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

[L_B]

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

An innocent person wouldn't worry about blame if there wasn't any evidence of wrongdoing....

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Hands up if you've ever brought the tissues or toilet paper back with you after you've been caught short.

Hands up from me, from the couple of times caught short in the middle of nowhere.

Luckily I had a plastic bag and wipes handy as well as tissues.

 

[Detechtive]

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.

Good Grief. More blame on Simon, the person who lost 3 members of his family.

 

[katydid23]

Just now
Erin says she told lunch guests to grab a plate

By Joseph Dunstan

Back to plating up the lunch and Erin says she was preparing a ready-made gravy sachet to avoid any "gravy problem".

"I said, grab a plate, guys, I'm just going to finish off the gravy," she says.

She says she put the gravy in a serving pitcher, grabbed the final plate off the bench, then went and sat at the table.

She says she didn't see the other plates get to the table, but assumes "everybody grabbed a plate", but accepts Gail and Heather may have taken them over.

Erin says she doesn't remember which plate she had.

*shivers*

"Erin says she doesn't remember which plate she had."

That doesn't ring true. IMO.

If I made a 'very special' meals for my 4 guests, spent hours preparing the very expensive ingredients, and put the 4 matching plates and the one smaller non-matching plate on the side table, I WOULD REMEMBER which plate I ended up with.

I'd have been surprised if one of my guests ended up with the one smaller mismatched plate.

It also surprises me that she only had 4 large dinner plates available. She goes to all that trouble preparing a nice elegant meal and doesn't just go to a thrift shop and grab another large dinner plate?

 

[LinasK]

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.

I don't know whether to be shocked or angry by this particular revelation. Is this to explain why she kept re-setting her phones/changing SIM cards and phones?

 

[MsMarple]

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.

Yeah. She fessed up to dumping the dehydrator because LE had evidence. She stayed silent about foraging because LE still hadn’t discovered her online activity yet.

Real simple, she admits only that which she can’t avoid. I’m sick of her claims of anxiety and being overwhelmed. About every single event in her life.

 

[Detechtive]

I don't know whether to be shocked or angry by this particular revelation. Is this to explain why she kept re-setting her phones/changing SIM cards and phones?

Everything is Simons fault. He is coercive, abusive, and a deadbeat dad, remember? IMO

 

[da_worm]

anxiety isnt a defence

 

[Detechtive]

Yeah. She fessed up to dumping the dehydrator because LE had evidence. She stayed silent about foraging because LE still hadn’t discovered her online activity yet.

Real simple, she admits only that which she can’t avoid. I’m sick of her claims of anxiety and being overwhelmed. About every single event in her life.

Right? I know many people with diagnosed depression and anxiety. None of them have accidentally or otherwise killed a bunch of people. IMO

 

[MrJ]

I'm so angry on her son's behalf for his information being shared so casually like this.
Key Event
1m ago
Erin explains factory resets on phones

By Joseph Dunstan

A record of factory resets on Phone B is brought up by Mr Mandy.

Erin says she's responsible for the last three, but her son carried out the first factory reset.

February 12, 2023: "That had been my phone since the start of the year. In February, [my son] damaged his own phone and so he needed a new phone, so I bought a new A23 and gave him the one I'd been using, which was this phone."

August 2, 2023: "To get [my son's] information off it, so I could set it up for me … he'd used it up until early May, when he'd taken it on school camp … he slipped and fell in some mud while they were bushwalking and the phone had got pretty coated in mud and, you know, the charging port and what-not were a bit muddy." Erin says she'd tried a few methods to clean it over time, but it stayed there drying out during that time. She says she figured out it was capable of being used on August 2. "So I put it on charge and at some point factory reset it."

August 5, 2023: Erin says this factory reset occurred because "I had put all my apps on it, including my Google account, which included my Google photos, and I knew that there were photos in there of mushrooms and the dehydrator and I just panicked and didn't want them [the detectives searching the house] to see them."

August 6, 2023: Erin says she carried out this factory reset because "at some point, after the search of my house and the interview and the detectives had brought me home, I remember thinking 'I wonder if I can log into my Google account and see where all my devices are. So I did that, and I could see my phone, and [my children's devices], and it was really stupid, but I thought, 'I wonder if they've been silly enough to leave it connected to the internet', so I hit factory reset to see what happened and it did."

 

[Detechtive]

When she realised foraged mushrooms might have made it into the meal​

Mr Mandy returns to the conversations with Ms Atkinson.
He says texts from her focussed “very squarely” on the meal’s ingredients.
“How did that make you feel?” he asks.
“Very anxious, yeah, very anxious,” she replies.
Erin says she was “scared” and didn’t tell her that the Woolies mushrooms were unlikely to be behind the illness.
She says she thought it was a “possibility” that the Asian grocer mushrooms were responsible.
By Tuesday evening, she says she started to think foraged mushrooms were in the meal too.

 

[Deleted member 363451]

Good Grief. More blame on Simon, the person who lost 3 members of his family.

I hope that she's asked to clarify why she had security concerns with Simon? Talk about the eternal victim, my God!

 

[MsMarple]

6m ago15.08 AEST
The court is shown text messages between Patterson and Sally Ann Atkinson, who was involved in the Department of Health’s investigation into the deadly lunch.

Patterson says Atkinson’s messages and questions about the ingredients in the lunch made her feel “very anxious”.

In the messages, Atkinson asks Patterson to provide a description of what the package containing the dried mushrooms looked like.

She says by the Tuesday after the lunch she started to think that “perhaps they [foraged mushrooms] were in there too”.

 

[LinasK]

I'm so angry on her son's behalf for his information being shared so casually like this.
Key Event
1m ago
Erin explains factory resets on phones

By Joseph Dunstan

A record of factory resets on Phone B is brought up by Mr Mandy.

Erin says she's responsible for the last three, but her son carried out the first factory reset.

February 12, 2023: "That had been my phone since the start of the year. In February, [my son] damaged his own phone and so he needed a new phone, so I bought a new A23 and gave him the one I'd been using, which was this phone."

August 2, 2023: "To get [my son's] information off it, so I could set it up for me … he'd used it up until early May, when he'd taken it on school camp … he slipped and fell in some mud while they were bushwalking and the phone had got pretty coated in mud and, you know, the charging port and what-not were a bit muddy." Erin says she'd tried a few methods to clean it over time, but it stayed there drying out during that time. She says she figured out it was capable of being used on August 2. "So I put it on charge and at some point factory reset it."

August 5, 2023: Erin says this factory reset occurred because "I had put all my apps on it, including my Google account, which included my Google photos, and I knew that there were photos in there of mushrooms and the dehydrator and I just panicked and didn't want them [the detectives searching the house] to see them."

August 6, 2023: Erin says she carried out this factory reset because "at some point, after the search of my house and the interview and the detectives had brought me home, I remember thinking 'I wonder if I can log into my Google account and see where all my devices are. So I did that, and I could see my phone, and [my children's devices], and it was really stupid, but I thought, 'I wonder if they've been silly enough to leave it connected to the internet', so I hit factory reset to see what happened and it did."

BBM. Says it all: hiding evidence.

 

[SouthAussie]

I'm so angry on her son's behalf for his information being shared so casually like this.
Key Event
1m ago
Erin explains factory resets on phones

By Joseph Dunstan

A record of factory resets on Phone B is brought up by Mr Mandy.

Erin says she's responsible for the last three, but her son carried out the first factory reset.

February 12, 2023: "That had been my phone since the start of the year. In February, [my son] damaged his own phone and so he needed a new phone, so I bought a new A23 and gave him the one I'd been using, which was this phone."

August 2, 2023: "To get [my son's] information off it, so I could set it up for me … he'd used it up until early May, when he'd taken it on school camp … he slipped and fell in some mud while they were bushwalking and the phone had got pretty coated in mud and, you know, the charging port and what-not were a bit muddy." Erin says she'd tried a few methods to clean it over time, but it stayed there drying out during that time. She says she figured out it was capable of being used on August 2. "So I put it on charge and at some point factory reset it."

August 5, 2023: Erin says this factory reset occurred because "I had put all my apps on it, including my Google account, which included my Google photos, and I knew that there were photos in there of mushrooms and the dehydrator and I just panicked and didn't want them [the detectives searching the house] to see them."

August 6, 2023: Erin says she carried out this factory reset because "at some point, after the search of my house and the interview and the detectives had brought me home, I remember thinking 'I wonder if I can log into my Google account and see where all my devices are. So I did that, and I could see my phone, and [my children's devices], and it was really stupid, but I thought, 'I wonder if they've been silly enough to leave it connected to the internet', so I hit factory reset to see what happened and it did."

This reads like .... "Okay Erin, you are going to have to come up with answers for all of the following points, if you are going to testify". (said by her lawyers)

Fortunately, she is speaking about the whole variety of things in her evidence-in-chief, so the prosecution should be able to have a good go at her stories.

imo

 

[Detechtive]

'Scared they'd remove the children': Why Erin says she dumped the dehydrator​

After she was discharged on August 2, Erin she says took the dehydrator to dispose of at Koonwarra tip because she knew child protection were coming to her home that day.

“I was scared of the conversation that might flow about the meal,” she says.
“I was scared that they would blame me for it … and I was scared they’d remove the children.”
Mr Mandy now asks about a conversation Erin had with child protection officer Katrina Cripps about her phone number.

Erin says she told Ms Cripps she was going to change her phone number.
“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.

 

[Shortfusepsb]

This reads like .... "Okay Erin, you are going to have to come up with answers for all of the following points, if you are going to testify". (said by her lawyers)

Fortunately, she is speaking about the whole variety of things in her evidence-in-chief, so the prosecution should be able to have a good go at her stories.

imo

What device was she using to conduct the factory reset...

 

[Detechtive]

I even find it odd that she refers to her children as "the children". It is giving Mommy Dearest vibes, IMO.

 

[MrJ]

I even find it odd that she refers to her children as "the children". It is giving Mommy Dearest vibes, IMO.

Seems like she's treating them like accessories. Very narcissist mother seeming imo

 

[Shortfusepsb]

“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 someones entire family, I wouldn't want the remaining survivor, who knew me better than anyone, contacting me anymore either!!