Bogle-Chandler Case - Poisoning Theories

Poisoning Theories

The police investigated hundreds of theories including the drug LSD. The state government analyst found no trace of LSD. In 1996 relic tissues were sent to America and new forensic techniques were applied to them. A first pass suggested the presence of LSD. A more sensitive scan on the same equipment came up negative - Bogle and Chandler had not used LSD. Against this, there have been no documented human deaths from an LSD overdose.

Peter Butt's documentary, Who Killed Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler?, which was shown on the ABC in September 2006, suggests that the two deaths may have been caused by accidental hydrogen sulphide poisoning. Supporting evidence for this theory includes:

• In the 1940s and 50s, the local council received scores of letters from residents complaining of the smell of "rotten eggs" coming from the river, causing nausea and breathing difficulties. There was also a series of massive fish kills. With the residents facing permanent evacuation, the Maritime Services Board conducted a year-long study of the river. It found that the bottom muds were saturated to a depth of half a metre with hydrogen sulphide and that very large and rapid releases of hydrogen sulphide gas could occur from a section of the river impounded by the weir. The source was identified as a factory that had pumped its waste into the river since the 1890s. The worst affected location was within a quarter-mile of the weir, exactly where Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler died.
• On New Year's Day, police divers reported a great disturbance of black river-bed sediment. Although their search of the river was then delayed for 11 days, visibility remained poor.
• The very cool, still weather conditions at time of death would have allowed high concentrations of gas to accumulate.
• The location where the couple had sought privacy was at water-level in a slight depression, surrounded by a bank and mangroves, typical of where the heavier-than-air hydrogen sulphide would accumulate in calm conditions.
• Slight skin abrasions, shoe and knee prints suggest both victims were disorientated and had tried to leave the depression before collapsing.
• Both victims had been unable to correct their clothing, suggesting that the poison struck them down without warning, at the same time and with great speed.
• A pathology report, suppressed by the coroner at the time, revealed semen on Dr Bogle's body and coat. This suggests sex was taking place and that both victims could not have been suffering earlier effects of poisoning before they were suddenly struck down.
• Most importantly, a purple discoloration was seen in the victims' blood which is characteristic of hydrogen sulphide poisoning (This phenomenon is not related to other colour changes in the blood such as cyanosis, or methaemoglobin/methemoglobinemia).
• The toxicologist who tested the victims' tissue samples claimed that had he known about the semen, it would have eliminated the majority of poisons he had tested for. This knowledge he claimed, along with the hint provided by the purple colouration of the blood, might have led him to suspect that the poison was hydrogen sulphide.
• A British forensic scientist contacted by the police suggested on reading the case report that the victims had been gassed.