Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #15 *Arrest*

[BreakingNews]

I find it super strange somebody who went to all the effort of making such a fancy lunch that takes hours to prepare and cook wouldn’t have matching plates.

Moo

That's just your judgement. I don't have 5 matching plates either.

 

[Deleted member 363451]

As many have stated---it is quite possible that she did consider the aftermath but she badly underestimated how quickly they would focus upon the mushrooms.

If she had been behind Simon's mystery gastro issues, she would have learned that it often takes quite awhile to accurately diagnosis an unknown illness. She would have felt empowered by that experience, imo.

I don't think she planned this specific murder scenario----Her in-laws and their sister and husband---many months ago.

But I do think she planned retribution against Simon for quite some time. She grabbed those death caps as ammo but may not have had specific plans for who, how, what, where yet.

She did gain some things----but not in a rational, logical way.

I think you could well be right. She may have originally picked the Death Caps to use on just Simon, but changed her plans closer to the time of the lunch.

 

[Jake18]

As many have stated---it is quite possible that she did consider the aftermath but she badly underestimated how quickly they would focus upon the mushrooms.

If she had been behind Simon's mystery gastro issues, she would have learned that it often takes quite awhile to accurately diagnosis an unknown illness. She would have felt empowered by that experience, imo.

I don't think she planned this specific murder scenario----Her in-laws and their sister and husband---many months ago.

But I do think she planned retribution against Simon for quite some time. She grabbed those death caps as ammo but may not have had specific plans for who, how, what, where yet.

She did gain some things----but not in a rational, logical way.

I agree she would have been emboldened by what happened with Simon (if she did try to poison him). I also think she would have experienced a dopamine rush as he got unwell - she may have felt he deserved it. Maybe she wanted that experience again?

Simon scuppered her plan by taking the guests to hospital so early. The medical staff noticed in real time how the guests deteriorated in a unique way - rapidly rising lactate, increasing signs of liver damage and severe clinical deterioration - and become perplexed by it. If it was just gastro, after fluid rehydration and anti-nausea medication they should all get better.

If she is exonerated, I think she is at high risk of doing it again (IMO).

 

[BreakingNews]

It's not ethical to poison your relatives with Death Cap mushrooms either...

And it's not ethical to say she did, before the jury hands down the verdict.

 

[lazymaiden07]

She would have felt empowered by that experience, imo.

And seemingly unstoppable? How many chargers were withdrawn, three? Imagine (allegedly) breaking the law three times, and not even a peep. Nada. No accountability, nothing. You'd certainly keep the ball rolling....IMO

If she is exonerated, I think she is at high risk of doing it again (IMO).

Or would the whole trial be enough to scare her into stopping?

I also think she would have experienced a dopamine rush as he got unwell - she may have felt he deserved it. Maybe she wanted that experience again?

The same rush serial offenders have? Yeh, I think that's a great point.

 

[Kemug]

Yes, Meryl Streep is a great actress. But they should have chosen an Australian actress. You don't get more Australian than the Outback. I always believed in Lindy's innocence, I have myself been menaced by dingoes and seen what they are capable of. If they can snatch my heavy wet beach towel and run away with it, they can easily take a baby. (Found it the next day about 600m down the beach, still have it, albeit with a few holes)
My picks for who would play Erin and Simon are Magda Szubanski (if she's well enough) and Tom Gleeson.

Or Anthony Warlow.

Edited to add - maybe not Magda and Tom together, we'd probably be rolling on the floor laughing! (for non-Aussies, Magda and Tom are comedians basically.)

 

[Deleted member 363451]

And it's not ethical to say she did, before the jury hands down the verdict.

She did in fact put poisonous mushrooms in the Beef Wellingtons, did she not?

 

[JBowie]

I absolutely don’t trust her perceptions!
Perennial victimhood mentality and distorted narrative are Erin.
Would be interesting to hear from her sibling.
I’m guessing the reality was very different

I guess what matters is her own perception of the relationship. Her sister's experience may have been different, though I doubt we'll ever hear from her sister.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I have the remnants of a few sets of 6 plates, all of them no longer have 6 plates left, some have four.
And no I'm not going to buy a new set while I still have perfectly good plates.

Perhaps EP was also happy to make use of what she already had.

Good on her for not getting rid of perfectly good plates.

 

[katydid23]

Injustice collector? Oh ok that’s why she needed that big suitcase we saw her leaving the house with in some news vision. It looked heavy - those injustices get real heavy.

Injustice Collectors - San Francisco Bay Times

Some of the unhappiest people I’ve ever met are “injustice collectors,” an evocative phrase that most of us intuitively understand as soon as we hear it. Injustice collectors ruminate continually about the Bad People who have harmed them. They are preoccupied with the injustices that they...

sfbaytimes.com

Paradoxically, injustice collectors sometimes have a huge capacity for insensitivity and cruelty. The reason is that this mindset always involves dehumanizing and demonizing others, because somebody, or some group, has to fill the role of the perpetrator. And when we are in the trance of this mindset, the perpetrator or oppressor can become the omnipotent Other against whom any level of vengeance is justifiable. Nothing is more potentially destructive than the rage of these “innocents.”



Injustice Collectors are Hypersensitive to Unfairness

“Collectors” are not psychotic, rather are best classified as suffering from one of a number of borderline personality disorders. There are specific symptoms that help assess Injustice Collectors:

-a belief that that they are virtually never wrong;
- inability to apologize;
- a feeling of moral and ethical superiority compared to others;
-they make the rules and consequently can violate the rules in the family;
-inability to assess themselves as not normal;
-different rules and expectations for others that are not applied to the self;
-over-rationalization of one’s behavior;
-over-reaction to even small injustices.

The condition can exist in differing degrees, but careful consideration of the symptoms reveals the possibility for violent behavior since Injustice Collectors are inclined to be misfits in society.

When people feel widely separated from others in their world and make their own rules, they are more likely to behave irrationally.

 

[Kemug]

“My mum was ultra weird her whole life,” she wrote.

“We had a horrible upbringing. Mum was essentially a cold robot.

“It was like being brought up in a Russian orphanage where they don’t touch babies.”

RSBM
This could explain Erin's possibly extreme love for her children - I am thinking of her not wanting the children tested for Deathcap poisoning because it might scare them, her determination for her son to not miss his flying lesson, her possible over-concern for their health, and a few other things which I can't recall at the moment.
Also I wonder if they hugged a lot.
If Erin said the above things about her mother, and they were actually true, then I really do pity her. I assume the children are regularly visiting her at the moment, as she is innocent at this time. Unless they believe she killed their beloved grandparents anyway, and don't want to see her. I don't imagine they could be forced to. Whether Erin is found guilty or not, if her children never want to see her again, I think that might be the worst possible punish she could be given.

 

[Kemug]

I don't think she was suspected about Simon's illness although I'll admit I'm not sure.

RSBM
She certainly was suspected, and even charged, however the charges were later dropped.

 

[Kemug]

If the 4 guests illness progressed more slowly, was less severe in early days, didn’t attend hospital & talk, the link to EP would not be as quick or strong.

EP would have said - that one or two guests were already feeling a bit poorly at her lunch. Barely ate, etc. Erin could have controlled the whole narrative and no doubt offered medical alternatives and described fictional conversations about what made them sick. And like @ch_13 says above - EP being well would prove their mystery illness had nothing to do either with her. She would blame church coffee or similar … EP would be so helpful, saying they left lunch early or hardly ate the BW she toiled over. She was ready to be helpful and full of fiction for that scenario …..

And, in the end, any talk of her cancer would be swept away as false positive or some mix up.
The church people all gone with mystery illness.

Some good points here that IMA hadn't occured to me

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

agreed - but suspicion, investigation etc mean nothing in the Big Scheme it’s Proof that matters.
Erin was pretty sure there was none, as she’d powered the DC, the toxin only shows in body for 48 hrs and (as far as she was aware) there were no forensic toxicology tests to detect it in food.

IMO she was emboldened by no trace back to her with Simon’s lie threatening illnesses; she had tested / confirmed the inability of people to Taste powdered mushrooms in food by putting it in the Brownies of her mushroom hating kids - so she was all set to go.

I agree that EP could have believed there'd be no proof and that proof is the only thing that matters, legally, for a conviction.

However, assuming that were the case, why did she take the dehydrator to a recycling plant and even use her own payment card / bank account to do so?

She could have done various disposal methods of it and instead left this very clear link to herself.

Also, why did she imagine her every move wouldn't be scrutinised? For me the possible answer to these questions is she didn't imagine people would get sick and die so suddenly and obviously and the link to her meal would be something questioned slowly over time. She may have even built a story that the group told her they'd eaten something unusual in recent history - such as foraged berries mushrooms or a rare delicacy from a food market or such.

Have I answered my own question? What do others think?

JMO MOO

 

[MrJ]

She's smarter than everyone else, remember? I genuinely think this is a, if not the, key reason that she panicked when the doctors got onto the fact the poisoning symptoms were coming from death cap mushrooms. She probably wasn't used to being challenged for anything, so this would have thrown her. IMO

 

[Eloise]

If she's found guilty she will die behind bars. She's 50, and 3 x life sentences for Murder, and 1 x 25 years for Attempted Murder. There's no getting out of that, imo.

I don't like to be a debby downer but life sentences aren't really the norm for murder in Victoria. I think the average is about 22ish years, with 25 years being the 'standard' murder sentence. Life sentences tend to be reserved for the worst: like mass murderers of randoms via a mass shooting, or serial killers. Murders committed after horrific sexual assaults. Stuff like that. And while multiple sentences can be made to be served consecutively, they're usually concurrent.

Its totally up to the judge and his decision, of course. But sentencing tends to be light in Australia. Even if its life if convicted she'll be eligible for parole, it won't be LWOP.

And it's not ethical to say she did, before the jury hands down the verdict.

She doesn't deny that her lunch contained death cap mushrooms, and her guests were poisoned. Those are agreed facts.

 

[JBowie]

Have you ever watched HG Tudor on YouTube? He's also very good and he's also a self-confessed narcissist.

The problem I have with "HG Tudor", as opposed to Sam Vaknin, is that he uses a pseudonym, has no published verifiable academic qualifications, and is faceless.

 

[Deleted member 363451]

The problem I have with "HG Tudor", as opposed to Sam Vaknin, is that he uses a pseudonym, has no published verifiable academic qualifications, and is faceless.

That's true. Nobody knows who he actually is, but he's absolutely a narcissist. Sam Vaknin's videos helped me a lot to understand what my ex was and helped me charter my way through the murky waters.

 

[Sarahlou]

One thing that both Baden-Clay and Erin would have learnt, is that it's difficult to feign real tears...

Now that's a more reasonable comparison.

 

[Deleted member 363451]

I have the remnants of a few sets of 6 plates, all of them no longer have 6 plates left, some have four.
And no I'm not going to buy a new set while I still have perfectly good plates.

Perhaps EP was also happy to make use of what she already had.

Good on her for not getting rid of perfectly good plates.

Except for the 4 grey plates that she most likely disposed of...