Those were two of the questions my colleague, Karina Berger,<\/a> asked last month as we drove a hire car from the airport we\u2019d just flown into, a short drive from the home of a woman who was at the centre of a harrowing murder four decades ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n Karina \u2013 a former coronial investigations lawyer who began working with me and The Australian on unsolved murders two years ago \u2013 and I had convinced ourselves we knew so much already of the mystery witness we were going to try to see, Donna. <\/p>\n But Donna didn\u2019t know, of course. She was oblivious to the fact that in the months before our travel to her quiet neck of the woods far from our respective homes, we had read hundreds of pages of documents from a police brief of evidence in which Donna was almost as prominent as a man twice her age, Ray McQueen.<\/p>\n A man who used a trusted connection with her parents to groom the then vulnerable 16-year-old girl, become her confidante, kiss and tickle her in private moments, pay close attention to her at a funeral service after the sudden and unexpected death of his healthy pregnant 30-year-old wife Rosslyn and then, two days later, according to the evidence, tell the teenager he loved her. <\/p>\n A man who would ask this girl to move into his family home to be his de facto wife in a physical relationship; and be the carer of the two-year-old daughter he had with Rosslyn. Three weeks before toxicology tests showed his wife died from strychnine poisoning in the presence of her toddler, triggering a rush by homicide detectives to a rural community outside Victoria\u2019s fourth-largest city, Bendigo.<\/p>\n We knew about these events because we had been fully immersed in all the statements and files from a murder investigation run by then Detective Senior Sergeant Ron Blackshaw of Melbourne\u2019s Homicide Squad, who had already been interviewed by me. And we had further evidence gleaned by then coroner Geoffrey Hoare during the cross-examination of witnesses during an inquest in the old Eaglehawk Courthouse near the historic gold rush city.<\/p>\n What we knew came from the words on many pages generated 40 years ago. Those pages held insights, observations, allegations and agreed facts from a time close to when a murder occurred. But they can also be abstruse. Incomplete.<\/p>\n The silent words typed up for the case files and transcripts of evidence are a stepping stone to the reflections today of people such as Donna and the other witnesses we\u2019ve been to see in this murder probe for our podcast series, The Poisoned Wife. <\/p>\n Karina and I stopped at a greasy spoon cafe off the highway for coffee, crumbed sausage and a pep talk. <\/p>\n \u201cMany people, including those who have lived quiet lives for years, want to talk to journalists, even about cases like this,\u201d I told her.<\/p>\n \u201cIt isn\u2019t like what you see on A Current Affair with a reporter and camera guy chasing a dodgy neighbour or scamming tradie down the street.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll turn up, calmly introduce ourselves, and explain what we\u2019re doing and why we\u2019ve come. <\/p>\n \u201cWe won\u2019t be recording or filming. We\u2019ll speak quietly. We won\u2019t push for anything. If Donna is home, if that address is even still hers, she\u2019ll know soon enough if she wants to talk to us.\u201d<\/p>\n As a lawyer for the Australian Government Solicitor and the Canberra Coroner\u2019s office, Karina knew the modus operandi of official investigations. A subpoena was one mechanism. We didn\u2019t have that luxury. She must have doubted my assurance that many people from unresolved cases like this really want to talk.<\/p>\n After a navigation fail (we\u2019ll blame the car\u2019s GPS), we drew up near a house in the suburbs. It was a cold winter\u2019s afternoon. We knocked on the door. Softly, then firmly when nobody appeared. <\/p>\n A curtain shifted but nobody came. Later, we learned that one of Donna\u2019s children had decided we were Bible sellers and best ignored. A third attempt got the attention of her husband, Kevin, and we told him what was going on. <\/p>\n Kevin asked us inside and we kept talking. He appeared to trust that our intentions were good. We wrote our contact mobile numbers down in the hope Donna might telephone when she got home. Kevin told us he was protective of his wife. <\/p>\n He knew something about the case, of course; they had been together many years. His protective demeanour seemed to me an indication that he would not be in favour of us returning to interview his wife, but we learned later that this was not true. Kevin believed it could be cathartic.<\/p>\n We drove away 15 minutes later. Not knowing how things might go, we hadn\u2019t booked a return flight. Nor anywhere to stay. On a quiet road near Donna\u2019s home, we speculated on the possibilities.<\/p>\n \u201cHe obviously knows a lot about the case and he told us that their children also know about this case. Whether Donna will talk to us, though. I don\u2019t know. What do you think?\u201d I asked Karina.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got a feeling that she will,\u201d she replied. \u201cI\u2019ve just got this sense that maybe she\u2019s ready to tell her story. \u2018She\u2019ll want to at least hear us out and find out why we\u2019re here and what this is all about. I\u2019m hoping we might hear something by about five today.\u201d<\/p>\n At that point, we agreed we would bide our time for several hours, then decide where to go and what to do next in this reinvestigation of Rosslyn McQueen\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n \u201cYep. And also whether we go and knock on Ray McQueen\u2019s door,\u201d said Karina. <\/p>\n We recounted our meeting with Kevin. What he said and what we observed.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had How to Host a Murder, the game, sitting on their table, but then they had these other crime packs where you try to solve a crime,\u201d Karina recalled. <\/p>\n We had made friendly small talk with Kevin about the family\u2019s hobby interest, and I\u2019d asked whether he could solve Ros McQueen\u2019s murder. Kevin had said something like, \u201cwell, it seems pretty evident what happened\u201d.<\/p>\n A cosy pub with a fireplace and mulled wine became a welcome pit stop to debrief further and ponder next steps. At two minutes before 5pm, Donna called. I recall her saying she was \u201cpretty anxious, having heard that you\u2019ve come here to talk to me about this\u201d.<\/p>\n A phone call would be too impersonal. Could we drive over right away to talk to her off the record, answer all of her questions and hopefully allay her concerns? <\/p>\n \u201cYes, that would be good,\u201d she answered.<\/p>\n On the drive, Karina and I recorded an impromptu back-and-forth. <\/p>\n \u201cOut of the blue, two people turn up and ask to question her about a 40-year-old murder. Would you want to talk to us,\u201d I asked the lawyer-turned-podcast producer and journalist.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I would. I wouldn\u2019t commit to an interview at this stage \u2026 I would want to know what it was all about. And how my story might be told.\u201d<\/p>\n We spent the next three hours at Donna and Kevin\u2019s kitchen table, talking about the case, her teenage experiences, the grooming, Rosslyn and Ray McQueen, and a searching murder investigation in which Donna was for a while suspected as an accomplice.<\/p>\n By the end of it, Donna did want to break her silence. But not then. It had been emotional. We were all very tired.<\/p>\n We left the house about 8.30pm and checked into rooms in a nearby motel just before it had closed. <\/p>\n A little after 9am the next day, Donna started to talk. Her on-the-record disclosures over four hours were remarkable and poignant. She was sad and angry and resentful and filled with remorse. <\/p>\n Painfully and regrettably, she blamed herself for having believed as a vulnerable girl that she was \u201cin love\u201d with McQueen, a man twice her age.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy have you decided to talk to us?\u201d I asked her.<\/p>\n Donna said she wanted to try to put things right. \u201cYou feel guilt, embarrassment, shame. But it\u2019s not about us. It\u2019s about her.<\/p>\n \u201cI made a promise to Ros on her grave some years after that If I ever found out that he was in some way responsible, that I would try my hardest to make sure that he was brought to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n There was a lot. We checked the equipment. Every megabyte recorded. Saved to the cloud. <\/p>\n As we drove away around 2pm, Karina observed we had obtained much more than just Donna\u2019s words.<\/p>\n \u201cShe relaxed into it and turned a corner and then she just started to speak a lot more freely and her body language relaxed,\u201d Karina said on the way to the airport for our hastily booked flight.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was a child. She\u2019s really reflecting on her own actions and involvement, and she\u2019s carried this terrible guilt; I mean, can you imagine?<\/p>\n Kevin was a rock for his wife.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the sort of husband you want, don\u2019t you? Him saying, \u2018I would support her no matter her decision\u2019,\u2019\u2019 Karina said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s quite emotional because she\u2019s so emotional. He was very caring towards her. After all they\u2019ve been through, they look like they have a really solid marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n We have talked to Donna again since that interview. She doesn\u2019t want to be filmed or photographed. We won\u2019t use her current surname nor disclose where in Australia she lives. She told Karina that she\u2019d done it a bit tough after the interview. But she had also got a lot off her chest. She had learned a lot more about the case. And she\u2019d deal with the consequences. The Band-Aid was off now.<\/p>\n Do you know more? Contact the team at thepoisonedwife@theaustralian.com.au <\/p>\n Subscribers hear new episodes of The Poisoned Wife first. Listen at thepoisonedwife.com<\/a>, in The Australian\u2019s app or search for The Poisoned Wife on Apple Podcasts to connect your subscription.<\/p>\n Join the conversation and hear more from Hedley Thomas in The Poisoned Wife Podcast Official Discussion Group<\/a> on Facebook<\/p>\n Read related topics:The Poisoned Wife Podcast<\/a> Hedley Thomas is The Australian\u2019s national chief correspondent, specialising in investigative reporting with long-form podcasts about unsolved murders. He has won eight Walkley awards including two Gold Walkleys; the first in 2007 for his investigations into the fiasco surrounding the Australian Federal Police investigations of Dr Mohamed Haneef, and the second in 2018 for his podcast, The Teacher\u2019s Pet, investigating the 1982 murder of Sydney mother Lynette Dawson. His other podcasts include The Night Driver, Shandee’s Story and Bronwyn. You can contact Hedley confidentially at thomash@theaustralian.com.au<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is there a good way to bowl up to a perfect stranger\u2019s family home or workplace without 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<\/p>\n![\"Hedley](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hedley_thomas6.png\")
<\/a>Hedley Thomas<\/a>National Chief Correspondent<\/p>\n