Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #6 *Arrest*

[Estelle]

Landmark ruling gives judges power to consider personality disorders​

Landmark ruling gives judges power to consider personality disorders

A decision by Victoria's Court of Appeal will give judges greater scope to consider how personality disorders influence people's offending.

www.theage.com.au

 

[Amalgam]

I wonder if they've been pre-emptive in arresting and charging her because they're going to *need* those sniffer dogs to find something IMO

Arresting someone for questioning is one thing, and sometimes a bit of a fishing expedition on the part of the Police.

Raiding their home, charging them with multiple counts of some of the most serious crimes that exist and remanding them in custody for months is entirely another and should never happen unless the police already believe that they have a strong case and a realistic chance of securing a conviction.

The DPP will not sign off on this unless they have scrutinized the police brief thus far and they agree that there is a decent chance of securing a conviction.

If the brief of evidence is up to the requisite professional standards and the result of an open minded, broad and comprehensive investigation, free of tunnel vision then it is unlikely that anyone other than a strong suspect ends up in Erin’s position.

 

[Sillybilly]

ADMIN NOTE:

We really can't explain any more than we already have about this case being sub judice.

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Post accordingly.

Thank you.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Clients at a hairdresser in nearby Korumburra were wondering if fresh evidence from toxicology or technology forensic analysis had emerged to lead to the charges.

“Everybody’s intertwined and everybody knows everybody. You can say 10 family names and there’ll be 100 relations. City people just don’t get it.”

“Mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms ... people are not going to eat mushrooms,” she said.

“It was a big earthquake that’s leaving a lot of debris behind and we’ll never really recover. We’ll always feel so heavily for the ones we’ve lost.”

“In spite of this we have a real hope that we can still have some joy and some peace in our lives,” she said.

Spotlight back on Leongatha after mushroom murder charges

Life was just starting to settle down in Leongatha. And then the woman who had been the talk of the town, and captured international attention, was front page news once again.

www.theage.com.au

 

[Eaglette]

Choice of work duties in the maximum security prison/remand centre starting today:

Cleaner
Gardener
Laundry duties
Hairdressing assists
Library
Textiles/Upholstery
Kitchen/Cook duties

 

[Charlot123]

Like the Xmas dinner, the leftovers reheated can be a nice meal, for a single person who maybe doesn’t cook… it’s possible she sent a click clack (Tupperware) home with the 4, to give to SP. but since he wasn’t home, they decided to incorporate that meal into their own meal rather than it go to waste. It might have been prepared separately and boxed up ready to go before the 4 arrived at EP for lunch. EP saying I made this for SP since he couldn’t be here- saying its special meal. EP wouldn’t have expected the 4 to eat it, rather expecting it goes to SP who has a relapse of stomach prob & dies, not suspicious as he’s been very ill before.
Imagine her surprise seeing SP alive and well at hospital and the others sick and dying ….

I was thinking about it - food or drink (a bottle).

Another version - she didnt give any leftovers back home, and she expected SP, and when he didn't show up, she had no backup plan. I suspect that SP prepared only one beef Wellington, not two, as people assume. If she texted, "where are you? The beef is ready, I tried a piece of it - yummy!", then she couldn't later blame absence of the dinner on beef being overcooked. So she had to serve it.

 

[Amalgam]

Vic police seem to be doing all right. If you added together the intelligence of NSW and Qld police, I don't know, I think I might back Erin.

It’s TasPol that seriously worries me.

The wrongful and deeply tainted murder conviction of Sue Neill Fraser, the subsequent cover up and closing of ranks and the treatment of those who have tried so hard to right this massive injustice beggars belief.

The prosecutorial misconduct is staggering and the judge himself deeply flawed in this trial.

It terrifies me to know that the system can get it so wrong and then be so obstructive when people try to set things right.

Sue served 13 years of a 23 sentence in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. She has yet to be exonerated.

For those interested in the details I highly recommend a podcast called ‘Who killed Bob?’

 

[ch_13]

If the charges for prior attempts go ahead, I think they should be at a separate trial. See how we're reacting, we've heard virtually no evidence that they happened and we're seeing a sequence that supports Erin's murderous intention all along. I think it would be prejudicial to try them together.

I think people are presuming that the police wouldn't charge Erin with the earlier attempted murders if they didn't have substantial evidence, especially in such a high-profile case. But you're completely correct that none of us have actually seen this evidence and we should be wary of being judgmental without it.

As for having separate trials: I assume the Victoria legal system has regulations that govern how trials should be conducted. If the defense feels that the charges should be severed then I'm sure they will file the appropriate motions and argue the matter to the judge.

 

[katydid23]

Did she?
How do you know

When she began to cook….
When Simon cancelled….

Thanks Katy!

One article said he cancelled 'last minute.'

Most recipes I saw for a 'proper' Beef Wellington were prepped the day before. The actual prep time is from 3 to 7 hours, depending on if it is all from scratch.

But if she was using foraged death caps, it would take some preparation for that to happen. And then once she began making the wellington the toxins would be added already. JMO

 

[Charlot123]

Maybe I’m splitting hairs … but thinking the “genius” criminals aren’t the ones being caught. I’m going to put EP in the Low-Average criminal basket today. She was immediately under suspicion and her own kids very quickly ratted her out to SP about the dehydrator. Maybe at trial we’ll see some genius activity, but right now I’m seeing lower than average iq person, can’t hold a job, difficult to live with, poor conflict resolution, at least a bit racist, and perhaps worst of all - thinks she is smarter than she is.

Well, "eccentric geniuses" might get into trouble. My epitome of an eccentric genius would be Bobby Fischer. A brilliant chess player, probably the best of them all, and yet he constantly hopped out of one problem and into another.

 

[Charlot123]

Not necessarily. If Erin started planning her scheme before Simon canceled then I think a jury could find that she intended to kill him as well. It would take quite a bit of time to obtain the death caps in the first place, not to mention that Beef Wellington is a dish that requires significant advanced prep.

Especially if it's true, as some have surmised, that he was the intended target all along.

Edit - Imagine a situation where Erin made the lunch, but an informant leaked her plans to the family and no one showed up. Later the police pull the Beef Wellington out of the garbage and discover that it was poisoned. Surely, they could still charge Erin with attempted murder even though no one actually sat down to eat at the table.

I have a hypothetical question. Say, a husband dies and in the absence of the will, it is the wife who gets his property, right? What if there is a will? Are there any special laws in AU?

And if the husband and the parents die? Then his property goes to his widow/kids, and the parents' property is equally divided between the children, so the portion also goes to the widow, right?

 

[Amalgam]

Well, "eccentric geniuses" might get into trouble. My epitome of an eccentric genius would be Bobby Fischer. A brilliant chess player, probably the best of them all, and yet he constantly hopped out of one problem and into another.

Keen chess player here. I’ve spoken with people who knew Bobby.

Bobby also lacked the ability to function in even the most rudimentary fashion outside of the 64 squares of the chessboard. Perhaps more savant than genius but I guess it is a matter of semantics.

 

[bearbear]

One article said he cancelled 'last minute.'

Most recipes I saw for a 'proper' Beef Wellington were prepped the day before. The actual prep time is from 3 to 7 hours, depending on if it is all from scratch.

But if she was using foraged death caps, it would take some preparation for that to happen. And then once she began making the wellington the toxins would be added already. JMO

unless the dc were in a gravy

 

[Amalgam]

I have a hypothetical question. Say, a husband dies and in the absence of the will, it is the wife who gets his property, right? What if there is a will? Are there any special laws in AU?

And if the husband and the parents die? Then his property goes to his widow/kids, and the parents' property is equally divided between the children, so the portion also goes to the widow, right?

As I understand it, if a husband dies intestate, his property will go to his spouse, assuming that he/she survives him. If there is a will, his estate is divided according to that will, provided no potential beneficiaries contest the will in court.

If a husband’s parents die intestate, their estate is divided amongst any surviving children. Should those parents have no surviving children, then the estate would likely be divided amongst any grandchildren. If those parents have a will, the estate is divided according to their will provided the will is not contested.

Please note, I am not a lawyer.

 

[katydid23]

unless the dc were in a gravy

True, but it would still take a long process to get the death caps ready.

I think she did possibly make a mushroom gravy/sauce. But if he did cancel last minute, she did probably already have the mushrooms simmering. JMO

 

[Amalgam]

True, but it would still take a long process to get the death caps ready.

I think she did possibly make a mushroom gravy/sauce. But if he did cancel last minute, she did probably already have the mushrooms simmering. JMO

Making death cap gravy is easy. Harvest some death caps (they grow all over the area in question for a significant part of the year). Dehydrate and powder them with say a coffee grinder. Simply add powdered dehydrated death cap mushrooms to a regular mushroom gravy. Death caps are said to taste good, so no masking of flavor needed. Adding powdered or chopped death caps to the mushroom duxelles in the beef wellington is no harder.

The Wellington itself is the hard work.

I don’t buy it that there was a point of no return once the poisonous food was allegedly prepared, no matter where the poison was concealed. Once Simon cancelled there are so many ways to avoid serving the poisonous dish, especially with such dire consequences in play.

Simply turn the oven up too high, burning the meal beyond edibility and get takeaway instead. Pour poisoned gravy down the loo. Drop the serving platter, spilling the food. ANYTHING to suddenly render it unavailable to eat.

 

[JLZ]

I have a hypothetical question. Say, a husband dies and in the absence of the will, it is the wife who gets his property, right? What if there is a will? Are there any special laws in AU?

And if the husband and the parents die? Then his property goes to his widow/kids, and the parents' property is equally divided between the children, so the portion also goes to the widow, right?

A risk of poisoning them all together would be that should the husband die first, his brother inherits from their parents, and the wife's children never see any of it.

 

[Amalgam]

Im

A risk of poisoning them all together would be that should the husband die first, his brother inherits from their parents, and the wife's children never see any of it.

I’m not so sure about this. I agree about the risk of any siblings of the husband inheriting, but the properly drafted Australian wills I’ve read all state that beneficiaries must survive the deceased by a certain period, exceeding a few days (I think it is typically 28 days).

 

[iamshadow21]

Im

I’m not so sure about this. I agree about the risk of any siblings of the husband inheriting, but the properly drafted Australian wills I’ve read all state that beneficiaries must survive the deceased by a certain period, exceeding a few days (I think it is typically 28 days).

I think I heard once in an Agatha Christie, maybe? that inheritance laws having that delay came in when air travel did, because if a couple died in a crash, there was no way of telling who predeceased whom. But I'm not sure if that's true or just good storytelling. Surely an accident at sea would lead to similar ambiguity, and people have been traveling by boat forever.

MOO

 

[katydid23]

Making death cap gravy is easy. Harvest some death caps (they grow all over the area in question for a significant part of the year). Dehydrate and powder them with say a coffee grinder. Simply add powdered dehydrated death cap mushrooms to a regular mushroom gravy. Death caps are said to taste good, so no masking of flavor needed. Adding powdered or chopped death caps to the mushroom duxelles in the beef wellington is no harder.

The Wellington itself is the hard work.

I don’t buy it that there was a point of no return once the poisonous food was allegedly prepared, no matter where the poison was concealed. Once Simon cancelled there are so many ways to avoid serving the poisonous dish, especially with such dire consequences in play.

Simply turn the oven up too high, burning the meal beyond edibility and get takeaway instead. Pour poisoned gravy down the loo. Drop the serving platter, spilling the food. ANYTHING to suddenly render it unavailable to eat.

All true, but I don't think she wanted to avoid serving the death caps. I think that was her special menu and she planned to take them all out. Her ex escaped the meal but she pressed on anyway.

I think she thought she could get away with it, as she had previously with her ex and his mysterious hospital visits. JMO