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

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  • #961
I think she's been getting free guidance from here😅
Lol!

I think it's all proof of how obvious the inconsistencies are - to any people minded to think things through logically. (Like she herself, and her advisers and Websleuthers!)
 
  • #962
How does an innocent person do that, especially knowing they foraged the mushrooms and may have accidently picked death caps?

Simple answer: an innocent person doesn't.
 
  • #963
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.
Sorry, it wasn't delivered. I don't think Door Dash would be too happy..!
 
  • #964

'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.”

She definitely would have told the medical staff if she had vomited. This is an afterthought from her. She's had plenty of time to think whilst in jail...
 
  • #965
Sorry, it wasn't delivered. I don't think Door Dash would be too happy..!

Just like any Asian grocery or Woolworthhs, they don't need to be associated with Erin Patterson.
 
  • #966

Fourth alleged deception raised by prosecution​

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. 1.Lying about feeding her children leftovers from the lunch
  2. 2.Lying about all of the mushrooms in the beef Wellington coming from Woolworths and an Asian grocer
  3. 3.Disposing of the food dehydrator used to dry the mushrooms
  4. 4.Concealing her usual mobile phone from police
 
  • #967

Rogers turns to the fourth deception the prosecution alleged Patterson engaged in - a cover-up to conceal the truth.​


She says Patterson “lied and acted deceptively” to deflect blame about what she did.

She says this includes four parts:

Lying about feeding her children leftovers of the beef wellington the day after the lunch (with the mushrooms and pastry scraped off).

Lying about all the mushrooms coming from Woolworths and an Asian grocer

Disposing of the food dehydrator used to dehydrate the death cap mushrooms.

Deliberately concealing her usual mobile phone from police.

Rogers says the evidence that Patterson fed her children leftovers of the beef wellington came from “only one source”.

She says both children gave evidence it was their mother who told them they were eating leftovers.

 
  • #968

A tale of two hospital admissions​

ByMarta Pascual Juanola
Don and Gail Patterson were taken to the Austin Hospital on July, 31 2023, two days after the lunch. Don was critically ill and on multiple organ failure, and was intubated.

“At this time the accused was being transported by ambulance to Monash Medical Centre and was calm and chatty,” prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, said of Erin Patterson.

By August 1, 2023, all four guests – Don and Gail Patterson and Ian and Heather Wilkinson – were in intensive care at the Austin Hospital with their organs “essentially shutting down”, Rogers said in her closing address. Gail Patterson was also in an advanced state of shock.

6235342731ae5528da58e5abaf49b15d0e05e4ec3a1d15d7da69f9017b3fd097


“This is the day the accused was discharged home from the Monash Medical Centre,” Rogers told the jury.

Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson all died from a clinical diagnosis of Amanita mushroom poisoning. Ian Wilkinson “very nearly died” with the same diagnosis and did not return home until September 21, 2023, Rogers said.

“Was the accused just less sick than the others?” the prosecutor said in her closing address.

She said that even if Erin Patterson ate less than some of the guests did, she still ate about the same as Gail Patterson. She said Erin Patterson’s account of how much she ate at the lunch had shifted during evidence from one-third of the individual beef Wellington to as little as a one-quarter.

“The accused is trying to manufacture an explanation on why she did not suffer the same fate as her guests,” Rogers said.

When Patterson’s son and his friend arrived home from the movies they did not see any leftovers or partially eaten beef Wellington, Rogers said. She said that despite the accused woman’s assertions, it was the prosecution’s case that Patterson ate her whole portion of beef Wellington.

Rogers said that Patterson’s account of binge-eating cake after the lunch and vomiting afterwards should be rejected by the jury as a potential explanation as to why she had not been as sick as the guests.

There was “no evidence as to how soon after ingestion one would need to vomit for that to be effective”, Rogers said, and Patterson had been vague in her account of when she had vomited and what was in the vomit.

She said the most notable aspect of Patterson’s claim was that she had not told a single medical professional that she had vomited after the lunch, during her time at hospitals in Leongatha and Melbourne.

 
  • #969

She needed to look sick so suspicion would not fall on her': Crown​


Dr Rogers said it was the prosecution’s case that Erin was not sick because she didn’t eat any amount of death cap mushrooms.
“She embarked on a course of conduct over the following days designed to make it seem as though she also fell ill after the lunch,” she said.
“The only reason should do this, we suggest, is that she knew she was not sick, she knew she had not eaten death cap mushrooms but realised she needed to look sick like the others so suspicion would not fall on her.”

 
  • #970
Have just been considering the phenomenal amount of investigative work that the police have done to bring charges against EP.

In many ways, through her own stupidity, she made it fairly easy for them, but it all has to be done and documented to the prosecution's requirements.

I opined at the start of the trial that this would be a tech-heavy case and hoped that the jurors did not get lost in it all. I think Dr Rogers has done a great job of laying it all out in bite size chunks (pun intended).
 
  • #971
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.

I was thinking, the other day, that for all the good they have done in this world their horrific, painful deaths and near-death were extremely unjust.
 
  • #972
She definitely would have told the medical staff if she had vomited. This is an afterthought from her. She's had plenty of time to think whilst in jail...
And also neglected to tell them she had taken Immodium.
 
  • #973
Just now
Reluctance of 'doting mother' to have children assessed was incriminating conduct, prosecution says

By Joseph Dunstan

Dr Rogers recaps the evidence before the jury that Ms Patterson told multiple people she'd served leftovers of the "same" beef Wellington that she'd served to lunch guests to her children for dinner the day after the lunch.

But she says the evidence reveals "she did no such thing".

She notes that on the Sunday after the lunch, Simon Patterson had called Erin Patterson and told her that his parents were unwell.

The prosecutor says the accused reportedly told a doctor later that she didn't go to hospital on the Sunday because she "thought she had a case of food poisoning and had children with her at home".

Dr Rogers asks the jury to consider why Ms Patterson would've fed the meat component of a meal that could've been a possible source of food poisoning to her children.

She also tells the jury the evidence showed the accused was initially "reluctant" to have her children medically examined.

"Multiple medical professionals stressed the importance of having the children medically assessed numerous times to the accused," she says.

She says the jury should reject Ms Patterson's evidence that she "wanted to understand" what the concerns were before having her children brought to hospital.
 
  • #974
Have just been considering the phenomenal amount of investigative work that the police have done to bring charges against EP.

In many ways, through her own stupidity, she made it fairly easy for them, but it all has to be done and documented to the prosecution's requirements.

I opined at the start of the trial that this would be a tech-heavy case and hoped that the jurors did not get lost in it all. I think Dr Rogers has done a great job of laying it all out in bite size chunks (pun intended).

They seemed to have timing on their side. If it wasn't for swift action (eg: the bank statements in the days after the poisoning) they wouldn't have been able to recover the dehydrator - it would have been buried in landfill, imo.

Seems as though there were quite a few things like this which worked in their favour, and i don't think that was luck. I think they determined quite quickly that there was something not right about this. IMO
 
  • #975
And also neglected to tell them she had taken Immodium.

Even if she did take Immodium, it wouldn't have prevented Death Cap toxins overwhelming the liver.

At this point, I feel kind of angry that Erin's claims are so obviously ridiculously false and grandiose. We are not stupid.
 
  • #976
1m ago
Prosecution questions Erin's behaviour after lunch further

By Joseph Dunstan

Dr Rogers later highlights the evidence of one medical professional, who told the court that Ms Patterson had insisted she had scraped the mushrooms off the meal when told the children must be assessed.

"You might think that this is an extraordinary response from a mother, who by that stage had known for hours that her children required urgent medical assessment," she says.

"How could she possibly think that the hassle of taking them out of school was a reason to disregard all the medical advice about the risk to their lives?"

Dr Rogers tells the jury there was a "perfectly reasonable" explanation for why a "doting mother" might be reluctant to have her children medically assessed, after being told they'd potentially eaten a lethal dose of death cap mushrooms.

"She knew that they had not eaten death cap mushrooms at all," Dr Rogers says.

She says the prosecution asserts this is another piece of incriminating conduct.
 
  • #977
I was thinking, the other day, that for all the good they have done in this world their horrific, painful deaths and near-death were extremely unjust.

IMO, it demonstrates NPD revenge with a good dose of psychopathy.
 
  • #978
IMO, it demonstrates NPD revenge with a good dose of psychopathy.

I know it shouldn't actually matter who the victims are, because murder is murder and it is always bad. But it feels extra wrong in this case. They were those rare salt of the earth types who were actually really good human beings. It is just so sad. IMO
 
  • #979

Rogers says the day after the lunch - Sunday 30 July 2023 - Simon called Patterson and told her the four lunch guests were sick and had been admitted to hospital.​


She says Patterson testified she fed her children the meat from the beef wellington lunch despite knowing her lunch guests were unwell. She says meat would be the more usual suspect of food poisoning.

Rogers says it is not in dispute that her children ate steak for dinner on Sunday evening but stresses it was not the steak that had been used in the beef wellington meal.

She points to Patterson’s reluctance to have her children medically assessed at hospital after she told medical staff she had fed them leftovers from the meal.

Rogers says:

How could she possibly think the hassle of taking them out of school was a reason to disregard all the medical advice about the risk to their lives?

There is a perfectly reasonable explanation ... she knew they had not eaten death cap mushrooms at all. Her reluctance to have her children medically assessed is another piece of conduct by the accused that we say is incriminating conduct.

 
  • #980

The 'sustained cover-up' by accused​

Dr Rogers has now turned to the fourth deception, namely the “sustained cover-up” by the accused to conceal the truth.
She told the jury the accused “lied and acted deceptively”, including by:

Lying about feeding her children leftovers of the beef wellington with the mushrooms scraped off;
Lying about all the mushrooms in the beef wellington coming from Woolworths and an Asian grocer;
Disposing the dehydrator she had used to dehydrate death caps; and
Deliberately concealing her usual phone from police.
She started with the first alleged lie about the leftovers, telling the jury she told this lie “over multiple days to multiple people”, including family members, doctors, nurses, Child Protection workers and Department of Health advisers.
Dr Rogers told the jury the children gave evidence that she told them they were eating leftovers of the lunch, rather than them knowing they were eating leftovers.

 
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