Case 316: Gilbert Bogle & Margaret Chandler

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Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. Thank you.
a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. It was nearing 8am on Tuesday January 1, 1963, as 16-year-old Michael McCormick made his way east along the bushy banks of Sydney's Lane Cove River.
Located in the suburb of Chatswood near a popular picnic area known as Fuller's Bridge, the area was once a thriving spot for swimming, fishing, rowing, and flower picking. Over the years, rising pollution levels put an end to many of these recreational pursuits, with people turned off by the discoloured water and its offensive smell.
Yet, the surrounding bushland of the Lane Cove National Park continued to attract many hikers and daytrippers. As Michael walked along the lower bush track that ran parallel to the waterway, he noticed a man lying face down in the grass on the riverbank.
He was neatly dressed in a dark coloured suit, with his arms slightly out by his side. Michael's first thought was that the man must have had too much to drink at a New Year's Eve celebration the previous night and was sleeping it off.
But as he edged close, Michael realised that the man's face appeared to be turning blue. Although it didn't look right to Michael, he told himself the man was probably just drunk and continued on.
He had plans to meet his friend Dennis at the nearby Chatswood Golf Club to look for discarded golf balls and he didn't want to keep him waiting. Michael caught up with Dennis near the sixth tee of the golf course which backed onto the river and the pair spent about an hour hunting for balls before deciding to call it a day.
They made their way back along the lower river track the same way that Michael had come, only to discover that the drunk man was still in the exact same position Michael had seen him in an hour earlier. Michael approached the man again, only to realise that the colour of his face had gone a bit darker.
He also didn't appear to be breathing. Fearing that the man might be dead, Michael told Dennis that they'd better get going.
Dennis stopped him, saying, we had better tell the man

over in the shop. The teens walked to the nearby Lane Cove kiosk and told the shopkeeper what

they'd found. The shopkeeper accompanied them back to the scene to see the man for himself.
As the trio gathered around him, Michael noticed something he hadn't seen before. A piece of carpet was sticking out from underneath the man's jacket.
While at first glance the man appeared to be neatly dressed, Michael looked closer and realised this wasn't the case at all. The man's jacket had simply been draped over his shoulders and down his back to make it look like he was wearing it.
It had been placed so perfectly that the right sleeve followed the bent angle of his right arm.

Likewise, his trousers had been neatly laid over both of his bare legs, the seams perfectly placed to make it appear as though he was dressed when he was not. The shopkeeper summoned the police who arrived at the scene at around 10am.
The attending sergeant removed the man's jacket and found that underneath he was wearing a white shirt with the top buttons undone. A necktie hung loosely around his neck and a piece of dirty brown carpet had been draped over his torso, with his jacket then placed meticulously on top.
He wore shoes and socks but no underwear and his trousers had been placed on top of his bare legs. The man's body was in a clear state of rigor mortis indicating that he'd been deceased for some time.
Yet, despite a trickle of blood that was seeping from his right nostril, there were no obvious signs of violence anywhere on his body. The only thing out of the ordinary was a puddle of vomit that lay nearby.
Mystified by the scene, the police began a thorough search of the area to try and determine what had unfolded. An officer made his way down the riverbank towards the mudflats about 15 metres south

from where the man's body lay. Parallel to the riverbed, he came across an indentation in the mud that was about 5 feet long and 2 feet wide.
It had been covered up by several flattened down beer cartons that had obviously been in the area for

some time. The officer picked one of the pieces of cardboard up.
Sergeant, he called out to his

superior. I can see part cartons, the head and shoulders of a young, dark-haired woman lay on display.
She was on her back as though asleep, her head turned slightly to the left with her right arm resting on her stomach and her left arm by her thigh. There was a small abrasion on her nose which had been lightly bleeding.
The woman was wearing an imitation pearl necklace but her shoulders were otherwise bare, the straps of her dress having been pulled down to expose her breasts. The sergeant lifted the woman's arm, noticing that she was wearing a wedding ring.
He felt for a pulse, but there was none, and she wasn't breathing. Although she was clearly deceased, her body was still slightly warm to the touch and rigor mortis hadn't yet set in.
The sergeant pulled the rest of the beer cartons aside, revealing that the woman's bra had been rolled down across her

stomach. She was wearing a white dress with a red rose pattern on it which had been rolled up around her waist.
Underneath the dress, she wore a white half-slip that was torn and muddy. She had no underwear or shoes on and her feet and knees were smeared with mud.
A pair of men's underwear lay at her feet, stained with feces. Vomit and excrement dotted the surrounding area, adding to the already foul odour of the thick black mud and surrounding mangroves.
Other than some small scratches on one of the woman's shoulders, there were no defensive marks or signs of violence anywhere on her body and it didn't look like her clothing had been forcefully removed. Her shoes and underwear were found on the exposed riverbed directly below where the man's body was found, placed in a neat line along with the man's belt.
Detectives soon arrived at the scene and were baffled by what lay before them. Here they had two semi-naked bodies just 15 metres apart, both oddly covered up but with no overt signs of violence on either of them.
Both of the deceased appeared to have been healthy young individuals. An unexpected medical event such as a heart attack or brain aneurysm could kill one person, but the chances of it happening to two was next to impossible.
The vomit and faeces at the scene suggested a more obvious cause of death. The pair had been poisoned.
A cursory search of the area didn't reveal any pills, powders, hypodermic needles or anything else to suggest what had made the couple so sick. Police divers took to the water to search for any discarded evidence, but the water was too muddy and polluted and the search had to be called off.
The only prince in the mud belonged to the woman and were consistent with her having walked to the riverbed before collapsing onto all fours. The surrounding area didn't show any obvious signs of disturbance such as flattened grass or drag marks to suggest that anyone else was involved.
Detectives wondered if they could be dealing with a double

suicide or a murder-suicide. But this didn't explain the precise way in which the bodies had been covered up.
They considered a third, more plausible theory. What they were dealing with was a double homicide.
Police searched the area for the woman's handbag or purse but couldn't find one. A search of the dead man's pockets didn't turn up any drugs or poisons, but it did reveal his wallet.
Inside were several five pound notes, a driver's license, and personal papers all in the same name, Dr Gilbert Bogle.

The 39-year-old lived in Tarahumara, a suburb in Sydney's Upper North Shore, approximately 10 kilometres north of the crime scene.

Detectives were sent to Gilbert's address, where they knocked at the door of the attractive brick home.

I won't be able to do that. scene.
Detectives were sent to Gilbert's address, where they knocked at the door of the attractive brick home. A woman holding a baby in her arms answered and introduced herself as Vivian Bogle.
She was soon joined by three more young children, the oldest of whom was just 11. The detectives handed Vivian Gilbert's wallet and explained where they had found it.
Vivian's eyes immediately filled with tears. She'd been worried sick about her husband ever since he'd failed to return home from a New Year's Eve party the previous evening.
Vivian told the detectives that Gilbert worked as a physicist for the government-run Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, known as the CSIRO, where he'd been a much-loved member of the faculty for the past seven years.

A gifted physicist originally from New Zealand, Gilbert had completed a doctorate in philosophy at England's Oxford University after being awarded with a highly coveted Rhodes Scholarship. It was there that he met and married Vivian before accepting the position of senior research officer in the CSIRO's Division of Physics at the National Standards Laboratory in Sydney.
During Gilbert's time with the CSIRO, his superiors were so impressed with him that he was given an indefinite appointment with the organisation, with his chief deeming him to be the most brilliant member on staff. Gilbert was equally admired outside of the workplace.
Not only did he speak several languages, play the clarinet, and have four great children, he was an extroverted character and a conversationalist who got along well with everyone he met. Vivian Bogle told the detectives that at around nine o'clock the night before, Gilbert had left home to attend a party thrown by one of his colleagues, Ken Nash and his wife Ruth.
Vivian couldn't go to the party because their baby was sick and she had to stay home and tend to the children. She woke up at around 5am only to find that Gilbert still wasn't home.
When he still hadn't surfaced by 6.45, her worry grew. Vivian called the Nash residents to see if they could shed any light on her husband's whereabouts.
Ruth Nash told Vivian not to stress. She said the party had run into the early hours of the morning and Gilbert had only left a short while earlier.

With Vivian receiving the news that her husband had been found dead next to the Lane Cove River, her worst fears had come true.

As she tried to get her head around the reality of it, the detectives delivered the second blow, explaining that a deceased woman had also been found just a few metres from Gilbert's body. Vivian was stunned.
She had no idea who the woman could be. Back at Lane Cove, detectives checked the parking area near Fuller's Bridge, which was about 70 metres from where the bodies were found.
There, they found an old Ford Prefect with its doors unlocked and its keys tucked into the driver's side sun visor. A check of the Ford's registration confirmed that the car belonged to Gilbert Bogle.
On the back seat was a leather case with a clarinet inside and strangely, an abstract painting depicting what appeared to be a two-headed woman surrounded by a severed foot and hand. The car didn't smell of gas or any other unusual odour.
There was nothing inside the car that could explain how the pair had died, nor was there anything that could help identify the mystery woman. Detectives visited the home of the party hosts, Ken and Ruth Nash.
The Nashers lived on Waratah Street in Chatswood, which was about five kilometres east of Fuller's Bridge. They were stunned to hear that Gilbert Bogle had been found dead.
Gilbert had been one of 22 guests who had attended their annual New Year's Eve celebration the previous night, and when they'd last seen him, he'd been in perfect health. The Nashers recalled that Gilbert had arrived at around 9.30pm with his clarinet in hand.
He also brought with him a Picasso-inspired drawing of an abstract figure, the one that had been found in the back of his car. He had drawn this at Ken and Ruth's request.
To keep things interesting, they had asked their guests to bring some kind of abstract art project they could display for the evening. Most guests let the Nashers keep their projects at the end of the night, but Gilbert wanted to take his home.
The detectives asked Ken and Ruth if there happened to be a dark-haired woman at their party who wore a white rose-patterned dress.

The husband and wife exchanged a look.

Yes, they said. There was a guest who fit that description.

Her name was Margaret Chandler, but they didn't know her very well.

She was the 29-year-old wife of another CSIRO employee, 32-year-old Geoffrey Chandler. The Chandlers had been a late addition to the Nash's guest list, having been invited to the party just a week before, at Gilbert Bogle's request.
They'd arrived at around 10.30pm, dressed in more casual attire than the Nashers had requested on their invite, and without any artwork to contribute.

Ken and Ruth told the detectives that Margaret Chandler had been reserved at the party, perhaps even a bit shy.

She mostly sat on the lounge, sipping a drink.

In contrast, Gilbert Bogle was the life of the party, as per usual. He mingled freely, dancing and sometimes speaking to other guests in Spanish and Italian.
The Nash's didn't particularly notice Gilbert paying Margaret any more attention than he did the other guests. However, they did notice that the two left the party at around the same time, shortly after 4am, and Margaret's husband wasn't with them.
With this revelation, the detectives started putting the pieces together. They were familiar with the area of Lane Cove where the two bodies were found, as the parking lot near Fuller's Bridge was a well-known lover's lane.
Officers were routinely dispatched there to keep an eye out for any peeping toms or anyone who might be illegally dumping rubbish in the surrounding bushland. It stood to reason that Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler could have left the party together and stopped at Lane Cove to have some time alone.
Given that they were both in a state of undress, detectives considered whether they had willingly taken their clothes off to engage in consensual sex when they both became gravely ill. The problem with this theory was that the area they were found in wasn't exactly a picturesque or romantic spot.
The polluted river gave off an unpleasant smell, while rubbish was strewn throughout the bush track and riverbed. If the pair had wanted some privacy, it seemed odd that they'd walked 70 metres from the parking lot to this undesirable location when they could have just stayed in the comfort of Gilbert's car.
It also didn't explain what had happened to them once they reached the bush track. The Nashers said that neither Gilbert or Margaret had drunk much throughout the evening and neither seemed intoxicated or sick when they left the party.
This meant that something had occurred in the period of time when they left the party at around 4am and when Michael McCormick first walked past Gilbert's body at 8am. Forensic examiners estimated that Gilbert had died shortly after leaving the party at around 5am, with Margaret dying an hour or two later.
Although, it was also possible that she'd died around at the same time, but her body had been better preserved due to the way it was covered up. A medical officer at the scene examined their bodies for stab marks, bullet holes, strangulation or any other signs of assault.
He found nothing, further solidifying the theory that the pair had been poisoned. And detectives suspected they knew who was responsible.

It was nearing 1pm on New Year's Day when detectives arrived at a modest weatherboard home in the Sydney suburb of Croydon, located roughly 18km south of Fuller's Bridge.

A sign in the front yard read, Dachs and Pups, for Sale. It was the home of Margaret and Geoffrey Chandler.
The couple had bought the house several years prior and were renovating it slowly while raising their nine-month-old and two-year-old sons. Margaret was a former nurse turned stay-at-home mum while Geoffrey worked as an engineer at the CSIRO.

He'd started with the company as a technical assistant,

but had slowly risen the ranks while studying diligently for his master's degree in engineering.

His hard work paid off, and coupled with Margaret's smart budgeting,

they'd managed to pay off their mortgage in just two years.

They lived simply, their only indulgence being their shared love for vintage cars. The detectives knocked on the door and a slightly dishevelled Geoffrey Chandler answered, having obviously just woken up.
In his arms was his grizzling baby son, while his older son stood by his side. The detectives asked Geoffrey if his wife was at home.
He said she was not. They asked if he knew where she was.
Geoffrey responded no. He said the last time he'd seen Margaret was at around 4 o'clock that morning when he'd left the Nash's New Year's Eve party Geoffrey asked if there had been an accident The detectives told him no and asked if he would accompany them to the police station Geoffrey agreed but didn't ask why nor did the detectives offer him any explanation.

At the station, a detective presented Geoffrey with the afternoon edition of the Daily Mirror newspaper.

The front page headline read,

Scientist, Woman in Death Mystery.

The article went on to explain that Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler had been found dead on the banks of Lane Cove River, the cause of their death unknown. Jeffrey Chandler showed no reaction as he read the story.
He took a cigarette from his shirt pocket and lit it up in a stony silence. The detective asked Jeffrey how he knew Gilbert Bogle.
Jeffrey explained that they had worked together at the CSIRO for several years but in different departments. He said they didn't know each other well but would say hello in passing.
Geoffrey that Margaret had only met Gilbert, or Gib as he was known, ten days earlier at a CSIRO Christmas barbecue. Margaret had been looking forward to the event.
Having given birth only months earlier, she hadn't been out much and was looking forward to some adult interaction. Gilbert Bogle attended the barbecue alone as his wife was at home nursing their sick baby.
He soon started chatting with Margaret and the two immediately hit it off. After the barbecue, Ken and Ruth Nash invited some of the guests back to their place for drinks.
There, Gilbert suggested that the Nashers invite the Chandlers to their upcoming New Year's Eve party, and they obliged. Geoffrey wasn't particularly excited about the invite, but he could tell that Margaret was.
In the days following the barbecue, she seemed to have a renewed spark.

Margaret told Geoffrey that Gilbert Bogle had been the most interesting person there.

She admitted she felt quite attracted to him and that she found the prospect of sleeping with him

alluring. Geoffrey told her,

If you want to take Gibb as a lover, if it would make you happy, you'd do it Jeffrey explained to the incredulous detectives that while he and Margaret had a happy marriage they had an arrangement in which they were both free to pursue intimate relations with other people He said they had attended the Nash's New Year's party with the understanding that Margaret was free to take a Gilbert Bogle home at the end of the night if she so desired. Jeffrey had even agreed to stay elsewhere and take care of the children so that the two could have some privacy.
Jeffrey told the detectives that on New Year's Eve he and Margaret had dropped their two sons at Margaret's parents' house before arriving at the Nash's party at around 10pm. Geoffrey could tell straight away that the party was not his scene.
He felt inadequately dressed in his shirt sleeves and sandals while all the other men were in suits. He was also the only one there with a beard.
Overall, the party was quieter and more formal than what Geoffrey was used to, and although it was pleasant enough, he found it quite pretentious and wasn't eager to stick around.

However, he'd made a promise to Margaret and he intended to keep it. Geoffrey told the detectives that at around 11.30pm he slipped out of the party to go and buy cigarettes without telling Margaret or anyone else that he was leaving.
As he drove along looking for a shop that was still open, he got further and further away from the Nash's house until he decided he might as well stop in at another party he'd been invited to. This one was at the Balmain home of Ken Buckley, a friend who worked as an economic history lecturer at the University of Sydney.
Ken Buckley's party was much more to Geoffrey's tastes.

There were about 100 guests and it was a more laid back and casual affair.

He also had an extra incentive to pop by.

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Jeffrey Chandler told the detectives that he'd been romantically involved with a 21-year-old woman named Pamela Logan for about five or six months. Pamela worked as a secretary at the University of Sydney, where the CSIRO building was located, and the had met through mutual acquaintances.
Geoffrey told the detectives that he'd been at the Balmain party for about an hour when they decided to go back to Pamela's place which was about six kilometres away in the suburb of Darlington. Geoffrey agreed to drive his car with Pamela following behind in her own.

She'd only recently gotten her driver's licence and still had trouble navigating the streets on her own. By the time they got to Pamela's house she wasn't feeling very well so Jeffrey made her a cup of coffee and left at around 2am.
He drove back to Chatswood and slipped back into the party where nobody seemed to have taken much notice of his absence. Geoffrey said he apologised to Margaret for being gone for so long, but she didn't appear to be fazed at all.
A supper of chicken, ham, sausage, cheese and vegetables was then served. Afterwards, Jeffrey asked Margaret if she still had the same opinion of Gilbert Bogle as she did before.
She said that she did and that Gilbert had offered to drive her home if Jeffrey hadn't returned. A little while later, shortly before 4am, Geoffrey saw Margaret and Gilbert chatting together on the couch.
He went over and told them he was ready to leave. When Margaret made no move to join him, Geoffrey asked Gilbert if he could take her home.
Gilbert looked at him quizzingly, as though he was trying to make sure he interpreted the question correctly. After a pause, he responded, alright.
Jeffrey told the detectives he then left without saying goodbye to anyone else. He felt a bit embarrassed to be leaving by himself and didn't want to draw any attention to this fact.
Jeffrey sat in his car and lit a cigarette, waiting a few minutes just in case Margaret changed her mind. When she didn't come out, he drove off.
Jeffrey claimed that he drove straight back to Pamela Logan's house via the Sydney Harbour Bridge

He got to Pamela's house at around 4.30am, woke her up and asked if she'd go with him to pick up

his children. Pamela seemed slightly annoyed by this request but she agreed.
The two then drove

to Margaret's parents' house where Jeffrey dropped Pamela to wait around the corner. Geoffrey retrieved his kids, picked Pamela up, and took them all back to Pamela's house in Darlington.
They stayed there for a couple of hours before returning to the Chandler's home in Croydon. Geoffrey said he was surprised to find that Margaret wasn't home, but he assumed she must have gone out for a drive with Gilbert Bogle and would be back soon.
He went to sleep with the boys and the next thing he knew, the detectives were knocking at his door. The detectives weren't buying Geoffrey's story at all.
They found it difficult to believe that a happily married couple could have such an arrangement. It seemed much more believable that Geoffrey could have sensed a mutual attraction between Margaret and Gilbert and killed them in a jealous rage.
Either that or he wanted Margaret out of the picture so he could freely pursue the relationship with his younger girlfriend and Gilbert Bogle was just collateral damage. Perhaps Geoffrey had discreetly slipped something into the pair's food or drink before they left the party together and the effects had only taken their toll once the two were canoodling by the riverside.
Just before 4.30pm on New Year's Day, detectives visited Pamela Logan's house in Darlington. They asked her if she had spent time with the Geoffrey Chandler the previous evening.
Yes, Pamela replied. Why do you want to know? Pamela told the detectives the exact same story as Geoffrey.
She also said that when he'd returned to her house at around 4.30am, he mentioned that he'd arranged for another man to take his wife home. Pamela lived in a share house and one of her housemates had also been at the Baumein party the night before.
This housemate confirmed that Geoffrey Chandler had been at the party and brought the children over in the morning. They'd all eaten breakfast together before the Chandlers had left at around 10am.

With Pamela backing Geoffrey's alibi to the tea, the detectives were left scratching their heads.

They visited Margaret's parents, who confirmed that Geoffrey had arrived at their house at around 5am to pick up their children.

This was the same time that Gilbert Bogle was thought to have died. Although this meant Geoffrey couldn't have been present when Gilbert and Margaret became fatally ill, it didn't rule out the possibility that he'd managed to poison them before they left the Nash's party.
Given that the chandelier's house had been empty at the time, it made detectives even more curious about why Margaret and Gilbert had ended up in the spot that they had. Perhaps they were driving back to the chandelier's home when they were overcome with illness.
Gilbert might have urgently parked his car and the two had run into the bush to be sick in private. Then again, if the two had run into the bush,

if the two had run into the bush to be sick in private. Then again, if they were so violently ill, why go 70 metres into the bush when there were plenty of other spots closer by? The news that Margaret had been found dead left her parents utterly devastated.

Margaret was one of four children in their close-knit family and as the only girl she was particularly beloved. But equally crushing to them was Geoffrey's claim that he and Margaret had an open marriage.
While they'd always had a good relationship with Geoffrey,

the thought that he had been liaising with other women while encouraging Margaret to pursue relations with other men left them flabbergasted. They couldn't imagine Margaret would ever agree to such an arrangement.
Back at the police station, Geoffrey Chandler explained to the detectives that he and Margaret had made the mutual decision not to regulate their marriage according to the rules of suburbia. He said that neither of them were jealous, possessive or demanding in nature and they recognised each other's rights as individuals.
According to Geoffrey, the fact that they were married and intended to stay married did not eliminate their interest in other people. While he didn't think Margaret knew about his relationship with Pamela Logan specifically, she knew he was involved with other women.
He also made it clear that he never intended to pursue a future with Pamela and she expected nothing of him. But the detectives were sceptical of Geoffrey's claims, believing there was every chance he was using this as an excuse for his own bad behaviour.
If the police didn't believe him, Jeffrey said they could ask his friend, Bill Berry,

as he'd had a brief affair with Margaret in the past. Bill backed up Jeffrey's claims completely.
He said he'd slept with Margaret a few times about four years prior and that Jeffrey had been fully aware, even making jokes about it. Bill claimed that Jeffrey Chandler was an easygoing and placid fellow and definitely not the jealous type.
The affair only came to an end when Bill started dating his future wife. The police interrogated Jeffrey Chandler for close to 13 hours, but he never veered from his original story and there was no evidence to tie him to the scene at Lane Cove.
Eventually, he was free to go, but the next morning he was summoned to the city morgue to identify Margaret's body. Police hoped that this might

prompt a reaction or perhaps even elicit a confession. Several detectives gathered around

the room, their eyes on Geoffrey as the coroner lifted back the sheet to reveal Margaret's body.

She's a bit dishevelled, isn't she? Jeffrey remarked He made no other show of emotion Meanwhile, forensic investigators searched the home of Ken and Ruth Nash for any evidence that Margaret Chandler and Gilbert Bogle could have been poisoned before they left the party. If Geoffrey Chandler wasn't responsible, maybe one of the other partygoers was.
Or maybe their deaths hadn't been intentional at all, but the result of contaminated food or drink, or a practical joke gone horribly wrong. Officers confiscated all of the leftover food scraps and drinks that had been served and were surprised to discover that very little alcohol had been consumed.
Between the 24 people present, only 4 bottles of spirits and 16 bottles of beer had been drunk throughout the entire evening. Testing revealed no traces of poison or food-borne bacteria in any of the consumables served at the party.
Officers also seized a collection of medicines and household chemicals taken during a search of Geoffrey Chanteller's home, as well as the home of Pamela Logan. They also confiscated the clothes that Geoffrey had worn to the party

and swabbed the insides of his pockets for any poison residue.

Without knowing exactly what had killed Margaret Chandler and Gilbert Bogle,

police weren't sure what to do next.

Because their bodies were discovered on a public holiday, detectives had to wait 36 hours for their autopsies to be conducted. The carpet square that had been draped over Gilbert's body was determined to have come from the boot of his car, indicating he'd taken it with him so they'd have a comfortable place to lay down.
Microscopic examination revealed that the pair hadn't had full sexual intercourse, but fresh semen was detected on Gilbert's jacket and genitals, confirming that some form of sexual activity had taken place. This meant that whatever had happened, the pair had been healthy and well when they arrived at the riverbed seeking privacy.

The fact that they'd been unable to put their clothes back on indicated that something had struck them down rapidly and without warning.

Initial toxicology testing showed no alcohol in either of their systems.

Tissue samples were taken from various organs and then tested against numerous readily available poisons, including strychnine, cyanide, arsenic and other household chemicals, agricultural products and prescription medications such as barbiturates and sleeping pills. But to the great shock of everyone involved, none of their tissue samples showed any traces of poison.
While this didn't rule out the possibility that Margaret and Gilbert had been poisoned, it just meant the toxicologists had to dig deeper. Whatever had killed the pair, it wasn't an ordinary run-of-the-mill drug or toxin.
Investigators considered whether it was something that only a highly educated professional in the medical or scientific field would have knowledge of or access to. Someone such as a CSIRO employee.

Police searched the Chandler's home again and found a receipt in one of Margaret's handbags for Hyder-X.

It had been issued by Windswept Kennels on Saturday December 29, 1962, just three days before she died.

Detectives visited the business owner, a well-known Dachshund breeder named Sheridan Pawsey. Sheridan confirmed that she'd had multiple dealings with the Chandlers in the past, as Margaret was a dog lover who had dotingly raised several Dachshunds.
She viewed the Chandlers as a normal family and described Geoffrey as a gentle man. The Chandler's dog had recently had puppies and Sheridan confirmed that Margaret had brought the litter over for her to have a look at.
She remembered the visit well because Margaret hadn't quite been her usual self. While she usually took pride in her appearance, on this visit she seemed a little unkempt.
It also seemed like something was worrying her. The two women started chatting and Margaret mentioned that she'd had an argument with her husband, but Sheridan made a joke which had lightened the mood.
Sheridan confirmed that she'd given Margaret some Hyderax pills,

which were used to treat tapeworm in dogs.

They were brand new to the market,

and Sheridan had warned Margaret to keep them away from her children

as they were not safe for human consumption.

However, Sheridan said she only gave Margaret four of the pills and this wouldn't have been enough to kill a person. Regardless, as far as the detectives were concerned, this was their first solid lead.
They considered whether Geoffrey Chandler could have used the Hyderrex to spike Margaret and Gilbert's drinks to prevent them from being physical with one another.

Maybe he'd given them too much without realising their potency and this plan had fatally backfired.

Police returned to the Chandler's house to search for the Hyderics pills but couldn't find them anywhere and Jeffrey claimed he knew nothing about them. Investigators remained convinced that Margaret and Gilbert had both been poisoned by the same thing, they just had to figure out what.
They interviewed the other guests who had attended the New Year's Eve party at the Nash residence.

None of them had fallen even remotely ill, even though one guest had eaten food directly off of Gilbert's plate. No one recalled anything unusual about Gilbert or Margaret's behaviour towards the end of the night either.
One guest had given Gilbert a handshake goodbye

And noted that he'd been in good spirits

And appeared perfectly sober and healthy. However, the detectives were slightly dubious about one guest.
39-year-old Joan Gordon, not her real name, worked as a research scientist at the CSIRO. She had left the party at the same time as Gilbert, making her one of the last people to have seen him alive.
Joan described Gilbert as a kind man. She said the two occasionally ran into each other at work or at the tennis club and he always made a point of being nice to her and giving her compliments.
He'd even kissed her at the Nash's party when the clock struck midnight. The significance for police was that Joan Gordon was the only single woman who attended the New Year's Eve party.
She also suffered from a chronic skin condition which resulted in an apparent lack of self-esteem. Police theorised that Joan could have been infatuated with Gilbert Bogle and was overcome with jealousy when she saw him leave the party with another woman.
As a scientist, she certainly knew a thing or two about poisons and she could have followed Gilbert and Margaret to Lane Cove and killed them both. Joan told detectives that she drove straight home after the party, but given that she lived alone, there was no one to verify her alibi.
Police remained suspicious of Joan, but it didn't seem likely that she would have been driving around in possession of some kind of undetectable poison. Secondly, even if she did have the poison and had followed Gilbert and Margaret down to the river, how would she have managed to administer it? While everyone detectives spoke to painted Gilbert Bogle as a loyal family man, several women came forward to report otherwise.
At least two married women reported that Gilbert had asked them out or made moves on them in the past, while another claimed she'd been having an affair with Gilbert for the past three years. Margaret Fowler was a married librarian who worked at the CSIRO's Scientific Library.
She claimed that she'd begun a physical relationship with Gilbert in 1959 and the two would occasionally have sex at work or at a private location in a public park. During these encounters, he'd always keep his shirt, shoes and socks on and remove only his pants and underwear, just like he'd done at Lane Cove on New Year's Day.
Margaret Fowler quickly found herself falling in love with Gilbert, even though he treated her poorly and made it clear the relationship was purely sexual. She once threatened to take her own life after he rejected her.
Eventually, Margaret's husband, Robert Fowler, who was a colleague of Gilbert's, agreed that his wife was free to have sex outside of their marriage as long as it didn't happen under their roof. She went against her husband's wishes and one night, Robert came home to find Gilbert jumping over the balcony with his shoes in hand.
From the stories Margaret Fowler told, it was clear to the detectives that she was infatuated with Gilbert Bogle, possibly to the point of delusion. But it also proved that Gilbert was no stranger to taking women to public parks for sexual encounters.
Bizarrely enough, it also turned out that Margaret Fowler had shared the occasional kiss with Geoffrey Chandler. Geoffrey told detectives that at the CSIRO Christmas Barbecue where his wife had met Gilbert for the first time Margaret Fowler had been in an emotional state She told him that she'd been having an affair with Gilbert and he'd recently called it off Detectives wondered whether Margaret Fowler could have been motivated to murder Gilbert and his new romantic interest, under the mindset that if she couldn't have him, then no one could.
Alternatively, maybe her jealous husband Robert wanted Gilbert out of the picture for good. The couple's whereabouts on New Year's Eve were looked into.
It turned out they'd attended a party in Taramara, 12km north of the Nash's party in Chatswood, where they'd stayed until 4am before walking the short distance home. There was no way either of them could have ran into Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler in those early morning hours.

The case immediately became a media sensation, with the local tabloids publishing story after story to keep feeding the intense public interest. Sidneysiders were left scandalised by the lurid details about open marriages, late-night affairs and suspected murder plots, even more so when it was revealed that Geoffrey Chandler was a member of a libertarian subculture known as the Sydney Push.
Unofficially formed in the 1940s, the Push was the name given to an amorphous group who had a shared interest in the anti-authoritarian movement and left-wing politics. Members of the Push consisted of university students, academics, musicians, artists, journalists, and public servants.
While there was no formal shape or goal for the Push, members would typically attend meetings before frequenting one of several pubs around Sydney, with many of those pub visits eventually turning into late night parties. Although members of the push were mostly well educated and had good jobs, many outsiders viewed them as beatniks who lived outside the rules of conventional society.

They had a reputation for believing in free love and being heavy drinkers,

and Geoffrey Chandler's association with the group made the story of his wife's death all the more titillating for conservative members of the public.

It didn't help that publicly, Geoffrey appeared to show little emotion or respect for his dead wife. Margaret's brother told the police that just two days after Margaret died, Geoffrey had introduced him to Pamela Logan and described her as his girlfriend.
In addition to the rampant speculation that the pair had been murdered by a jealous lover or spouse, wild theories also started surfacing about Gilbert Bogle's possible involvement in top-secret information. A man of great intelligence, he'd recently been offered a fellowship position working at the Bell Telephone Company in the United States and before he died, his family had intended to move there in just a few weeks' time.
The possibility was raised that Gilbert could have been working as a spy or had been the target of espionage-related nerve gas or even a death ray. It was the height of the Cold War and public concern about nuclear bombs was at its peak.
Investigators considered these theories but found nothing to support any of them. They even looked into the possibility that Geoffrey Chandler could have been involved in military research and had been given access to a laboratory in which chemical and biological warfare was being looked into.
At the time, Sydney's two major afternoon tabloids, The Sun and The Daily Mirror, were in the midst of a vicious war to take out the number one spot. Reporters from both publications pulled out all the stops to be the first to break any developments in what was coming to be known as the Bogle-Chandler case.
Reporters lurked around the Chandler's home as well as the CSIRO building, desperate for any new detail they could turn into a story. The public interest in Geoffrey Chandler was so intense that he began moving between the homes of friends and acquaintances to avoid the media onslaught.
Gilbert Bogle's wife Vivian promptly packed up her four children and returned to her homeland of New Zealand, refusing to believe that her husband was anything but the faithful family man she knew him to be. The advantage of the public interest was that people were eager to come forward with any information that could help with the case.
Various witnesses made statements confirming they had seen Geoffrey Chandler's distinctive 1924 model vintage Vauxhall Vauxhall driving west from the suburb of Burwood sometime between 4.45am and 5am, roughly 20km from Lane Cove. The statements further supported Geoffrey's version of events, proving he was nowhere near Fuller's Bridge at the time that Margaret and Gilbert died.

But for investigators, this just left the question.

If Jeffrey didn't kill them, then who did?

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By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. When the tabloids started reporting on the Hyderex tablets that Margaret Chandler had purchased in the days before her death, members of the public began speculating that she could have brought them with her to the party, where she and Gilbert Bogle took them

together in some kind of suicide pact. Maybe the reason her handbag hadn't been found at the scene was because she ditched it to get rid of the evidence.
But testing of Margaret and Gilbert's tissue samples came back negative for any sign of the drug in either of their systems. Geoffrey Chandler clarified that the reason police couldn't find Margaret's handbag was because she hadn't been carrying one at all on the night that she died.
She'd left it at her parents' house at the last minute after deciding that it clashed with her outfit. Whatever poison had killed the pair, it hadn't been in Margaret's possession.
Loved ones of the deceased insisted there was no way either of them would have taken their own lives. Gilbert was a happy, popular and well-adjusted man who had great career satisfaction and loved his wife and children.
Not only was he looking forward to his upcoming move to America to work with the Bell Telephone Company, but before offering Gilbert the position, Bell had conducted a thorough background check into his personal life. They found nothing to suggest he was in any way suicidal, depressed or mentally ill.
Similarly, Margaret's medical history revealed no such concerns. Although some of Margaret's loved ones had noticed a change in her personality and appearance since giving birth to her second child, they were adamant she would never voluntarily leave her two sons without a mother.
Geoffrey admitted he'd been neglecting Margaret's needs and that their otherwise happy marriage had been at a lull, but he said her encounter and potential liaison with Gilbert Bogle had seemingly reinvigorated her. On Friday January 11, 10 days after Gilbert and Margaret's bodies were found, a team of police divers returned to Lane Cove for a second attempt at searching the river for clues.
Donning special equipment, they launched themselves into the murky water, but it was still too dark to see anything. They used their hands to crawl along the muddy river floor, feeling for a syringe, bottle, anything that could account for the two mysterious deaths.
Nothing was found. While police weren't prepared to rule any theory out, the fact that Gilbert and Margaret barely knew each other made the idea of a suicide pact highly unlikely.
Given that neither showed any signs of wanting to end their own lives and had zero history of violence, it seemed equally improbable that one would have killed the other before killing themselves. Yet, the fact that both of their bodies had been so carefully covered up sparked debate about who could have done such a thing.
Some investigators thought that if the pair was murdered, a killer would have dragged their bodies a few metres off the track instead of leaving them out in the open. The precise way in which Gilbert's clothes were placed over his body ruled out the possibility that he'd covered himself up.
However, Margaret was a trained nurse and some wondered whether she could have covered Gilbert's body to keep him warm before stumbling to the riverbed where she pulled the broken beer cartons over herself. Others thought this made no sense.
If Margaret wanted to cover herself, wouldn't she have pulled her rumpled dress back on instead of using dirty, weathered pieces of cardboard? After considering all possible scenarios, investigators unequivocally agreed that a third person had been involved. Not necessarily as a perpetrator, but at the very least, someone else had been present at the scene and had covered the bodies up, perhaps to preserve their dignity.
Detectives asked anyone who had been at Lane Cove on New Year's

morning to come forward. One man, who identified himself only as Mr Roberts, called to say he'd

seen Dr Bogle's Ford Prefect parked near Fuller's Bridge at around 4.30am with a woman inside.

He hung up the call before providing any further information and the call couldn't be traced. Four days later, the same man called back after his car, a Ford Escort, had been identified as being in the area at the time in question.
This time he identified himself as Kenneth Shelley. Shelley provided an in-person statement in which he said that he'd arrived at the Lane Cove River around 4am on January 1.
He claimed he often went there to look for plants for his garden, but under pressure from the police, he cracked and admitted he was really there to spy on couples having sex. Shelley said that at around 4.30am he'd been walking along Lady Game Drive, which runs parallel to the river, when a Ford prefect matching the description of Gilbert Bogle's car passed him and stopped halfway off the road.
A man and woman were in the front seat. Shelley locked eyes with the man, who he later identified as Gilbert Bogle, and noted that he looked very pale.
He also got the impression that Gilbert was about to say something to him, but then stopped. Shelley kept walking and when he returned half an hour later, the prefect was gone.
He continued on and found it was now parked near Fuller's Bridge with no one inside. Shelley got into his car and drove along the dirt track where Gilbert's body was later found.
He didn't see Gilbert or Margaret, but he did claim to see a tall, well-built man with long blonde hair who jumped out of the bushes and then disappeared down the riverbank. Kenneth Shelley vehemently denied being the one who covered up the two bodies.
Although investigators found him to be a suspicious character, they thought he was likely telling the truth. Shelley only had one arm and it seemed highly improbable that he could have placed the clothes so precisely over Gilbert Bogle's body in the way they were.
Weeks passed and the mysterious case remained in the headlines as the tabloids

continued to discuss various theories. Despite the ongoing speculation, there still hadn't been

any breakthroughs in the investigation. By the third week, the police put out another call for

anyone who had been near Fuller's Bridge in the early morning hours of January 1 to come forward. One tipster reported having seen a green and white Ford sedan parked in the area.
After this detail was broadcast by the media, the owner of the car presented himself as Eddie Batiste. Eddie was a greyhound trainer who claimed he'd passed over Fuller's Bridge just after 4.30am on New Year's Day.
He said he'd driven along the upper bush track of the Lane Cove River, where he parked his car and then took his dogs for a walk to the golf course. eddie he never went on the lower bush track where Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler's bodies were found.
He recalled seeing a Ford Prefect parked near Fuller's Bridge but claimed he didn't see either of its occupants. Detectives were a little suspicious of Eddie.
If he had nothing to hide, they wondered why it took him three weeks to come forward. They considered whether Eddie's greyhounds had actually sniffed out the two bodies and Eddie had felt compelled to cover them up to protect their modesty.
Inquiries with those who knew Eddie revealed that he was known to be a bit of a prude, while his son also claimed that Eddie had arrived home on New Year's morning in an agitated state. But Eddie firmly denied having ever seen the two bodies, and police had no evidence to prove otherwise.
Like everything else in the case,

his potential presence at the scene became yet another unfounded supposition.

By the end of the investigation's first month,

toxicologists had conducted tests on all the standard poisons available in Australia,

checking everything from aphrodisiacs to weed killers to carbon dioxide, and eliminated each one. They moved on to the rarer poisons, enlisting help from international police forces such as Interpol and Scotland Yard.
It was speculated that the pair could have been bitten by a venomous creature such as a funnel-web spider. Every possibility was seriously considered, but eventually, in mid-March, the families were given the go-ahead to proceed with funerals for their loved ones.
Gilbert was buried in a northern Sydney cemetery while Margaret was cremated two days later. By late April, four months had passed and rigorous testing of Margaret and Gilbert's organs, tissue and blood samples, as well as swabs of their skin and clothing, had revealed nothing to indicate the presence of any poisonous substance.
Investigators had interviewed over 200 people and still no answers had come to light. The only thing left to do was hold an official coronial inquest.
In May 1963, the inquest commenced in what was then known as Sydney's Central Court of Petty Sessions. Curious members of the public lined up outside the courthouse, hoping to get one of the 50 seats available in the public gallery so they could catch a real-life glimpse of the people who had filled their newspapers for the past four months.
Over the next three weeks, the court heard from close to 50 witnesses, including Geoffrey Chandler, Pamela Logan, Ken and Ruth Nash, and an array of investigators and analysts who had been involved with various aspects of the case. The collective hope was that a seemingly insignificant fact would be dropped

that would solve the mystery of how Gilbert and Margaret had died once and for all. Witnesses appeared in chronological order, starting with the New Year's Eve party, before moving on to the discovery of the bodies, the official police investigation, the toxicology testing, and so on.

Sixty-three exhibits were tendered and dissected, witnesses were cross-examined and carefully probed, and any criticisms were openly debated. Tensions were high at the end of the month as the coroner, Jack Looms, presented his findings.
Looms declared,

quote, Every person I felt could give any information as to the deaths of these unfortunate

persons has been summoned to appear. A mass of evidence, in addition to the scientific and

medical evidence, has been presented. One would like to think that no stone has been left unturned.
Despite all this, the coroner said he was no closer to ascertaining the manner and cause of Gilbert and Margaret's deaths than he was before the inquest started. Forensic pathologists still couldn't even determine exactly how the pair had died.
All Lumes could say for sure was that the two had suffered from acute cardiac failure associated with anoxia and pulmonary edema. In other words, their hearts had stopped beating and they'd stopped breathing, but it couldn't be determined why or even in what order those two things happened.
Coroner Looms clarified that it wasn't his role to theorise or provide an opinion unless it could be supported by evidence, nor was it a court of morals. He commended the investigative efforts, stating, quote,

Everything humanly possible has been done.

There is one thing, however, I feel I can say with absolute certainty,

and that is that each of these unfortunate persons died an unnatural death.

But as to the manner or cause, I am unable to say. The lack of answers brought by the inquest left everyone who had been following the case in a state of shock and only added to the public speculation and growing fears that a murderer could be on the loose.
A press conference was called in which the police commissioner reassured the public that the investigation was ongoing, and that a new team of detectives would take over to review the case with fresh eyes. One week later, a letter arrived at the police station from a Brisbane-based zoologist who introduced a new theory.
Dr Robert Endine worked in a lab that specialised in Conus geographus, a highly venomous species of predatory cone snail. After reading about the Bogle-Chandler case, Dr Endine believed the pair showed symptoms that were akin to being poisoned by Conus geographus, and he suggested that someone with this knowledge could have used the species as an unsuspecting murder weapon.
Police looked into Dr Rendine's theory and discovered something unexpected. His research assistant was a young woman named Clara Berry.
Despite living in Queensland, Clara had a surprising connection to Geoffrey and Margaret Chandler. She was married to Bill Berry, the friend of Geoffrey's who Margaret had once had an affair with.
She was also an expert on Conus geographus venom.

Detectives flew to Queensland to interview Clara Berry.

She said that despite their toxicity, she didn't believe it was possible to kill someone with the cone shell.

Doing so would require the venom to be stabilised, extracted and then injected. It wouldn't be toxic if it was mixed into a drink or eaten.
But for the investigative team, suspicions were officially aroused, even more so after they contacted the airlines and discovered that a passenger by the name of G Chandler had flown from Sydney to Brisbane just weeks before New Year's Day 1963.

Samples of the toxin were taken back to Sydney to test against Margaret and Gilbert's tissue samples. It was a suspenseful 10-day wait before the results of the toxicology test were delivered.
there was no match. While the case remained in the headlines and various scientists, medical professionals and concerned members of the public continued to come forward with their own theories and suggestions about what could have killed the pair, nothing of note was uncovered.
In the years that followed, detectives continued to seriously consider every possibility, but eventually the chief toxicologist ran out of viable tissue samples to test against and the case ran cold. Conspiracy theories continued to thrive over the following two decades, with the case becoming somewhat of an urban legend, but the truth of the matter remained unknown.
Then, in the late 1980s, came a potential breakthrough. At the time of Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler's deaths in 1963, there had been some whispers that the two could have been experimenting with the psychedelic drug lysergic acid diethylamide, more commonly known as LSD, and accidentally overdosed.
Some thought they could have taken the drug willingly or that someone could have slipped it into their drinks. Some tabloids even incorrectly claimed that several guests at the Nash's New Year's party had been frequent users of LSD, when in reality the party had been a relatively sober event.
The possibility that Margaret and Gilbert could have overdosed on LSD was never given much weight due to the fact that LSD had never caused any known overdoses. While people had died using the drug, this was typically due to misadventure, such as jumping from heights while under its influence, not as a direct result of the drug itself.
Furthermore, LSD wasn't even considered an illegal substance at the time. It was mostly used for scientific and medical research rather than as a recreational drug and it wasn't readily available.
Gilbert Bogle's lab at the CSIRO had been searched following unfounded speculation that he could have been manufacturing the drug himself, but nothing used in the production of LSD was found, and toxicology tests revealed

no trace of LSD in either of the deceased's systems. Then in 1987, an inmate at a British

prison asked his girlfriend to sneak a capsule of LSD in and transfer it to his mouth via a kiss. She granted his request, but the man accidentally swallowed the capsule, which was estimated to be around 400 times the usual dosage.
He subsequently died, making him the first person on record to have taken a lethal overdose of LSD. A scientist who examined the man realised he'd read about similar symptoms before, in the Bogle-Chandler case, and he suspected they could have fallen victim to a similar overdose.
He believed that the reason toxicology testing returned a negative result was that the proper testing techniques were not available at the time. LSD is a synthetic drug and when extracted from the body and exposed to sunlight, it decomposes before it can be identified in any physical test.
Instead, testing needs to be done in a dark room, a fact that the pathologists who conducted the autopsies on Gilbert and Margaret hadn't been aware of. In 1989, an article in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper by award-winning journalist Philip Knightley sensationally claimed, quote, New scientific evidence has broken one of Australia's most baffling homicides.
Today, the cause of death can be confidently established. The couple overdosed on LSD.
The article reported that the New South Wales Health Department's Division of Forensic Medicine agreed that an LSD overdose was the likely cause of the pair's deaths. Knightley wrote that Gilbert Bogle and his colleagues had been creating the drug at the CSIRO labs and their deaths had been part of a government cover-up to conceal this fact.
He stated that the CSIRO staff had been using LSD as, quote, a party drug for sexual debauchery in which wife-swapping was not unusual, and that Gilbert had brought a supply of the drug to the New Year's Eve party. He and Margaret took it to heighten their sexual awareness without knowing the safe amount for consumption and subsequently overdosed and died.
In reality, there was nothing to substantiate this theory. Colleagues of Gilbert's fiercely denied that he would have had any access to or interest in LSD, while Geoffrey Ch said he didn't even know about LSD at the time and Margaret wouldn't have been interested in such a thing.
But the theory persisted and in 1996, a renowned American forensic toxicologist claimed he had advanced equipment that could detect if LSD was present in Gilbert and Margaret's systems. Relic tissue samples were sent to the United States where they were subject to new forensic techniques.
A first test indicated the presence of LSD. Sydney newspapers were quick to declare that the mystery had finally been solved once and for all, yet a second more sensitive test was conducted and this one came up negative.
It was yet another in a long series of red herrings. In 2004, Australian filmmaker Peter Butt began looking into the Bogle-Chandler case for a possible documentary.

Having followed the case for 20 years and already read everything that was publicly available, Peter wrote to the NSW police requesting access to the full case files.

While he waited for a reply, something occurred to him that had never crossed his mind before. As a schoolboy, Peter remembered learning that mangroves produce gases, including the potentially toxic hydrogen sulphide.
Low concentrations of hydrogen sulphide are detectable by the human nose thanks to its offensive stench of rotten eggs, but as concentrations increase, the gas overcomes the olfactory receptors in the nose that are responsible for picking up odours and it can no longer be detected. At low levels, the gas is harmless, but as concentrations increase, it can be as

deadly as hydrogen cyanide. Once hydrogen sulphide reaches a level of 300 parts per million, it can cause fluid to build up in a person's lungs, leading to dizziness, clumsiness and diarrhea.
At 700 parts per million, it paralyzes the respiratory centre, causing rapid unconsciousness and death. Over 800 parts per million, and all it takes is one or two breaths for a person to die instantly.
Peter Butt recalled that hydrogen sulphide is heavier than air and will linger in open spaces close to the ground if the air is cool and still, just like it was in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 1963.

Although it had been the peak of summer, the week following Christmas Day had been the coldest on record for this time of year, and mornings around Lane Cove had been dank and misty. His curiosity aroused, Peter visited the site at Lane Cove River where Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler had died, and saw that mangroves lined the waterway, their aerial roots sticking out of the mud in a way Peter likened to dead man's fingers.
It occurred to him that the answer to this 41-year mystery could have been sitting in front of everyone's face this entire time. Peter Butt began researching the river's history and discovered that the once thriving waterway began to lose favour with visitors around the late 1930s due to its increasingly polluted state.
Growing industrialisation and the construction of a sewer line along the river had proved to be environmental hazards, with increasing sediment prompting the spread of mangrove swamps. Green weeds thrived in the waterway, with fish and eels dying by the truckload.
By 1939, local residents started complaining that the river smelt like rotten eggs, particularly in the early morning hours. Similar complaints cropped up year after year until 1947 when residents started reporting that the stench was impacting their health.
Not only was it causing vomiting and breathing difficulties, but some residents noted that it was causing the paint on their homes to peel off. Health inspectors from the Lane Cove Council investigated the matter at the time but couldn't find the cause of the problem.
They assumed it was likely a combination of rotting algae and industrial waste. A marine scientist was tasked with investigating the matter further.
He collected samples over several months and determined the odour was actually hydrogen sulphide. A five kilometre stretch of the riverbed from Fuller's Bridge to the river mouth was saturated with it.
It wasn't just a result of the mangroves, but chemical action in the water caused by decaying marine

life and increasing industrial pollution from the factories that disposed of their waste fluid

directly into the river. The hydrogen sulphide levels were at their highest about 400 metres

from the Lane Cove Weir, right near where Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler had died.

The New South Wales Police refused Peter Budd access to the case file on the basis that the case was still open. But when he explained his theory that the two could have been poisoned by hydrogen sulphide, they agreed to make a rare exception.
As Peter looked through all the scientific and forensic evidence, he was shocked to discover that several gases had been considered and tested by toxicologists in the Bogle-Chandler case, but not hydrogen sulphide. The gas was only mentioned once during a 1971 review of the case when it was ruled out based on various factors, including that there was no obvious source of the gas and that even if there were, it wouldn't kill two people in an open environment.
Peter Bart began reaching out to various experts, including Dr Thomas Milby, an American forensic toxicologist specialising in poisonous gases, who had served on the World Health Organisation's Hydrogen Sulfide Committee.

Dr Milby had investigated over a hundred cases involving hydrogen sulfide poisoning and was well aware that the gas was capable of killing people out in the open if the environmental conditions were right. He was so intrigued by Peter's theory that he flew to Sydney to see the Lane Cove death scene for himself.
Environmental awareness had led to improvements in the river and the hydrogen sulphide levels in the mud were no longer at dangerous levels, but the waterway still suffered from neglect and pollution. If hydrogen sulphide had been released from the river bottom on New Year's Day 1963, Dr Milby told Peter that the bowl-shaped depression in the riverbed where Margaret and Gilbert lay would have been the worst place to be.
The private spot they'd chosen was at water level between the bank and a small mangrove swamp where in the cool, still air, higher concentrations of the gas could accumulate and get trapped. Breathing heavily during a sexual encounter, the gas could have overcome them very suddenly and they could have found themselves suffocating.
Quickly overcome with delirium and desperate for air, Margaret could have grabbed Gilbert's underwear by mistake before stumbling down the riverbank where she collapsed. Dr.
Milby studied the autopsies and concluded to Peter, I saw nothing in either report that would, in my opinion, exclude the possibility of hydrogen sulphide as being the culprit that killed them. Dr Milby explained that hydrogen sulphide poisoning isn't easy to detect during an autopsy because it produces no characteristic abnormalities other than fluid in the lungs, congestion of the internal organs, and small purple spots on the skin.
If no other cause of death is found, the only telltale sign of hydrogen sulphide poisoning is a greenish or purple colour in the blood.

But this doesn't always occur, and nothing in either of the autopsies had mentioned a discolouration to the blood. Peter then made contact with the chief toxicologist who had worked on the Bogle-Chandler case, Vivian Marnie, without making any mention of his new theory.
Vivian agreed to talk Peter through every step of his testing process. He recalled each detail meticulously, concluding that he found nothing in either Gilbert or Margaret's tissue samples except caffeine.
He then told Peter something he'd only ever discussed with his superior. One thing I am certain of, he said, they both died of the same thing.
I base this on the appearance of their blood. Both their bloods had a distinctive purple colouration.
Vivian said he tried to find a reason for the discolouration, but careful analysis hadn't brought him any closer to the answer. He was a little sceptical upon learning of Peter Bart's hydrogen sulphide theory until Peter looped him in on a detail he'd never been privy to before.
Nobody had ever informed Vivian about the semen found on Gilbert Bogle's body and jacket that proved the two were engaging in a sexual act before they died. This meant he'd been investigating all manners of poison that didn't fit the timeline or circumstances, including that they could have been suffering the effects of a poison when they'd arrived at the

river. Annoyed that this information had been kept from him, Vivian researched the hydrogen sulphide theory for himself.
He told Peter that if Gilbert and Margaret went to the riverbank with the intention of having sex, it was highly unlikely they would have drank from the river or eaten anything before lying down together.

That meant that whatever had killed them was present in the depression where they lay and had acted very swiftly. The only sensible explanation was that while they were in close contact with one another, they'd positioned their faces near a heavy concentration of a very toxic gas.
Vivian told Peter that if he'd known about their sexual interaction 42 years ago, he would have attributed the purple colour of their blood to something like hydrogen sulphide and, quote, the case would have been over in a week. Peter Butt revealed his findings in a television documentary titled Who Killed Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler and later in a book and podcast series dedicated to the case.
After the documentary was first aired by the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 2006, two people contacted Peter who claimed to have been at Lane Cove on New Year's Day 1963. They both recalled just how heavily polluted and putrid-smelling the water had been.
One of their dogs had rolled in the mud and the stench of rotten eggs was near impossible to remove. But another curious revelation came before the documentary even aired.
After seeing the film advertised, a woman named Lorraine Blackwood contacted Peter Butt with something to get off her chest. Lorraine was 11 years old at the time that Gilbert and Margaret died.
She told Peter that a few days after the mysterious deaths, she was exploring an area of bushland about 5km from the death scene with her sister and some other boys when they found a woman's cream-coloured handbag next to a stormwater drain. Inside was some makeup, a handkerchief and two bottles of white pills prescribed to a Mrs Margaret Chandler.
Lorraine claimed she bought the bag home and her mother panicked, not wanting to get involved in the notorious case. She hid it in the garage before getting rid of it entirely.
Margaret's husband, Geoffrey Chandler, had told police that Margaret didn't bring a handbag with her to the Nash's party, leaving this detail supplied by Lorraine up for debate. But for Peter Butt, the most compelling aspect of Lorraine's story was the location where the handbag was supposedly found.
It was opposite the home of the nephew of Eddie Batiste, the greyhound trainer who police suspected might have covered the bodies of Margaret and Gilbert, and not far from where Eddie himself lived. Eddie Batiste had died in 1976, but Peter tracked down his children who agreed that their father probably wouldn't have told the police if he had seen the bodies.
His daughter described him as a very secretive man, while his son said he was a moralist who had an aversion to the sight of bare human flesh. Eddie Batiste's obituary was published in the magazine National Greyhound News

and it stated that he was the one who had found Margaret and Gilbert's bodies. He had allegedly told this to a close friend.
Whether Eddie really was the one who covered the bodies remains unknown. The enduring mystery of the Bogle-Chandler case has become somewhat of folklore among Australians familiar with the story, but as Coroner Jack Loom stated at the inquest in 1963, one can never lose sight of the fact that the deceased, whoever it may be, is someone's mother, someone's father, someone's sister, or someone's brother.

And very often the ones left behind are the ones to suffer or find their reputation damaged.

Looms acknowledged he'd found it incredibly difficult to balance the need for answers with his desire to protect the privacy of those involved. If indeed the pair did die by hydrogen sulphide poisoning, then the personal lives of many were publicly aired and their reputations tarnished for no reason.
Gilbert Bogle's wife Vivian avoided the public attention by promptly moving to New Zealand, with the press once describing her as the unknown living victim of the tragedy, but others were also affected. Ruth Nash, the co-host of the fateful New Year's Eve party, died on New Year's Day 1974.
Two years later, on New Year's Day 1976, her husband Ken shot himself. Jeffrey Chandler sacrificed his privacy by releasing a book about the case in 1969 titled So You Think I Did It.
Jeffrey wanted to set the record straight about various elements of the case, including his seemingly emotionless reaction upon being told that Margaret was dead. Jeffrey explained that he'd been disgusted by the way police had pushed a newspaper article in his face rather than delivering the news with humanity.
He wrote,

Whatever their reasons or motives, the manner of the revelation dealt me a blow of such shocking cruelty I can find no words to describe it. I sat there in the station, waiting, the children half asleep beside me.
Nobody explained anything. From that point on, he was determined not to give them the reactions they so obviously wanted.
Jeffrey later told filmmaker Peter Bart that both he and his two sons suffered quite severe psychological and emotional damage arising from this event. In the prologue of So You Think I Did It, Geoffrey wrote, This book is written for my sons to get the record straight.
Margaret longed for her children and went through much to give them birth. She looked forward to glorious years of enjoyment with them.
Instead, she was cruelly deprived. They too.
Our eldest has a cloudy memory of his mother. Our youngest, nothing.
My sons deserve something better than the fragmented facts and wild speculations that accompanied their mother's death. I want my sons to know the truth, because the truth is the one thing that cannot harm them.
Prior to his death in 2009, Jeffrey agreed that Peterbott's theory about hydrogen sulfide poisoning seemed like the most realistic explanation. Many other scientists and investigators agree.
This possibility was bolstered further in 2012 when a retired psychologist from Canberra contacted Peter Butt with another surprise revelation. He claimed that back in 1965, a young woman he'd met through a chance encounter confided in him that she'd been at Lane Cove on New Year's morning 1963 and had seen a man and woman whom she believed to be Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler having sex on the riverbank.
They'd stopped all of a sudden, with Margaret grabbing her throat, making a strangling noise and staggering off, while Gilbert rolled away. The air reeked of rotten eggs.
The woman who claimed to have witnessed this initially thought the pair were on drugs and she left the scene, becoming dizzy and stumbling as she did so. When she heard about the Bogle-Chandler deaths in the following days, she was too afraid to come forward because she hadn't been alone on the river.
She'd been with her female partner and the pair didn't want their relationship outed as same-sex relationships were frowned upon at the time. In 2016, Peter Butt made a public appeal for this woman or her partner to come forward and make an official statement, but they never did.
The truth about exactly what happened to Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler on that riverbank will likely never be known for certain.

With no viable blood or tissue samples left to test, everything is circumstantial.

As one reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald once stated,

In many ways, the answers are lost in another time, another place, a different country.

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