Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #4

[Salah11]

Also another question about her story that’s ludicrous is She fed the Left over to her children and scrapped off the mushrooms.

Well you finally chop them and it’s basically a paste by the end of it. It would be impossible to scrap them off the way they are embedded into the Beef Wellington.


ETA - also children at that age wouldn’t even be aware mushrooms where in it so it would be ridiculous to even attempt to take a take them out as it’s not like they are chunks of mushrooms.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

An innocent person would have no reason to think the police would be searching the dehydrator. It would be a totally random thing to believe from an innocent persons perspective even if she thought she was a suspect. The only reason its a theory is because she talked about it at the hospital and then dumped it.

If she had reason to believe that someone was accusing her of poisoning her dinner guests, she'd be doubtless expecting a visit from the police and want to 'clean up' her home in case there were any illicit substances. Even if she didn't poison her dinner guests.

 

[Salah11]

If she had reason to believe that someone was accusing her of poisoning her dinner guests, she'd be doubtless expecting a visit from the police and want to 'clean up' her home in case there were any illicit substances. Even if she didn't poison her dinner guests.

Personally I would be more concerned that the wider community could also be poisoned as these were “store” brought apparently. More time should of been spent on remembering where she brought them than chucking away incriminating evidence.


mooooooo

 

[al66pine]

Crim Charges. Impacting Divorce Financial Settlement? How?

....
As to the settlement, her money is her money and whether poi or not, this shouldn't change. (I fail to see why the fruit of a mother's lifelong work should, even partially, support any guy marrying the daughter, but it is my personal opinion.)

@Charlot123 Thank you for your response.

Hoping that @Rumination1 will weigh in too.

 

[Sillybilly]

Confused here.

if it hasn’t been mentioned, why are we discussing cancer treatment? I may have missed something, haven’t followed too closely today.

It was introduced / speculated as a possibility that EP was researching cancer treatments as her parent(s?) had died from cancer and the Death Cap Mushroom is showing promise as a treatment for cancer:

Unearthing the power of the death cap mushroom

What if a toxic mushroom could be used to treat cancer? That’s what one CCS-funded researcher wondered – and the answer is promising.

cancer.ca

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

You and @Observe_dont_Absorb brought up the subject. Here are the posts. In the second one you said:

Is it possible she had attempted to create a cancer cure from it at some stage in the past?

LOL I'm not sure how this conversation has unfolded as there's a couple of people I've got blocked and can't read the flow so smoothly -but- here's what happened:

Someone posted a quote from the police that they were considering if the poisoning was accidental whilst also related to some other 'nefarious activity' and that EP is still the only suspect (sorry, I've slightly paraphrased). There was speculation about what sorts of nefarious activity E could be up to using the dehydrator

I suggested she could be drying out illegal drugs such as cannabis
-or- that she was preparing plant based 'remedies' using toxic substances

I then gave the example that plant based remedies using 'alternate medicine' is big business and that my close friend died the most horrific death from cancer after refusing western medicine and taking alternate plant based treatments. Of course it wasn't legal and of course the thing he had doesn't cure cancer but he's dead now so I think he learned his lesson.

I never said E is trying to cure cancer. I simply said that if she's into plant based remedies she could have been using the dehydrator to dry out poisonous berries or plants and accidentally cross contaminated her friends. This is one tiny story that has a lot of plot holes as that wouldn't explain why she didn't get very ill and doesn't address the other inconsistencies.

 

[MsMarple]

LOL I'm not sure how this conversation has unfolded as there's a couple of people I've got blocked and can't read the flow so smoothly -but- here's what happened:

Someone posted a quote from the police that they were considering if the poisoning was accidental whilst also related to some other 'nefarious activity' and that EP is still the only suspect (sorry, I've slightly paraphrased). There was speculation about what sorts of nefarious activity E could be up to using the dehydrator

I suggested she could be drying out illegal drugs such as cannabis
-or- that she was preparing plant based 'remedies' using toxic substances

I then gave the example that plant based remedies using 'alternate medicine' is big business and that my close friend died the most horrific death from cancer after refusing western medicine and taking alternate plant based treatments. Of course it wasn't legal and of course the thing he had doesn't cure cancer but he's dead now so I think he learned his lesson.

I never said E is trying to cure cancer. I simply said that if she's into plant based remedies she could have been using the dehydrator to dry out poisonous berries or plants and accidentally cross contaminated her friends. This is one tiny story that has a lot of plot holes as that wouldn't explain why she didn't get very ill and doesn't address the other inconsistencies.

Thanks for clarifying @Observe_dont_Absorb I appreciate it!

I was mainly referring to the second post theorizing that EP was somehow experimenting with cancer cures using death caps. IMO it’s highly unlikely and that’s what I stated in my post.

Heck, for all we know EP was trying to concoct a homemade version of Botox. My personal opinion though is that she had a fear that the dehydrator could connect her to the mushrooms. JMO of course.

 

[ch_13]

The essence of the article is that there continues to be so much rampant speculation and amateur sleuthing worldwide via social media -- widely-accessible from Oz -- that, in the opinions of some, EP could not be expected to receive a fair trial should she be charged with anything related to the deaths.

It mentions the various YouTube channels which analyse body language.

Some Tik Tok users have created (or re-worded?) a song about her and performed a dance to it.

One person is offering embroidery based on mushrooms if they exceed a target follower count.

Social media sites covering this case are being promoted heavily by the various algorithms used by the companies owning the site software, thereby helping to drive the speculation and theories.

I'm sure there's a minority of folks (like some of us) who are invested in this case and have followed every twist-and-turn with great interest.

But I question if that means that a court would be unable to find an untainted jury pool. I live half a world away so I don't have a good sense of how much this case is being discussed in Victoria, but I would expect that there are many who have not heard about it, or perhaps have only the most cursory knowledge and haven't formed any opinions. People are busy living their own lives and many don't pay attention to the daily news cycle.

In fact, I just checked the r/melbourne group on Reddit. The first post about this case was 25 days ago and received over 300 comments. The most recent post was 15 days ago and garnered just 16 comments. If anything it seems like local interest is waning, probably because there hasn't been much to report of late.

 

[Forest_Wood]

Has anyone seen the actual police report she made through her attorney where she spoke of the Asian food store? I'm wondering how detailed it was. What's been written by the media is similar to this:

"Patterson has told police she purchased a package of dried mushrooms from an Asian grocery store in Mount Waverley at least three months before the lunch. The package of mushrooms she bought was hand-labelled, she said."

It's been my experience where people who don't live in a bigger city often only visit it to shop for items they can't find in their small town -- and even sometimes when they do live in a city but rarely go to a neighborhood for example -- they may not even pay attention to the names of shops or boutiques they stop into.

I'm thinking about my own Chinatown street in the city closest to me. I've been there a number of times and still can't tell you most of the names of the stores on that street even though I've stopped in. You might wander down a street stopping in from store to store and never notice the name on the signs.

In any case, does her police statement say the name of the street, the neighborhood, the intersecting streets, other stores she noticed, etc., to help narrow it down.

MOO.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

How far can her trash have travelled from her home in the time before LE get involved in this case? Did they search for the hand labelled packet.

 

[ch_13]

Has anyone seen the actual police report she made through her attorney where she spoke of the Asian food store? I'm wondering how detailed it was. What's been written by the media is similar to this:

"Patterson has told police she purchased a package of dried mushrooms from an Asian grocery store in Mount Waverley at least three months before the lunch. The package of mushrooms she bought was hand-labelled, she said."

It's been my experience where people who don't live in a bigger city often only visit it to shop for items they can't find in their small town -- and even sometimes when they do live in a city but rarely go to a neighborhood for example -- they may not even pay attention to the names of shops or boutiques they stop into.

I'm thinking about my own Chinatown street in the city closest to me. I've been there a number of times and still can't tell you most of the names of the stores on that street even though I've stopped in. You might wander down a street stopping in from store to store and never notice the name on the signs.

In any case, does her police statement say the name of the street, the neighborhood, the intersecting streets, other stores she noticed, etc., to help narrow it down.

MOO.

I hadn't realized this until yesterday when I was looking at the properties she purchased, but she actually owns a townhome in Mount Waverley. So she wasn't an out-of-towner visiting the city, she was a local.

 

[kittythehare]

Has anyone seen the actual police report she made through her attorney where she spoke of the Asian food store? I'm wondering how detailed it was. What's been written by the media is similar to this:

"Patterson has told police she purchased a package of dried mushrooms from an Asian grocery store in Mount Waverley at least three months before the lunch. The package of mushrooms she bought was hand-labelled, she said."

It's been my experience where people who don't live in a bigger city often only visit it to shop for items they can't find in their small town -- and even sometimes when they do live in a city but rarely go to a neighborhood for example -- they may not even pay attention to the names of shops or boutiques they stop into.

I'm thinking about my own Chinatown street in the city closest to me. I've been there a number of times and still can't tell you most of the names of the stores on that street even though I've stopped in. You might wander down a street stopping in from store to store and never notice the name on the signs.

In any case, does her police statement say the name of the street, the neighborhood, the intersecting streets, other stores she noticed, etc., to help narrow it down.

MOO.

Well she must have given a good description to the hospital because they were sending her photos of what they understood were similar labels and asking her to look at them.
I'm pretty sure that if the store exists that Melbourne police have discovered it by now.
They're local.
Also possible is that the name of the shop was not in English.

 

[Salah11]

I hadn't realized this until yesterday when I was looking at the properties she purchased, but she actually owns a townhome in Mount Waverley. So she wasn't an out-of-towner visiting the city, she was a local.

Another big hole in her story

 

[katydid23]

Then this doesn't make much sense either unless she'd decided to do a sort of murder-suicide mission (aka give up on her own life and any future).

I don't think she is suicidal. I think she wants to be with her kids and have a good future, without annoying family interference, allegedly.

She would have had to forage for the deadly mushrooms in advance (which would have been several months ago according to some people's opinion on when the mushrooms would have been growing in her area), dehydrate them, powder them maybe, store them safely, then bring them out for use when needed. That's a very premeditated event.

OK, if we look at what else was happening, back in the spring time, when those mushrooms would have to been foraged:

A source close to him reportedly told The Herald Sun: “Simon suspected he had been poisoned by Erin.
In a Facebook post penned last May, he wrote: “I collapsed at home, then was in an induced coma for 16 days through which I had three emergency operations mainly on my small intestine, plus an additional planned operation,” he wrote.

So she might have already been thinking of ways to poison someone back then.

She would also know more or less what to expect in terms of symptoms and loss of life and the time line.

So how on earth would she expect to get away with it if we assume these factors?

She has not been formally accused, charged or arrested. There is a good chance that she planned it well, allegedly. If she kept the toxic ones separate, then there would be no evidence of them when she turned in the leftovers. Thus no way to prove she was involved.

Unless she no longer cared whether to get away with or not and is quite accepting that she'll be spending the rest of her life in prison, having fully abandoned any concept of the future?

OR being terribly and extremely mentally unwell in a way that personally I have seen people - sufficient to say a psychotic disorder such as schizophrenia that when florid and manic could 'activate' and when not could be functioning normally. In which case she would be already known for this severe illness.

I don't get a vibe that she was schizophrenic or psychotic, but could be , IDK.

I get more of an anger, deep resentment turned to rage and vengeance, over longstanding hurt, betrayal, type vibes. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned....

 

[SMK777]

She has not been formally accused, charged or arrested. There is a good chance that she planned it well, allegedly. If she kept the toxic ones separate, then there would be no evidence of them when she turned in the leftovers. Thus no way to prove she was involved.

If this is the case, I hope there’s still some evidence to catch her out. To get away with murdering 3 people and attempting to murder at least one more, is dreadful.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

I don't think she is suicidal. I think she wants to be with her kids and have a good future, without annoying family interference, allegedly.

OK, if we look at what else was happening, back in the spring time, when those mushrooms would have to been foraged:

A source close to him reportedly told The Herald Sun: “Simon suspected he had been poisoned by Erin.
In a Facebook post penned last May, he wrote: “I collapsed at home, then was in an induced coma for 16 days through which I had three emergency operations mainly on my small intestine, plus an additional planned operation,” he wrote.

So she might have already been thinking of ways to poison someone back then.


She has not been formally accused, charged or arrested. There is a good chance that she planned it well, allegedly. If she kept the toxic ones separate, then there would be no evidence of them when she turned in the leftovers. Thus no way to prove she was involved.


I don't get a vibe that she was schizophrenic or psychotic, but could be , IDK.

I get more of an anger, deep resentment turned to rage and vengeance, over longstanding hurt, betrayal, type vibes. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned....

I agree with all these points and I do think she probably did it, ie plan it, test it.

But there's been cases here on WS where I've been absolutely convinced that 'x' did it and there's been some completely out of leftfield other explanation, altho this is my first poisoning case that's hooked me in.

I think also personal bias, I feel sorry for her if she's been driven to this madness maybe off the back of intolerable circumstances and mental imbalance (a story I've completely invented LOL).

I wonder if she was aiming to kill her husband with a targeted component of meal, then he cancelled at the last minute, and something went wrong or got mixed up or someone just took it, whatever it was, when they weren't supposed to and she's gone and accidentally wiped out everyone else too. Again, I'm reaching here...

 

[MsMarple]

I wish media would publish EP’s statement in its entirety. It’s difficult to understand parts without context. We don’t even know the order of each of her statements.

One example, why did she mention storing the Asian market dried mushrooms at her old house then moving them to her current house? It’s an unnecessary detail unless something else was left out by the news site.

Frustrating.

 

[jjenny]

I wish media would publish EP’s statement in its entirety. It’s difficult to understand parts without context. We don’t even know the order of each of her statements.

One example, why did she mention storing the Asian market dried mushrooms at her old house then moving them to her current house? It’s an unnecessary detail unless something else was left out by the news site.

Frustrating.

She claims she purchased the mushrooms from Mount Waverley. So she would have to bring them to her current property since that is not in Mount Waverley.

 

[MsMarple]

She claims she purchased the mushrooms from Mount Waverley. So she would have to bring them to her current property since that is not in Mount Waverley.

Yeah, maybe it was intended to help establish a timeline for the purchase? IOW she bought the mushrooms when she still lived in Mt. Waverley, therefore saying her purchase was from “several months ago.”

 

[Neet_Mc]

Has anyone seen the actual police report she made through her attorney where she spoke of the Asian food store? I'm wondering how detailed it was. What's been written by the media is similar to this:

"Patterson has told police she purchased a package of dried mushrooms from an Asian grocery store in Mount Waverley at least three months before the lunch. The package of mushrooms she bought was hand-labelled, she said."

It's been my experience where people who don't live in a bigger city often only visit it to shop for items they can't find in their small town -- and even sometimes when they do live in a city but rarely go to a neighborhood for example -- they may not even pay attention to the names of shops or boutiques they stop into.

I'm thinking about my own Chinatown street in the city closest to me. I've been there a number of times and still can't tell you most of the names of the stores on that street even though I've stopped in. You might wander down a street stopping in from store to store and never notice the name on the signs.

In any case, does her police statement say the name of the street, the neighborhood, the intersecting streets, other stores she noticed, etc., to help narrow it down.

MOO.

EP owned a house in Mount Waverley and, from something I’ve read and don’t have the details on hand, she either lived in the area herself or family had lived there and so would be quite familiar with the area to know which shop or atleast the location of the shop.