Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #12 *Arrest*

[SouthAussie]

Unless Ian is completely colourblind (no evidence to suggest that), there were grey plates used for lunch. Grey is grey, white is white. He looked at his plate every time he took a bite of food during the meal.

imo

 

[MsMarple]

No! She didn’t need this lie to be plausible beyond the lunch date because no one was going to survive the lunch anyway. So the cancer diagnosis (or hint of a potential cancer diagnosis in the future ) , but most importantly the angle she went with about seeking assistance in how to break this news to the children, was a deliberate choice because this would be deemed severe enough that it would ensure the family members would turn up to her house.
I can only imagine the absolute rage she must have experienced when she received Simon’s rejection of the invitation!

Yep:

Sorry, I feel too uncomfortable about coming to the lunch with you, mum, dad, Heather and Ian tomorrow, but am happy to talk about your health and implications of that at another time if you’d like to discuss on the phone,” he wrote to Erin at 6.54pm, according to a text shown to the court.

“Just let me know.”

Patterson then replied at 6:59pm: “That’s really disappointing. I’ve spent many hours this week preparing lunch or tomorrow which has been exhausting in light of the issues I’m facing and spent a small fortune on beef eye fillet to make beef wellingtons because I wanted it to be a special meal as I may not be able to host a lunch like this again for some time.

“It’s important to me that you’re all there tomorrow and that I have the conversations that I need to have.

“I hope you’ll change your mind. Your parents and Heather and Ian are coming at 12:30. I hope to see you there.”

Simon said he did not respond. He had already told his parents he would not be attending.

Text messages in lead-up to deadly mushroom lunch revealed as Erin Patterson’s estranged husband testifies

Murder accused urged Simon Patterson to change his mind about not attending ‘special meal’, Victorian court hears

www.theguardian.com

 

[Bats]

There's been a pretty large underestimation about how long the trial is expected to go for. I wonder how all the jurors are fairing?

Can you imagine being the 2 who have to walk away before deliberations begin!

 

[SouthAussie]

Their relationship must have really been very cool now, if Erin had to make up a cancer lie to get the in-laws over for lunch.

 

[MrJ]

Posting this here in this new page again. This needs to be emphasised by prosecution.

BBM

The prosecutor asked if she had intended to serve beef Wellington to her estranged husband Simon, who pulled out of the lunch the night before.

“If he’d come I would have given him a beef Wellington too, yes, but not one with death cap mushrooms in it intentionally,” Patterson said.

Mushroom cook opens up on lies to police, in-laws | Canberra CityNews

Erin Patterson lied to her in-laws about cancer tests before cooking them a deadly lunch because they made her "feel loved", she has told a jury.

citynews.com.au

 

[SouthAussie]

There's been a pretty large underestimation about how long the trial is expected to go for. I wonder how all the jurors are fairing?

Can you imagine being the 2 who have to walk away before deliberations begin!

It was initially expected to run for about 6 weeks. But there have been so many legal "discussions" that it is running over that.

It sounds (to me) as if Erin's lawyer is doing the absolute best he can to keep evidence out, and the prosecutor is doing her best to keep evidence in.

imo

The trial, initially expected to take six weeks, is now expected to run for at least another fortnight, the judge has told the court.

Mushroom trial: Accused weighed fatal dose on kitchen scales, prosecutors say

Erin Patterson told the court she didn't believe the mushrooms in photos recovered from her phone were toxic.

www.bbc.com

 

[CuriousDetective]

People with bulimia may eat lightly in front of others and binge privately. I had a university housemate who did that.

Bulimia nervosa - Symptoms and causes

www.mayoclinic.org

Most restrict in front of others and in most meals, but lose control outside of this with resultant binge eating.

 

[MaxDecimus13]

Yep:

Sorry, I feel too uncomfortable about coming to the lunch with you, mum, dad, Heather and Ian tomorrow, but am happy to talk about your health and implications of that at another time if you’d like to discuss on the phone,” he wrote to Erin at 6.54pm, according to a text shown to the court.

“Just let me know.”

Patterson then replied at 6:59pm: “That’s really disappointing. I’ve spent many hours this week preparing lunch or tomorrow which has been exhausting in light of the issues I’m facing and spent a small fortune on beef eye fillet to make beef wellingtons because I wanted it to be a special meal as I may not be able to host a lunch like this again for some time.

“It’s important to me that you’re all there tomorrow and that I have the conversations that I need to have.

“I hope you’ll change your mind. Your parents and Heather and Ian are coming at 12:30. I hope to see you there.”

Simon said he did not respond. He had already told his parents he would not be attending.

Text messages in lead-up to deadly mushroom lunch revealed as Erin Patterson’s estranged husband testifies

Murder accused urged Simon Patterson to change his mind about not attending ‘special meal’, Victorian court hears

www.theguardian.com

This is the problem with telling so many lies, you inevitably can't keep up.

She was literally saying today that she didn't claim health issues was the main reason for the meal.

It also doesn't fit that she was simply lying to try and get them to help out with her gastric band appointments. This is clear that she is implying it is urgent.

Taking the stand has been a nightmare. I was genuinely unsure before she started talking.

 

[MrJ]

On Thursday, the court was again shown a series of Facebook messages between Ms Patterson and her online friends.

In the messages, Ms Patterson vented to her friends about her parents-in-law being reluctant to take sides in a financial disagreement she was having with their son, Simon.

In her messages, she recounted her in-laws suggesting prayer and conversation between Ms Patterson and her husband to resolve the matters.

Dr Rogers referred to "eye-roll emojis" used in one of the messages and another emoji that Ms Patterson said showed a straight-line smile underneath.

Dr Rogers noted that emojis were a deliberate choice made by a user, and asked Ms Patterson what she would call the emojis.

"All I can say about it, it's a face with a straight line for a mouth," she replied.

"I don't know what I'd call it."

"Even though you used it?" Dr Rogers asked.

"Yeah," Ms Patterson replied.

Dr Rogers takes her to another emoji after a reference to prayer again in the message. They disagreed about whether it was an eye-roll emoji.

"There's a better eye-roll emoji than these … I can't see anything about eyes rolling in there," Ms Patterson said.

Patterson responds to prosecution accusations in mushroom murder trial

Health issues "planted" and mushrooms weighed to determine fatal doses. Here's how accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson responded to a number of accusations the prosecutions put forward during cross-examination.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Two SCents]

It's not clear to be if she ever touched the dehydrator again after using it for the death caps.

From the evidence we've heard, it seems like she bought the machine in April and was experimenting with dehydrating mushrooms. This was when she posted about "hiding mushrooms" on Facebook. These mushrooms could have been either store-bought or non-toxic ones that she picked.

Then in late May, she (allegedly) made the trip to Outtrim where she picked the death caps. Presumably, that's when she would have dehydrated them and put them in her pantry.

Nothing we've heard suggests she ever used the dehydrator again after that. She's claimed on the stand that she dehydrated other foods, but there's no evidence she did. She certainly never posted about it on social media like she did the mushrooms.

Strange that this alleged premeditating murderer didn't take the dehydrator to the tip straight after she dehydrated the death caps if she wasn't going to use it again. Especially as it now contained toxic evidence. Especially as she had children in her home. Why keep it? IMO

 

[MsMarple]

She's trying to suggest that she ate less than half of her own Wellington, but then followed it up with three quarters of a cake.
Sure Erin. Whatever you say.

She’s just a freakin’ liar. She tasted the duxelles and found them bland so she added the alleged mushrooms she bought from the phantom Asian grocery… or maybe other mushrooms she foraged under an oak tree then mixed with the stinky “Chinese” mushrooms in a Tupperware container, she doesn’t know for sure.

And after adding the other mushrooms to try and make the duxelles less bland didn’t bother to taste them to see if it helped. Yeah I really believe that one.

So then she ate an entire cake later that evening after the lunch and barfed it all up, unbeknownst to her children, thus mitigating the toxic effects of the death caps.

Not one but two lucky misses. GMAB.

 

[Two SCents]

They have a number of pictures that were recovered off her devices and they're all mushrooms. It's another situation where it looks unlikely that her version tallies with reality.

If she was so interested in experimenting with dehydrating then why only take pictures of mushrooms?

Just because the jury were only shown pictures of mushrooms doesn't mean there weren't pictures of other foods on her devices. The investigators would only be selecting pictures which are relevant to the allegations IMO

 

[MsMarple]

On Thursday, the court was again shown a series of Facebook messages between Ms Patterson and her online friends.

In the messages, Ms Patterson vented to her friends about her parents-in-law being reluctant to take sides in a financial disagreement she was having with their son, Simon.

In her messages, she recounted her in-laws suggesting prayer and conversation between Ms Patterson and her husband to resolve the matters.

Dr Rogers referred to "eye-roll emojis" used in one of the messages and another emoji that Ms Patterson said showed a straight-line smile underneath.

Dr Rogers noted that emojis were a deliberate choice made by a user, and asked Ms Patterson what she would call the emojis.

"All I can say about it, it's a face with a straight line for a mouth," she replied.

"I don't know what I'd call it."

"Even though you used it?" Dr Rogers asked.

"Yeah," Ms Patterson replied.

Dr Rogers takes her to another emoji after a reference to prayer again in the message. They disagreed about whether it was an eye-roll emoji.

"There's a better eye-roll emoji than these … I can't see anything about eyes rolling in there," Ms Patterson said.

Patterson responds to prosecution accusations in mushroom murder trial

Health issues "planted" and mushrooms weighed to determine fatal doses. Here's how accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson responded to a number of accusations the prosecutions put forward during cross-examination.

www.abc.net.au

That’s one of the most unbelievable answers Erin has given. To play like she didn’t understand the emojis that she herself chose is laughable. “A face with a straight line for a mouth.” Who is she trying to fool?

 

[MrJ]

I'm imagining the first suggestion of cross-examination today is:

Nanette Rogers: 'I suggest to you that you habitually lie.'

EP: 'No, I don't believe that's true.'

 

[Megnut]

IMO there weren't two duxelles. Just one. Hers was made before she added dried mushrooms.

IMO she didn't eat all of her BW because it was.... bland.

Saying she wasn't going to serve Simon a BW with death cap mushrooms is a leak IMO, that there were two kinds of BW that day.

I think she expected Simon to show up after all, for which she had a BW prepared.

Perhaps she had not decided until she was plating BWs who would eat from the later batch, and when Simon didn't show up, plates got rearranged.

JMO

 

[L_B]

I would say that emoji means unimpressed, I decided to ask Chat GPT and it told me:

The emoji (or :| in text form) typically means:

• Neutral or expressionless — no strong emotion, good or bad.
• Unimpressed or not amused — like you're not reacting to something exciting or funny.
• Sometimes used to show mild annoyance, discomfort, or awkwardness — like a "meh" or "okay then..." vibe.

It all depends a bit on the tone of the conversation, but it's generally pretty flat or slightly negative in tone.

 

[Megnut]

Maybe she planned to dehydrate more foraged mushrooms for a future lunch.

JMO

 

[ch_13]

Just because the jury were only shown pictures of mushrooms doesn't mean there weren't pictures of other foods on her devices. The investigators would only be selecting pictures which are relevant to the allegations IMO

Maybe the prosecution wouldn't have shown other pictures, but the defense would have certainly shown those photos. They had every opportunity when the subject came up during Erin's testimony and it would be helpful to their claim that the dehydrator had a legitimate purpose.

 

[Megnut]

Did Erin open the door on herself, to prior questionable acts, and that's why the trial might suddenly be longer, or did she inadvertently tip LE off to the location of something like Phone A, and the State has a new arsenal for rebuttal? Has someone come forward, having seen the light, with information that incriminates the accused even more profoundly?

JMO

 

[ch_13]

Strange that this alleged premeditating murderer didn't take the dehydrator to the tip straight after she dehydrated the death caps if she wasn't going to use it again. Especially as it now contained toxic evidence. Especially as she had children in her home. Why keep it? IMO

I do agree with this. It would have been much smarter to have disposed of it immediately. I don't know why she didn't.

Although, I find this question come up in a lot of cases: "The accused is smart. They can't be guilty because a smart person wouldn't have done that stupid thing while committing the crime."

The fact is getting away with a crime is hard. People make mistakes. They don't think through all the eventualities. Reality often diverges from their mental map of how events will unfold. I think that's what happened here. Erin had a certain idea of what would happen after the meal, but things didn't play out the way she thought.