When Rachelle Childs left work one Thursday afternoon in 2001, she was excited for the long weekend.

The 23-year-old, who worked as a car saleswoman, rung her sister Kristy as she left the office, confirming they were going to have a drink that evening – but it never happened.

Nine hours later, Rachelle’s body was found in a shallow ditch, 70 miles away from her office. Twenty four years on, her family are still looking for answers.

Despite police saying the murder had been the subject of an ‘exhaustive’ investigation, her killer has never been found. 

In the two and a half decades since Rachelle’s brutal killing and suspected rape, Kristy, who was just 18 at the time, has been hunting the culprit.

She has now written to the police minister in her native Australia asking for the investigation to be reopened – even offering a $500,000 (£240,000) reward for information.

Kristy has also teamed up with the Dear Rachelle podcast host journalist Ashlea Hansen and retired detective Damian Loone in the hope to uncover new evidence which could lead to an arrest. 

The podcast has now been downloaded more than four million times. 

Speaking about the day Rachelle went missing she said: ‘I remember she called me on her way home from work.

‘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 call quickly”. 

‘So I jumped over to the other line and it was Rachelle and she was driving, she always spoke to fast and she said “Hey it’s Rachelle”, and I said “I’m on the other line to Erin” and she said “right-o call me back”. 

‘And that was it, I hung up, and that was the last time I ever spoke to her.’

The siblings were meant to meet that evening – but Rachelle cancelled. 

Later, she later flicked a cigarette out of her car window and a police officer, who was driving behind her, noted down her vehicle reg, the date and time and wrote her up a ticket. 

To this day however, her whereabouts for the nine hours after this event remain a mystery.

In the early hours of the next morning, security guard Craig Duck was on duty and heading to his next job when something burning on the side of the road caught his eye. 

Speaking in the podcast he said: ‘This plays on my mind the entire time, I’m trying to kick this fire out and as I’m kicking sand onto it it’s coming back at my feet, I thought this isn’t right. 

‘I grabbed my torch and I got this flash of gold in my face, there was a bangle on her hand.’   

Her family were not aware that she was even missing because she had the day off on Friday. 

‘It was Friday night before we thought something was wrong because no one had heard from her all day and that was very unusual,’ Kristy shared.

‘That night we called police stations, we called all of the hospitals, we travelled around up and down the roads to see if maybe she had an accident.

‘The next day I printed out posters with her face that said missing… I handed them out everywhere.’ 

Kristy was also supposed to meet Rachelle at a BBQ on Saturday. She went along as planned in the hopes that her sister would show, but after hours of waiting there was no sign of her. 

She added: ‘That’s when I called mum and dad, I just said “she’s missing I can’t find her.””

By Saturday evening the family were informed that Rachelle had plans to meet someone at the Bargo hotel on Thursday evening. 

They were confused as they had never heard of the venue, and claimed Rachelle didn’t like to meet someone new alone. 

Later Rachelle’s car was found parked outside a pub in near the hotel and her family were notified. 

They went to the location of the car and Kristy noticed ‘there was something wrong’.

‘The club lock was on upside down, she had a specific way she would put the club lock on, the handle that people used to point down she would point up and jam it in the corner of the windscreen,’ she explained. ‘That wasn’t done, it was upside down.’

Kristy continued: ‘She used to have her seat far back but it was really far back, I remember looking at the car going there is something seriously wrong here, she didn’t park this here.’

Police were convinced that Rachelle knew her killer and they suspected that he might even show up to her funeral so they kept an eye on the attendees for anything out of the ordinary. 

‘I remember standing away from the burial site, and I had a detective beside me asking, do you know who that person is?’ she recalled.

‘Do you know who that person is? Do you know who that person is? And I’m like, I’ve got no idea who all these people are.’

Kristy said one person did stand out to her as unusual, Rachelle’s boss at the Camden Holden dealership- Kevin Steven Correll.

She said: ‘I remember staring at him at the funeral and he wouldn’t look at me.

‘I remember the distance he had from everybody else at the funeral. He just made me feel uncomfortable.’

Kevin, a father of two, was 22 years older than Rachelle, and reportedly had a ‘crush’ on her. 

‘I think there was a little bit of playful texting back and forth between them,’ Kristy added.

Lee, a friend of Rachelle’s, later told police that she had planned to pick up a VL Walkinshaw on Friday evening from her workplace, after Kevin promised to give her a lend of the vintage car for the weekend. 

Former detective Damian Loone said: ‘There’s some suggestion of a Walkinshaw, she was going to have a Walkinshaw for the weekend. 

‘And Kevin Correll, from the yard, her boss, may have promised her a Walkinshaw for the weekend. That would have sent her wild because she’s a car enthusiast, particularly Commodores or Holdens.

‘If it’s used as a ploy to lure you somewhere, then it is very significant. But we haven’t ever found one.’

Within days of Rachelle’s funeral Kevin was actually fired from his job because of a fraud scandal.   

Kevin always denied defrauding Camden Holden and no charges had ever been laid in relation to those allegations. 

He has also always denied any involvement in Rachelle’s murder and has never been charged.

Police did look at other men in Rachelle’s life as suspects, including her former boyfriend Shane however he was quickly ruled out because of a solid alibi. 

Rachelle’s neighbour Bruce was also a person of interest and Kristy said she was always wary of him because he had a wife and children but sent Rachelle flowers to her work. 

Damian said: ‘He’s another one of certainly of interest where he’s got some sort of romantic connections with Rachelle, and there’s no secret there that he fancied her.

‘He admits that he had a thing for her, but nothing sexual, just a hug and a kiss here and there. 

‘I think he was hoping for more, but I think she told him straight away that nothing else is going to happen.’

Kristy added: ‘I’ve always been quite suspicious of Bruce because I just found him, I don’t know, he just always gave me a bad vibe, I just didn’t like him, and he always just sort of would turn up out of nowhere.’

After Rachelle’s death Bruce packed up the family home and moved to Queensland with his wife and children, but years later, he was cleared as a person of interest during a coronial inquest.

New South Wales police have since reopened Rachelle’s case.  Last month, Correll, who became the main suspect, was found dead in Thailand.

Anyone with information on Rachelle’s death should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or make a confidential report online.