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The Poisoned Wife – and a cop who didn’t buy her husband’s story · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian, here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: It's Monday, September 14, 2026. Today, journalist Hedley Thomas joins
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: us with a special insight into where his blockbuster podcast investigation,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: The Poisoned Wife, is heading. After the 1986 murder of
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Rosalind McQueen, the Homicide Squad rolls into tiny Lockwood, Victoria
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  Speaker 2: to question husband Ray. He's infatuated with a teenage girl
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  Speaker 2: and the police interview changes everything. Hedley's here in just
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  Speaker 2: a moment. Hedley Thomas is the Australian's national chief correspondent
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  Speaker 2: and he's back with another blockbuster podcast. This one's called
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  Speaker 2: The Poisoned Wife. We're on episode five now. That is,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: subscribers to The Australian are hearing episode five of The
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Poisoned Wife. Hedley's joining me from his home in Brisbane,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: which is why you might be able to hear some
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  Speaker 2: birdsong outside. And Hedley, this is a remarkable trip back
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  Speaker 2: in time to the 1980s. It's very reminiscent of the
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  Speaker 2: story you told in your first huge podcast, The Teacher's Pet,
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  Speaker 2: What's it been like stepping back into the kind of
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  Speaker 2: mindset and world of the 1980s to investigate this?
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  Speaker 3: Good morning, Claire. Thank you for having me again. In
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  Speaker 3: this podcast, we are taken to a country town called Lockwood.
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  Speaker 3: In fact, it's more of an outpost on the outskirts
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  Speaker 3: of Bendigo. And it's 1986. So we don't have smartphones
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  Speaker 3: in 1986. The internet isn't a thing. And People are
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  Speaker 3: living simpler lives, often revolving around sporting activities. Kids aren't
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  Speaker 3: glued to screens and parents aren't preoccupied with them either.
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  Speaker 3: They're out doing things. And in the community of Lockwood,
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  Speaker 3: the tennis club is a significant feature of this narrative.
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  Speaker 3: The arc of the story takes us through a farming community,
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  Speaker 3: through a little rural tennis club, And into the homes
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  Speaker 3: of people who lived uncomplicated and I think in many
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  Speaker 3: ways more fulfilling lives until one day in April 1986
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  Speaker 3: when Ros McQueen dies an agonising death in her home
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  Speaker 3: because of strychnine.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, her husband Ray McQueen is an insurance salesman.
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  Speaker 2: He's at work when he says he calls a neighbour
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  Speaker 2: to go to the house to check on Ros.
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  Speaker 1: The neighbour finds her dead.
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  Speaker 2: Bent backwards over a kitchen chair with her young daughter
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  Speaker 2: Jodie playing at her feet. It's an absolutely horrific scene
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  Speaker 2: and as it unfolds, Ray is charged with murder.
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  Speaker 1: But the matter has never been tried.
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  Speaker 2: Prosecutors made a tactical decision after some decisions by a
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  Speaker 2: judge that excluded some evidence that they would wait and
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  Speaker 2: try to establish more evidence before proceeding with that prosecution.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, it hasn't happened yet, which means that this
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  Speaker 2: is still something that could be solved. You're back in
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  Speaker 2: this story with lawyer-turned-producer Carina Berger investigating and trying to
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  Speaker 2: get some answers as to what happened to Ros. Now,
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  Speaker 2: Ray McQueen has always denied any wrongdoing and denied it
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  Speaker 2: again to the Australian's Liam Mendes when he approached him
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  Speaker 2: on the outskirts of Melbourne just recently.
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  Speaker 3: In a walk out of Supreme.
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  Speaker 1: Court in Bendigo, after the new critique was granted, I.
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  Speaker 3: Was advised by my legal team to not ever to
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  Speaker 3: speak to the media.
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  Speaker 2: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: But did you, did you kill Roslyn?
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  Speaker 2: No, I did not. Hedley, one of the things that
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  Speaker 2: intrigues me in episode five, which our subscribers are hearing now,
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  Speaker 2: is that when he was initially questioned by police, Ray
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  Speaker 2: McQueen appears to attempt to throw the blame onto a
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  Speaker 2: neighbour of his. In fact, the neighbour who he called
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  Speaker 2: to go and see if Ros was okay that morning, the.
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  Speaker 1: It's quite a remarkable twist, isn't it?
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  Speaker 3: That's right, Claire. That neighbour, his name is Vin McKenzie.
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  Speaker 3: And Vin lived nearby and he knew Roz and was
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  Speaker 3: very fond of her and her little girl, Jodie, and
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  Speaker 3: would see her often and they'd have chats and catch-ups.
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  Speaker 3: And Vin McKenzie was the person who went and found
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  Speaker 3: Roz's body. And that happened because Ray McQueen, in his
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  Speaker 3: workplace at National Mutual Insurance... on that Easter Tuesday had
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  Speaker 3: tried to call Ros and he'd made a couple of
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  Speaker 3: phone calls, maybe three, and then he called Vin and said, look,
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  Speaker 3: can you please go down and check? I can't raise Ros.
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  Speaker 3: And the reason, according to Ray McQueen, he wanted to
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  Speaker 3: contact his wife was because he said he had left
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  Speaker 3: behind some details on a notepad, details about a young
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  Speaker 3: man to whom he was trying to sell life insurance.
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  Speaker 3: So Vin McKenzie goes down there and he finds Roz's
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  Speaker 3: body and subsequently during Ray McQueen's interview with the Detective
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  Speaker 3: Senior Sergeant Ron Blackshaw, Ray says that Vin McKenzie had
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  Speaker 3: strychnine and he made a threat, according to Ray, that
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  Speaker 3: he had enough strychnine to take out the community with strychnine.
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  Speaker 4: Peter came down and told me, that Vin McKenzie had
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  Speaker 4: told them that he had got enough strychnine up there to.
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  Speaker 3: Do a lot of damage.
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  Speaker 5: Are you quite sure that was said?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and Peter.
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  Speaker 4: Dixon followed that up by saying, I wouldn't trust that
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  Speaker 4: old bugger.
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  Speaker 3: Now, that was a very strong assertion and the detective
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  Speaker 3: was stunned when he heard it from Ray McQueen because
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  Speaker 3: he was also aware that a police officer who attended
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  Speaker 3: the scene on the day of Roz's death, had already
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  Speaker 3: said in his statement that Ray McQueen told him his
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  Speaker 3: wife had died as a result of cancer.
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  Speaker 5: There is another matter? Your wife having cancer? Have you
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  Speaker 5: told anyone else that your wife had cancer?
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  Speaker 3: Roz told people herself.
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  Speaker 5: I have information that you made issue with certain people
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  Speaker 5: that your wife had cancer.
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  Speaker 4: I had been told that she had a growth that
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  Speaker 4: could turn cancerous.
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  Speaker 3: Now, toxicology tests showed that she had not died of
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  Speaker 3: cancer at all. She died from this strychnine poisoning. So
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  Speaker 3: the story changed and Finn McKenzie was being indirectly blamed
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  Speaker 3: over the poisoning. And I think it's a real testament
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  Speaker 3: to the questioning by the detective of who really zeroes
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  Speaker 3: in on this, he didn't let it go. And the
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  Speaker 3: detective clearly had formed a view that the phone calls
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  Speaker 3: to the home to talk to Roz, to try to
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  Speaker 3: raise her and then to get Finn McKenzie to go
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  Speaker 3: down there. That was, Detective Blackshaw believed, part of a
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  Speaker 3: careful ruse that just a charade that the detective was
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  Speaker 3: sure Ray McQueen had developed so that he would have
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  Speaker 3: an alibi. He wouldn't be at home when his wife's
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  Speaker 3: body was there. Someone else would find the body and
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  Speaker 3: Ray could appear to be surprised upon finding out that
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  Speaker 3: his wife was dead. That's the police theory and Ray
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  Speaker 3: McQueen has always denied wrongdoing. But I found that questioning
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  Speaker 3: really remarkable and very on point.
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  Speaker 5: How long do you think it would take Vin McKenzie
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  Speaker 5: to get himself organised to go to your place, get
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  Speaker 5: back and ring you?
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  Speaker 3: About 10 to 15 minutes.
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  Speaker 5: And then if the car was out, you still haven't
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  Speaker 5: got your documents, have you?
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 5: So the only way you're going to get your documents
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  Speaker 5: is to go out to the house and get them,
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  Speaker 5: isn't it?
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 5: Why didn't you jump in the car and get your documents?
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  Speaker 2: That's one of the really interesting features of The Poisoned Wife.
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  Speaker 2: You've done these quite remarkable podcast investigations that all take
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  Speaker 2: us back in time. the teacher's pet, Bronwyn, Shandy's story,
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  Speaker 2: and now the poisoned wife, and of course the night driver,
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  Speaker 2: which often reveal flaws in the police methodology that helps
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  Speaker 2: us explain why these cases are still unsolved. In this case,
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  Speaker 2: and you've brought this to life so beautifully in the episode,
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  Speaker 2: you and Karina through voice actors, the detectives seem to
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  Speaker 2: be doing quite remarkable work. And this is in an
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  Speaker 2: era before the police had computers or any of the
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  Speaker 2: kind of sophisticated investigative tools.
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  Speaker 1: That they've got now, isn't it? Were you impressed by
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  Speaker 1: that police work?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was, and I later found Ron Blackshaw in Queensland.
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  Speaker 3: He's retired to this great state, and we've had several
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  Speaker 3: hours of on-the-record conversation. I've interviewed him at length, and
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  Speaker 3: he's going to be a feature of an upcoming episode.
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  Speaker 3: But it was just really good old-school detective work that
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  Speaker 3: you hope is still part and parcel of the murder
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  Speaker 3: investigations today. But Ron Blackshaw was at a real disadvantage, Claire,
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  Speaker 3: because he didn't get the case until three months had
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  Speaker 3: passed after Roz's death. For three months, there was no
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  Speaker 3: formal inquiry into how she died, apart from some toxicology
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  Speaker 3: testing following an autopsy. And it was the results of
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  Speaker 3: the toxicology testing that which identified strychnine that started the
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  Speaker 3: homicide investigation. So you didn't have a crime scene on
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  Speaker 3: day one. You didn't have a crime scene for three months.
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  Speaker 3: You didn't have any statements taken from witnesses for three months.
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  Speaker 3: It was only after those test results came back that
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  Speaker 3: the homicide investigation was started and Ron Blackshaw with several
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  Speaker 3: detectives drove up the highway from Melbourne to Bendigo.
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  Speaker 2: Coming up, times have changed and so have our views
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  Speaker 2: on vulnerable young people. One feature of the police work, though,
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  Speaker 2: that does stick out to me in 2026 headly is
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  Speaker 2: the treatment of the other woman in this story, a
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  Speaker 2: young teenager called Donna Manalik, who was 16, about to
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  Speaker 2: turn 17 at the time that Ros McQueen died. She
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  Speaker 2: was involved in some sort of entanglement, a friendship at
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  Speaker 2: the very least, and possibly a romance with Ray McQueen.
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  Speaker 2: That's how it was perceived then, a friendship, maybe a romance.
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  Speaker 2: But nowadays, I think we would probably call that grooming.
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  Speaker 2: Ray McQueen was paying her a lot of attention, driving
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  Speaker 2: her around on his bus.
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  Speaker 1: He was working as a bus driver before that.
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  Speaker 2: It doesn't seem like many people in the community, and
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  Speaker 2: certainly not the police, treated her as the vulnerable child
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  Speaker 2: that we would see her as now. Do you think
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  Speaker 2: that's an unfair characterisation of the police, or is it
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  Speaker 2: right for us to look back at that and be
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  Speaker 2: a bit shocked?
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  Speaker 3: No, I think it's a fair characterisation and when I
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  Speaker 3: talk to the witnesses who were involved in this case
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  Speaker 3: in 1986 and I read their statements from that period,
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  Speaker 3: I can see how back then they were referring to
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  Speaker 3: this connection between Donna and Ray as what they saw
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  Speaker 3: and called an affair. And I think we now... with
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  Speaker 3: the benefit of some enlightenment and education about the vulnerabilities
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  Speaker 3: of children and the grooming process would shrink from that
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  Speaker 3: and say, well, no, this is more accurately described as
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  Speaker 3: a very exploitative relationship, almost unquestionably a grooming situation where
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  Speaker 3: a vulnerable girl is who is having some difficulties in
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  Speaker 3: her own home, befriends the friendly young mother of a
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  Speaker 3: toddler and her husband, Ray, becomes a bit of a
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  Speaker 3: fixture in their home. And then the husband becomes infatuated
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  Speaker 3: with this girl and she develops what she very openly
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  Speaker 3: called in 1986 a pretty heavy crush on him. She
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  Speaker 3: was in love with him, as she told the police.
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  Speaker 2: But.
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  Speaker 3: I think looking back at it from this perspective in 2026,
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  Speaker 3: and certainly she has too in her conversations with us,
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  Speaker 3: we can see it very differently.
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  Speaker 4: Even though.
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  Speaker 3: I know that I was young and naive, it's still
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  Speaker 3: really hard. You feel guilt, ashamed, embarrassed.
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  Speaker 1: But it's not about us.
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  Speaker 3: It's about her.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's denied that he even kissed her before Ros died.
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  Speaker 2: But he did, as you reveal in episode five, ask
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  Speaker 2: her to move in with him in quite a stunning
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  Speaker 2: scene by the local lake where people went to ride
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  Speaker 2: their bikes and eat ice creams. You and Karina went
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  Speaker 2: and visited that lake and spoke about this moment where
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  Speaker 2: Ray asks Donna to come and move in with him.
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  Speaker 1: I said we'd have to talk it over with mum
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  Speaker 1: and dad. A couple of weeks went past and I
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  Speaker 1: was trying to pick the right moment. He also wanted
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  Speaker 1: to be there.
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  Speaker 2: This was only two months or so after Ros had
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  Speaker 2: died and that seems to be the moment where her
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  Speaker 2: mother and stepfather put their foot down, doesn't it? Whereas
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  Speaker 2: they had not seen what was going on before that.
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  Speaker 2: Is that another feature of this work that you do now, Hedley,
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  Speaker 2: the work, you know, examinations of violence against women and
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: the murders of women? the kind of naivety, I suppose,
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  Speaker 2: that Australians had about predators?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I hope so. And I hope that it highlights
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: to parents today and their children, if they're old enough
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: to listen, what the risks and dangers are. And telling
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: these stories in a way that people find, no doubt, entertaining,
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: but also subtly... informative and educational must have a strong impact.
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  Speaker 3: I find that when I'm being preached to, when I
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: watch something that's been formally designed to be kind of
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  Speaker 3: like a hard lesson, you know, I can switch off.
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  Speaker 3: But if I'm being messaged through something that is just
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  Speaker 3: so interesting and thought-provoking and has the texture and quality
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  Speaker 3: of an authentic conversation with someone and those messages are
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  Speaker 3: coming through, then they're more likely to stick and make
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  Speaker 3: a difference for me. And hopefully they'll make a difference
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  Speaker 3: for other people too.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Hedley, I'm lucky enough to be working with you
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  Speaker 2: on the fringes of this show. And so I know
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  Speaker 2: that there's a lot more exciting twists coming. It's a
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  Speaker 2: remarkable story. So thank you very much for joining us.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks, Claire. It's always great.
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  Speaker 2: Hedley Thomas is The Australian's National Chief Correspondent and the
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: creator of The Poisoned Wife podcast series. Subscribers to The
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Australian can hear episode five now at thepoisonedwife.com, on Apple
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Podcasts and on The Australian's app.