Above: Police search Bogle's car.
Right: A detective shows where the car key was found.
Images supplied by David Bartho
Right: A detective shows where the car key was found.
Images supplied by David Bartho
With the obvious fact that Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler had been poisoned, the inevitable question was asked: What form did the poisoning take? There were four possibilities:
Of these possibilities, the first two were discounted immediately. Neither Dr Bogle nor Mrs Chandler was the type of person to commit suicide. So the couple were either accidentally poisoned in some way, or they were murdered. Either way, they were poisoned, and the police investigation became a search for the poison. This search was mostly conducted in three areas: the bodies of Bogle and Chandler and the immediate vicinity therein; Bogle's car; and 12 Waratah Street Chatswood, scene of the party.
Having been removed from the crime scene, the bodies of Bogle and Chandler were placed in refrigeration overnight. 24 hours after the discovery of the bodies, Dr John Laing, Director of the NSW Division of Forensic Medicine, with 2 other doctors, conducted post mortem examinations of the bodies. At 10:30am he examined Dr Bogle's body, and later did the same with Mrs Chandler. He later denied at the inquest that the placing of the bodies in refrigeration overnight would have hampered the investigation in any way. Examination of the bodies showed that neither Dr Bogle nor Mrs Chandler had had intercourse in the final hours of their lives.
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Above: Police search Bogle's car.
Right: A detective shows where the car key was found. Images supplied by David Bartho |
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The causes of death appeared to be identical, acute cardiac failure associated with anoxia and pulmonary oedema. With Dr William Brighton, an Assistant Government Medical Officer, he used the term "cardiac failure" because "we are unable to say which mechanism occurred first".
Rigor mortis was well developed in the case of Dr Bogle, and he would have died as early as could be allowed, soon after he was last seen alive, at about 5am. Rigor mortis was less developed in Mrs Chandler's body, and she could have died an hour or two later than Dr Bogle. It was conceivable that they could have died at the same time, but unlikely.
The initial examination ruled out death by violence. A careful search of the bodies found no hypodermic marks (though of course this could never be conclusive), and the few haemorrhages seen on the lungs or in air passages were not consistent with asphyxia. All abrasions were checked, there were no signs of snakebites, and tests showed no evidence of funnel-web venom.
The eardrums were intact, there was no evidence of radioactivity either in the bodies or at Fuller's Bridge, and examination of the tissues revealled no alcohol, sedatives or monoxides that would not be expected.
The N.S.W. Government Analyst, Mr Ernest Stanley Ogg also gave evidence before the inquest on Tuesday, 21 May 1963. From Alan Dower's Deadline p223:
[Ogg] ..examined specimens of the couples' brains, hearts, livers, spleens, kidneys and blood. He used ultra-violet and infra-red rays and radiation monitors to seek ionising influences. Hair was tested for traces of the indestructable arsenic. The use of fluorides was suspected but no impulses came from tests made repeatedly with the stomachs of rabbists and guinea pigs, cats' hearts and the organs of chickens only a few days old.Mr Ogg also tested scrapings from the nails and muscles of Bogle and Chandler.
Mr Ogg also examined tissues for traces of strychnine, aconite, atrophine, carbolic acid and phenyl, cocaine, henbane (or mountain hemp), mercury, nicotine, opium, phosphorus, santonine, poisoned mushrooms and almonds, the venom of Queensland's cone fish, and durata seeds, the food poison of the thugs of western India.
Roland Thorp, Professor of Pharmacology at Sydney University, offered the resources of his department to the investigation. On the 15th January 1963, he received a portion of Dr Bogle's stomach contents. Tests were negative. On the 18th he received a portion of the stomach contents of Mrs Chandler. Tests were negative.
Above: Bogle's car parked at Chatswood Police Station. Note the carpet still in the boot.
Below: The piece of carpet that was found covering Bogle's body. Images supplied by David Bartho 
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Every test for poisons continued to yield this same result. In anticipation of more sophisticated testing methods, tissue samples were taken from the bodies of Bogle and Chandler, and preserved. In 1998 it was announced that tests had discovered traces of LSD. However the test suffered problems with cross reactivities and more sensitive tests ruled out LSD as the poison.
Dr Cameron Cramp (Senior Medical Officer with the NSW Health Department) tested the clothing of Bogle and Chandler. Under Section 42 of the Coronor's Act, the publication of this evidence was forbidden. It has since been revealed that tests detected a semen stain on Bogle's coat.
The carpet which covered part of Dr Bogle's body beneath the jacket was officially identified after 17 days as coming from the boot of his car. Graham Richard Digby, a mechanic who had serviced Dr Bogle's car, provided the identification.
On the 12 January, four police divers spent three hours searching in the river at the death scene. They were not looking for anything specific, rather in the hope that something might turn up. It might be pointed out that at 5am on the 1 January, about which time Bogle was believed to have died, the dawn coincided with the low tide. Whether this fact was relevant to the case is not known.
Finally, Mr McAlpine, an expert from the Australian Museum, found no trace of poisonous insects or spiders in the area.
Bogle's car, a green Ford Prefect, registration CLZ-497, was parked on the other side of Millwood Avenue from the track. The ignition key was where Bogle usually left it, tucked behind the sun visor. Under the driver's seat was a case containing Bogle's clarinet. On the back seat was Bogle's drawing.
Oddly, the carpet from the boot did not appear to be missing. A photograph taken after the car was driven to Chatswood Police Station clearly shows a piece of carpet in the boot, which is not the same one that was found covering Bogle's body. This anomaly has not been explained, though it may shed light on why it took police 17 days to identify the carpet on Bogle's body.
Detective-Sergeant Parsons and Constable Turner visited the Nashes just before noon on New Year's Day. At the time of this visit they refused to tell the Nashes what they were investigating, but admitted that it was serious. The Nashes would not learn of the fate of Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler until later.
Ken and Ruth Nash had not cleaned up the remnants of the party before going to bed, and all the plates, bottles, knives, forks and other items had not been washed. They were seized by police, and tested for poisons, including food poisoning. Once again, the tests were negative. No evidence has been found to connect the poisoning of Bogle and Chandler to the party.
Sergeant Lindsay visited the Chandler house in Croydon, taking numerous bottles of alcoholic beverages, plus some pest exterminators, for analysis. He also took a suitcase which contained Mrs Chandler's handbag. Mrs Chandler didn't take the handbag to the party, because it didn't go with her dress.
Pam Logan's room in Darlington was searched the next day, and later, so was the Bogle house. Items were sent for analysis, but the results were again negative. At the Nash house, the Bogle house, the Chandler house, and Pam Logan's room, not a single clue was found.