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

[Waverider]

Excuse my ignorance, why is finding a food dehydrator suspicious? Is it because by dehydrating the food you can disguise, to the eater at leas, what's in the meal?

I also found this:

Using Dried Mushrooms

In the midst of this dry California summer, we find ourselves in a short lull between local wild mushroom seasons. It is a fitting time, therefore, to take a look at mushrooms in their dried form. Fresh mushrooms are 80% water, and when you remove that, you are left with a highly concentrated...

farwestfungi.com

“Dried mushrooms tend to be very brittle, so it takes almost no effort to crush them into powder. In this form, they make excellent additions to spice blends, meat rubs, and brines. They can be added to flour for savory baking, or making fresh pasta.”

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I have a problem with the idea that it's an honest mistake if you serve wild mushrooms you've picked to guests and they turn out to be poisonous. I don't believe that is a reasonable risk to place on others.
Take the risk on yourself; serve store-bought mushrooms to guests.

I'm glad they're thoroughly investigating this. Something isn't right; it doesn't feel like a true "mistake" anyone could just make. JMO.

People have made the innocent mistake before, more than once.

But those people I seem to recall were from overseas and thought the mushrooms looked like ones from back home and those ones had been safe and not the same variety even though the people thought they looked the same.

Foraging for wild foods has become an in thing. And so has using food dehydrators.

I can still see it as an honest mistake to begin with. And then the panic when you realise what happened.


I do think it's a mistake that anyone could make. But a cover up, if that's what's happened only makes it look suspicious.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Why foraging for wild mushrooms can end in painful death

A food safety expert has likened gathering wild mushrooms to a game of Russian roulette, following the sud...

www.9news.com.au

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I do think it's a mistake that anyone could make

You think most people would pick mushrooms outside and serve them to guests?

I realize mushroom picking is not a rare hobby, but are people really just serving them to unknowing guests?

Because it would seem to me that most people doing this hobby also know it's not risk-free.

This wouldn't happen to most people, IMO.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

You think most people would pick mushrooms outside and serve them to guests?

Yes I do.

Especially people who have convinced themselves that these are ordinary mushrooms that they know well.

A lot of people if they come across mushrooms would pick them.

I remember a few years ago, farmers complaining that groups of people were coming onto their properties because they had seen mushrooms as they drove by.

Many people go mushroom picking.

Foraging for wild foods has become a big thing.

Feasting on Fungi: Wild Mushrooming in Australia - CSIRO PUBLISHING

Fanatical about fungi? We are too, and lucky for us Alison Pouliot and Tom May deliver expert advice on the best ways to find, identify, collect and cook a selection of edible and delectable fungi in Wild Mushrooming: A Guide for Foragers.

blog.publish.csiro.au

Interest in foraging for wild food is on the rise, and magnificent mushrooms are very much on the menu. But if you’re gathering your own, you’ve got to get it right.

 

[annpats]

You think most people would pick mushrooms outside and serve them to guests?

I realize mushroom picking is not a rare hobby, but are people really just serving them to unknowing guests?

If they used an app to help identify the mushrooms, and the app said the ones they picked were edible, then there is no reason why the people wouldn't serve them up to eat.

However, if the app mistakenly said they were edible, then I'm not sure where the fault lies. I know nothing is 100% foolproof.

I wonder if the app has a disclaimer stating it won't be held liable for any death resulting from their app mis-identifying mushrooms??

 

[StarrChance]

Article in the age didn’t appear to be behind a paywall.
Confirms ex-husband was in icu 3 weeks last year with illness with similar symptoms. Also source says police investigating a food dehydrator disposed of at local tip.

Police test food dehydrator found at tip after deadly mushroom meal

Tests are being done to see if the appliance is linked to the deaths of three people who ate poisonous mushrooms.

www.theage.com.au

Hopefully her internet search history wIl be thoroughly looked through !

 

[annpats]

Confirms husband was in icu 3 weeks last year with illness with similar symptoms. Also source says police investigating a food dehydrator disposed of at local tip.

Police test food dehydrator found at tip after deadly mushroom meal

Tests are being done to see if the appliance is linked to the deaths of three people who ate poisonous mushrooms.

www.theage.com.au

What's the thing with the food dehydrator? That wouldn't alter the toxicity of the mushrooms, would it?

 

[TootsieFootsie]

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/victoria-homicide-police-probing-fatal-mushroom-poisoning/news-story/3f8675b9029cd931c5f50c9aa533e17c\

Police know what the meal was.

 

[Dre]

I believe she told police it was the wild mushrooms, hence their checking of the dehydrator to see if there are indeed traces of some type of dangerous mushroom.

“I didn’t do anything wrong” is not how I would react if I made a risky mistake that killed 3 people.

As a forager, I’m so astounded at the negligence. As a true crime follower, I’m waiting for that other shoe to drop.

Moo

 

[Dre]

“It’s a really interesting case, and at this stage I can say the deaths are really unexplained,” he said.

“We’re trying to get to the bottom of it, to understand what has actually occurred.”

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/victoria-homicide-police-probing-fatal-mushroom-poisoning/news-story/3f8675b9029cd931c5f50c9aa533e17c\

Police know what the meal was.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

“I didn’t do anything wrong” is not how I would react if I made a risky mistake that killed 3 people

The absolute wrong thing would be meaning to kill someone and doing it.

 

[annpats]

I believe she told police it was the wild mushrooms, hence their checking of the dehydrator to see if there are indeed traces of some type of dangerous mushroom.

“I didn’t do anything wrong” is not how I would react if I made a risky mistake that killed 3 people.

As a forager, I’m so astounded at the negligence. As a true crime follower, I’m waiting for that other shoe to drop.

Moo

To kill 3 (almost 4) people is a brazen thing to do if it was on purpose, and very easy to make it look like an accident if it was with "mis-identified" mushrooms in a meal.

My question is: what was the relationship to the woman and the others at the dining table? Family? Friends? Colleagues?

And if it was murder, to kill intentionally, did she intend to kill all of them? Or were some of the others collateral damage?

 

[Estelle]

To kill 3 (almost 4) people is a brazen thing to do if it was on purpose, and very easy to make it look like an accident if it was with "mis-identified" mushrooms in a meal.

My question is: what was the relationship to the woman and the others at the dining table? Family? Friends? Colleagues?

And if it was murder, to kill intentionally, did she intend to kill all of them? Or were some of the others collateral damage?

The people who died or struggling to live were parents in law and the mother in law's sister and her husband. If there was a motive to poison them, I can only think that it could be over inheritance money (if she is only separated from her husband) or religion.
If she and her husband are only separated, she would still inherit money from her parents in law via the husband but why include the mother in law's sister and her husband as well? So in my mind, a possible motive could have been that the wife has not been accepted by them because she is not religious or has another religion but she has pretended to remain friendly with them in the meantime.

We now have heard history that her husband also suffered a gut illness a year ago. Assuming that it was she who was the cook and it didn't work, perhaps these four people were her next target.

One thing people are not talking about is her children. It looks as if they did not become sick but it is easy to say "my children don't eat mushrooms". But what I do find strange is that a host would not eat her own food and specially do a meal for her guests that she is not intending to eat herself.

When I invite people for a meal, I try to choose something that everyone is going to like. I like seafood so I ask my guests, "do you like prawns?", for example because not everyone likes them. If they said "yes", I am not going to prepare a meal for four guests who like prawns and then something else for my children and myself. I realise that if it was a mushroom sauce, it would be an optional add-on. I don't think she would have told her guests, I picked these mushrooms especially for you.

Has she told police where she got the mushrooms from yet? Did she pick them or buy them?

I also think that the police could be looking at the hydrator to see if any poison was added as well as the toxicity of the mushrooms.

 

[Estelle]

Questions I would like to ask are:

Is she actually divorced from her husband?

Had they had arguments over religion?

Is she mentally ill?

What was the reason for their separation?

Where did she get the mushrooms from?

 

[charminglane]

Questions I would like to ask are:

Is she actually divorced from her husband?

Had they had arguments over religion?

Is she mentally ill?

What was the reason for their separation?

Where did she get the mushrooms from?

Is she in financial difficulties?

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I'd like to ask what her financial situation was.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Is she is financial difficulties?

We had the same idea at the same time

 

[Estelle]

Maybe her husband is unemployed and/or they need to sell their house and there might not be enough money for her to buy something else. Or she wasn't working when married and now has to go out and work.

What are the ages of her children?

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Is there a reason people are thinking religion could be relevant?

We now have heard history that her husband also suffered a gut illness a year ago.

We need to hear from a LE source what the circumstances were surrounding that incident, though.

More questions:
- Have there been other episodes of unexplained "chaos" in the family before? Or in her childhood/ younger adulthood?

- Any life insurance policies? If so, who opened them, when, and who benefits?

Full toxicology results will take awhile but hopefully they're checking everything.