Aug 21, 2026 · 20 min · 11 segments
Who killed Rosslyn McQueen? Today’s launch day for something very special here at The Australian: a new Hedley Thomas cold case investigation. The Poisoned Wife is a podcast examination of how a…
Hedley ThomasGuestClaire HarveyHostKarina BergerGuest
Claire, it turned up in a black and gray suitcase that arrived at our offices-
My colleague Sarah Elks was a little perturbed, and she texted me at home and said, "There's a big case that's arrived for you and a separate letter with a key in it." Of course, the suitcase was padlocked, and it had been sent by a former private investigator.
He had spent years investigating Ros' case using his own funds and giving up a lot of his time because he felt very deeply about what he believed was a serious injustice here.
And because he's elderly, and I don't think he's very confident that he has a lot of time left, he wanted to pass it along.
He wanted me to take over this investigation that he had been running on his own for so long.
It got to the point that I thought, "This case has now gotta go to someone with a fresh outlook.
I've done my best.
It's cost me a hell of a lot of money.
We need fresh eyes to do something that I haven't been able to do.
I've tried to go down every avenue I can, but I've failed."
And the suitcase was full of his workings, all of the documents and material and evidence that he had collected over the years of running this investigation on his own.
So we've teamed up with Rex at times and checked out so much of what he did, walked in his footsteps, and gone on the road with him in and around Bendigo to try to get to the bottom of this case.
Claire, it turned up in a black and gray suitcase that arrived at our offices-
My colleague Sarah Elks was a little perturbed, and she texted me at home and said, "There's a big case that's arrived for you and a separate letter with a key in it." Of course, the suitcase was padlocked, and it had been sent by a former private investigator.
He had spent years investigating Ros' case using his own funds and giving up a lot of his time because he felt very deeply about what he believed was a serious injustice here.
And because he's elderly, and I don't think he's very confident that he has a lot of time left, he wanted to pass it along.
He wanted me to take over this investigation that he had been running on his own for so long.
It got to the point that I thought, "This case has now gotta go to someone with a fresh outlook.
I've done my best.
It's cost me a hell of a lot of money.
We need fresh eyes to do something that I haven't been able to do.
I've tried to go down every avenue I can, but I've failed."
And the suitcase was full of his workings, all of the documents and material and evidence that he had collected over the years of running this investigation on his own.
So we've teamed up with Rex at times and checked out so much of what he did, walked in his footsteps, and gone on the road with him in and around Bendigo to try to get to the bottom of this case.
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