Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #2

[k-mac]

'Impossible': Leading industry body disputes mushroom lunch cook's claim

Claims made by the woman at the centre of Victoria’s triple-fatality mushroom poisoning have been disputed by a national peak industry body.

www.skynews.com.au

But her statements have now been countered by leading authority The Australian Mushroom Growers Association (AMGA) who say “it is impossible” for death cap and other poisonous mushroom varieties to be produced for commercial purposes as they “only grow in the wild”.

The organisation said it was a mandate for grocery retailers to cultivate commercial mushrooms in an “environmentally controlled” indoor environment, to fulfill food safety and hygiene protocols.

So the only way one could possibly acquire death cap mushrooms in AUSTRALIA.....is by one's own hand.

 

[k-mac]

'Knew what to pick': Source's bombshell claim about mushroom cook

A new development in the case of the deadly mushroom poisoning that claimed three lives in Victoria has exposed the woman who cooked the lunch as an experience forager.

www.skynews.com.au

A close friend of the Patterson family told Daily Mail Australia she was known for going wild mushroom foraging around Victoria’s Gippsland region along with her ex-partner Simon and other relatives and was “very good” at it.

“The Patterson family would pick mushrooms each year when they were in season,” the source said.
“The family would go foraging regularly and knew what to pick.”

Very accomplished mushroom forager. (coincidently)

 

[TootsieFootsie]

If you kicked the door, your hands were full with food/drink, so you couldn't close the door with your hand.

That one is new to me.

Thanks I love learning new words and phrases.

 

[silvercrown]

If true/not a mistake by that reporter, yes I would think vegetable side dishes, possibly gravy, a dessert. It would be good to know what the dishes were. EP hasn't had a second interview with police yet and all who potentially brought a dish are deceased or too illl for interview so it is possible that if true police actually don't know much about the these dishes. Moo

Yes, there would likely be other dishes that were served. It would be unusual imo to invite people for lunch and serve only a slice of beef Wellington without at least one or two other things like a salad, some vegetables, gravy, and dessert. None of that leftover to provide to the health department though…

 

[Kemug]

I imagine if this was a religious and family community discussion / intervention about her suitability to remain or return to the marriage and was possibly going to involve some uncomfortable debate about where the children would live, then the children would have been sent off packing to the cinema for the afternoon with a friend or guardian, maybe even a sleepover.

I wonder if the visitors that day were going to confront some awkward truths?

All this stuff about intervention meetings - does that really happen in Australia? I've certainly never heard of it. And the Baptist Church isn't some far-out sect. I know that if my marriage had fallen apart I (in fact neither of us) would have welcomed interference from others, however well-intentioned. And we certainly wouldn't have allowed others to decide where the children would live. This idea about the lunch being an "intervention", which seems to have become an accepted fact by some - where did it start, and is there any basis at all for it?

 

[Kemug]

I can't imagine how it works to have people round for a meal and put down plates and let people pick one? it doesn't ring true.

You would either put the 'beef wellington' down on a large serving plate and allow people to help themselves -or- you'd plate it up and hand them a plated portion one by one, either from a serving hatch, from a serving trolley or one by one to the table the same as a waiter would.

In the history of time when has anyone left five plated up hot dinners somewhere and said take whichever one you'd like?

Well maybe it might happen if the servings were different sizes - some people might prefer a larger helping, some a smaller.

 

[Mrs G Norris]

This whole situation is bonkers.

But the idea of meeting up to discuss the state of one's marriage with the in-laws and pastor, but without the husband present, may be the single most bizarre aspect of this case.

I wonder if this was just one in a serious of get-togethers and whose idea it was to meet.

Maybe it was going to be a reality check for Erin to get her to drop it and move on? Perhaps she had been pestering him.

 

[JBowie]

All this stuff about intervention meetings - does that really happen in Australia?

I associate that term with substance abuse cases. I've not heard it used myself in relation to personal relationships/marriages. The term I associate with those would be counselling.

Welcome to Intervention Australia. Drug, mental or clinical issues

Is a loved one suffering with substance abuse, mental or clinical health issues? Unable to communicate? Intervention Australia may help

interventionsaustralia.com

 

[JLZ]

This is what I think: everyone had become sick already at the point EP served leftovers to the kids.

It's ambiguous.

This is the advantage of sending police a statement instead of submitting to questions. You can be vague where you like and keep the story fluid.

 

[k-mac]

Maybe it was going to be a reality check for Erin to get her to drop it and move on? Perhaps she had been pestering him.

I lean this way.

Don't think reality is a huge part of EP's life tbh.

How many times do we allow the Lori Vallow's of the world just keep on keeping on??
Turning a blind eye to unacceptable behaviours.

Till people die .Then we act.


The children being removed from her has sold me into this picture.

 

[Mrs G Norris]

All this stuff about intervention meetings - does that really happen in Australia? I've certainly never heard of it. And the Baptist Church isn't some far-out sect. I know that if my marriage had fallen apart I (in fact neither of us) would have welcomed interference from others, however well-intentioned. And we certainly wouldn't have allowed others to decide where the children would live. This idea about the lunch being an "intervention", which seems to have become an accepted fact by some - where did it start, and is there any basis at all for it?

My experiences of church types, which is via parents (Dad a deacon, Mum a priest) is that they absolutely would pull together a meeting like this because plenty of them, especially priests, think sticking their noses fair into other people's business is perfectly appropriate, and they think they are somehow qualified to know what is best in all kinds of personal situations of which they may have no experience whatsoever.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

All this stuff about intervention meetings - does that really happen in Australia? I

Yes I think it does. It's from shows on TV.

But they have been around for ages in religions. So it could be a religious thing.

I (and my then husband) was the unwitting target of one years ago. Til I twigged half way through the dinner and asked them to leave.

I remember now we'd just finished the dessert.

The object was to get money out of us. They were a lovely elderly couple, so nice, or so I thought.

 

[k-mac]

All this stuff about intervention meetings - does that really happen in Australia? I've certainly never heard of it. And the Baptist Church isn't some far-out sect. I know that if my marriage had fallen apart I (in fact neither of us) would have welcomed interference from others, however well-intentioned. And we certainly wouldn't have allowed others to decide where the children would live. This idea about the lunch being an "intervention", which seems to have become an accepted fact by some - where did it start, and is there any basis at all for it?

I associate that term with substance abuse cases. I've not heard it used myself in relation to personal relationships/marriages. The term I associate with those would be counselling.

Welcome to Intervention Australia. Drug, mental or clinical issues

Is a loved one suffering with substance abuse, mental or clinical health issues? Unable to communicate? Intervention Australia may help

interventionsaustralia.com

Only when mental health is a concern IMO.

Waiting for a leak about her mental health record.
After seeing the scribbles in her house.

Its gunna be long I suspect.


moo

 

[Mrs G Norris]

I lean this way.

Don't think reality is a huge part of EP's life tbh.

How many times do we allow the Lori Vallow's of the world just keep on keeping on??
Turning a blind eye to unacceptable behaviours.

Till people die .Then we act.


The children being removed from her has sold me into this picture.

Question: did you get the impression children were removed from BOTH parents?

 

[k-mac]

Question: did you get the impression children were removed from BOTH parents?

No information has given me a vibe about the husbands relationship with the kids.

Grey area.

 

[kittythehare]

Sure, but wouldn't the normal thing be to postpone or cancel if a husband was unable to attend a meeting about his marriage?

For one thing he was her former husband, not currently married, living apart for years before formally separating in Jan '21.
so that's all done and dusted and it will take more than an anonymous account in a dailymail story to turn it into a fact.
Facts matter and we have almost none.

 

[silvercrown]

I also took this to mean that there were plates on the sideboard with servings of Welly already arranged on them. Then, the guests each picked a plate. IMO EP is trying to suggest that she couldn't have been poisoning anyone because she had them choose their plates. IMO she intends to imply she didn't have control over who was picking up what plate and just by chance ended up un-poisoned herself.

Rsbm

I find this strange. Part of the flamboyance of cooking a beef Wellington is to slice it open and admire the colour of the meat and the beautiful layers of duxelles, prosciutto, crepe and pastry. IMO most dinner/lunch party hosts would do this in front of their guests.

 

[Kemug]

He clearly had a very lucky escape as would likely be dead if he had unfortunately.


IMO

Two lucky escapes.

 

[JBowie]

If E decided that she'd rather not get divorced just now, and killing all the people who were coming to her home to organise the divorce would thwart that process, then that's her simple solution.

The problem I have with this whole business is that no one in their right mind, and having reasonable intelligence, would expect to get away with killing people with death cap mushrooms -- especially if they are known (as is EP) to be a regular mushroom forager who could therefore be reasonably expected to be very aware of toxic varieties.

 

[Kemug]

Well you can wipe it off I suppose and keep using it.

I'd be washing it in disinfectant, boiling it, etc - heck no, I think I'd just chuck it out!