Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #11 *Arrest*

[MrJ]

1m ago
Erin admits reluctance to have her children admitted to hospital

By Joseph Dunstan

The questioning turns to Ms Patterson's attitude towards her children being checked out after the lunch.

Medical staff have previously told the court she expressed reluctance to have her children admitted to hospital.

Erin says the doctor explained to her that while she'd scraped the mushrooms off, it was possible the toxins had seeped in and it was better to be safe than sorry.

She says she could understand the "logic" in that.

"It wasn't that I didn't want them to be treated, but more, the drastic step of putting them in hospital, I wanted to understand that that was really necessary," she says.

But she says when she was told they should come to hospital "it made sense to me".

 

[Detechtive]

The question Erin found 'really hard' to answer​

Erin says she spoke with Matthew Patterson, the son of Don and Gail and Simon’s brother, who said he was with someone from toxicology who was asking about the source of the mushrooms.
“I told him that they came from Woolies and … the Asian grocer,” she says.
She says she had similar conversations with others on several occasions.
“The overriding communication I was trying to convey was, I didn’t remember, I wasn’t sure, but these were the likely, the possible, places it could be,” she says.

Erin recalls telling doctors she wanted to collect her children from school but there was pushback.
Asked why she wanted to pick them up, Erin says: “That’s a really hard question to answer, because when I look back on it, I think it was kind of absurd. But at the time, I was their mother, and they’re my children, and I wanted to be responsible for them.”

She says she remembered a doctor telling her that wasn’t a good idea and suggesting someone else such as a school nurse or Simon, could help.
“My first thought was, I had rung him already that morning, and he wasn’t prepared to drive 10 minutes to help me, it’s not likely he’s going to drive an hour and a half to get the kids,” she says.
She says she spoke to Simon a short time later and he agreed to collect their children and bring them to hospital.

She also recalled asking a doctor why she suspected it was death cap mushroom poisoning.
“She said that she couldn’t tell me that because of privacy concerns, apart from the fact that but none of them were her patients,” she says.

 

[L_B]

And she could not have scraped off the mushrooms and fed the leftover meat to her kids, without them being severely ill as well.

She could have said there was leftover steak and served them that, but she had to say they ate the meat from the BW.... and here is the problem, her lack of concern of getting her kids to the hospital to be checked out given the seriousness of this type of poisoning. Dislike of hospitals aside, as the dr said to her, its either alive and scared or dead! Why didn't she seem to have any concern for her kids...

 

[LinasK]

1m ago
Erin wanted to pick her children up personally

By Joseph Dunstan

Erin says she remembers wanting to go and get her children from school, which she says is "kind of absurd" upon reflection.

"But at the time, I was their mother and they're my children and I wanted to be responsible for them," she says.

At some stage over that morning, Erin says she had a chat with one of the doctors and asked "what was going on".

"Why do people think that it's death cap mushrooms? What is the situation of everybody? And she said that she couldn't tell me that because of privacy concerns, apart from the fact that none of them were her patients anyway," Erin says.

Translation by me: She needed to go dump alleged evidence and also didn't want Simon telling the kids about the relatives health. Got to keep the stories straight, meanwhile she's pumping the doctor for how much they know.

 

[Detechtive]

She could have said there was leftover steak and served them that, but she had to say they ate the meat from the BW.... and here is the problem, her lack of concern of getting her kids to the hospital to be checked out given the seriousness of this type of poisoning. Dislike of hospitals aside, as the dr said to her, its either alive and scared or dead! Why didn't she seem to have any concern for her kids...

She only purchased 6 'steaks'. AFAIK. Again, 4.5 were eaten, and 1.5 were found in the bin.
Maybe she got the kids steaks with cash? Perhaps the purchases on her every day rewards card was not accidental.
I don't know, but the math isn't adding up.

 

[MsMarple]

And remember she told one of the health workers that she had brought some of the leftovers to the hospital. Another lie.

 

[MrJ]

1m ago
Erin says her condition improved in hospital

By Joseph Dunstan

Mr Mandy asks how Ms Patterson's symptoms were during Monday afternoon.

"I remember still having toilet trips at Leongatha," she says.

She says the drugs helped with nausea, but it came and went a bit.

When she woke up the next day, Erin says she was feeling "quite a lot better".

At this point, the children were in the paediatric wing of the hospital.

 

[katydid23]

now11.26 AEST
Mandy asks Patterson about her reasons for hosting the fateful lunch on 29 July 2023.

Patterson says her kids had enjoyed seeing their grandparents when she hosted them for lunch in June and wanted to do it again. Earlier, she said she invited them to her Leongatha home in June because she had become worried about “some distance” between her and the Patterson family.

She says at the June lunch, Gail remarked that Heather would like to see her garden.

“Heather and Ian had been really good to me over the years. I wanted to have some more connection to them,” she says.

Patterson recalls asking Gail and Heather to come to lunch at church.

“They said they’ve love to,” Patterson says as her voice trembles.

Mandy asks why Patterson decided to cook a beef wellington dish.

Patterson says she made a shepherd’s pie when Don and Gail came to her place in June. She says they liked it but it “didn’t seem special enough.”

She says her mother had made beef wellington when she was a child.

“It was in my recipe book. RecipeTin Eats. I think that’s where I found it initially,” she says

She says in the lead up to the lunch, she bought the “majority” of ingredients from Woolworths in Leongatha. She says she also bought some ingredients at the IGA and Aldi.

Mandy asks if she followed the recipe for beef wellington in the Recipe TinEats cookbook.

She replies “roughly” but says she made some “deviations.”

She said she could not buy a single beef tenderloin so bought individual eye-fillet.

So NO mention of her telling her guests she had ovarian cancer? And them praying over her?

 

[MrJ]

I'm cackling.

Key Event
1m ago
Erin maintains she told the truth to health department

By Joseph Dunstan

That morning, Victorian health official Sally Ann Atkinson began asking Erin about the food poisoning outbreak and the origins of the ingredients.

Erin says she told her the same thing she'd told others, that the majority of the ingredients were bought at the Leongatha Woolworths, with dried mushrooms also used.

She says she told Ms Atkinson the truth.

The court is then shown some of the text messages between Ms Atkinson and Ms Patterson.

In a length message, Ms Atkinson asks Erin to describe the packaging of the dried mushrooms and anything she can remember about the store where she might have bought them.

At the same time as these messages were being sent, Ms Patterson says she was either with her children or in an appointment related to them.

Erin says she was feeling "very anxious ... it was very overwhelming".

 

[MsMarple]

4m ago14.38 AEST
Mandy asks Patterson about a phone conversation with police, facilitated by Webster, about where the leftovers from the meal were.

She says she spoke directly to police at one point and told them the gate code to the property. She said she told police the beef wellington leftovers were in a bin but could not remember if it was an outside bin out kitchen bin.

Patterson says Simon’s brother, Matthew, called her that morning. Matthew said someone from toxicology was wanting to know where the mushrooms in the meal were sourced from.

“I told him they came from Woolies and the grocer, the Asian grocer,” she says.

Patterson says she may have mentioned Oakleigh as a suburb where the grocer was.
She says she was trying to convey that she didn’t remember but was mentioning “possible places” where she shopped.

 

[LinasK]

And remember she told one of the health workers that she had brought some of the leftovers to the hospital. Another lie.

What would the point of that have been? To bring it in for testing or to finish off one or more of the victims?

 

[katydid23]

Just now
Erin concedes dried mushrooms may have been foraged

By Joseph Dunstan

She says that process took roughly 45 minutes and it was then that she made an addition to the Woolworths mushroom duxelles.

"As I was cooking it down, I tasted it a few times and it seemed a little bland, to me," she says.

"So I decided to put in the dried mushrooms that I'd bought from the grocer that I still had in the pantry.

"So I put them in, like a little, ... strainer with a handle ... and just roughly poured water over them to get the crispness out of them.

"I chopped them up and I, like, sprinkled them over the duxelles and pushed them in with an egg flip."

Erin does not say if she tasted the dish again after adding the dried mushrooms.

She says at the time, she believed the dried mushrooms were the ones she'd bought from Melbourne.

"Now I think that there was a possibility that there were foraged ones in there as well," she says, closing her eyes and blinking as her voice cracks.

And those mushrooms, all of them, were then baked together with the meat inside the pastry dough. So every morsel of each BW would be tainted with deadly toxins.

No way for EP or her kids to accidentally or luckily or innocently avoid being poisoned as well.

IMO, that's not possible.

And EP was not nearly as unwell as she would have been if she actually ate a half of a BW like the ones her guests had. They were severely compromised in the middle of the very first night---unable to get off the floor, needing to call an ambulance.

 

[Detechtive]

What would the point of that have been? To bring it in for testing or to finish off one or more of the victims?

To feign cooperation, IMO.

 

[MsMarple]

1m ago14.45 AEST
Patterson recalls wanting to pick up her children from the hospital when staff mentioned they needed to be tested.

“I was their mother and they’re my children and I wanted to be responsible for them,” she says

The court previously heard Simon picked up the couple’s children and drove them to Monash medical centre. Pattersons says she told Simon she wanted her children to be at the same hospital she would be transferred to.

Patterson says in a discussion with a doctor she asked “why do people think that it’s death cap mushrooms?”

She says she was administered fluid saline and NAC - a liver function medication - at Leongatha hospital.

On route to Monash medical centre in an ambulance, Patterson says she was giving anti-nausea medication and fentanyl for a headache. She says the fentanyl made her feel “loopy” but helped the pain.

 

[Cliff Hardy]

How long is this Mandy-Patterson show going to go on for? OMG, if l was on the jury l would be nodding off.

 

[Deleted member 363451]

Do you think she might be neu

I think it’s more likely emotional disregulation.

She’s been
An accountant
Air traffic controller
Admin for Rapca
Business owner
Worked in bankruptcy at treasury
She’s studied; business, marketing, accounting, bachelor of education and now nursing and midwifery

It’s bizarre and turbulent, like her, imo

Do you think she may be Neurodivergent, as well as other things?

 

[L_B]

“I told him they came from Woolies and the grocer, the Asian grocer,” she says.

So the mixed bag Tupperware container of assorted mushrooms JUST SLIPPED YOUR MIND?

 

[MrJ]

Do you think she may be Neurodivergent, as well as other things?

I have ADHD, neurodivergent people are more likely to be victims of violence than anything else. There's gotta be something more

 

[katydid23]

Key Event
1m ago
Erin says she was 'hurt' by estranged husband's rejection

By Joseph Dunstan

Mr Mandy then asks Erin how she felt about Simon's rejection of her invitation to the lunch on July 29.

She confirms she was "a bit hurt", then Mr Mandy reads a text she sent back to him where she outlined her disappointment and spoke about how much effort had gone into preparation for the lunch.

"Why did you send Simon that message?" Mr Mandy asks.

"I was hurt he didn't want to come but I was also really anxious and stressed about this upcoming procedure that I was going to have, and I just wanted to know that it would be sorted and I wouldn't have to worry about whether I would have help with the kids or not, so I just wanted him to come so I could talk to him about that," she says.

When asked about the exaggerations in the message, Erin says they were made because she really wanted him to attend the lunch.

"I shouldn't have done any of that, but that's what I was thinking at the time," she says.

Erin says she wanted Simon to feel "a little bit bad about cancelling at the last minute after he would've known that I would've done a lot of preparation".

Erin admits she'd not really done the "many hours" of preparation she had told Simon had gone into the lunch.

"No, it wasn't true," she says.

OK, back to 'poor sad Erin' the actual victim here. Simon 'hurt her' by not coming to the lunch that she had so dutifully prepared for his family. Are we really supposed to feel sorry for her?

 

[MrJ]

Throwing Simon under the bus.

Key Event
Just now
Erin says estranged husband asked if she poisoned his parents

By Joseph Dunstan

Later, Erin says in a conversation with her husband and the children, there was discussion about the growing suspicion that the lunch Erin had prepared was the cause of the illness in the guests.

"I remember [my daughter] saying something like 'well we weren't at the lunch, why are we here too?' And I explained [they had eaten leftovers but] ... I scraped the mushrooms off yours and [my son's] food," Erin says.

She said the conversation then turned to her food dehydrator.

"I just remember conversation about, yes, [my daughter] doesn't like mushrooms, but it's interesting that when I made muffins with dried mushrooms inside, as like a blind taste test, she preferred the muffin with the most amount of mushrooms in it, we thought that was quite interesting," she says.

But later, in a conversation with Simon, Erin says he put forward a shocking allegation.

"He said to me, 'Is that how you poisoned my parents, using that dehydrator?'" Erin says.

"I said of course not."

Earlier in the trial, Simon Patterson denied asking that accusation.