fire. The incident sent shock waves through the small country town of Bargo, NSW. Her parents, Graham and
Anne, as well as friends were left heartbroken by the murder.
For Antonia, losing her lifelong friend was equally crushing. Desperate to help, she did the only thing she felt she could – try to catch Rachelle’s killer. Antonia helped the police in any way possible, even undergoing hypnotherapy in order to try to extract more information.
Despite numerous suspects, there was not enough evidence to lay charges. As the months rolled into years, the case went cold. Now, 20 years later, no charges have yet been laid and Rachelle’s killer is still on the loose.
“Looking back, I can’t believe it’s been 20 years.
I still very much get upset about it,” she tells New Idea.
Before her tragic death, Rachelle was a bubbly, cheeky and intelligent woman in the prime of her life. She loved her job at the Holden dealership in Camden, south-west Sydney.
“She was not only a friend but also a saviour to me – she got me through some very tough times,” Antonia recalls.
On June 7, the night Rachelle disappeared, she had said she was going to the Bargo Hotel to meet someone, but didn’t say who.
“I knew something was wrong the following day because she wasn’t [responding] to my calls. I went to the police and said there was something wrong, and then I drove around the area in my car not knowing what I would find.”
In the early hours of the next day, Rachelle’s body was found. Worried Antonia didn’t find out for four days.
She got a call while driving home from work. A mutual friend told her that Rachelle’s body had been found on the side of the road.
“I didn’t expect it,” she says. “I remember when I got home, my body had gone into shock. My arms and legs didn’t work and I just had to lie on the ground with my dog until my mum came home and helped me up.”
Antonia helped Rachelle’s parents organise the funeral and read out the eulogy, then she helped the police by sharing all of the information she had on her friend’s life. But it
took a toll, causing her to focus on her studies and withdraw from her community.
“You feel so helpless when something like that happens. I felt that, by giving the police all the information I had,
I was doing something for Rachelle and her case.”
Unfortunately, despite an exhaustive police investigation and an extended coronial inquest, none of Antonia’s information was enough to charge anyone with her murder.
The investigation is now under the responsibility of the Homicide Squad’s Unsolved Homicide Unit.
However, Antonia still holds out hope the killer will be found.
“My love for Rachelle and her family, as well as wanting justice, keeps me motivated,” she says.
Antonia wants anyone else who might have information that could be useful to come forward.
“If you remember seeing her, or something suspicious in the weeks before her
death, that may be something. It could be the silliest of details to you, but the most important detail to her case,” pleads Antonia.
Now, as the 20th anniversary of her death draws closer, family and friends plan to raise a glass to Rachelle.
“Her family lives all over the country now. Instead of meeting up, we post a photo of our drink at 8pm on her birthday and the anniversary of her death, and ‘sync a drink’ in her memory.
“To this day I keep a can of her favourite drink, Jim Beam, in my fridge. Every time I open the fridge I think of her,” she says.
Amanda O’dell should have turned 35 in March. Instead, her mum Doreen and dad Malcolm visited her grave, just like every birthday since she was murdered 15 years ago.
Shockingly, Amanda’s killer is still on the loose. Now Doreen, 79, and Malcolm, 74, are making a desperate appeal.
“We’re getting older
and we just want justice for our daughter before it’s too late for us,” Doreen tells New Idea.
Sweet-natured Amanda was well loved in Kempsey, on NSW’S Mid North Coast.
“She worked on the checkout at the local Woolies and had a smile for everyone,” Doreen says. “People were always telling us she’d served them and what a nice girl she was.”
Amanda was never going to conquer the world. “All she wanted out of life was to meet a decent man, get married and be a mum,” Doreen says.
At 17 she began dating kitchen hand Richard John Broeder, 18. But after a couple of years the pair split.
In March 2006 Amanda celebrated her 20th birthday at home with her mum, dad and older sisters Belinda and Narelle. “She loved family events,” says Doreen.
On April 8, Amanda went out for belated celebrations with friends. Doreen recalls that “she gave me a kiss and told her dad she loved him.”
But early the next morning Doreen saw that Amanda’s bed hadn’t been slept in.
“I wasn’t worried. She’d known her friends since school. They spent every weekend in and out of each other’s homes.”
By 9am, when Amanda hadn’t rung as she usually would, Doreen called her daughter’s friends.
“They said they’d dropped her off at 10.40pm, seen her put her key in the screen door lock and open it, then they’d driven off.”
Amanda had vanished on the doorstep of her family home. Distraught, Doreen and Malcolm contacted police.
“Amanda was so close to us, the police knew it was serious and started searching immediately,” Doreen says.
Days passed with no news. Doreen hoped Amanda had been abducted and was being held, as “the alternative was so much worse.”
The police told them their daughter and her ex, Richard, had still been secretly meeting.
Almost five weeks later, on May 13th, Amanda’s decomposed remains were found in Tamban State Forest, north of Kempsey. The cause of death could not be determined.
“It broke our hearts,” says Doreen. Over 600 mourners attended the funeral, with Amanda’s Woolies workmates forming a guard of honour.
Meanwhile, detectives learnt Amanda and Richard had planned to meet the night she vanished. After spots of her blood and DNA were found on his car boot liner, he was charged with her murder.
‘NOT A DAY HAS GONE BY SINCE THAT WE HAVEN’T THOUGHT ABOUT AMANDA’
At his June 2008 trial Richard freely admitted contacting Amanda the night she disappeared, but said they hadn’t met. He strenuously denied murder and said her DNA was on the boot liner because they had previously lain on it while having sex.
The case against Richard was so weak that in a rare move, the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence for the prosecution to proceed. He ordered Richard’s acquittal.
“We were bewildered,” says Doreen. “Richard didn’t kill Amanda, so who did?”
Richard subsequently sued the police for wrongful arrest and malicious prosecution, but later discontinued the case.
“Not a day has gone by since when we haven’t thought of Amanda,” says Doreen. “Her future and ours was stolen. Malcolm will never walk her down the aisle. She’ll never be a mum. I’ll never be a grandmother to her children.
“If anyone knows anything, please, call the police. Do it for the women you love, for your mum, your sister, your girlfriend, because Amanda’s killer is still out there.”