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

[jjenny]

She would probably have figured it out herself by the time people had become acutely sick.

If she's an experience forager then she would also be alerted to the signs and symptoms of different toxic mushrooms and berries etc so could certainly could have been like whoaa this is not just food poisoning, this is not a piece of bad meat, this is life and death toxic

What I still don't understand is why everyone's fixed on the mushrooms. If guilty, she could have served a poison berry dessert or a cyanide cup of coffee with much the same outcome. Her husband said he thought deadly nightshade. The mushrooms could even be a red herring.

I presume the victims have been tested to figure out what poison is responsible for killing them.

 

[jjenny]

Is it possible she foraged, picked, dried various mushrooms. Used them in her cooking, this batch had highly deadly ones in. Her kids don't eat mushrooms (is this verified fact?) and she somehow didn't eat them or much of them either so she's accidentally killed people, probably realised herself very quickly that she's poisoned them, probably realised it must be the mushrooms, gone into a panic cover up mode and now she looks guilty as heck ?

Then why didn't she eat the same portion as her guests? Three people are dead, one is almost dead, and she is obviously totally fine. So she either didn't eat the dish at all, or just a tiny portion. Her children are also alive and well.

 

[Salah11]

It's good to know the investigators are keeping an open mind as half the globe has got her convicted.

Well that’s their job to investigate and to get to the bottom of it. We can pass opinion as we won’t change the outcome here.



Moo

 

[silvercrown]

But also, we don’t know what comments have been made during police interviews with potential witnesses that may have implicated mushrooms. It’s possible that the ex husband said that EP had made threats to him in the past about poisoning him with mushrooms and getting away with it, given her experience with them. We just don’t know.

Moo imo. Not saying I think this is what’s happened, it’s just one of many instances that could explain the police stating that symptoms resemble death cap poisoning.

 

[jjenny]

There are so many media reports, it's hard to sometimes pick fact from, well, not fact. One bit of "information", though, is pretty obviously not a fact. One solitary claim (from the Mirror, so take that with a heavy dose of salt) said that Victoria Police has cleared her of all charges, declaring it a tragic accident, but that IMO is pretty rubbish. Haven't seen any Victoria Police statements to that effect, and even so, toxicology results haven't been in (that we know of). Way too early to make that determination.

Echoing other posters, I hope Ian pulls through and can give testimony to the police about what happened before he fell violently ill. Vital info to know for investigators. So many more questions than answers at this stage. I trust VicPol has a handle on this case, and hopefully we'll see official determinations relatively soon.

Her children presumably also can shed a light on the story. As I understand it they are teenagers and not young babies. Another thing police need to dig into is her internet search history.

 

[Oona]

it would be helpful if EP, in her version of events, had described why the dehydrator was used in preparation of the meal. I cannot fathom why she would use it for the recipe. If she used only dried mushrooms from Asian grocer and fresh button mushrooms from supermarket, what needed dehydrating?

 

[kittythehare]

I must be pretty dumb because these posts that look like ads pop up in my twitter feed all the time.
Seems they're selling something called Shrooms.
When I see them I always think it must be some kind of illegal drug and how can Twitter allow it

It's only this case that made me realise that it's short for mushrooms LOL

Are they a "special" kind and are they not legal like I thought or what ?

if you mention shrooms in a twitter post about 10 bots reply. They are bots, not real people.

 

[Bats]

In my mind, it's really difficult to give her the benefit of the doubt when there are multiple benefits of doubt that need to be given.
When this happens to a story/account then the story/account is probably not correct.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

"Why did my friend get sick when I didn’t and we ate the same food?" - MSU Extension

High-risk populations are more susceptible to foodborne illness than a seemingly healthy person.

www.canr.msu.edu

 

[jjenny]

"Why did my friend get sick when I didn’t and we ate the same food?" - MSU Extension

High-risk populations are more susceptible to foodborne illness than a seemingly healthy person.

www.canr.msu.edu

Poisonous death cup mushrooms is not the same as an innocent food born illness.

 

[kittythehare]

It's good to know the investigators are keeping an open mind as half the globe has got her convicted.

Does anyone know in what way are 'death cap mushrooms' so distinctive from other types of poisonous mushrooms and or poisonous berries and or toxic deadly nightshade type plants?

lots of posts on thread over past 24 hrs..
They're easy to miss, actually.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

if you mention shrooms in a twitter post about 10 bots reply. They are bots, not real people.

I don't post on Twitter. I never have.

I just read posts. I figured it was bots but they come up even if I search for something, like my towns name or anything at all really.

 

[jjenny]

"With only a small amount of the cap being necessary to kill someone, and symptoms not always appearing straight away, they have been used as an invisible murder weapon for millennia. The Romans and ancient Greeks recognised it as a deadly poison. It is said that Agrippina murdered her husband, Roman Emperor Claudius, by mixing deathcap juice with Caesar’s mushrooms (Amanita caesarea). He died of poisoning a few days after the meal. Voltaire claimed that Charles VI died by deathcap poisoning."

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/fungi-and-lichens/deathcap/

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I was wondering if there are some people less affected than others to toxins.

I've known people who seem to have what I call cast iron stomachs, others around them get sick but they never seem to be affected.

Death cap mushroom poisoning could also be innocent, an innocent mistake.

 

[jjenny]

I was wondering if there are some people less affected than others to toxins.

I've known people who seem to have what I call cast iron stomachs, others around them get sick but they never seem to be affected.

Death cap mushroom poisoning could also be innocent, an innocent mistake.

Death cap mushrooms contain multiple toxins. I don't think there are people immune to it.
"The death cap contains three main types of toxins: amatoxins, phallotoxins, and virotoxins; it is unknown what function the toxins are meant to serve in nature. In humans, amatoxins prevent the production of DNA, which leads to liver and kidney failure and, if untreated, coma and death. A single mushroom may contain many times over the amount of toxin that would prove fatal; ingesting only a small piece is enough to kill an adult. The toxins cannot be destroyed by boiling, cooking, freezing, or drying the mushrooms. "

Death cap | Description, Mushroom, Poisoning, Symptoms, & Facts

The death cap is a species of poisonous mushroom, the deadliest known to humans. The fungus is responsible for the majority of mushroom poisonings worldwide, some of which prove to be fatal.

www.britannica.com

 

[Salah11]

I was wondering if there are some people less affected than others to toxins.

I've known people who seem to have what I call cast iron stomachs, others around them get sick but they never seem to be affected.

Death cap mushroom poisoning could also be innocent, an innocent mistake.

You can’t be immune to poison that shuts down your organs.

 

[JBowie]

Is it possible she foraged, picked, dried various mushrooms. Used them in her cooking, this batch had highly deadly ones in. Her kids don't eat mushrooms (is this verified fact?) and she somehow didn't eat them or much of them either so she's accidentally killed people, probably realised herself very quickly that she's poisoned them, probably realised it must be the mushrooms, gone into a panic cover up mode and now she looks guilty as heck ?

I can't see someone (reportedly) so used to foraging for mushrooms, and living for years in an area where warnings about toxic varieties are common, making a mistake by picking death caps and also dehydrating and cooking them.

Simply beggars belief IMO.

 

[Knitty]

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[RickshawFan]

Excellent points!
I have been discussing with medical partner just how she could have faked her illness. But seemed to recall somewhere in the media, that she presented to a hospital in Gippsland and was then transferred by ambulance to a Melbourne Hospital. Maybe this is either fanciful thinking or media misreporting. Also my guess.

The hospital could have used that protocol “out of an abundance of caution” because of the other cases and based on self-reporting.

 

[RickshawFan]

We don't know she was aware of the sickness when she fed her children, do we?
When did she learn of it?

It sounded like the kids ate the leftovers at dinner time the next day.