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

[Neet_Mc]

'Is that how you poisoned my parents?': How Simon reacted to dehydrator conversation​

That afternoon, Erin says there was conversation between herself, Simon and the kids.
She recalls explaining there were concerns the lunch had made others sick, with Erin explaining to her children that they had eaten leftovers from that lunch with the mushrooms scraped off.
That led to a discussion about mushrooms and a food dehydrator, she says.

“I just remember a conversation … (that our daughter) doesn’t like mushrooms but … 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,” she says.

“We we thought that was quite interesting.”
Erin says her children left the room and she spoke to Simon alone.
“He said to me: ‘Is that how you poisoned my parents, using that dehydrator?'” she says.
“I said: ‘of course not’.”

She said that caused her to reflect on the lunch.

“It caused me to do a lot of thinking about a lot of things,” she says.
“I was starting to think, what if (death caps had) gone in the container with the Chinese mushrooms? Maybe that had happened.”

“Simon seemed to be of the mind that maybe this was intentional and I just got really scared.”

Was the Tupperware container of mushrooms part of the police evidence?

 

[SouthAussie]

I don't know why she would leave it to chance like this though. and the whole allegedly deadly lunch effort would be a waste.

Why wouldn't she have just asked all her guests to take a seat and then she could have brought the plates over to each of them at the table?

I am not imagining these plates sitting all in a row - all 5 of them - being plated up.
I am thinking they were in some kind of grouping, with Erin's plate closest to her.
I think it is instinct, when taking the plates, to take those closer to you than to lean over food others will eat and take plates that are further across the counter.

imo

 

[katydid23]

I don't know why she would leave it to chance like this though. and the whole allegedly deadly lunch effort would be a waste.

Why wouldn't she have just asked all her guests to take a seat and then she could have brought the plates over to each of them at the table?

Because if some of them lived through the ghastly experience, she wanted it to look like an accidental tragedy. "They served themselves."

I don't think there was any chance that any of the guests was going to grab the one smaller, different coloured plate. If there were 4 guests she prepared meals for, and 4 large matching plates, I'm sure Gail and Heather would assume those were their 4 meals. IMO

 

[Scuffy35]

Don't forget she put out a media release claiming they were from Woolworths and the Asian grocer 2 weeks after the lunch, too.

"In the statement, Ms Patterson said advice she received immediately after the deaths was to give a "no comment" interview to police, which she said she now regretted.​

​

I now very much regret not answering some questions following this advice given the nightmare that this process has become," she said.​

​

Ms Patterson said the mushrooms were a mixture of button mushrooms purchased at a major supermarket chain, and dried mushrooms bought at an Asian grocery store in Melbourne months previously.​

Then, in November, during her police interview - 4 months after the lunch, she was still claiming she had never dehydrated any mushrooms, ever, and never owned a dehydrator.

Woman who cooked suspected poisoned meal details where she bought mushrooms

The woman who cooked a meal that is believed to have contained poisonous mushrooms and led to the deaths of three people gives a lengthy written statement to police detailing her account of what happened, and revealing she was hospitalised after the incident.

www.abc.net.au

I wonder if this media release from Erin was ever shown to the Jury?

 

[Detechtive]

Ms Patterson says her children weren't present and were at the movies.

She says in an earlier conversation she'd explained to her daughter that the lunch was happening and asked her if she wanted to join the lunch or see a movie with her brother.

She says the movie appealed more to her daughter, so she later discussed it with her son.

Erin says this conversation was had while her son was playing computer games with a friend, and that she explained the movie plan to him.

I'm sure a 14 year old boy and his male friend would have been thrilled to watch a movie for an 8 year old girl.

I wonder if this media release from Erin was ever shown to the Jury?

I don't believe it was - but it could be in cross, perhaps.

 

[Neet_Mc]

“I was becoming concerned about Simon’s behaviour and his allegations and I was concerned for my security, so I wanted him not to be able to contact me anymore,” she says.

Yeah, If I had just wiped out someone’s entire family, I wouldn't want the remaining survivor, who knew me better than anyone, contacting me anymore either!!

So concerned that that she doesn’t want Simon contacting her anymore, yet in same breath was whinging that she only hears about Patterson family events adhoc from Simon and was worried she had missed events and been left out of communications.

 

[Ellery84]

I think she's a malignant narcissist.
She extremely intelligent but playing dumb.
Her intelligence and competence prior to recent events have masked her emotional lack and slippery ego defences.
She's high conflict, controlling, grandiose, superiority complex, arrogant, makes unilateral decisions...
but the main thing
she has done a classic Narc destruction pattern which is - scorched earth policy.

She's taken everyone down and destroyed all the love, affection, relationships, the future itself.
That's what they do when they feel wronged and slighted.
She'll still be triumphant in the end as she's annihilated everything.
Like most of this persuasion she'll thrive in prison and be valued for her assistance in things like reading and writing letters and organising stuff for others more vulnerable.
She'll probably study some more and be perfectly content in a little bubble.

JMO MOO

I agree and I think she will be very content in prison. She already looks much more healthy and well; I honestly think if she is found guilty that will be the best place for her.

 

[Scuffy35]

I am not imagining these plates sitting all in a row - all 5 of them - being plated up.
I am thinking they were in some kind of grouping, with Erin's plate closest to her.
I think it is instinct, when taking the plates, to take those closer to you than to lean over food others will eat and take plates that are further across the counter.

imo

Yes I remember you mentioned this before. Still it makes more sense to me to have them seated at the table and then bring the plates over to them, leaving nothing to chance.

I guess the risk here is still a lot less that leaving the dehydrator around and other lack of post event planning, so probably does not surprise me.

 

[Detechtive]

Yes I remember you mentioned this before. Still it makes more sense to me to have them seated at the table and then bring the plates over to them, leaving nothing to chance.

I guess the risk here is still a lot less that leaving the dehydrator around and other lack of post event planning, so probably does not surprise me.

Remember she's got a butlers pantry. Most food would be prepared in there. Maybe she put their 4 plates on the bench and told them to grab one. Then emerged from the pantry with hers. IMO

 

[Old Soul]

Was the Tupperware container of mushrooms part of the police evidence?

No I don’t think there was any mention of them, or any dried mushrooms in the pantry. I suspect the Tupperware container disappeared along with the plates prior to the police search.

 

[MrJ]

I hope I can sleep tonight before the cross-examination. Been very invested and excited in reading the quite bonkers verifiable clangers in EP's testimony. I've actually lost sleep being excited, it's like Christmas every day of the working week and the best gift to us sleuthers having her on the witness stand

 

[Scuffy35]

Because if some of them lived through the ghastly experience, she wanted it to look like an accidental tragedy. "They served themselves."

I would be surprised she would have thought about this when she gave zero thought about every other piece of evidence, except for maybe disposing of the grey plates. IMO

 

[srper2]

I think that Erin made several shopping trips for the lunch because she was experimenting with the ingredients. Likely purchased so many mushrooms as she was practicing how to prepare them to hide the accidental poison shroom powder and cheap meat. Prepared the safe meal/s first and stored seperately. Very likely her meal may have even been cold, out of fridge, prepared the day before, while the others were fresh out of oven, prepared that day. That way no mistake, and why she only ate a small amount of hers. If someone hd taken her safe plate, she could just accidentally dropped her poison plate and let it smash and not have to eat it, maybe another safe cold backup in fridge, while Simons poison hot wellington cooling on th counter. Pigged out on cake later when stressed out cleaning up trying to get rid of any evidence after the lunch. I keep imagining the women looking in the pantry and seeing a large Tupperware container labelled "poison 'shrooms"........Erin saying, oh, don't worry, they are only for Simon. She made sure she threw out all the poison food, didn't give any to the dog. MOO.

 

[iamshadow21]

Remember she's got a butlers pantry. Most food would be prepared in there. Maybe she put their 4 plates on the bench and told them to grab one. Then emerged from the pantry with hers. IMO

It's pretty easy to make people 'choose' the item you want them to choose. Some poisoners rely on it. People generally choose the thing closest to them, so it's just a matter of arranging the fatal item to be the one their target instinctively takes. It's also a fundamental foundation of most magic and card tricks involving a genuine volunteer, not a plant. Gets used in confidence tricks, too. Watch a show like Leverage or White Collar and you see a lot of it.

MOO

 

[iamshadow21]

I hope I can sleep tonight before the cross-examination. Been very invested and excited in reading the quite bonkers verifiable clangers in EP's testimony. I've actually lost sleep being excited, it's like Christmas every day of the working week and the best gift to us sleuthers having her on the witness stand

It's an interesting case, but I could do with about 90% less talk of poo. I can handle the most brutal medical examiner testimony fine, but I reached saturation point on poo about a week ago.

MOO

 

[Scuffy35]

If someone hd taken her safe plate, she could just accidentally dropped her poison plate and let it smash and not have to eat it,

But then one of her target guests would have got a "safe" plate. Not her ideal lunch outcome either to have a witness still standing.

 

[Megnut]

What color then would Simon's plate have been???????

 

[srper2]

EP is nowhere near obese, and from what I've seen has no problem walking.

Earlier vision of her walking, I saw a woman who was not used to being filmed and not used to the media pack hounding her.
She seemed very self conscious due to not being used to being in the media public eye which made her act and walk awkwardly.

Unfortunately she is obese. I am unsure what BMI you would be working off for your statement.

 

[iamshadow21]

What color then would Simon's plate have been???????

She could have had another grey plate for him that she didn't use.

MOO

 

[Scuffy35]

Remember she's got a butlers pantry. Most food would be prepared in there. Maybe she put their 4 plates on the bench and told them to grab one. Then emerged from the pantry with hers. IMO

I don't think that is how Ian retold it. The testimony from Ian (and Simon) should have been a lot more detailed through the prosecutor's questioning in my opinion.