Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #14 *Arrest*

[tmar]

I think she's been getting free guidance from here

When I was following a case nearer Melbourne, I mentioned my interest in Websleuths about that case to a detective, during an unrelated home invasion. He stated, we often check there!!!

 

[MrJ]

Key Event
2m ago
Claim of vomiting after lunch 'a lie', prosecution says

By Joseph Dunstan

Dr Rogers then moves to address Ms Patterson's evidence that she ate two-thirds of a leftover orange cake and vomited shortly after the lunch.

The prosecutor says there has been no evidence as to how soon after ingestion one would need to vomit to avoid being affected by the death cap mushroom toxin.

She also notes that the accused could not specify when she had allegedly vomited and never told "a single medical person" that she had vomited in the days after the lunch.

"We suggest that if the accused had truly vomited ... that is a detail she would have shared with medical staff," Dr Rogers says.

"The fact that she never made any mention of it should cause you to seriously doubt this claim and we suggest, reject ... [this claim] as a lie."

As Dr Rogers raises Ms Patterson's claims of of disordered eating, a reminder you can access the Butterfly Foundation if this raises any issues for you.

 

[JBowie]

When I was following a case nearer Melbourne, I mentioned my interest in Websleuths about that case to a detective, during an unrelated home invasion. He stated, we often check there!!!

I bet they do. It's not unusual for crims to hang around the scene of the crime, attend funerals of victims, etc, so their listening in on, and even contributing to, forums about the crime would be akin to that, IMO.

 

[Detechtive]

Blood tests results and what medical staff didn’t see across 24 hours of care​

ByMarta Pascual Juanola
After the lunch break, prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, has resumed her closing address by taking the jury to evidence from Professor Andrew Bersten about blood tests results for accused killer Erin Patterson.

Rogers said the “most revealing” thing about the state of Patterson’s health following the July 29, 2023 lunch were her blood test results compared to those of her guests.

“We say that the evidence of [Leongatha Hospital doctor] Veronica Foote is that the accused’s results showed no electrolyte disturbance and not metabolic acidosis,” Rogers said.z

Patterson underwent a number of tests to check her liver, the prosecutor said, and they showed her lactate level – the level that first alerted doctors to the seriousness of the illness of the other lunch guests – was normal.

Rogers said the only abnormal blood test results documented for Patterson were marginally elevated fibrinogen, low levels of potassium and elevated hemoglobin. She said Bersten’s evidence was that elevated fibrinogen and low potassium levels could be the result of elevated stress.

The results also showed Patterson’s creatinine and urea levels were also normal, and Bersten said such readings were inconsistent with someone who had diarrhoea. Rogers said Bersten’s evidence that Patterson had a “mild level of dehydration” was also inconsistent with her evidence she had diarrhoea.

Rogers told the jury a toxicology registrar who assessed Patterson on July 31, 2023 – two days after the lunch – gave evidence that the accused woman’s vital signs were normal.

By this time, Patterson’s father-in-law, Don Patterson, had already been transferred to the Austin Hospital in an induced coma, Rogers said.

“In total, the accused spent just over 24 hours in hospital care. Not one medical professional observed her appearing unwell,” Rogers told the jury.

The prosecutor said that when they looked at all the evidence combined, the jury could find Patterson was not suffering from a severe illness.

Erin Patterson murder trial: Accused ‘lied’ to multiple people, and repeatedly changed her story on sourcing mushrooms, prosecutor tells jury

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, is arguing to the jury that accused killer Erin Patterson faked a cancer diagnosis to her lunch guests and deliberately deviated from a beef Wellington recipe.

www.theage.com.au

 

[Detechtive]

'Not one medical professional observed her appearing unwell'​

Dr Rogers has returned to the observations made by doctors and nurses while Erin was being treated at Leongatha Hospital and Monash Medical Centre on July 31.
Nurse Cindy Munro said Erin was sitting up in her bed at Leongatha, in stark contrast to Heather and Ian.
“She didn’t look unwell to me,” she told the court.
Dr Laura Muldoon said the next day, on August 1, she was showing no signs of death cap mushroom poisoning and she recounted Erin telling her she was “feeling okay”.
“In total, she spent just over 24 hours in hospital care,” Dr Rogers said.
“Not one medical professional observed her appearing unwell.”
She told the jury the accused was not suffering from an acute illness.
“She was certainly not sick with death cap mushroom poisoning,” she added.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/the-mushroom-cook/erin-patterson-trial-live-closing-addresses-expected-in-mushroom-murder-trial/live-coverage/299fa80376bd369a989157187008c323#/entry/32246932

 

[JBowie]

The prosecutor said that when they looked at all the evidence combined, the jury could find Patterson was not suffering from a severe illness.

I'd make that severe physical illness. Mental illness is another question.

 

[Kemug]

I believe this is why she got so snippy at him when he declined the invitation. I do feel sorry for him, his, and I suspect Ian's, survivor's guilt will be terrible.

And such a good man, a pastor no less, I wonder if he is having any trouble with forgiving her?

 

[Scooby-Doo]

Jury told to discount Ms Patterson's claim she only ate part of the meal​

Dr Rogers then moves to address claims she tells the jury she anticipates will be made by the defence, starting with a claim that Ms Patterson ate less of her meal than guests.

She says Ms Patterson's evidence on how much she ate varied and reminds them that Gail Patterson also ate about half of her portion and had died from the death cap poisoning.

She alleges that the accused has manufactured an explanation for why she was not as unwell as her guests and says the jury should reject any attempt to minimise the amount of the meal she consumed.

The jury is then taken to photos of leftovers from the beef Wellington lunch that have been introduced as exhibits in the trial.

"They are clearly two halves, albeit broken up ... of one pastry," Dr Rogers says.



She says the jury can be satisfied that the leftovers were the sixth prepared beef Wellington, which they allege Ms Patterson intended to serve to her estranged husband had he attended the lunch.



Dr Rogers says the jury can therefore be satisfied that Ms Patterson ate one whole beef Wellington parcel.

Simon is lucky his Beef Wellington was delivered to him by DoorDash from Erin, to make sure he ate it..!

 

[Detechtive]

'Inexplicable' why only four of five people at lunch fell ill, Rogers says​

Rogers says no medical staff reported that Patterson looked unwell.

“When one looks at all of the evidence in this case, we say, the accused was not suffering from an illness,” Rogers says.

“The evidence indicates.... she was certainly not sick with death cap mushroom poisoning.”

Rogers says it is “inexplicable” why only four of five people who supposedly ate the same meal fell ill.

“Only one person, the person who prepared the meal, did not,” she says.

Rogers says Patterson was “vague” on when she vomited and what she threw up.

Erin Patterson mushroom trial day 32 – as it happened

This blog is now closed

www.theguardian.com

 

[Detechtive]

When the lunch guests began feeling unwell​

ByMarta Pascual Juanola and Erin Pearson
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, has taken the jury to the evidence of Erin Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson, who told the trial that the accused woman said to him that she began feeling unwell about 4pm on July 29, 2023 – the afternoon after the lunch.

Rogers said this was important as it was different from the experience of the four people who were guests at the lunch: Don and Gail Patterson and Heather and Ian Wilkinson.

Don and Gail Patterson, the accused woman’s in-laws, did not report feeling unwell when they spoke to their daughter Anna Terrington in the hours after the lunch, Rogers said.

The Pattersons began experiencing vomiting or diarrhoea about midnight or 1am on Sunday, July 30, 2023, the jury heard.

“You heard evidence that the Wilkinsons appeared well [when members of the church] saw them about 4.15pm after the lunch,” Rogers told the jury. She said that Ian Wilkinson’s evidence was that he and his wife didn’t start feeling unwell until after 10 or 11pm on the Saturday of the lunch.

Rogers said that when the Wilkinsons presented to Leongatha Hospital the following morning with nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, neither of them could hold down water. Rogers said this was the same morning Erin Patterson was drinking coffee at her kitchen table, according to her son’s evidence.

Rogers said that at 5.30am on July 31, 2023, Ian Wilkinson was unable to keep down water. An hour later, the prosecutor said, Heather Wilkinson reported having active vomiting and diarrhoea.

A nurse observed Ian Wilkinson particularly unwell, and he was not moving around, the prosecutor said, while Heather Wilkinson was going back and forth to and from the bathroom.

“This was the same morning that the accused drove her two children to the bus stop,” Rogers said.

As the jury was taken through the final hours of the lunch guests’ lives, Erin Patterson sat in the dock looking down and taking notes, with reading glasses resting on the end of her nose.

Erin Patterson murder trial: Accused ‘lied’ to multiple people, and repeatedly changed her story on sourcing mushrooms, prosecutor tells jury

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, is arguing to the jury that accused killer Erin Patterson faked a cancer diagnosis to her lunch guests and deliberately deviated from a beef Wellington recipe.

www.theage.com.au

 

[Deleted member 363451]

Their integrity is beyond anything I have seen in the media about them. They were literal saints. I mean that seriously as an atheist.

They volunteered in Botswana back in the late 70s and early 80s when flights were super expensive and nobody could afford to do aid work with their own funding - as missionaries to teach the African children English.
They held regular Saturday zoom calls with all of the cousins to catch up about their weeks.
Don taught Erins son physics and maths as a tutor. They volunteered their time to social causes.
Gail held regular "garden exploration" treasure hunts for the grandchildren and taught them about different plants and the cycle of nature.

They were not typical "Evangelical Christians" with a right-wing agenda (like we see the radicals in the USA). They always spoke about equality between men and women and poor and wealthy and different races, gay and straight. They were truly amazing people.
They took in children who didn't have parents.
They were aghast at displays of wealth and privilege and lived a very humble frugal life. They gave so much to their community - a global community.
It is an absolute travesty, IMO.

What lovely people they must have been. Such a loss.

 

[Scooby-Doo]

What lovely people they must have been. Such a loss.

Just terribly sad, it just shouldn't have happened

 

[Deleted member 363451]

Just terribly sad, it just shouldn't have happened

This is why I get frustrated with the minority who think that she didn't mean for them to die. It will be terrible if she gets off.

 

[Detechtive]

'No evidence' vomiting would have minimised her symptoms​

Dr Rogers told the jury Erin’s story about how much of her beef wellington portion she ate kept changing because she was trying to “manufacture an excuse” for why she wasn’t as ill as her guests.
Erin initially told medical staff she had eaten about half of her meal.
Her account later “shifted” to one-third or “even as little as a quarter”, Dr Rogers said.
“Even if you accept the accused’s claim that she only ate half, she still ate the same amount as Gail Patterson,” she said.
“We suggest you can readily see the accused is trying to manufacture an excuse … you should reject these attempts by her to minimise her (lack of symptoms).”
Dr Rogers said Erin’s account that she vomited after binge-eating cake must also be discounted.
“There is no evidence from any expert witness as to whether vomiting would prevent the absorption of the toxins and prevent her falling ill,” she said.
“Even if it’s likely to (do so), there is no evidence as to how soon after one would need to vomit for that to be effective.
“You simply have no evidence that the accused’s claim that she vomited would, or even might, have prevented her from falling ill.”
Dr Rogers also reminded the jury Erin had failed to tell any medical staff that she had vomited.
“The whole reason for her being (in hospital) centred around what she had consumed and whether she had symptoms such as nausea or diarrhoea,” she said.
“We suggest if she had truly vomited, that is a detail she would have shared with medical staff.
“The fact she didn’t should cause you to seriously reject this claim.”

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/the-mushroom-cook/erin-patterson-trial-live-closing-addresses-expected-in-mushroom-murder-trial/live-coverage/299fa80376bd369a989157187008c323#/entry/32247460

 

[MaxDecimus13]

Yes, Erin is just a misunderstood, good person.

I genuinely don't know where you could possibly get that from what I wrote.

 

[JBowie]

Simon is lucky his Beef Wellington was delivered to him by DoorDash from Erin, to make sure he ate it..!

I guess you meant to type wasn't delivered by Door Dash.

Using a delivery service would have cooked her goose even more, so to speak.

 

[Detechtive]

As the jury was taken through the final hours of the lunch guests’ lives, Erin Patterson sat in the dock looking down and taking notes, with reading glasses resting on the end of her nose

 

[Neet_Mc]

Same here, only ever called up two times in the early weeks after giving birth to my second son who was very unwell for some months, so had to decline!

Devastating!

 

[Scooby-Doo]

This is why I get frustrated with the minority who think that she didn't mean for them to die. It will be terrible if she gets off.

And Simon was lucky he wasn't there, but sad for his relatives, mum and dad. I think he was the main target, but better for the lot gone

 

[MrJ]

Key Event
1m ago
Fourth alleged deception raised by prosecution

By Joseph Dunstan

Lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC tells the jury she'll now outline the fourth alleged deception carried out by Erin Patterson: the cover-up.

She says the accused "lied and acted deceptively ... to deflect blame and suspicion" after the lunch.

She says this will be broken down into four allegations:

1.Lying about feeding her children leftovers from the lunch
2.Lying about all of the mushrooms in the beef Wellington coming from Woolworths and an Asian grocer
3.Disposing of the food dehydrator used to dry the mushrooms
4.Concealing her usual mobile phone from police