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

[SouthAussie]

LE has the job to investigate what took place. She is a POI because she cooked them a meal. That doesn't mean she's guilty of intentional poisoning. The investigation is still ongoing with no charges yet.

I think that the reason that the police have to investigate is because the Dept of Health is not satisfied.

From all I have read, I have the impression that the Dept of Health was involved immediately. As they should be, in case there is a chance of a public health danger in store bought ingredients.

Then the police became involved. With the Dept of Health saying "no comment, this is a police matter" when journos pressed the Dept of Health for answers. And they have not issued a public safety alert about any store bought mushrooms.

imo

Eg: Remembering the public safety alerts about strawberries (someone was putting needles in them). Those alerts were on all TV and radio stations. They got the alert out far and wide through Australia.

 

[jjenny]

Without a baseline it is utterly impossible to fathom why she didn't go to the police and speak with them openly and honestly.

We can speculate she has an attorney on dial-up because she buys and sells properties. But a conveyancing attorney is not a criminal attorney so it is possibly true that she received bad advice initially.

The truth is that dC have not been officially confirmed as poisoning source.
I do wonder what other toxic substances produce the same or very similar effects?
I mean chemical, not organic.

Taking the dehydrator to the dump may have no relevance at all.

I don't see what use it would have been for that meal.

Why do people lie if they're not guilty?

That investigation is closed tightly and we simply have no information until LE provide it.

I disagree completely. I think dehydrator is highly relevant to this case.

 

[Baby baby Jane]

You’re quite right, I think. Hopefully police will get to the bottom of this matter soon.

This has been troubling me & think maybe she made a sauce or gravy that might have had the toxin. All of the beef wellington is clean, it’s the added gravy that was the problem. So much easier to make and dispose of the (possibly toxic) gravy.

No gravy - no problems. EP, and kids, didn’t have gravy.

 

[SouthAussie]

yes i read it was a much smaller amount to kill also, 10 seems extreme

What the mushroom expert on the show said (IIRC) was that one Death Cap mushroom can make an adult very sick, possibly die, but two would definitely kill an adult.

Perhaps that is where the "up to 10" Death Cap mushrooms comes from. An estimate of what could definitely kill the lunch attendees so quickly.

 

[Telltale]

I disagree completely. I think dehydrator is highly relevant to this case.

Particularly as she lied about it.

You got 4 family members/friends in hospital/dead potentially due to a meal you cooked them and you decide, 'oh well today's the day I am going to finally take that dehydrator/kitchenware to the dump?'

You can say she panicked, but she also handed over a sample of what she claims to be the meal to the hospital... those two things don't mesh, is she trying to help identify the toxin or running around destroying evidence of it?

Or, despite suspecting it's her food accidentally left 4 of her friends/family on the brink of death... Did she deliberately delay the Hospital's diagnosis by handing over a fake sample then run off to destroy evidence? Because thats about as bad as doing it on purpose.

 

[Telltale]

This has been troubling me & think maybe she made a sauce or gravy that might have had the toxin. All of the beef wellington is clean, it’s the added gravy that was the problem. So much easier to make and dispose of the (possibly toxic) gravy.

No gravy - no problems. EP, and kids, didn’t have gravy.

If guilty why on earth would she give a real sample over? She could have given a sample of the not poisoned Wellington she fed herself and her kids. Hypothetically speaking.

 

[Forest_Wood]

So, I found a video that explains and demonstrates how to identify death caps. Once I watched this, I had a much better understanding of the mushroom issues in this case. We have mod approval for this video.

Thanks for posting this! I'm glad he commented on his touching it, because I was wondering about his handling it.

 

[SouthAussie]

Without a baseline it is utterly impossible to fathom why she didn't go to the police and speak with them openly and honestly.

RSBM

Unfortunately, this not speaking with the police reminds me of Borce Ristevski (a case in the same state some years ago) who refused to speak with the police after his first interview - because he didn't like their tough questions.

Three years later he entered a manslaughter plea, which was accepted, to avoid the imminent murder trial.

It is really unusual to not participate in a police interview. imo

 

[kittythehare]

Unfortunately, this not speaking with the police reminds me of Borce Ristevski (a case in the same state some years ago) who refused to speak with the police after his first interview - because he didn't like their tough questions.

Three years later he entered a manslaughter plea, which was accepted, to avoid the imminent murder trial.

It is really unusual to not participate in a police interview. imo

Well she must have participated to some extent if she was able to tell them she had dumped the dratted dehydrator some time before she actually did.

Is it possible she refused a second interview?

So much speculation, so little information.

 

[SouthAussie]

Well she must have participated to some extent if she was able to tell them she had dumped the dratted dehydrator some time before she actually did.

Is it possible she refused a second interview?

So much speculation, so little information.

Yes, I think she refused any further interviews. She admitted herself that she regretted not speaking with them properly. Then she chose to send the police and the media a statement through her lawyer. Submitting to no direct questioning from the police.

She still has the opportunity to speak with the police ... it is not a once-only opportunity.

It is possible/probable that the police have been "speaking with her" via her lawyer.

Borce Ristevski hired a top notch lawyer immediately after his first interview. Then the police had to communicate via the lawyer.

imo

'I now very much regret not answering some questions ... given the nightmare that this process has become,' she said. Link

 

[kittythehare]

Yes, I think she refused any further interviews. She admitted herself that she regretted not speaking with them properly. Then she chose to send the police and the media a statement through her lawyer. Submitting to no direct questioning from the police.

She still has the opportunity to speak with the police ... it is not a once-only opportunity.

It is possible/probable that the police have been "speaking with her" via her lawyer.

Borce Ristevski hired a top notch lawyer immediately after his first interview. Then the police had to communicate via the lawyer.

imo

'I now very much regret not answering some questions ... given the nightmare that this process has become,' she said. Link

Hopefully she has.

 

[MoominMama222]

When she talks, she speaks written language. This is a good example: “I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones.” IMO she wrote this, and practiced in front of a mirror, but it sticks out because people don’t naturally speak this way, except maybe LE’s phrasing when reading a statement

Also, she is all I I I I I I. No concern for how others are d

Read my post again. I am talking about leftovers. If the kids ate them, there was no poison in them. Or the kids didn't eat them. Where is the speculation?

It's possible she made a separate beef wellington without mushrooms for the kids. I know somewhere there is a report that she said she scraped the mushrooms off--if that is true perhaps the mushrooms were a less toxic mushroom that wouldn't be as deadly as death cap, so they wouldn't have been poisoned, even though the dish had been poisoned. Perhaps the mushrooms were the sort you have to chew and ingest to be affected. There's no evidence that she was a mushroom hunter, but it's possible that is what the dehydrator relates to, and she panicked when she realized she accidentally poisoned the family. We know so very little and the exact wording of things can get twisted. So, to answer your question--"if the kids ate them, there was no poison in them" could be explained not by anything deliberate and nefarious on the part of E, but by other factors. It's ALL speculation IMO.

edited to add-- I dont know why that first quote is up there! I didn't mean to reply to that one!

 

[MoominMama222]

Yes, I think she refused any further interviews. She admitted herself that she regretted not speaking with them properly. Then she chose to send the police and the media a statement through her lawyer. Submitting to no direct questioning from the police.

She still has the opportunity to speak with the police ... it is not a once-only opportunity.

It is possible/probable that the police have been "speaking with her" via her lawyer.

Borce Ristevski hired a top notch lawyer immediately after his first interview. Then the police had to communicate via the lawyer.

imo

'I now very much regret not answering some questions ... given the nightmare that this process has become,' she said. Link

I would never ever speak to the police in this situation. I would do everything through my lawyer. I mean if this was an accident, it very much looks like murder. I think that's the time when you need to only speak through a lawyer, isn't it?

 

[SouthAussie]

I would never ever speak to the police in this situation. I would do everything through my lawyer. I mean if this was an accident, it very much looks like murder. I think that's the time when you need to only speak through a lawyer, isn't it?

Personally, I would speak with the police with my lawyer present, to protect me and my rights.

It seems like a better option to me, because I would want my kids back living with me.
Pretty sure I would be doing everything I could to make that happen. Sooner than a drawn-out police investigation will allow.

imo

 

[MoominMama222]

Personally, I would speak with the police with my lawyer present, to protect me and my rights.

It seems like a better option to me, because I would want my kids back living with me.
Pretty sure I would be doing everything I could to make that happen. Sooner than a drawn-out police investigation will allow.

imo

That makes sense, but I have no idea! I've never been in this situation or anything close. I guess I would do whatever my lawyer advised.

 

[SMK777]

Particularly as she lied about it.

You got 4 family members/friends in hospital/dead potentially due to a meal you cooked them and you decide, 'oh well today's the day I am going to finally take that dehydrator/kitchenware to the dump?'

You can say she panicked, but she also handed over a sample of what she claims to be the meal to the hospital... those two things don't mesh, is she trying to help identify the toxin or running around destroying evidence of it?

Or, despite suspecting it's her food accidentally left 4 of her friends/family on the brink of death... Did she deliberately delay the Hospital's diagnosis by handing over a fake sample then run off to destroy evidence? Because thats about as bad as doing it on purpose.

BBM
Exactly.
These actions don’t indicate consciousness of innocence, but the opposite.
This is why law enforcement has not cleared her, which would have been easy enough to do.

 

[MsMarple]

BBM
Exactly.
These actions don’t indicate consciousness of innocence, but the opposite.
This is why law enforcement has not cleared her, which would have been easy enough to do.

I’m having a harder and harder time believing most of what EP said to reporters and in the statement she gave her lawyer.

She claimed to have fed her kids the lunch leftovers the next day after scraping off the mushrooms.

By then she was aware that the four ex relatives had gone to hospital with gastric distress which doctors initially attributed to possible food poisoning. I think even EP went to the hospital with gastric distress then returned home.

So while doctors *only* suspected food poisoning EP decided to feed her kids leftovers from the very meal in question. Who the heck does that?

 

[kittythehare]

I’m having a harder and harder time believing most of what EP said to reporters and in the statement she gave her lawyer.

She claimed to have fed her kids the lunch leftovers the next day after scraping off the mushrooms.

By then she was aware that the four ex relatives had gone to hospital with gastric distress which doctors initially attributed to possible food poisoning. I think even EP went to the hospital with gastric distress then returned home.

So while doctors *only* suspected food poisoning EP decided to feed her kids leftovers from the very meal in question. Who the heck does that?

We do NOT know when precisely her guests became ill or when precisely she was notified.

 

[SMK777]

I’m having a harder and harder time believing most of what EP said to reporters and in the statement she gave her lawyer.

She claimed to have fed her kids the lunch leftovers the next day after scraping off the mushrooms.

By then she was aware that the four ex relatives had gone to hospital with gastric distress which doctors initially attributed to possible food poisoning. I think even EP went to the hospital with gastric distress then returned home.

So while doctors *only* suspected food poisoning EP decided to feed her kids leftovers from the very meal in question. Who the heck does that?

Exactly. It’s extremely suspicious.
It’s as if she was trying to address the media and public question of why she and her kids didn’t eat any of the meal.
Covering all the bases: Herself with presenting at the emergency room, her kids with scraping off the mushrooms.
But of course it makes no sense, as lies often don’t.

 

[Forest_Wood]

This is why law enforcement has not cleared her, which would have been easy enough to do.

What makes you think it's easy enough to do? They would need to trace every movement of all parties to determine each of their activities in the day or days leading up to this -- including the ex-husband who decided to not attend the dinner at the last moment ... including researching the store and its products, testing the leftovers, waiting for toxicology results, and so on. I would think it's a time consuming investigation. The fact they haven't arrested her after a month seems hopeful.