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

[Shadow@light]

I've been following this case for a while since earlier this week and my main question has to do with a potential financial motive, if she did this intentionally.
Maybe I'm approaching this a bit too logically but I'd have thought that if she stood to gain inheritance from any of this, she'd be investigated eventually and found out if she were guilty. It's also one of the most horrible ways to murder someone, so why do that at all? I'm not saying she is guilty but if she deliberately did it, why would she have seen the point of doing that?

Interesting news just given, it is the Person of interest has all the money. Own five houses which she invested(All Paid up, no mortgage) which she inherited money in 2019, one of house she owns, her ex husband is currently living in. Said after ex husband came ill,21 days in hospital when he left her, but does not accuse her of wrong doing . ( Does a great job hinting at it. IMO)He was living with his parents at the time, in May 2022. IMO he moved pretty much moved out after she inherited the money.
IMO ex husband ,Parents and Church saw money coming their way, if the marriage ended. Their comment of "Not good enough for them, is due to the fact she did not give the money to the Church) If she did do it , it is still no excuse for murder.
Time line is the lunch was on Saturday, they all go to Hospital on Sunday Death Cap Mushrooms Toxiciness moves pretty fast in the body.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

The Unique Motives of Female Serial Killers

Unlike male serial killers who are often driven by sexual lust, female serial killers are much more likely to kill for profit or revenge.

www.psychologytoday.com

Whenever I see her picture.... I always see Charlize Theron...such fabulous acting!!

 

[nhmemorymaker]

The dinner was to try and prove she was "good enough"
I mean how demeaning is that. If I did that I would lose all the self respect I had.

Tragic twist to deadly mushroom lunch

A poisonous lunch held by the estranged wife of a popular church member had been held in an effort to try and negotiate a reconciliation with him.

www.dailymail.co.uk

so true... Demeaning is the very word I came up with when I read this, too...
I just sense a full table of righteousness there.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Interesting news just given, it is the Person of interest has all the money. Own five houses which she invested(All Paid up, no mortgage) which she inherited money in 2019, one of house she owns, her ex husband is currently living in. Said after ex husband came ill,21 days in hospital when he left her, but does not accuse her of wrong doing . ( Does a great job hinting at it. IMO)He was living with his parents at the time, in May 2022. IMO he moved pretty much moved out after she inherited the money.
IMO ex husband ,Parents and Church saw money coming their way, if the marriage ended. Their comment of "Not good enough for them, is due to the fact she did not give the money to the Church) If she did do it , it is still no excuse for murder.
Time line is the lunch was on Saturday, they all go to Hospital on Sunday Death Cap Mushrooms Toxiciness moves pretty fast in the body.

I do believe that all should read the Guardian article, back thread............ It explains the different "phases" of mushroom poisoning and how there is even a "feeling better" phase before the real damage begins. Fascinating.

I really want to know what the children saw before the guests left.

This will be a very unique time line, when all is said and done.

 

[SMK777]

Some people are just really not very bright.

She likely was counting on it being seen as a terrible food poisoning incident, such as botulism or e-coli. Of course tests would determine that, so either she wasn’t very smart, or she felt she could say that she accidentally picked the wrong mushrooms.

 

[silvercrown]

It's an incredibly scary, panic- and anxiety inducing experience to be followed around by media like that.
I can't judge anyone from just watching and hearing anyone dealing with that, because innocent people may act like that too. We all react different to different situations.

I'm still waiting to find out if her statement to LE is true: "I bought the mushrooms at the supermarket."
Because if it is, goodbye to your freedom lady.

If she did do it, she may have purchased some regular mushrooms from the supermarket as a cover story.

 

[SMK777]

If she owns the properties and has all the money, what’s her motive? I assumed she had done the poisoning so that they’d all be gone and she would get property and money from inheritance through marriage and children. So if that’s not really the case, I’m now confused about motive with her husband, and then the rest of them.

 

[ScottToorak]

My thoughts only and with absolutely zero evidence and only opinion. Has anyone considered that she could be the perfect decoy for the ex husband to partake in this process. Is she that in love with the ex that she unknowingly prepared a meal in good faith that he was supposed to eat ( and didn't ) along with the others that would kill them ( bar one ). I am having trouble coming to terms with the theory that she would kill innocent people and the man she wanted to reconcile with in preparing a meal laced with killer mushrooms. What did she have to gain from this?. I am tipping the ex might be cash strapped and this may have been a way to enhance the bank balance. Or was it a team effort?. If I was the police I would be interviewing x hubby and the lady in question.

 

[Eloise]

If she owns the properties and has all the money, what’s her motive? I assumed she had done the poisoning so that they’d all be gone and she would get property and money from inheritance through marriage and children. So if that’s not really the case, I’m now confused about motive with her husband, and then the rest of them.

the lunch was supposedly something akin to a church mediation session where they would decide if she was so-called "mentally healthy" enough for her to get back with the ex. I'd say there might be some family issues at play here

 

[Neet_Mc]

The thing that I don’t understand is that if she did do it, how did she think she could murder four people in one sitting and get away with it? She would have had to had known it would look incredibly suspicious right from the start with the common denominator being a meal she cooked.

Does she want to get caught?

100% this! For something that i highly suspect was premeditated and deliberate, it is not a very well thought out plan! The guise of having bought the mushrooms from the shops…when literally no one else has been reported to have fallen ill. The conviction almost writes itself!

 

[ScottToorak]

off topic but gee wiz if you are over 70 and currently live in Gippsland would you move to another part of the state. I mean Russell Hill & Carol Clay and now this !

 

[Neet_Mc]

My thoughts only and with absolutely zero evidence and only opinion. Has anyone considered that she could be the perfect decoy for the ex husband to partake in this process. Is she that in love with the ex that she unknowingly prepared a meal in good faith that he was supposed to eat ( and didn't ) along with the others that would kill them ( bar one ). I am having trouble coming to terms with the theory that she would kill innocent people and the man she wanted to reconcile with in preparing a meal laced with killer mushrooms. What did she have to gain from this?. I am tipping the ex might be cash strapped and this may have been a way to enhance the bank balance. Or was it a team effort?. If I was the police I would be interviewing x hubby and the lady in question.

All opinion and no fact here too, but I question whether she actually wanted the husband back as much as she wanted him dead.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I wonder how long she's felt she had to "prove herself worthy"

Just since the separation, or all through the marriage

Even if she felt like she had to try to prove herself to her in-laws, a lot of people feel that way. Then it's your job to insist on boundaries, keep your distance when possible, etc. You don't show that are actually right by trying to get revenge.

Divorce in a deeply Christian family can be stuff that parents disown their children for.

I think that's extremely rare but JMO.

I am having trouble coming to terms with the theory that she would kill innocent people and the man she wanted to reconcile with in preparing a meal laced with killer mushrooms. What did she have to gain from this?

I don't know if she's guilty, but looking at all of the murder cases on Websleuths that aren't due to a financial motive, there are other motives/reasons people do what they do. One common element is that it doesn't quite go as they thought it would and they just didn't think it would be scrutinized and point back to them. JMO.

 

[SMK777]

the lunch was supposedly something akin to a church mediation session where they would decide if she was so-called "mentally healthy" enough for her to get back with the ex. I'd say there might be some family issues at play here

Understood. But outright murder is usually to get inheritance or insurance. Would she have murdered these people simply over a relationship issue?

And what about the fact that there seems to have been an attempt on the husband in May?

I really thought this was a simple case of she wanted everyone out of the way so all $$ and property would go to her and her kids. Now I’m baffled.

 

[Neet_Mc]

My thoughts only and with absolutely zero evidence and only opinion. Has anyone considered that she could be the perfect decoy for the ex husband to partake in this process. Is she that in love with the ex that she unknowingly prepared a meal in good faith that he was supposed to eat ( and didn't ) along with the others that would kill them ( bar one ). I am having trouble coming to terms with the theory that she would kill innocent people and the man she wanted to reconcile with in preparing a meal laced with killer mushrooms. What did she have to gain from this?. I am tipping the ex might be cash strapped and this may have been a way to enhance the bank balance. Or was it a team effort?. If I was the police I would be interviewing x hubby and the lady in question.

Plot twist!
If it weren’t for him landing in ICU previously, from a potential poisoning at the hand’s of ex-wife, then this scenario would definitely be 100% on the table.
But then again, completely thinking out loud here, up to this point he hasn’t really stated that he strongly believed he had been poisoned by EP. I dunno what lengths people are willing to go to, but I mean it’s always a (distant yet wild) possibility that both EP and the exhusband had talked about this scenario as a means to enhance their bank balances. Potentially exhusband thought he deserved to be the only beneficiary and maybe wanted to split up as it was, so (mildly) poisoned himself which he could later claim was her. With him skipping the fateful lunch all going to plan, he then casts doubt over EP saying ‘come to think of it maybe she did poison me’….and low and behold the inheritance goes to him.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

Well maybe SHE didn’t want to play sharesies with the ex, if a divorce were to go through?

 

[LacieL]

My thoughts only and with absolutely zero evidence and only opinion. Has anyone considered that she could be the perfect decoy for the ex husband to partake in this process.

Extrapolating on this (also thoughts only with no evidence and plenty of baseless speculation)…

Could he have been involved in her parent/s’ death in order to access the inheritance. It’s a pretty big stretch to think that her mum was murdered, but if the ex was also poisoned last year, and the mother passed away in 2019, the timeline is close enough to make another death of someone close to her worth a second glance?

Poisoning him maybe makes sense if he knows what she did. Maybe he told his parents something, particularly after his hospitalization?

I read Erin is 48(ish) so natural causes for her mother’s passing is also likely. As others have asked though, where is the motive to harm these people if she already had wealth.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

What happens when you eat a death cap mushroom?

The deaths of three Victorians after a Saturday lunch in the small town of Leongatha sent shock waves through the community, but also shone the spotlight on one of the most poisonous organisms on earth.

www.abc.net.au

While samples are taken in hospital and during autopsies in the days following a suspected poisoning death, identifying toxins is not always straightforward.

Dr Robertson says the actual testing for toxins could take a number of weeks depending on how equipped the laboratory is.

"They may have to purchase some additional standards or compounds that are known toxins so that then the laboratory can compare what they find in the urine, to what is known to be the toxin … and that process might take a couple of weeks," he says.

He says the relative rarity of mushroom toxins means a standard might have to be procured from interstate or overseas, potentially delaying the process.

"If it were cocaine and this was a high profile case, you could get the results in 24 hours, or 48 hours," he says.
"When you get these unusual cases, it can take a little bit longer to do."

Dr Robertson says once a "standard" of the mushroom toxin has been obtained, toxicologists will be able to tell with "scientific certainty" whether someone had those toxins in their body at the time of their death.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

'I thought it was the end': Death cap mushroom survivor recounts brush with death

With the country gripped by the mystery surrounding the death of three elderly Victorians from suspected death cap mushroom poisoning, Simon Claringbold knows better than most how dangerous the fungus can be.

www.abc.net.au

Death cap mushroom survivor Simon Claringbold recounts two-week brush with death, 25 years ago​

 

[Ellery84]

Lawyers acting for deadly mushroom chef forced to snail mail messages

Lawyers acting for deadly mushroom chef Erin Patterson have been forced to camp outside her home to hand deliver her legal instructions after she went missing on Thursday.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Erin’s gone missing, according to the Daily Mail.