Episode 2: False Trail

Documents from the brief of evidence reveal that when police ask Ray McQueen whether he has any idea why his wife died at the kitchen table, he tells them “Yes, she’s had cancer”. Police decide there are no suspicious circumstances, but her general practitioner refuses to provide a death certificate. Almost three months later, toxicology tests show strychnine killed Rosslyn. Hedley Thomas, Karina Berger and Rex Bakes meet in Bendigo for new interviews and investigations. Subscribers hear new episodes of The Poisoned Wife first. Listen at thepoisonedwife.com https://www.theaustralian.com.au/topics/the-poisoned-wife-podcast, in The Australian’s app or search for The Poisoned Wife on Apple Podcasts to connect your subscription. Join the conversation and hear more from Hedley Thomas in The Poisoned Wife Podcast Official Discussion Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepoisonedwifepodcast/ on Facebook Do you know more? Contact the team at [email protected] See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Listeners are advised that this podcast contains coarse language and adult themes. The Poisoned Wife is a podcast investigation brought to you by me, Headley Thomas and The Australian. Subscribers to The Australian hear episodes first on The Australian's app at thepoisonedwife.com and Apple Podcasts.

• 0:34Speaker 01

  Every single piece of paper I got about this case you have now got.

• 0:39Speaker 02

  You would have known that she would have died a really painful death.

• 0:43Speaker 03

  She always wanted to be a mother, always.

• 0:47Speaker 04

  I didn't do it. I had nothing to do with Rosalind's death.

• 0:51Speaker 02

  I was a 16-year-old girl who had a crush on an older married man. I just think it's all so cruel.

• 1:00Speaker 00

  How would you have been trying to protect him?

• 1:10Speaker 00

  The day Roz died, April 1, 1986, was the Tuesday after the Easter long weekend. It was also a bank holiday for Ray McQueen and his colleagues from National Mutual Insurance. Ray and his friend Graham Jenkin had decided to work anyway. They thought holidays were a good time to catch people at home. They arranged to meet at the office in the morning and then go out door knocking to spruik insurance policies. Donna Manalek was also working that day. Donna had left school a few years earlier and she worked as a shop assistant at Kmart on the Calder Highway. She still lived at home with her parents.

• 1:53Speaker 00

  Donna made two police statements after Roz's death. The second one covered a few things Donna said she'd forgotten to say in her first 10-page statement made two weeks earlier. One of those forgotten things related to the morning of Roz's death. Donna said that Ray had picked her up from home about 7:45 a.m. and drove her to work. She explained to police that the full trip was a bit unusual for Ray.

• 2:23Speaker 03

  On the way in, in the car, he told me that Roz was not feeling sick, but was still very tired and was in bed when he left. He told me this in reply to my question of, how was Roz? He was more quiet than usual on this morning.

• 2:38Speaker 00

  Ray's version of events was distinctly different. He told police that he left his home at Lockwood about 8 a.m. but drove alone to his office in Bendigo. Ray's colleague Graham Jenkin arrived at the office just after 9 a.m. and Ray chipped Graham for being a bit late. Graham told police that Ray said he needed some extra information for an insurance quote he was preparing. Ray had forgotten to bring that information to work. He had written it down on a notepad near the telephone at his home. So Ray phoned home a few times over a period of about half an hour, but Roz didn't pick up.

• 3:19Speaker 00

  At 9:45 a.m., Roz's neighbour, the 67-year-old pensioner Vin Mackenzie, was having a cup of tea at his home with another neighbour, Gordon Rosengren, when the telephone rang. It was Ray McQueen phoning from his office. Vin, of course, knew the McQueens. They'd been neighbours for about three years.

• 3:41Speaker 05

  He asked me if I could see Roz's car from my place. I said I couldn't, but I would go and have a look for him. He said he couldn't raise her on the phone. He didn't mention anything about her health. I said I would go down and tell her to ring Ray.

• 3:58Speaker 00

  Vin and Gordon finished their cup of tea and then walked down to the McQueen's house together. This took a few minutes. When Vin arrived, he saw Roz's car and he noticed the family's dogs running around. He assumed that Roz was at home. Vin went into the McQueen's house and Gordon continued towards his own home. Here is Vin's account of what happened next.

• 4:23Speaker 05

  I rattled on the door, back door, and I got no reply. So I walked into the kitchen and called out, are you there Roz? I got no reply and then I saw a pair of legs. She was laying over a kitchen chair near the kitchen table with her feet almost touching or touching the floor and her hands right over the back of her head. I looked at her and felt her chest and looked at her face. I realised that she was dead.

• 4:55Speaker 00

  This must have been an awful shock for Vin, who was fond of Roz. He'd last seen her just the day before during the late morning. According to Vin, he had just discovered Roz when her daughter Jodie ran over to him from the lounge room. Vin later said that he told Jodie to stay with mummy and then he ran outside and called out to Gordon for help. Gordon was still nearby and he heard Vin's cries. Gordon went home and phoned the police and ambulance. He also telephoned the neighbours Peter and Avon Dixon to tell them what had happened. Peter Dixon jumped on his bike and cycled straight to the McQueen's house.

• 5:38Speaker 00

  Meanwhile, Vin went home and he telephoned Ray's work number. Graham Jenkin answered the phone. Vin told him Roz was dead. Graham broke the news to Ray.

• 5:51Speaker 00

  Graham would later describe Ray's reaction in his police statement like this.

• 5:56Speaker 05

  Ray appeared stunned and sat there with a pen in his hand and then sort of stuttered and dropped the pen and couldn't talk properly. I think I put my hand on his shoulder and said, come on mate, Jodie's probably still in the house. She might need you.

• 6:11Speaker 00

  Graham and Ray left the National Mutual office in Bendigo and they drove to Ray and Roz's home at Lockwood. Also on their way to Lockwood were two ambulance officers and two police. A few months later, they would be asked to prepare statements as part of a homicide investigation. They would be asked to describe what confronted them at the scene and what they did in response. But on April 1, the two attending police officers did not consider that there were suspicious circumstances. This meant that procedures which would normally be implemented for a suspicious death were just not followed.

• 6:50Speaker 00

  Ambulance officer Kevin Davis was rostered on for day shift with James Williams, also known as Jim. Kevin and Jim were told that a woman had collapsed. They were dispatched on what they called a signal eight, which is use of lights and siren. Constable Anthony Walker and Senior Constable Patrick Bannon from Bendigo Police Station were on divisional or divvy van duty. That's when a police patrol in a van with a custody compartment or pod at the back can respond to urgent calls. As a senior constable, Patrick Bannon was the higher ranked and more experienced of the two officers. He had at least a few years of operational policing under his belt.

• 7:37Speaker 04

  En route to the scene, we were passed by the ambulance at break of day hill. We then passed the husband of the deceased near Weegard's Road.

• 7:46Speaker 00

  Kevin Davis entered through the laundry, carrying an oxygen resuscitator.

• 7:51Speaker 06

  We arrived at the scene at approximately 10:45 a.m. and as we arrived, the police and a red commodore pulled up behind us. We passed directly into the kitchen where we noticed a person dressed in a dressing gown laying over a kitchen chair. Her body was lying across the seat of a kitchen chair, her head resting on the floor, pointing towards Lockwood Road. She was laying face up. My immediate reaction in seeing this person in this position was that it was most unusual and that I had not seen any such occurrence in almost 10 years on the road.

• 8:21Speaker 00

  The ambulance officers supported Roz's body, pulled the chair out from under her and laid her on the floor. She was still warm to touch. They took Roz's vital signs.

• 8:34Speaker 06

  There was no detectable pulse. And between us, we decided that cardiopulmonary resuscitation would not be of any value.

• 8:41Speaker 00

  Here's what Senior Constable Bannon described.

• 8:45Speaker 04

  When I entered the kitchen, I saw the body of a female person lying on the floor, being attended to by the ambulance officers between the kitchen table and the fireplace. She was dressed in pyjamas and a dressing gown.

• 8:58Speaker 00

  It was Kevin's job that day to tell Ray his wife was dead.

• 9:03Speaker 06

  Having decided that no treatment was warranted, I then proceeded to explain to the husband, who was in the adjoining room, that his wife was deceased. The husband was crying prior to this and appeared very upset. He also asked where his daughter was. Jim Williams and myself assisted the two uniformed policemen in a search of every room of the house for the child.

• 9:22Speaker 00

  But Jodie wasn't there.

• 9:24Speaker 06

  We learned that she had been taken to the neighbour's house.

• 9:28Speaker 00

  Vin Mackenzie had returned to the McQueen's house to collect her before the first responders arrived. At first, Vin couldn't find Jodie and then he saw her sitting near her mother's head. Ray's colleague Graham later collected Jodie and took her to Ray's parents' place. In the final paragraph of his statement, Graham mentioned one other thing. He recalled that as he and Jodie were driving along.

• 9:56Speaker 05

  Jodie said, mummy's dead. Mustn't touch mummy.

• 10:00Speaker 00

  Constable Walker also recorded his observations of the scene.

• 10:06Speaker 04

  A thorough search of the premises failed to find any sign of forced entry. The premises were secure and intact. All rooms were neat and tidy and showed no signs of a disturbance.

• 10:17Speaker 00

  He noticed a bread plate on the draining board area of the kitchen sink.

• 10:22Speaker 04

  On the table in front of where the deceased was found, I observed another bread plate which had on it a piece of toast. The slice had been cut in half and the left-hand half had two small bites taken out of it.

• 10:35Speaker 00

  Next, Constable Walker had an important conversation with Ray McQueen and he confirmed with Ray that he didn't mind being asked a few questions. According to Constable Walker, the following exchange then took place.

• 10:51Speaker 04

  Have you got any idea of why your wife has passed away? Yes, she's had cancer. How long have you been aware of her having cancer? Only about two to three months.

• 11:02Speaker 00

  Senior Constable Patrick Bannon was also under the impression that Roz had cancer.

• 11:09Speaker 04

  As a result of what I was told, I was of the opinion that the deceased Rosalind Joy McQueen had been suffering from cancer for some time, also that she was pregnant. I understood that on the previous day, the family Had been at the Easter procession in Bendigo. She felt ill, so the family went home early. The following morning, she was still sick. The husband went off to work, but later rang to check on her. When there was no answer, he rang Vin Mackenzie to check on her. It was Mackenzie who found the body. The deceased appeared to me to have died of a heart attack. She did not appear to be badly affected by cancer to cause sudden death in this manner.

• 11:49Speaker 00

  He said that Ray stayed outside with neighbours for most of the time.

• 11:54Speaker 04

  Whilst at the scene, when I had questions to ask McQueen, it occurred to me that he knew his wife had cancer. Therefore, he must have known death was possible. He seemed extremely upset for a man in this situation, knowing how ill his wife was.

• 12:11Speaker 00

  While inspecting the house, the police officer could not see any signs of violence, nor anything else that would cast suspicion on the circumstances of the death.

• 12:22Speaker 04

  The house appeared relatively tidy.

• 12:24Speaker 00

  Roz's body was taken by ambulance to the Bendigo and Northern District Base Hospital on Lucan Street. That's where it was examined by the casualty supervisor, Dr Peter Crossley. He certified her death in Constable Walker's presence at eleven thirty-two AM. At the mortuary, Patrick Bannon had a conversation with the ambulance personnel and the mortuary attendant about their observations at the scene.

• 12:53Speaker 04

  The consensus of opinion at the mortuary was that there was something odd about this death. As a result of this, we then attended the Bridge Street Clinic, where we had an interview with Dr Pereira, who spoke on the matter on behalf of Dr King, who was off sick.

• 13:09Speaker 00

  Roz's GP, Dr Neville King, from the Bendigo Medical Centre, got a phone call from his associate about Roz's death.

• 13:18Speaker 04

  I suggested to Dr Pereira that I had no idea what would have caused her death, and I certainly did not anticipate her dying. I was also asked to supply a death certificate, to which I declined, as I was of the opinion she was a healthy woman.

• 13:34Speaker 00

  There is a spectacular stretch of coastline, ending at the southernmost beach of Queensland, ringed by Rainbow Bay. Norfolk pines guard the hill at nearby Green Mount, rising above the golden sands of Kira Beach and Snapper Rocks.

• 13:52Speaker 00

  Roz's mother, Joy Craig, returned to her home here on Marine Parade after the unusually hasty funeral of her daughter. Joy trusted a young woman called Wendy. Wendy and Roz were very best friends. As Ray wrote to Wendy after the funeral service.

• 14:13Speaker 04

  Wendy, you were, I think, Roz's closest friend. The gap that her absence leaves is enormous, and there are many empty hours in the day now.

• 14:24Speaker 00

  Joy put pen to paper too. Emails didn't exist in nineteen eighty-six, but dozens of Joy's letters have stood the test of time. They are poignant and rich with information. Seven weeks after the sudden death of Roz, her mother Joy wrote this to Wendy.

• 14:44Speaker 02

  I am sorry I cannot put your mind at rest. As to the cause of Rosalyn's death, as I have not got any results as yet. Last I heard, tests were still being done, but you can be sure I will let you know as soon as I hear, love. Ray sent me a large photo of Roz and Jody for Mother's Day. He wrote a note and seems to be managing all right. I suppose you didn't know, but the baby was a perfect little boy. Life is hard to work out, but I must believe there was a reason for this to happen.

• 15:22Speaker 00

  A post-mortem was done on Roz's body on April three. The pathologist found that Roz had died from cardio-respiratory failure due to pulmonary oedema, or excess fluid in the lungs, and congestive cardiac failure. But the pathologist could not identify what had caused those conditions. He sent tissue and organ samples to a laboratory at the Coroner's Court in Melbourne for analysis. On June twenty-five, the results of the toxicology testing came back, prompting police to converge on the house at Lockwood.

• 16:01Speaker 05

  We're making inquiries into the death of your wife, Rosalyn.

• 16:04Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 16:06Speaker 05

  You may be aware, tissue samples were sent to Melbourne for analysis?

• 16:10Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 16:11Speaker 00

  Ray McQueen must have been taken aback. He opened the front door of his house to two police from the Bendigo Criminal Investigation Branch. Detective Sergeant Kevin Dillon's arrival, with Detective Senior Constable Gary Browning at one twenty-five PM, signaled that something serious was afoot. They were investigating what was now looking like murder. Gary Browning did most of the talking there that day.

• 16:41Speaker 05

  We've now got the result of the analysis, and your wife died from the effects of a fatal dose of strychnine poison.

• 16:48Speaker 04

  How could that be? She wouldn't commit suicide.

• 16:52Speaker 00

  The detectives' statements about their contact with Ray McQueen that day, June twenty-five, are part of the police brief of evidence for the coroner.

• 17:02Speaker 05

  In the light of this report, we make inquiries into the circumstances surrounding the death of your wife on the first of April this year.

• 17:10Speaker 04

  Yes, I can understand that.

• 17:12Speaker 05

  Are you prepared to accompany us to the Bendigo C I B office?

• 17:16Speaker 04

  Yes, of course. I want to help. Anything at all I can do, I will do.

• 17:22Speaker 00

  The detectives and Ray McQueen drove back to the police station, where he was led to an interview room. In Melbourne, two crime scene specialists with forensic science expertise were about to drive north to Bendigo. Kevin Dillon told Ray that those specialists would be going to his house, the house in which Roz's body was found by a neighbour, Vin Mackenzie.

• 17:48Speaker 05

  Are you prepared to stay here and wait for the forensic people? We would like you to be present when they examine your house.

• 17:53Speaker 04

  Yes, that's okay. I want to do all I can to help. I'm happy to cooperate with you.

• 18:00Speaker 05

  Okay, then. While we are waiting for the forensic people, I would like to get some information about your late wife's movements prior to her death. Do you want to make a statement regarding this matter?

• 18:09Speaker 04

  Yes, if it'll help.

• 18:12Speaker 00

  Detective Sergeant Dillon told the only suspect in his wife's death that there would be an inquest. The officer then took the first formal statement from Ray McQueen. It was signed.

• 18:26Speaker 04

  I am thirty-three years of age. I married my present wife, Rosalyn Joy McQueen, on the sixteenth of April nineteen eighty-one.

• 18:37Speaker 04

  For the past two and a half years, we resided at the Lockwood address. We had one child, Jody, who was presently two and a half years of age. During the period of my marriage to Rosalyn, I would describe my relationship with her as devoted, happy, doing things together, getting on together, and paying off our house, and generally having a happy existence. There were no marital problems, and there were not outside marital affairs on my behalf. I had no other sexual experience other than my present wife, Rosalyn, and my previous wife, Jeanette,

• 19:22Speaker 04

  who I was married to for about five years, between approximately nineteen seventy-four to nineteen seventy-nine.

• 19:31Speaker 00

  Ray says in this statement that his first marriage had ended because of financial complications. He added that he and Jeanette were incompatible. There was no mention of his extramarital interest in Rosalyn. He said that Roz.

• 19:48Speaker 04

  Seemed reluctant to talk about things and was often very tired. She was sitting around. She never was one to overexert herself with housework. The house was always clean, but never always tidy.

• 20:04Speaker 00

  He told the detectives that Roz was under the care of Dr King of the Bridge Street Medical Clinic. And then Ray revealed a cancer scare.

• 20:14Speaker 04

  It was during this time that she had a smear test, and this showed positive to a cancer. This really upset her and worried her greatly. She was always a compulsive warrior anyway. She worried about everything. Me working too hard, lack of money at times. Any debt seemed to worry her, about Jody doing child's things, anything at all. The cancer finding worried her most, though, and it upset her.

• 20:48Speaker 00

  After the test, Ray went to see Dr King too.

• 20:52Speaker 04

  He told us that there was nothing to be overly concerned about. She seemed to accept this.

• 20:59Speaker 00

  A gynaecologist, Dr Mark Chalan, saw Roz on March twenty-seven, just five days before her death.

• 21:06Speaker 04

  And she told me that he had given her the all-clear in relation to the cancer. And this seemed to be a great load off her mind.

• 21:16Speaker 00

  Ray and Roz's near neighbour, Yvonne Dixon, a nurse, answered the door in her nighty and dressing gown. She wrote of her embarrassment in a diary note at the time.

• 21:28Speaker 07

  I was working at three PM after night shift by two C I B detectives. They asked me if I knew Roz and how well. They told me that she died from strychnine poisoning. They asked me how well I knew Ray, and I said, only as a neighbour, and he played tennis with us. They asked if I knew Donna. I said, yes, she sat with Ray in the car between sets and neither. Mix with us or team. They asked Peter if we had any poison. We said yes for spraying orchards. They weren't interested in these poisons.

• 21:56Speaker 00

  Ray McQueen briefly mentioned his last weekend away with Roz, how he and Roz had driven with their little girl and his two other children from Bendigo on Good Friday to stay with friends, the Balm family, for two nights over the Easter weekend at a place called Red Cliffs.

• 22:15Speaker 04

  She was in a good frame of mind and happy. It was a good weekend and she seemed to enjoy herself. I did, however, notice that she hardly slept for the whole time at Red Cliffs.

• 22:30Speaker 00

  On Easter Monday, one day before she died, Bendigo held its annual Easter procession. Ray said.

• 22:38Speaker 04

  Rosalyn was tired and was getting dizzy.

• 22:42Speaker 00

  He told the detectives that he got up at 6:00 AM the following morning. His wife was already up.

• 22:49Speaker 04

  I didn't eat breakfast with her. I did my chores around the farm, feeding the animals and getting the wood and other things. I would have got back inside about 7:00 AM to 7:15 AM. Rosalyn was sitting at the kitchen table. We didn't talk much. I had a shower and got ready for work. And then I got my breakfast, which I ate. I had a bowl of cereal, toast and tea. She didn't eat or drink anything with me. I left for work around 8:00 AM. She appeared to be okay when I left. When I got to work,

• 23:32Speaker 04

  I discovered I'd left some papers from work behind. And I tried to ring her around 9:00 AM. I didn't get an answer. At around 10:00 AM to 10:15 AM, I rang my neighbour Vin McKenzie to go and see if the car was still there, as I thought that she might have come into Bendigo. About 10 to 15 minutes later, Graeme Jenkins came and told me that Vin had found Rosalyn dead.

• 24:02Speaker 00

  Ray told the detectives that he went home.

• 24:06Speaker 04

  I went inside and saw Roz slumped over a chair. I didn't notice any drink or food around her and the ambulance blokes took me outside. Jodie was with neighbours. When the ambulance left with the body of my wife, I went to my mother's place. The police have informed me today that my wife died of strychnine poisoning. I had nothing to do with the poisoning of my wife. There is no strychnine poison kept at my house.

• 24:41Speaker 04

  The only place that I know there is that poison is up at Vin McKenzie's. But that is something that I've been told by Peter Dixon.

• 24:51Speaker 00

  Ray added that Peter Dixon had told Ray that their near neighbour, Vin.

• 24:56Speaker 04

  Had some there. I never saw it and I don't know what it looks like. I used to visit Vin's place, as did my wife. I never heard Roz mention seeing the poison or ever talking about it. I can't believe my wife would have committed suicide, even considering her depression.

• 25:18Speaker 00

  Police were being told by Ray for the first time that his wife had depression. Roz's mother, her friends and other family members strongly disagreed.

• 25:54Speaker 00

  In the next section of Ray McQueen's first statement to police, he describes his ties with the teenager, Donna, how Donna was the daughter of one of his friends with whom he had worked driving local buses, before he became an insurance salesman, and how Ray had known the family for some eight years. Donna had turned 17 about a month before this police interview.

• 26:21Speaker 04

  Over the past two to two and a half years, I've been more involved with her, Donna. But this was only in the way of tennis competition and she used to mind our child. Donna was friendly with my wife as well. There was no sexual involvement with Donna and that is still the case. Since the death of my wife, Donna and I have discussed the possibility of her moving into my home in a de facto relationship. This has not come about to date and will not occur for at least 12 months because of her parents. Roz and I had talked about the relationship with me and Donna

• 27:06Speaker 04

  and I had assured her that nothing was going on. Donna and Roz had also talked about it. There was nothing to the relationship except friendship.

• 27:19Speaker 00

  We do not know how the other side of the conversation unfolded in the police interview room that day, June 25, 1986. We don't have an audio cassette which would reveal the tone that the detectives took with whatever questions they asked to prompt Ray's disclosures. But police were clearly well aware by then of several things. And it became evident to Ray that day that the police knew quite a bit about Donna. This was confirmed to him.

• 27:52Speaker 04

  I have been told by the police that Roz had discussed the relationship between Donna and myself with a girlfriend and that this had been worrying her, but I was not aware of this.

• 28:05Speaker 00

  In the next breath, however, Ray acknowledges that he was at least aware of Roz's concerns.

• 28:12Speaker 04

  I know that she had discussed it with Donna's mother and my mother and that she was worried about it. I did not cease the relationship with Donna as it was only a friendship. Roz and Donna seemed to be friends.

• 28:28Speaker 00

  The matter of life insurance must have aroused the detectives' curiosity too. Since August the previous year, Ray's livelihood was based in large part on the commissions that he earned from selling life insurance on behalf of the National Mutual Company. Had he ever insured the life of his second wife? Ray told the detectives that when he and Roz were married five years earlier, a policy on Roz's life was issued with a payout of $12,000 in the event of her death. Over the ensuing five years, the potential payout amount rose to $17,000 and Ray had already received $5,000.

• 29:14Speaker 00

  It might have been a life-changing sum of money for people of little means back then, but probably not enough to persuade a jury that it could be a powerful financial motive for murder. Ray ended his statement with an emphatic declaration.

• 29:31Speaker 04

  I had nothing to do with the death of my wife and can offer no reason why she would commit suicide.

• 29:41Speaker 05

  Since 1986, lots of changes have occurred here.

• 29:46Speaker 00

  Now we are on the road and we're driving the rural fringes of a town with a rich history. Must be a lot of roos around here.

• 29:55Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 29:57Speaker 07

  Can you stop for a sec, Rex?

• 30:00Speaker 00

  Karina is taking photographs.

• 30:03Speaker 07

  Where would their fence go up to?

• 30:05Speaker 05

  Just back there a bit. And there's still a neighbour that was here at the time.

• 30:12Speaker 00

  Rex Bakes pulls alongside a rural property and we stare at a house. It looks broken, distinctly unloved.

• 30:21Speaker 05

  That's where Rosalyn and Ray used to live.

• 30:25Speaker 00

  It should have been a crime scene on that fateful day 40 years ago.

• 30:30Speaker 05

  And Ray used to tend this with gardens and lawns.

• 30:35Speaker 05

  This house is very much deteriorated.

• 30:39Speaker 00

  This is where Roz died.

• 30:41Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 30:43Speaker 00

  The strychnine which poisoned Rosalyn and the baby in her womb was delivered in a massive dose. Roz was going to call him Christopher. This was a double murder, but the police didn't know it for a few months.

• 31:01Speaker 00

  Rex has a wild white beard and a favourite hat which he doesn't take off while driving. On the left brim of the hat, there's a pin bearing a motif of the Australian Aboriginal flag. The red bottom half, black top half and central yellow circle of the flag represent the earth, the people and the sun. Rex wears it proudly. It's a respectful nod to one of his ancestors.

• 31:29Speaker 05

  My great-grandmother was an Aboriginal lady and we're Ngunnawal people from Canberra.

• 31:38Speaker 00

  And there's another thing about Rex. He's been receiving radiation for cancer. His next birthday will be his 79th. He doesn't know how many more he's got. He's been driving these roads around Bendigo and farther afield for many years with one, single-minded purpose: shining a light on what happened to Roz McQueen. His mantra, as he tells Karina and me, is, "Forewarned is forearmed." So Rex turns up and knocks on doors of people around Bendigo without appointment or prior warning. He times these visits based on what he knows about the ordinary habits of country people. Don't visit too early.

• 32:23Speaker 00

  Don't visit close to tea time. He finds out their addresses by asking around. He places advertisements in newspapers to draw people to him. He tells us that it consumes him and how for a while it became too much. It was affecting his mental health and his marriage. Yvonne, his wife for half a century, always picks up the pieces. She's calling Karina and me on our mobile phones in Bendigo each day that we're on assignment to check on Rex.

• 32:58Speaker 03

  Fine, he's really well. He just wanted me to pass on that message to you. Everything's going well so far.

• 33:05Speaker 00

  Why don't you wanna talk to it when you're on tour? When you're on the road?

• 33:10Speaker 05

  Oh, I don't think I'd do that. You'd never ring up when you're on one. I always know there's something wrong.

• 33:17Speaker 00

  He started listening to podcasts. And that's meant long days in the local library in Barmera. That's the only place he knows to go online with the help of the library assistants.

• 33:32Speaker 05

  Now, up the road there is where Vin Mackenzie used to live.

• 33:38Speaker 00

  On that morning, a neighbour, Vin Mackenzie, saw Roz's body near the kitchen table. We are hoping to interview another neighbour who was at the McQueen house that day. Peter Dixon and Peter's wife, Yvonne.

• 33:54Speaker 05

  Ray and Roz's neighbours, who still, as far as I know, reside in the area. We'll just turn left here. We'd like to see a plastic rainwater tank on the Nature Strip or the Verge. And that is the Dixon's house.

• 34:09Speaker 00

  And we're gonna go there now, are we?

• 34:11Speaker 05

  We're almost here now.

• 34:13Speaker 00

  So we're gonna go and knock on that door?

• 34:14Speaker 05

  Yes, so they might not even be home.

• 34:18Speaker 00

  Is it this one?

• 34:18Speaker 05

  Yes, this is the house. There's one gate open.

• 34:22Speaker 00

  The opening looks impossibly narrow. It looks too tight for Rex's big four-wheel drive from Barmera. Can you get through?

• 34:31Speaker 05

  Oh, well, only a work car.

• 34:35Speaker 00

  Rex hasn't worked in a paid job for years. There are unusual landscaping features near some of the driveway entrances in these parts. The rusting chassis of an old car is a local favourite. Karina calls them garden ornaments. You're on good terms with the Dixons?

• 34:54Speaker 05

  Very good terms, yes.

• 34:57Speaker 05

  That's Mr Dixon's little hiding hole in there.

• 35:01Speaker 00

  Are they expecting us?

• 35:02Speaker 05

  No.

• 35:09Speaker 00

  We walk towards the Dixon house. An elderly couple enjoying the late morning sunshine see us. They seem puzzled for a moment, until Yvonne recognises Rex. G'day.

• 35:22Speaker 05

  Hiya.

• 35:22Speaker 00

  My neighbour, yeah, friend of Rex's, and this is Karina.

• 35:25Speaker 05

  Hello.

• 35:26Speaker 03

  Hiya.

• 35:26Speaker 05

  Karina, it's nice to meet you.

• 35:29Speaker 00

  If Yvonne Dixon is rattled by a surprise visit from two strangers and a bloke who looks like Santa Claus, a bloke she knows because of his obsession with an unsolved murder, she doesn't show it. She ushers us inside the house. Her husband, Peter, looks bemused. He's happy to see visitors. But Yvonne stares at Rex and then she blurts it out.

• 35:52Speaker 05

  Oh, I was thinking of you the other day and I'm thinking, I hope I don't see you again for ages.

• 35:57Speaker 00

  Oh, I'm not just sorry. Yvonne was concerned about possible repercussions, even though she strongly supports what Rex is doing. And she marvels at his commitment to Roz McQueen.

• 36:10Speaker 05

  We've started working earnest. Oh, what's happened?

• 36:14Speaker 00

  Now the penny drops. Yvonne sizes us up.

• 36:19Speaker 05

  The, the, the dressers? This is about McQueen? Oh, right. Yeah, come in.

• 36:24Speaker 00

  Brings back bad memories.

• 36:25Speaker 05

  It does, yeah, yeah.

• 36:28Speaker 00

  Peter Dixon cannot forget Roz McQueen.

• 36:31Speaker 05

  She was a lovely lady, lovely girl.

• 36:34Speaker 00

  The poisoned wife. Her unborn baby, Christopher. Her daughter, Jodie. And the bus-driving and later insurance-selling husband, Ray McQueen. And the local teenager, Donna. She was a month off her 17th birthday at the time and receiving a lot of attention from Ray before and after his wife's death. There were lessons at the nearby Lockwood North Tennis Club. Long conversations in Ray's car out of earshot of the other players. Babysitting for Roz and Ray. Joining them on family outings, sleepovers. Ray was very interested in Donna.

• 37:17Speaker 00

  They'd kissed, she told police later, but that was all.

• 37:22Speaker 00

  Unusually, this question would be settled after Roz's death with a medical examination of the teenager. Soon after arriving at the Dixon home, Karina and I walked back to the car to get some equipment. I forgot that my mobile phone was left inside on the Dixon's kitchen table, still recording. When I listened to the audio file later, I heard Rex reassuring Peter and Yvonne Dixon about the two journalists who'd just turned up at their house.

• 37:53Speaker 05

  These people, while they're not here, they're very genuine people. Yep. And they've taken me under their wing. We're not dealing with some Oh, no. two-bob. Oh, no, oh, no. I'm just so relieved Oh, wow. that he took the case on. Yeah, because you dumped it with him, didn't you?

• 38:13Speaker 00

  It seems positive that Rex is giving us strong character references. When Peter talks to us, he reflects on the day Roz died. Peter says he remembers it well, even after 40 years.

• 38:28Speaker 05

  Vin rang up, he said, "Get the hand hand quick, Roz McQueen's dead." I rode the bike then.

• 38:34Speaker 00

  Did you talk to Ray on the date?

• 38:36Speaker 05

  No, no, no, no.

• 38:38Speaker 00

  And then he followed the case through the inquest at the nearby courthouse in Eagle Hawk in 1987. He was called to give evidence. Months later, there was a murder trial in Bendigo's beautiful old Supreme Court. The court building and the tram still running down the wide main street came after a frenzied gold rush drew nugget-chasing prospectors and diggers from across Australia and the world. The gold rush rose to giddy heights. Bendigo became renowned for having some of the world's richest goldfields. But it all came to a depressing end for most of the diggers, who never found what they were looking for.

• 39:21Speaker 00

  The murder trial of Roz's alleged killer, her husband Ray McQueen, didn't find anything either. It didn't even deliver a verdict. It just abruptly stopped.

• 39:35Speaker 00

  Rex removes his hat and he places it on the table like an adornment for us to admire. He looks right at home, cradling a mug of freshly brewed tea in Yvonne and Peter Dixon's kitchen. Over the years, he's won this country couple over. His commitment to Roz's case and his laconic style and quirky humour have gone a long way. Yvonne, do you remember when you first started talking to this bloke?

• 40:02Speaker 05

  Yes, yes. Yeah, it would be 15 years, yeah, probably a long time ago.

• 40:09Speaker 00

  Peter is 81 and Yvonne isn't far behind, which makes Rex Bakes the younger of the three. I ask Mrs Dixon to pull a thin black wire under her blouse so that a small microphone can clip onto her lapel. It'll be more effective that way?

• 40:27Speaker 05

  Yeah, I'm just bringing up this worry. Take your shirt off if you want. Rex.

• 40:31Speaker 03

  No, Rex, still be none of that.

• 40:33Speaker 05

  We know you can handle that.

• 40:34Speaker 00

  Rex used to run a nudist resort.

• 40:36Speaker 05

  I know, because when we were talking to him earlier in the piece, we said, "Oh, we've got a caravan, we'll come to your caravan park." He said, "I don't think you'll fit in." And I'll never forget that. And we thought, oh, and then he told us.

• 40:48Speaker 00

  More on Rex's nudist resort later, too. How do you feel about Rex investigating us?

• 40:55Speaker 05

  Rex is amazing, how he's done all this work. Absolutely amazing. And I say, well, who else is gonna do it?

• 41:05Speaker 05

  Oh, he's done a good job. And we were interested, of course, because it was our neighbours.

• 41:13Speaker 00

  Sadly, young mothers commit suicide. You've never counted on that in Roz's case?

• 41:20Speaker 05

  No. No. If you die from strychnine, it's a very, very painful, agonising death. Ugh.

• 41:32Speaker 05

  Horrible. Just something that hasn't been solved one day, hopefully. We'd drive past there every day and it certainly is still on our mind.

• 41:43Speaker 00

  Did you know Ray McQueen back then?

• 41:47Speaker 05

  He lived on the corner not far from our house. We didn't visit him or anything, but I knew him through playing tennis.

• 41:54Speaker 00

  Why did you form the suspicion that you've clearly had?

• 41:59Speaker 05

  Well, because he's having this affair with this girl in the tennis club.

• 42:05Speaker 05

  They'd go off in the car and snuggle up in the car away from our view.

• 42:10Speaker 00

  You referred to it as an affair.

• 42:12Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 42:13Speaker 00

  Is that what you believe was going on?

• 42:15Speaker 05

  Yes, yes. And everybody knew, could see it was happening. And people in the tennis club especially knew that he was on with this other girl. His wife's there having the baby. She didn't come to the tennis, the wife. So she wasn't there, of course, to see this. Our tennis season, six months, it's not all year round. It was probably most of that time that he was on with her. It was well before she died.

• 42:42Speaker 00

  Did you form the view they must have been having sex? Is that what you mean by affair?

• 42:46Speaker 05

  We didn't see that, but we saw them cuddling in the car. We just thought that, you know, there'd be more than just that. And then he played his game and he went back to the car with her.

• 42:58Speaker 00

  Was he a pretty good tennis player?

• 42:59Speaker 05

  Yeah, he was pretty good. He was a very athletic sort of person.

• 43:02Speaker 00

  So after Ray lost Roz?

• 43:04Speaker 05

  Yep. We had nothing to do with him. That would have been the finish of the tennis season anyway, so he didn't come back. He wasn't a friend of ours. Two days after she's buried or something, they're at the back painting the house and he's in his bloody swimming talks, no shirt and nothing on, and they're painting the house in the morning.

• 43:27Speaker 00

  Who was painting the house?

• 43:29Speaker 05

  She was with him. She's there. About 12 o'clock, they go inside.

• 43:36Speaker 00

  Peter recalls something else that left him cold when it happened.

• 43:41Speaker 05

  It might have been three or four or five days afterwards. And he burnt all the clothes, all their clothes.

• 43:48Speaker 00

  How did you know that was going on?

• 43:49Speaker 05

  Well, I could see the smoke coming up. And Vin said he knew he's burnt all Roz's clothes. We talked to Vin, of course, he was a great neighbour and... Well, he could see the light.

• 44:01Speaker 00

  Yvonne told us that when she last heard from Ray McQueen, it was at the time that he and his third wife had effectively forced Rex Bakes to court. Rex had been asking a lot of questions about the case against Ray's wishes. The legal action Ray and his third wife Carmen took in 2017 culminated in intervention orders being issued against Rex. These orders expired after three years.

• 44:32Speaker 05

  I got a phone call and he said, this is Ray McQueen. And I thought, oh. And it was just after Rex had been forced to stop doing any investigating or stop doing any work in relation to this. And Ray rang and he said, Rex isn't a real investigator or something like it. And he was talking very slowly, very measured. And I could tell that he was concerned because, well, why would he ring me? He didn't really say a lot, except that it was

• 45:11Speaker 05

  sort of over, no more investigating. And I'm thinking, well, I'm not saying much at all either because I didn't like him and I didn't want to have anything to do with him. I think the point of the call was for me to shut up and to not talk to Rex or not talk to anybody or forget about it, let him go.

• 45:32Speaker 00

  Several months before he met us, Peter was stunned to hear from his former near neighbour, Ray McQueen.

• 45:39Speaker 05

  He said, oh, I'd like to talk to you.

• 45:42Speaker 00

  But why do you think he wanted to contact you recently?

• 45:45Speaker 05

  Well, he must think the police are on him. I don't know.

• 45:47Speaker 00

  It's interesting that he contacted you.

• 45:50Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 45:52Speaker 00

  Peter explained that before he terminated the call, Ray told him that it appeared somebody was re-investigating the case of his dead wife. Do you know who he was referring to in relation to investigating?

• 46:06Speaker 05

  No.

• 46:07Speaker 00

  Could have been Rex, could have been police.

• 46:09Speaker 05

  I don't know. He said, you're the only one that knows anything about this case. And I just slammed the phone down.

• 46:18Speaker 00

  When do you reckon you'd had contact with him prior to that call?

• 46:22Speaker 05

  At the court case.

• 46:23Speaker 00

  Almost 40 years ago?

• 46:24Speaker 05

  Yeah. Hmm. Gosh, where's it gone?

• 46:28Speaker 00

  And you haven't heard from police in a long time?

• 46:31Speaker 05

  No, no. They should have been a lot more thorough. There's nobody else that wanted to get rid of her.

• 46:39Speaker 00

  And what do you reckon should have happened that day?

• 46:42Speaker 05

  Well, the police should have put bloody crime scene or something. I don't know. Yeah.

• 46:48Speaker 00

  Because she was in good health?

• 46:49Speaker 05

  Yeah, of course she was.

• 46:51Speaker 00

  Ray McQueen's recent contact with a man who had never been his friend was baffling to Peter at the time. Karina Berger offered a theory.

• 47:02Speaker 03

  We've requested some documents from the Coroner's Court of Victoria. And normally a family is consulted. And I wonder if Ray is Roz's next of kin or perhaps Jodie, and the court has consulted with the family about releasing the records. And if you think of the timing of our request, that would fit in perfectly with Peter's timing.

• 47:26Speaker 05

  Oh, incredible. They wouldn't want to walk in this property. I'm not scared of Ray McQueen.

• 47:34Speaker 00

  In the next episode of The Poisoned Wife, Ray McQueen tells us that his wife did not die from strychnine poisoning.

• 47:43Speaker 05

  Why don't we want people to... Because I've been told if I do talk to the media, I will be dead meat.

• 48:03Speaker 00

  The Poisoned Wife is investigated and written by me, Hedley Thomas, and Karina Berger. Police statements and some other material have been voice acted in the episodes in this podcast series. Anyone with information about the death of Rosalind McQueen can contact me confidentially at [email protected] Our editorial director is Claire Harvey. Audio production for The Poisoned Wife is by Wasabi Audio and Slade Gibson. Special thanks to Tom Williams, Sean Callanan, Andy Taylor, Greg Brown, Rowan Williams, Brittany English and the Content Division,

• 48:46Speaker 00

  Adelaide Kennedy, Tarnie Stroett, Sophie Rene, Liam Mende, Sarah Elks, Erica Rutledge, Lydia Lynch, Chloe Barr, John Paul Cashin, Will Sitem, Liliana Molina, Lara Caminos, Suze Rolfe, Shantel Love, Patrick McKee, Byron Wilder, Stefania Di Nicola, Cushy Chandani, Jonathan Bahame, Lachlan Clear, Harry Hughes, Milan Skapanovic, Rex Bakes and Wendy Beatty. And of course, to The Australian's editor in chief, Michelle Gunn, and the editor Kelvin Healy for affording us the time and resources to tackle these important stories.