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

[jjenny]

I think EP's mention of an Asian shop in Melbourne, I believe, was a lie to deflect attention from the area where she lives. Dried mushrooms are readily available in so many types of shops I find it hard to believe she needed to travel to find them.

She also claims she doesn't remember the exact shop she purchased it from. If she claimed she bought it locally it would have been harder to believe she doesn't know where she bought it from.

 

[RickshawFan]

'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.

Well, that article has a new tidbit.... EP didn't eat any Beef Wellington at the meal or at all.

Ms Patterson has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the incident and claimed she herself intended to consume a portion of the deadly beef wellington pie she prepared.

The 48-year-old said she saved the final plate for herself, which her children ate the following night, but she scraped the mushrooms off the dish because they didn’t like them.

 

[jjenny]

Well, that article has a new tidbit.... EP didn't eat any Beef Wellington at the meal or at all.

Ms Patterson has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the incident and claimed she herself intended to consume a portion of the deadly beef wellington pie she prepared.

The 48-year-old said she saved the final plate for herself, which her children ate the following night, but she scraped the mushrooms off the dish because they didn’t like them.

That just sounds like some bad reporting. Saved a plate for herslelf isn't the same as didn't eat any. It also doesn't mean her children were given the exact plate she saved for herself.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

s there a term in AUS for a meal where everyone brings something?

Yes it would be "everyone bring a plate"

It's often assigned to so and so bring appetizers, so and so bring desserts etc, so and so bring a salad

The host would usually provide the main meal.

 

[JBowie]

Is there a term in AUS for a meal where everyone brings something?

No particular term that I'm a aware of.

I believe "pot luck" may be related to a Native American word, pot latch, but I'm probably making this up.

'The word pot-lucke appears in the 16th-century English work of Thomas Nashe, and used to mean "food provided for an unexpected or uninvited guest, the luck of the pot". The modern execution of a "communal meal, where guests bring their own food", most likely originated in the 1930s during the Great Depression.' -- Wiki

 

[kittythehare]

I think EP's mention of an Asian shop in Melbourne, I believe, was a lie to deflect attention from the area where she lives. Dried mushrooms are readily available in so many types of shops I find it hard to believe she needed to travel to find them.

She was not living where she is living now when she purchased them,

 

[RickshawFan]

This is entirely my speculation, but I think EP was trying to influence his parents and they were worried, on the basis of past experience, that she would go beserk when they didn't submit. Pastor and wife were there to set expectations for respectful communication, offer some emotional care and judge whether medical intervention was warranted . . . for example if there were hints of suicide.

IMO the parents would have communicated right away with their son, Simon, both with updates and with news they were ill and headed to the hospital. Their son is local, evidently, and elderly parents who get suddenly ill are VERY likely to contact a nearby son. I'll bet there are texts with info. And I'll bet Simon got to the hospital right quick, and the parents may have told him stuff right quick.

Since EP randomly inserted the "custody" fear into the conversation, I'm speculating a custody issue was on the table at the in-laws visit.

 

[SMK777]

She also confirmed media speculation that she took a food dehydrator to a dump, admitting she had lied to investigators when she initially told them she had thrown it out a long time before.
Patterson wrote she had panicked and decided to remove the kitchen item after her ex-husband, the son of her dead in-laws, had asked her: “Is that what you used to poison them?”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/15/new-details-about-australian-mushroom-deaths-stir-speculation/

In my estimation this is very damning.

 

[jjenny]

In my estimation this is very damning.

Well, clearly. She lied to the police, she dumped the dehydrator because husband accused her of using it in poisoning. If she didn't use it in poisoning, why dump it even if her husband accused her?

 

[SMK777]

Well, clearly. She lied to the police, she dumped the dehydrator because husband accused her of using it in poisoning. If she didn't use it in poisoning, why dump it even if her husband accused her?

Exactly. If you were innocent of any wrongdoing you would stand your ground with nothing to hide. Panic points toward a guilty conscience.

 

[kittythehare]

In my estimation this is very damning.

It's damning if you are convinced she is guilty.
It's explanatory if your mind is still open to possibilities.
eg did she imagine that if she didn't get rid of it that something would be planted on it?
Was she afraid of her former husband?
Was she so upset at the attack on her that she simply deteriorated mentally?

There are multitudes of reasons for why women take certain actions because of the words or actions of a man, perceived or real.

We simply do not know enough.

That's my opinion anyways.
Come what may, I won't ever be sorry for remaining unprejudiced and objective, no matter what the case is.

 

[RickshawFan]

I expect that after she has stated several times that the only mushrooms she used were purchased at stores, indicating that she is "insinuating" that if the people died of mushroom poisoning, It can't possibly be her fault, because all the mushrooms she used were store bought, the mushroom growers association would feel the need to make a statement to refute her "insinuations" that people could be at risk of death by mushroom poisoning of they purchase mushrooms at stores.

Her phrasing was "in essence" she used button mushrooms from a supermarket and dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer. That phrase is interesting in context IMO, since it qualifies the statement, whatever you think it means.

 

[sapphire blue]

esp since in oz all mushrooms sold in supermarket/grocery stores are grown hydroponically .she didnt buy them from a weekend farmers market or such.

since when? they are grown in Controlled condition (soil, water, light, humidity) sheds in long beds 4 rows high.

How mushrooms grow in Australia

How mushrooms grow is totally unique to fruits and vegetables and really fascinating. Learn how mushrooms grow in farms around Australia.

australianmushroomgrowers.com.au

 

[RickshawFan]

The following is purely MOO:

The more I think about this case, the more it reminds me of what was called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.

Factitious disorder imposed on another - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Theoretically, if someone was so confident in their perfect crime that if they plan to make themselves a victim too:

1. Feign the same illness; and /or
2. Claim to have made a terrible mistake;

They honestly believe that they will not only get away with murder, but if anyone challenges accuses them, they claim also to be a victim of the tragedy.

It's a very cyncial way for a perpetrator to attempt to disguise their adverse emotional reactions to being challenged.

What does a perpetrator here want?

1. The homicide without penalty;
2. The vindication of their own superiority or struggles;
3. Attention;

*Plenty* of attention:

Leongatha suspected mushroom poisoning: Erin Patterson says media has portrayed her as an ‘evil witch’

Woman at centre of Victoria mushroom lunch that left three dead says she feels trapped in her home because reporters are camped outside

www.theguardian.com

Again my opinion only. Something just seems so ... off here.

But please keep an open mind, the same was for Lindy Chamberlain... she was different.
And the trial by media was a gross miscarriage of journalism driving justice.

Yes, look for posts ^^^^ where we have discussed Munchausen maybe being relevant in this case.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

It wouldn't be the first time that someone had tampered with food or medicine in a shop.

Just because no one else has become ill, doesn't mean that someone couldn't possibly have tampered with one packet of mushrooms and she was the unlucky one who bought them.

It may have been the button mushrooms and some now serial killer may be enjoying seeing his or her results.

The rest, the dehydrator could just have been panic on her part after the ex husband frightened her.

 

[silvercrown]

Is there a term in AUS for a meal where everyone brings something?

I believe "pot luck" may be related to a Native American word, pot latch, but I'm probably making this up.

I’ve heard ‘pot luck’ and ‘bring a plate’ interchangeably. IMO both just as common. I wouldn’t bat an eyelid at either of them.

 

[Tortoise]

I used to say to my youngest son we were having pot luck for dinner if I knew it wasn't going to be his favourite meal. Until parents' evening at his school, when the teacher had laid out all their work on the table for parents to look at, and I saw he had written in his weekend news book that he'd had pot luck fish for dinner. Haha

 

[silvercrown]

It wouldn't be the first time that someone had tampered with food or medicine in a shop.

Just because no one else has become ill, doesn't mean that someone couldn't possibly have tampered with one packet of mushrooms and she was the unlucky one who bought them.

It may have been the button mushrooms and some now serial killer may be enjoying seeing his or her results.

The rest, the dehydrator could just have been panic on her part after the ex husband frightened her.

That’s true but imo people that tamper with food tend to do it on a larger scale than just one item in one store. They like to see a wider impact of their actions, because it is a psychopathic thing to do.

 

[CityKid]

She was not living where she is living now when she purchased them,

Or at least when she says she purchased them.

 

[SMK777]

It's damning if you are convinced she is guilty.
It's explanatory if your mind is still open to possibilities.
eg did she imagine that if she didn't get rid of it that something would be planted on it?
Was she afraid of her former husband?
Was she so upset at the attack on her that she simply deteriorated mentally?

There are multitudes of reasons for why women take certain actions because of the words or actions of a man, perceived or real.

We simply do not know enough.

That's my opinion anyways.
Come what may, I won't ever be sorry for remaining unprejudiced and objective, no matter what the case is.

I would agree if law enforcement hadn’t named her as the suspect. I too try and maintain objectivity, but I feel they wouldn’t have done that without good reason. Maybe I place too much faith in investigators.