Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #2

[TootsieFootsie]

Someone mentioned it before, but maybe it wasn't mushrooms in the dehydrator that she was worried about the police finding.

 

[Bats]

She allegedly used fresh button mushrooms and dried mushrooms which she rehydrated prior to using.

Why would the dehydrator have been in any way significant for this meal, short of it being multifunctional and providing hydrating as well as dehydrating?

I keep getting stuck in why the dehydrator could have any significance?
unless historical?

Again, who else had access to her ingredients, her home, her supplies/ Was she the only one?

Too many questions..

I guess there is the possibility that the dehydrator was thown out due to panic because it was used for .. pot, gold tops or something else..

In my opinion the throwing out of the dehydrator pairs with the alleged purchase of dried mushrooms bought in Mt Waverley.

That is EP dried some mushrooms (possibly death cap variety) in the dehydrator.

I'm thinking, if it were my "loved ones" , that i prepared a meal for, that caused everyone to become extremely sick, i wouldn't avoid telling the truth, or go into the details...yet EP seems to be doing that...
Maybe she's had a bad experience with the Police, but this is her 'loved ones'.

 

[Inthedetails]

But that would be a different gadget, would it not?
(not exactly masterchef am i?)

I would guess either a mortar & pestle or food processor. I buy mine already powered, but I don't have a need for poison mushrooms.

We don't know if she threw anything else away.

We also don't know she powered the dried mushrooms at all. It's just my guess.

jmo

 

[Baby baby Jane]

Crazy wall art aside …
Wiping-out husbands entire family potentially changes family dynamic? Gets inheritance to her kids? Possibly to her? Gets rid of people telling her what to do, giving advice to husband. My thinks grief Brings husband back to her with no family saying NO & no baggage?
Husband cancelling, no problem … maybe she thought can plan something fatal for him later if all went well with Wellington Dinner.
She easily could have kept a slice of clean Wellington for herself, or whatever kids ate. I doubt people notice so much what is on the host/servers plate if she is bringing plates from the kitchen and sits last.
The drying machine is a strange one because I’m not sure you do NOT need dry mushrooms for this recipe, if did, surely can buy them already dry from the “Asian” shop. Chucking dryer in a panic shows she’s not good planner or thinker as dump so obvious.
Anyway, she’s guilty of murder and if not evidence, still some sort of manslaughter because she is still responsible.
She’s no genius is why it all went wrong.
Still hating her for blaming it on Asian, thinking that would acceptable excuse.

 

[CityKid]

Boy, to be a fly on the wall at that luncheon! Anyone else with guesses about what went down? Here are mine (obviously MOO but I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts and theories):
1. This was all about custody of the children. That's why EP made sure they weren't there.
2. This wasn't a fun meeting. EP was ganged up on by the elders telling her she wasn't fit to have full custody.
3. EP expected this contentious meeting; it wasn't the first time Simon's side of the family expressed concern about her parenting. This is why she'd added her special ingredient to one of the foods consumed.
4. At this point I'm not 100% sure it was the duxelles, which is why she was happy to offer it to the police for testing. Or even if the Wellington was done as one unit, sliced, or individual Cornish pasties. Whatever Wellington she gave to police for testing was not what was served.
5. We have no idea if each of the five people ate the same thing, or if there were sides, or if the meeting devolved into a fight before the meal was even finished. I'm picturing the guests leaving angrily; perhaps EP pushed back on their thoughts of custody and told them they'd never see the grandchildren again.
6. I think the person who spoke to the paramedic spoke during the transport to the second hospital. They each lived for several days after the lunch and possibly had been told what they were suffering from. I believe the person told the paramedic that EP was the only one who didn't eat a certain item.

 

[Inthedetails]

Boy, to be a fly on the wall at that luncheon! Anyone else with guesses about what went down? Here are mine (obviously MOO but I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts and theories):
1. This was all about custody of the children. That's why EP made sure they weren't there.
2. This wasn't a fun meeting. EP was ganged up on by the elders telling her she wasn't fit to have full custody.
3. EP expected this contentious meeting; it wasn't the first time Simon's side of the family expressed concern about her parenting. This is why she'd added her special ingredient to one of the foods consumed. 4. At this point I'm not 100% sure it was the duxelles, which is why she was happy to offer it to the police for testing. Or even if the Wellington was done as one unit, sliced, or individual Cornish pasties. Whatever Wellington she gave to police for testing was not what was served.
5. We have no idea if each of the five people ate the same thing, or if there were sides, or if the meeting devolved into a fight before the meal was even finished. I'm picturing the guests leaving angrily; perhaps EP pushed back on their thoughts of custody and told them they'd never see the grandchildren again.
6. I think the person who spoke to the paramedic spoke during the transport to the second hospital. They each lived for several days after the lunch and possibly had been told what they were suffering from. I believe the person told the paramedic that EP was the only one who didn't eat a certain item.

I'm thinking the luncheon was perhaps awkward given the topic of conversation, but these four people seem kind and I don't think it was a hostile atmosphere on their part. One of them is an elderly pastor. I know church people quite well, and overt fighting at the lunch table doesn't usually happen. ymmv The guests were there peacefully, imo but the hostess wasn't.

jmo

 

[bearbear]

My thoughts are that she made powder from mushrooms she dehydrated. Mushroom power could be used in the dish without noticing it, other than added flavor.

This is just my hunch because I use powered mushrooms a lot. Love it.

jmopinion

i agree, was just going to post re the significence of the dehydrater, if she actually picked the dc mushrooms herself she would use the dehydrater to dry them out so they could be powdered and sprinkled into food or drink, which then would make them impossible to scrape off for her children to eat safely

 

[Eaglette]

So why have the children been removed ?

Department of Child Protection don't do this on a whim. I'm stumped.

There is way more to this complex case than meets the eye.

 

[kittythehare]

I guess there is the possibility that the dehydrator was thown out due to panic because it was used for .. pot, gold tops or something else..

In my opinion the throwing out of the dehydrator pairs with the alleged purchase of dried mushrooms bought in Mt Waverley.

That is EP dried some mushrooms (possibly death cap variety) in the dehydrator.

I'm thinking, if it were my "loved ones" , that i prepared a meal for, that caused everyone to become extremely sick, i wouldn't avoid telling the truth, or go into the details...yet EP seems to be doing that...
Maybe she's had a bad experience with the Police, but this is her 'loved ones'.

i really do not know.
she has stated she got rid of it after her former husband asked if that was what she had used to poison them..

there are multitudes of possibilities on how this may have imprinted upon her psyche which I will avoid theorising on because have no idea what the nature of the dynamic was between them.

I have a feeling this could run for months based upon comments police made yesterday.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

My thoughts are that she made powder from mushrooms she dehydrated. Mushroom power could be used in the dish without noticing it, other than added flavor.

This is just my hunch because I use powered mushrooms a lot. Love it.

jmopinion

I’m with you on this.

 

[RickshawFan]

Some posters have said that EP is a smart woman - can't say I agree with this. Just because she had a large inheritance and spent it on real estate does not IMO make her smart. And there are plenty of things pointing to the opposite, also IMO.

IMO she might be cunning, and think she’s smart. Killing 3 people is not smart IMO.

She was whinging about how she had to take care of her ex last year. I wonder why she was taking care of him at all. I thought they were divorced.

 

[jjenny]

...

She was whinging about how she had to take care of her ex last year. I wonder why she was taking care of him at all. I thought they were divorced.

They are not divorced, just estranged. Sounds like after he got released from the hospital after being very sick, somebody decided it was a good idea for her to take care of him. I can't imagine being the poor guy especially if he suspected she poisoned him and that was the cause of his illness.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

So why have the children been removed ?

Department of Child Protection don't do this on a whim. I'm stumped.

There is way more to this complex case than meets the eye.

I agree, and have been stumped from the get go. Given the coverage, to date, I just don't see anything that shows abuse or fears of any sort. I could see they were whisked away to a relative or close relation, to be away from the house with so much hounding media... but why was the State involved in taking them.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

My thoughts are that she made powder from mushrooms she dehydrated. Mushroom power could be used in the dish without noticing it, other than added flavor.

This is just my hunch because I use powered mushrooms a lot. Love it.

jmopinion

I agree with the love of dehydrated mushrooms. My son is quite the forager.. and harvests and dehydrates Black trumpets, Chanterelles, shitakes, and even morels (if so lucky). .... The additional flavors are really quite remarkable.

I kindof feel sad the srooms are getting such a bad rep, here.....

 

[RickshawFan]

This is just my hunch because I use powered mushrooms a lot. Love it.

Snipped….

I like the “powered mushrooms” phraseology. What exactly have you been eating all these years that you love so much?

 

[nhmemorymaker]

I am not sure if someone has posted the overall weather condition in Victoria over the past year....

I wanted to see if there had been recent articles on foraging or death caps specifically... published PRIOR to this case coming into the news....

As mentioned, I get a lot of different mushrooms when I am living in Vermont... and the bumper crops has been largely due to the incessant rain that has been evident in New York State and New England... so more mushrooms does grow more foragers, and so on.... AND those bumper crops have included more and more death caps, and more and more sickness/death. This article is from Canada, but I have seen similarly in China and other countries...

I still fall back to this possibly being a tragic accident.......

Deadly mushroom finds new way to reproduce, could impact Canada: research

One of the most deadly mushrooms in the world has found a way to reproduce alone, new research says, which leads scientists to believe a spread of death caps could occur.

www.ctvnews.ca

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Snipped….

I like the “powered mushrooms” phraseology. What exactly have you been eating all these years that you love so much?

Ha.... If you had ever had Black Trumpet butter......... I think you would "get it". ha ha.

 

[CityKid]

I'm thinking the luncheon was perhaps awkward given the topic of conversation, but these four people seem kind and I don't think it was a hostile atmosphere on their part. One of them is an elderly pastor. I know church people quite well, and overt fighting at the lunch table doesn't usually happen. ymmv The guests were there peacefully, imo but the hostess wasn't.

jmo

I could see this. I think EP was the one getting agitated.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I would be agitated in front of a group of relatives saying if they thought I was good enough or worthy.

But then I would never agree to a situation like that.

 

[Charlot123]

Reading Simon’s online posting, which granted is focused on photography and weirdly journalists, I am left scratching my head about what happened to their marriage.

My interpretation of how Simon comes across, based on <modsnip> what we’ve read mostly in the DM (potentially it’s inaccurate!) is someone who is religious and pretty conservative. It seems like he was in a great position. Traveling frequently with his family and also taking solo photography trips. Earning enough as a Civil Engineer to fund this and a wife at home with the kids leaving plenty of time for his hobbies.

I think maybe Erin was the one who initiated the break up? I can’t help but wonder if her inheritance gave her confidence to leave?

Something just isn’t right. I think something serious is behind their relationship break down. They (he in particular) don’t seem like the kind of people to divorce. They remind me of my parents who I grew up hearing say that they would kill each other before divorcing (hot tip: don’t say things like that in front of children).

Purely speculation.

We can’t sleuth him, but we can discuss her. She is 48, per newspaper articles. The kids, you can deduce from the drawings’ height, are preschool - early elementary school?

I don’t know when EP and SP got married but it came to my mind that both could have had independent lives and were adults before they tied the knot.

Something to consider. Their prior lives and experiences could have been independent and fully shaped them before they met.