A young woman murdered in an Australian country town. People too afraid to speak for decades are finally breaking their silence.  What happened in 23-year-old Rachelle Childs' final nine hours?  

Now, 24 years since Rachelle was murdered, an unstoppable cold case team has assembled to drive this live investigation.

Tips from the public are pouring in - could you hold the missing piece that cracks the case?

Dear Rachelle is hosted and investigated by journalist Ashlea Hansen, who teams up with retired detective and renowned cold case specialist Damian Loone.

Listen to this preview episode and search for Dear Rachelle in your podcast app and hit "follow" to have new episodes delivered to your feed. Eligible News Corp Australia subscribers receive new episodes early at dearrachelle.com.au and enjoy access to videos, articles, interactive evidence and more.

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A killer is on the loose in an Australian country town.

Excited for the June long weekend, bubbly 23-year-old Rachelle Childs leaves work, calls her sister, and is dead within hours. Her burning, partially naked body is found nine hours later in bushland on a lonely coastal road. Her killer has never been caught.

Now innocent people, once too afraid to speak, are breaking their silence.

If you’re looking for your next true crime podcast obsession, search out Dear Rachelle.

An unstoppable cold case team is reinvestigating and uncovering damning new evidence. Could this finally be the break the family needs?

Dear Rachelle is hosted and investigated by journalist Ashlea Hansen, who teams up with retired detective and renowned cold case specialist Damian Loone.

The first episode of Dear Rachelle is now available on all podcast platforms. If you’re looking for your next true crime podcast binge and you want to be first to hear what’s next, visit dearrachelle.com.au - your News Corp Australia subscription grants you access to podcast episodes three weeks before everyone else, as well as exclusive access to videos, interactive evidence, behind-the-scenes content, and more.

Dear Rachelle is a podcast from True Crime Australia.

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She is used to being the only woman in the room and has forged a career heading up national teams dealing with transnational crime, drugs, people-smuggling, fraud and counter-terrorism. She has represented Australia as advisor to the United Nations in New York and most recently led the Covid-19 strategy for the safe reopening of the international borders. 

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Legal powerhouse, this barrister has battled some of the most famous fights in recent history. She fiercely advocates for the oppressed. But sometimes she lands herself in hot water, and has even called out her own profession for its shockingly high rates of sexual harassment.

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As the first woman to run the NSW Emergency Services, she had a baptism of fire dealing with the terrifying Black Summer Bushfires, floods and then the pandemic Her early career began in the police, notching up her first murder arrest while still a rookie. Danger really struck home when she and her family had to go into hiding with police protection from a big time drug dealer.

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As one of Australia’s most high profile female lawyers, she has a string of headline-grabbing clients including notorious gangster Bassam Hamzy – a favourite with the ladies – convicted terrorists and a flamboyant former Deputy Mayor. But her long list of famous and infamous clients have made her a target.

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After 13 years working in maximum security men's prisons and juvenile justice, this former prison officer has more than just your average jailhouse “war story” to share. She’d often escort the Butcher of Bega Graeme Stephen Reeves on his walks and witnessed a Skaf gang rapist speaking in tongues to the devil through the floorboards.

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She is Australia’s real life CSI forensic scientist and her mission is giving a voice to the dead. She sifts through crime scenes, studies how bodies decompose and solves baffling mysteries. What she has discovered is that dead men really do tell tales.

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Queensland’s top cop has been beaten within an inch of her life in a violent street brawl; posed as a street walking prostitute and has been proposed to by a murderer while on a dangerous undercover job to catch him. There is nothing this veteran cop hasn’t done during her more than 30 years at the coalface of the justice system.

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A former prison officer who spent 22 years keeping Australia’s most dangerous men in line. The no-nonsense grandmother has faced-off with notorious serial killers, sex offenders and paedophiles, but things became uncomfortable when danger (quite literally) followed her home.

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