Hedley Thomas’ new podcast investigation, The Poisoned Wife

[gentle music] Roslyn McQueen was 30 years old, the mother of a toddler named Jody, and pregnant with her second child when she died suddenly in 1986.

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

But for three months, police were unaware of how she had died.

It was a mystery.

This is Hedley Thomas, The Australian's National Chief Correspondent.

With producer Karina Burger, Hedley has been investigating what happened to Ros.

Her husband, Ray, suggested that she had cancer, and then he suggested that perhaps she had depression, and she was a big worrier.

But fortunately, toxicology tests that were done soon after her body was taken to the mortuary came back showing that, in fact, a massive dose of strychnine, this incredibly powerful poison, had been ingested by Ros, and she would've died in a fairly brief window of time in a huge amount of pain.

Her toddler was playing by her feet when she died.

Karina, what do you know about who Ros was and what sort of mother she was?

We've been speaking to Ros' best friend from the time, Wendy Beatie, and she's been giving us some beautiful insights into Ros.

She always wanted to be a mother, always.

She doted on her little girl, Jody, and the new baby she was carrying, a little boy that she was going to name Christopher, was just going to complete her family.

So she was obviously a very dedicated mother to her daughter and looking forward to having a new baby, and she'd also been a, a very happy young woman according to Wendy.

They'd worked together in banks in Bendigo.

They'd flatted together, and they'd had a lot of fun in their 20s.

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