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

[Megnut]

‘No one’s been telling me anything’: Lead detective recalls visit to Erin Patterson’s home after mushroom lunch

Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson died in hospitals in the days after a mushroom lunch meal. Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder. Follow our live updates from the trial.

www.smh.com.au

10.51am

Lead homicide detective returns to witness box​

By​

Victoria Police’s Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall will return to the witness box this morning to continue his evidence for a fifth day.

Eppingstall, the lead homicide detective in the case, has been in the witness box since last Tuesday afternoon.

View attachment 590748
Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall outside court.Credit: Jason South

11.08am

‘No one’s been telling me anything’: Lead detective recalls visit to Erin’s home after lunch​

By​

Erin Patterson’s defence lawyer Colin Mandy, SC, is continuing his cross-examination of Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall.

There are several members of the Wilkinson and Patterson families present in court today, including lunch survivor Ian Wilkinson and Don Patterson’s brother, Colin Patterson, among others.

To begin, Mandy takes Eppingstall to four images of dinner plates taken at Erin’s Leongatha home during the police search on August 5, 2023.

The first image shown to the court shows a black plate above the dishwasher on the counter, next to another white plate. The second shows several dishes stacked in the dishwasher, including a black and red plate, a white dish and a colourful plate with kindergarten-type scribbles.

The other two images shown to the jury are of an open drawer with a stack of black side plates, and a colourful, striped plate.

Eppingstall agreed that upon arriving at Patterson’s home, he indicated to her that two people had passed away, to which she responded: “No one’s been telling me anything that’s been going on, and it’s been really hard.”


11.17am

Homicide detective recalls second search of Erin Patterson’s home​

By​

Stephen Eppingstall, the lead detective in the mushroom case, is now giving evidence about the second search warrant executed at Erin’s home on November 2, 2023.

Erin Patterson’s defence lawyer Colin Mandy, SC, has taken the homicide detective to a series of images taken during the search.

The first two images shown to the jury are of an Acer laptop, keyboard and mouse atop a wooden dining room table with tan/grey upholstered seats. The third image is of a Lenovo Thinkpad computer.

Mandy has taken Eppingstall to an image of the same computer and Lego room that police searched on August 5, 2023, and pointed out two items that were present on a shelf in images of the initial police search in August are no longer there.

“I am putting to the witness that the item that was depicted underneath a keyboard is no longer there,” Mandy said.

“It’s clear that shelf has been rearranged,” Eppingstall responded.

The jury has been shown another photograph of the shelf, showing a mouse and keyboard.

Mandy pointed to a small black case on the shelf, which he suggests could have been a mobile phone case on a windowsill in an image taken during the first police search on August 5, 2023.

Eppingstall confirmed at the time of the second search, Erin was using another phone, an Oppo handset, that was seized by police.

Asked by Patterson’s lawyer whether police would have checked what SIM card was in the device at the time, Eppingstall said officers “would have”.

“From memory I don’t think it was the 783 number,” he said.

Mandy has taken Eppingstall to the diagram again, this time zooming into a SIM card connected to Erin’s son and ran the jury through a series of factory resets between February and August 2023.


11.30am

Day 24 of the mushroom murder trial in Morwell in pictures​

By​

Jason South, award-winning photographer for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, is in Morwell covering the trial.

Here are some of the photos he took earlier this morning outside court.

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Erin Patterson’s legal team arrive at courtCredit: Jason South

​

Eppingstall agreed that upon arriving at Patterson’s home, he indicated to her that two people had passed away, to which she responded: “No one’s been telling me anything that’s been going on, and it’s been really hard.”​

Wow that response!

I don’t think this is the flex Mr Mandy thinks it is.

That jumped out at me too. Wow. Two people she purported to care about are dead but it's all about how SHE feels.

Kind of says it all.

JMO

 

[MrJ]

Still on a break

 

[MrJ]

Must be a lot of legal matters to deal with...

 

[Detechtive]

The defence aren't asking questions they don't already know the answers to. They're being very tactical.

Of course they are, but it isn’t working

You can’t make a blueberry pie out of poo.

 

[Tricia]

Websleuths member PingTheRouter, is attending this trial and reporting on it.
His livestream is approved as a source for this case. Here is his latest video.

 

[MrJ]

I'll be on a break soon someone please cover the abc blog for me.

Live: Erin Patterson's phone records probed in murder trial

Erin Patterson's triple murder trial continues in Morwell. She's charged with three counts of murder over the deaths of three relatives who died from after eating a meal she prepared containing death cap mushrooms. Follow the trial live.

www.abc.net.au

 

[MrJ]

Good timing.

Key Event
2m ago
Court resumes
By Melissa Brown

After a longer than usual break, the jury has been brought back into court.

Mr Eppingstall is resuming evidence.

 

[MsMarple]

3m ago

Further questioning of police witness​

By Joseph Dunstan​

The defence quickly wraps up its cross-examination of Detective Senior Leading Constable Stephen Eppingstall.

The prosecution's Jane Warren SC now has a chance to ask further questions of the police witness.

 

[Bats]

Of course they are, but it isn’t working

You can’t make a blueberry pie out of poo.

Haha, just wait. You won't be disappointed. They haven't shifted out of 1st gear yet.

 

[charminglane]

Of course they are, but it isn’t working

You can’t make a blueberry pie out of poo.

Please make this your signature.

 

[Detechtive]

Okay I’m back. Wow, this reenactment really drives home the extent Erin went to distance herself from the poisonings. It’s really hard to believe she didn’t have intent.

It’s alarming to me that she wanted her kids lives to go on like normal when their grandparents were in ICU. Ballet and flying lessons can be paused in such a situation, surely.

Surely you’d want the kids to visit them in ICU, seeing as they loved them so much?

 

[Detechtive]

Please make this your signature.

Haha there’s a few versions of that saying…

 

[PingTheRouter]

Cross exam has finished and eppingstall is being re-examined by the prosecution right now

 

[Detechtive]

Haha, just wait. You won't be disappointed. They haven't shifted out of 1st gear yet.

I don’t share your faith because they can only do the best they can out of a very incriminating prosecution case.

Even if 20 people testified that she’s like mother Theresa it wouldn’t work, imo.

 

[PingTheRouter]

Just keep watching for the afternoon

 

[HoneyBunOne]

That's a big change of schools. Over an hour away from Leongatha, along the Bass Highway. Google Maps
I have to wonder if that caused consternation among the rest of the family.


"Detective Eppingstall ..... mentions that he did not see a lot of food from Asian or Indian grocers at her home.

“Did you look in my fridge? I’ve got a lot of Asian cooking stuff in my fridge,” she replies

The detective then follows up by asking if Ms Patterson has “more of that kind of stuff” at her second home in the Melbourne suburb of Mount Waverley.

But she tells him no, she cleaned out the pantry and fridge there because she’s “got to sell that place”.

Ms Patterson tells the officer she’s thinking of selling it to buy a home on Phillip Island where her children are now going to school."

https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/courts-law/erin-patterson-mushroom-murder-trial-jury-shown-accused-womans-police-interview-a-week-after-fatal-lunch/news-story/092b8220ba6f0ba839821334a71f629c

The change of schools is understandable, given the "small town" vibes going on. Everyone knows everyone's business, it must have been torture for those kids to go back to school after this.

However, the choice of new schools is very interesting. I wonder when that occurred? Do we know if Simon is living locally to the Leongatha area? Do we even know if Simon currently has the children full time? Perhaps the kids are staying with some relatives in the Phillip Island area? Logistically, getting the kids to and from a day school that's so far away is a nightmare, and AFAIK there's no boarding schools there. Why so far away? Maybe because it's one of the nearest schools in a larger community that isn't Warragul or Drouin, because despite being bigger towns, they are still close enough for it to be the talk of the town.

 

[Detechtive]

The change of schools is understandable, given the "small town" vibes going on. Everyone knows everyone's business, it must have been torture for those kids to go back to school after this.

However, the choice of new schools is very interesting. I wonder when that occurred? Do we know if Simon is living locally to the Leongatha area? Do we even know if Simon currently has the children full time? Perhaps the kids are staying with some relatives in the Phillip Island area? Logistically, getting the kids to and from a day school that's so far away is a nightmare, and AFAIK there's no boarding schools there. Why so far away? Maybe because it's one of the nearest schools in a larger community that isn't Warragul or Drouin, because despite being bigger towns, they are still close enough for it to be the talk of the town.

She was about to leave the area after the lunch, imo. And she had already changed their schools prior to the lunch.

Perhaps this goes to motive. Perhaps Simon wouldn’t agree to the kids moving areas.

Simon only had the female child on weekends.

 

[MsMarple]

1m ago

Police witness shown hospital documents​

By Joseph Dunstan​

The prosecution now takes the police witness to records from Leongatha Hospital from July 31, 2023 when Erin Patterson attended after the lunch.

LSC Eppingstall is taken to a document that says it was printed on this date, and lists Simon Patterson as a next-of-kin contact, with his address named as Erin's Leongatha home.

The prosecution asks if evidence from the police investigation supported the idea that Mr Patterson was living at that address in 2023.

LSC Eppingstall says "no".

 

[ch_13]

Haha, just wait. You won't be disappointed. They haven't shifted out of 1st gear yet.

I don't know. If the defense had some fireworks planned I would think that the testimony of the lead detective would have been a good time to unveil them. Yet his cross-examination seems to have proceeded uneventfully. At least from the media play-by-play it doesn't seem like any of the detective's responses hurt the state's case.

 

[Detechtive]

1m ago

Police witness shown hospital documents​

By Joseph Dunstan​

The prosecution now takes the police witness to records from Leongatha Hospital from July 31, 2023 when Erin Patterson attended after the lunch.

LSC Eppingstall is taken to a document that says it was printed on this date, and lists Simon Patterson as a next-of-kin contact, with his address named as Erin's Leongatha home.

The prosecution asks if evidence from the police investigation supported the idea that Mr Patterson was living at that address in 2023.

LSC Eppingstall says "no".

From what I understand, Simon never lived in the Leongatha home. So this can’t be a matter of accidentally forgetting to update hospital records to reflect a change of address.

They permanently separated in 2015
She built that home in 2019/2020