The circumstances of the two cases are “eerily similar”, journalist Hedley Thomas admits of his new true-crime podcast The Poisoned Wife and his groundbreaking first one, the global smash The Teacher’s Pet. And his reasons for investigating them come from the same place.
“These cases will be forgotten forever if we don’t try to do something,” he says.
In both circumstances, an older, married man allegedly pursues a teenage babysitter who moves into the family house after his wife’s death. But while Chris Dawson is now serving a life sentence for murdering his wife Lynette Simms, whose remains have never been discovered, Rosslyn Truman’s death has never been explained and no one has ever been found guilty.
Rosslyn and her unborn child died after ingesting a massive dose of the poison strychnine on 1 April 1986. Living in a rural community near Bendigo, two hours north of Melbourne, she was found dead by a neighbour with her two-year-old daughter Jodie alive beside her. Her husband Ray McQueen had phoned the neighbour to ask him to check on his pregnant wife.
Because of the suspicious circumstances surrounding the 30-year-old’s death, it was referred to the coroner. Three months later, Ray was arrested by the homicide squad and charged. He has always strongly denied any wrongdoing and has never been convicted of anything.
Donna breaks her silence
A year later, coroner Geoffrey Hoare heard from witnesses who alleged Ray had been infatuated with a 16-year-old called Donna, a troubled local teenager whose family was known to him.
Within 11 weeks of Rosslyn’s death, the then-34-year-old life insurance salesman proposed marriage to Donna and, soon after, the young girl moved into his family home.
In April 1987, the coroner’s finding was that Rosslyn’s husband had “maliciously administered” strychnine to his wife.
When approached recently, Ray strongly denied killing Rosslyn, saying emphatically, “No, I did not.” He also denied having a relationship with Donna, adding, “I don’t recall ever kissing her.”
Donna, now in her fifties, has opened up in Hedley’s podcast about her “guilt” over what happened four decades ago.
“I was a 16-year-old girl who had a crush on an older married man, who asked me to go into a physical relationship and to share a home with him, which scared me to death,” she says.
Donna’s vow to seek justice
For some time, police also considered Donna a suspect in Rosslyn’s death, but she strongly denies any involvement.
“I’ve had a lot of years to think about it, a lot of years of guilt, and a lot of years of self-analysing as to what type of person I was back then and what part I played. “Even though I know I was young and naive, it’s still really hard. I feel guilty, ashamed and embarrassed.”
Donna hopes speaking out now will put things right, explaining she “made a promise to Ros on her grave” to help get justice for her. Hedley, 58, was first made aware of Rosslyn’s death when, four years ago, a suitcase stuffed full of documents arrived at his office, sent by retired private investigator Rex Bakes.
The 78-year-old had originally been employed by Ray’s legal team to help investigate Rosslyn’s death and gather witness statements.
Over the years, he remained preoccupied by the case and, after a health scare, he decided to reach out to Hedley in the hope the award-winning podcaster would help finish the job.
A case that refuses to stay buried
Hedley tells, “Rex had been toiling on this case for many years and it became a personal mission until he thought, ‘I can’t go on with this any more.’ I started reading what was in the case and I was intrigued.”
In 1988, the criminal trial against Ray was abandoned when Justice James Gobbo found that evidence provided by the prosecution was prejudicial and had to be excluded.
So if the case wasn’t able to be proven by law nearly 30 years ago, why does Hedley think he can uncover the truth about what happened to Rosslyn now?
“Victims and their loved ones deserve to have their cases solved,” he says.
“With this deep-dive investigative format, they do have a chance to be moved forward. “I was just contacted by one of Ros’ best friends who had never given up on the case and who we were having trouble finding. This is what these investigations achieve – they draw people out.”
The Poisoned Wife is out now. For more details or to listen, visit thepoisonedwife.com.
