Shortcut: The Poisoning of Rosslyn McQueen

Meshel Laurie (0:04)

This is Australian True Crime with Meshel Laurie. In April 1986, 30-year-old Rosslyn McQueen was found dead inside her Lockwood home near Bendigo. Rosslyn was five months pregnant and her two-year-old daughter was at home when she died. A toxicology report found that she had died from a massive dose of the highly toxic compound strychnine.

Rosslyn's husband Ray McQueen told police that he believed their neighbor was responsible. But as investigators began looking more closely at the circumstances surrounding Rosslyn's death, suspicion turned towards Ray himself. He was eventually charged with her murder, although the case never went to trial and Ray has always maintained his innocence. For almost 40 years, Rosslyn's death has remained unsolved. Hedley Thomas is the investigative journalist behind some of Australia's biggest true crime podcasts including The Teacher's Pet and Shandy's Story. Now, he's gone back through the evidence, interviewed people connected with the case, and begun asking whether Rosslyn's murder was ever properly investigated. His new podcast is called The Poisoned Wife and he joins us to talk about it.

This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. And a warning, this episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence.

Hedley Thomas (1:28)

We have an absolute infatuation, Meshel. The husband of the victim, Ross McQueen, is besotted with this girl who's 16 at the time, Donna.

The connection between Ray McQueen and Donna Manalek was intense. And we can also see that she believed as a vulnerable groom, 16-year-old, that she was in love with him. She had a very heavy crush and affection for him.

Meshel Laurie (2:01)

Tell us about what happened to Ross McQueen. It's a 30-year-old woman, as we say, married to Ray McQueen, pregnant at the time, very well liked and has developed a friendship with this young woman, 16-year-old Donna Manalek. How did Ross die, Hedley?

Hedley Thomas (2:18)

She died an agonizing death, Meshel, from strychnine poisoning.

She died on a Tuesday, the start of April. She was at home with her toddler daughter, two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. She was five-and-a-half months pregnant and looking forward to the birth of a baby boy.

Her husband had gone from working on the farm in Ula to becoming a bus driver and then selling life insurance in Bendigo. He was at the office. He said to police that he needed to telephone Ross because he realized he'd left behind some details that he'd written down on a notepad in relation to some personal information he'd taken from a guy he'd called over the weekend about life insurance. He rang a couple of times, couldn't raise his wife, who must have already been dead. Then he rang a neighbor called Vin and said, Vin, can you go down and check on Ross? We'll see if the car is there. Vin, an elderly man, he walks down and he's very fond of Ross and he talks to her often. He walks in on this horrific scene. She is slumped over a kitchen chair. Her feet are touching or almost touching the ground. Her torso, her abdomen is facing up, and her head is also almost touching the ground or touching the ground.

Meshel Laurie (4:00)

Oh my God.

Hedley Thomas (4:01)

And it's called a London Arch position. And it's the position that a body ends up in after the horrendous and violent convulsions that occur as a result of strychnine poisoning. It's a terrible way to die. It's a monster of a death. You only need to take it once, and you're almost guaranteed to die.

It's very bitter to taste. So if it's spread on a piece of toast, you're likely to immediately want to spit it out. If it's ingested, for example, in an iron capsule, which will swallow, you're not going to taste it on the way down.

Meshel Laurie (4:45)

And that's the suggestion here, isn't it? Because she's taking her iron tablets as a pregnant lady every day.

Hedley Thomas (4:51)

Yes.

Meshel Laurie (4:53)

After Vin found Ross in this terrible position in her kitchen, what did people, the police, the medical professionals in the area, what did they originally think had happened to her? And when did they start to look at poison?

Hedley Thomas (5:07)

Yeah, it's a great question, Meshel. Ray was asked by one of the police, one of the two uniformed police who went to the scene with the ambulance officers. He was asked, do you know why your wife has died? I mean, she looks very healthy. She's a normal weight and she's only 30 years old. Her toddler daughter is still in the home. May well have seen her mother perish this way. And Ray, according to the police officer said, yes, I know why she's died. She's had cancer.