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

[SouthAussie]

Erin maintains she told the truth to health department

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.

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.

And still no mention of foraged mushrooms.

 

[MrJ]

Just now
Erin begins reflecting on lunch

By Judd Boaz

Erin tells the court the accusation from Simon triggered 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 they’d gone in the container with the Chinese mushrooms? Maybe that had happened."

She tells the court it made her feel scared and worried because child protection was now involved.

Erin tells the court that knowing child protection workers were on their way to her home, she decided to throw out her dehydrator.

She says she was worried she would be blamed for making her lunch guests sick, so went to dispose the dehydrator at the Koonwarra tip.

'Chinese mushrooms'? Really?

 

[LinasK]

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.

So how exactly does this help her credibility? By trying to discredit Simon's credibility??? If I'm a murder defendant on trial, that's the last thing I want brought up. Shouldn't the prosecution be objecting?

 

[Scooby-Doo]

She told the court she had purchased mushrooms from those kind of shops before, including shiitake, porcini and enoki varieties.

"Sometimes the bags might say something like 'wild mushroom mix' or 'forest mushroom'," she said.



But for some strange reason, she can't remember where she purchased them from.

 

[Kemug]

No, vomiting after ingesting Death Cap mushrooms will not save someone.

Death Cap mushrooms contain deadly toxins that are absorbed into the body very quickly, even if the person vomits. While vomiting may help remove some of the ingested mushroom matter, the toxins are already being absorbed and will cause significant damage to the liver and kidneys.

Here's why vomiting won't be a solution:

• Rapid Absorption:
  The toxins in Death Cap mushrooms, specifically amatoxins, are absorbed into the bloodstream very quickly. Vomiting may remove some of the mushroom, but the damage has already begun.
• Organ Damage:
  Amatoxins cause severe damage to the liver and kidneys, which can be life-threatening. Vomiting does not address the underlying damage caused by the toxins.
• 
  
• Google Search

So even before they got to the cake and fruit, to all intents and purposes Heather, Gail and Don were already dead.

 

[Detechtive]

Do you think she might be neu

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

I don't know what is true, but from what I personally observed, emotionally she is histrionic when it comes to perceived slights and rejection which looks like BPD, IMO.

 

[MrJ]

She's just digging and digging a hole for herself.

Key Event
Just now
Erin admits to leaving out information in health department interview

By Joseph Dunstan

Mr Mandy's questioning returns to Erin's interactions with health official Sally Ann Atkinson.

Ms Atkinson's questions over text were focused "very squarely" on the ingredients in the meal, he notes, and asks how they made Erin feel.

"Very anxious, yeah, very anxious," Erin says.

Erin says she didn't tell Ms Atkinson that she the supermarket ingredients were probably not responsible for illness because she was "scared".

She says she "still thought it was a possibility" the Asian grocer-sourced mushrooms were responsible for the poisoning, but "knew it wasn't the only possibility".

 

[Detechtive]

Erin's time in hospital 'a little bit of a blur'​

Erin says a doctor explained to her they wanted the children to come to hospital because they were concerned the mushroom toxins had gotten into the meat despite being scrapped off and it was better to be “safe than sorry”.

Mr Mandy asks if she expressed reluctance about having the children brought in.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t want them to be treated, but more the drastic step of putting them in hospital,” she says, noting their anxieties about hospitals.

“I didn’t want to do that unless it was really necessary.”
But when they advised they should come, she says “it made sense to me”.

Erin was transported by ambulance from Leongatha to Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne.
She recalls she was given fentanyl because she had a bad headache which made her feel “a little bit loopy” but provided pain relief.

When she arrived in Melbourne, Erin says she was in the triage area when the door opened and she saw Simon and their children.

“Then I was I was put in a cubicle somewhere waiting to be assessed. It’s a little bit of a blur,” she says.

 

[SouthAussie]

So how exactly does this help her credibility? By trying to discredit Simon's credibility??? If I'm a murder defendant on trial, that's the last thing I want brought up. Shouldn't the prosecution be objecting?

I really notice how much they are trying to turn Simon into the perpetrator. It has been apparent via the defence.
However it was that Simon "made her feel", that is the reason for all of her anxiety and accidental actions.

imo

 

[Deleted member 363451]

I really notice how much they are trying to turn Simon into the perpetrator. It has been apparent via the defence.
However it was that Simon "made her feel", that is the reason for all of her anxiety and accidental actions.

imo

Has this woman ever taken accountability for anything in her life?

 

[Detechtive]

I really notice how much they are trying to turn Simon into the perpetrator. It has been apparent via the defence.
However it was that Simon "made her feel", that is the reason for all of her anxiety and accidental actions.

imo

I agree, but to what end? He's not on trial... It makes me mad. He is an orphan because of her. IMO

 

[LinasK]

I really notice how much they are trying to turn Simon into the perpetrator. It has been apparent via the defence.
However it was that Simon "made her feel", that is the reason for all of her anxiety and accidental actions.

imo

I think her anxiety is because she knew she was busted. She didn't expect them to figure out so relatively quickly that it was Death Cap mushrooms in her "special" meal.

 

[mamamama9873]

Interesting...
1m ago
Erin says she had to stop during trip

By Joseph Dunstan

Erin says both of the children were in the car on the way to the flying lesson.

She says about 30 minutes in, she felt she needed to use the toilet, so they pulled over at a stretch where there was some bushland.

"I went off into the bush and went to the toilet ... I had diarrhoea," she says.

"I cleaned myself up a bit with tissues and put them in a dog poo bag ... and we hit the road again."

During a stop at the BP Caldermeade, Ms Patterson says she put the dog poo bag containing tissues she'd used while toileting in the bin.

She says she bought food for her children, but tells the court she bought nothing for herself.

She knows no limits and has no shame - gladly throws “asian” grocers and her poor teenage children under the bus by detailing their medical history and troubles at school, now she talks about having diarrhoea at the side of the road and putting it into a dog poo bag - she would say anything to save herself!

 

[Kemug]

I wonder whether the defense might trying to demonstrate that she was too muddled up to ever do something deliberately harmful, and that also explains her evasions afterwords. She was just such a hot mess of misery, she can't be held responsible for anything...

In the only jury I was ever on, the drug maker's defence was that he was too addled by drugs to know what he was doing!

 

[Detechtive]

Court told Erin felt 'anxious' and 'overwhelmed' by hospital stay​

On the Monday afternoon – two days after the lunch – Erin says she was still having frequent toilet trips and some nausea but the medication helped and she felt better than she had in the morning.
She said on the Tuesday morning, she felt “quite a lot better”.

Her children were in the paediatric wing of the hospital, while Simon had also stayed the night.
Later that morning, health official Sally Ann Atkinson called Erin and asked about the food poisoning outbreak and where the ingredients had been sourced.

She repeated that they were from Woolworths and dried mushrooms were also used.
Erin says she told Ms Atkinson the Asian grocer was somewhere in the Oakleigh area.
Ms Atkinson messaged asking Erin to describe the packaging of the dried mushrooms and any details of the Asian grocer she could recall.

Erin says she was feeling “anxious” and it was “very overwhelming” at the time.

Erin has recounted a conversation she had with health official Sally Ann Atkinson. Picture: Diego Fedele

 

[MsMarple]

1m ago15.00 AEST
Patterson says when she was discharged from hospital and returned home, she felt “frantic”

“Child protection was coming to my house that afternoon and I was scared of the conversation that might flow about the meal and the dehydrator,” she says.

Patterson says she worried she would be blamed and went to dump the dehydrator at a local tip.

The jury has previously been shown CCTV footage of Patterson dumping the dehydrator at the Koonwarra Transfer Station And Landfill on 2 August 2023 - four days after the lunch.

 

[Detechtive]

Court told Erin felt 'anxious' and 'overwhelmed' by hospital stay​

On the Monday afternoon – two days after the lunch – Erin says she was still having frequent toilet trips and some nausea but the medication helped and she felt better than she had in the morning.
She said on the Tuesday morning, she felt “quite a lot better”.

Her children were in the paediatric wing of the hospital, while Simon had also stayed the night.
Later that morning, health official Sally Ann Atkinson called Erin and asked about the food poisoning outbreak and where the ingredients had been sourced.

She repeated that they were from Woolworths and dried mushrooms were also used.
Erin says she told Ms Atkinson the Asian grocer was somewhere in the Oakleigh area.
Ms Atkinson messaged asking Erin to describe the packaging of the dried mushrooms and any details of the Asian grocer she could recall.

Erin says she was feeling “anxious” and it was “very overwhelming” at the time.

Erin has recounted a conversation she had with health official Sally Ann Atkinson. Picture: Diego Fedele

So much emphasis on her feelings. IMO

 

[Detechtive]

'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.”

 

[LinasK]

1m ago15.00 AEST
Patterson says when she was discharged from hospital and returned home, she felt “frantic”

“Child protection was coming to my house that afternoon and I was scared of the conversation that might flow about the meal and the dehydrator,” she says.

Patterson says she worried she would be blamed and went to dump the dehydrator at a local tip.

The jury has previously been shown CCTV footage of Patterson dumping the dehydrator at the Koonwarra Transfer Station And Landfill on 2 August 2023 - four days after the lunch.

To me, this action alone nails her "Consciousness of Guilt". If you think that you've only added store-bought mushrooms to your meal, why are you tossing out your dehydrator?

 

[MrJ]

More Simon bus throwing-under.

Key Event
1m ago
Erin says she had safety concerns about estranged husband

By Joseph Dunstan and Judd Boaz

Mr Mandy then takes Erin to a conversation she had on the Friday after the lunch with child protection worker Katrina Cripps about her phone number.

"I told her I was going to change my phone number," Erin says.

"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."

Earlier in the trial, Ms Cripps confirmed that during this visit, Erin had mentioned she was scared about "security and privacy" and was considering changing her phone number.