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

[Baby baby Jane]

EP reportedly discarded the food dehydrator, not simply in a local trash bin, but at a rubbish dump. (Somewhere I read the tip was some distance from her home, but I can't find that now. Does anyone have a link for that statement, please?)

From her statement, reported by ABC NEWS: Ms Patterson said she was at the hospital with her children "discussing the food dehydrator" when her ex-husband, the son of the dead couple, asked: "Is that what you used to poison them?"

Worried that she might lose custody of the couple's children, Ms Patterson said she then panicked and dumped the dehydrator at the tip.

And yet, she reportedly provided the remains of the Beef Wellington for examination.

From the same ABC NEWS article: She said she preserved what was left of the lunch and gave it to hospital toxicologists for examination.

I'm wobbling on the fence a little for the first time as I ponder what these two actions might tell us, as it seems bizarre to ditch the dehydrator but produce meal leftovers.

The dehydrator: Did she dispose of it from fear that traces of toxic mushrooms or their spores may be found in the dehydrator? Or is she innocent and overreacting irrationally from panic at SP's suggestion?

Providing remnants of the beef dish for examination: If asked, she could have said there were no leftovers. But she didn't. She handed them over. Does this suggest the poison was not hidden in the main course but elsewhere? Or does it indicate both a toxic and a non-toxic dish were prepared? Or is she innocent of intentionally poisoning anything?

Woman who cooked suspected poisoned meal details where she bought mushrooms

The woman who cooked a meal that is believed to have contained poisonous mushrooms and led to the deaths of three people gives a lengthy written statement to police detailing her account of what happened, and revealing she was hospitalised after the incident.

www.abc.net.au

The remaining toxic beef Wellington, the poisoned one, went into the toilet. The clean one was leftovers.

 

[Baby baby Jane]

This is a line I can't get past because no one serves guests like that. It was a sit-down meal with a fancy main food.

Hostess always sits last, plenty opportunity to open cupboard and remove a plate that already has food on it, that hasn’t been poisoned- just like on a cooking shows. EP says to herself … “here’s one I prepared earlier …..”

 

[SouthAussie]

EP reportedly discarded the food dehydrator, not simply in a local trash bin, but at a rubbish dump. (Somewhere I read the tip was some distance from her home, but I can't find that now. Does anyone have a link for that statement, please?)

It was stated in the Under Investigation show.
The private detective said that there are two rubbish dumps in the area.
One that is closer to EP's house, and a second one that is further away from her house. (They showed a map with the locations.)
EP is said to have dumped the dehydrator at the further away rubbish dump.

 

[MoominMama222]

This is a line I can't get past because no one serves guests like that. It was a sit-down meal with a fancy main food.

We do this in my family all the time.

 

[Ellery84]

The remaining toxic beef Wellington, the poisoned one, went into the toilet. The clean one was leftovers.

100%, Baby baby Jane.

 

[MoominMama222]

Do you think it’s a possibility that Simon was teasing her when he said is that what you used to poison them?

We don’t know what tone of voice he used but thinking of the timeline, would that fit in with before DC mushrooms were suspected?

Knowing she was a keen forager he might have assumed she’s used foraged mushrooms and accidentally used the wrong ones or teased her about her ability to pick safe ones.

Am I grasping here or is this reasonable?

I wondered something similar. Not teasing but maybe she did forage mushrooms and he didn't like it because he felt like she wasn't very good at it or safe about it. maybe she liked to cook but wasn't always safe and he accused her of poisoning them in that sense--like an accident but something he had warned her about before. I have a sibling that doesn't follow food safety guide lines like I do and is apt to grab some random eild plant and eat it or make tea out of it and I might say--"you're going to poison us!" if he served something I felt was off or unsafe.

 

[JLZ]

And @RickshawFan , afaik the children are old enough NOT to require a chaperone in a “safe” small town Cinema.

I recall going with friends to the movies once or twice at that age, in a busy metropolitan area. We caught the train in and back, and it was the done thing to do. Going to the movies with your parent when you’re a teenager is most certainly not the “cool” thing to do.

Me too, at about eleven years old.

 

[Ellery84]

EP can't decide which story to tell till she knows what LE knows.

Perhaps that is why LE are being so tight-lipped, as they don’t want Erin to know what they have on her.

Also, by this time LE would know that the media has swamped the town of Leongatha and are presumably hanging on anything the cops were to say about the investigation, so the police have seemingly opted to just say nothing.

 

[MoominMama222]

Isn't it possible that she was an odd duck and foraged mushrooms and threw the dehydrator away in a panic because she thought maybe some batch of mushrooms might have been devils cap and now she's just accidentally killed her in laws and her ex hates her and they all think she's a weirdo already, so they'll think she did it on purpose?

 

[MoominMama222]

Needs an explanation about why they didn’t eat lunch. Cinema just a wild choice. So many TV crime shows the cinema is the alibi … and it always fails …

I don't understand why it's weird for the kids to go to the movies while adults are having a family discussion and meal?

 

[SouthAussie]

She clearly had a fear of losing her children.
Their separation, was formalised in January '21.
Following years of separation.
He got sick in '22, they were living apart unless imaginary friends start saying she poisoned him.
She nursed him, reluctantly, she says following his sickness.
I presume she nursed him in her own home.
that was last year.
she says she declined to reconcile with him at that time and I see no reason to disbelieve her on that.

i don't get the impression that her social life is 'lit' exactly.

I think her life probably revolves around her children and not much else.

I don't see her as a confident woman and i have no idea what she has lived through.
i can think of many that could produce a state of fear in any woman under the sun, depending upon the methodologies used to apply the 'pressure'.

Just speculating.

(Just for further information)
With regard to a lack of confidence, in 2018 Simon apparently posted on FB that EP does not like to have her photo taken.

Before she opened the door to The Australian reporter (John Ferguson) last week, she asked if he had a camera. He did not have a camera, so EP opened the door.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/leongatha-mushroom-poisoning-hope-among-the-deaths-for-ian-wilkinson/news-story/792bf97a4fc6beb680b56bb2b0007939?amp&nk=88a57d61746c6b50dcd5f2a92dc399e9-1693085439

The article also says that Simon is an avid traveller and adventure photographer, as well as a civil engineer, and that he knows best how acrimonious the dynamic of the family has become - that it has split friends of his and EP's.

 

[Ellery84]

[bbm]

Victoria Police's forensic department has long been under siege from demands by eager detectives.

The courts are awash with cases delayed by overworked forensic staff, with some cases pushed back by anywhere up to a year.

With nothing linked to the mushroom deaths even before a court, and the media storm surrounding the case, force command is understood to be eager to push the forensic tests through sooner rather than later.

While testing delays are cause for some concern, police sources have told Daily Mail Australia detectives will hardly have their 'cue in the rack'.

It has been more than two weeks since Victoria Police provided a public update on its investigation.

Back then, Detective Inspector Dean Thomas gave the media mixed reports on how they were treating Ms Patterson.

The seasoned detective started his briefing by declaring the deaths of her relatives were 'not suspicious'.

'The deaths are unexplained and for that purpose we are involved and we are working as hard as we can to try and identify why these deaths have happened and the circumstances surrounding them,' he said.

But under fire from reporters, Inspector Thomas provided a stumbling backflip.

'The 48-year old is, well, she is (a suspect), um she was, and she is because, um, she cooked those meals for us, for those people that were present,' he said.

He said homicide squad detectives would work to get to the bottom of the case.

'We've still got a lot of work to do. We need to understand what's caused these symptoms, what's caused ultimately the deaths of these three people,' the detective said.

'We need to understand what has occurred, what is the cause of the injuries ... what has caused their deaths and the circumstances surrounding all of that. So it's a very complex matter ... it's really interesting. You know four people turn up and three of them have passed away.'

Reporters have spent much of August camped outside Ms Patterson's home, with her estranged husband Simon Patterson hiring a publicist to try and fend off requests from around the world.

In the background, detectives will be analysing Ms Patterson's phone records and movements from the past few weeks and maybe months.

Her claims provided in that written statement will be scrutinised.

While tech experts trawl the data, officers on the ground will go about talking to anyone who may be able to help guide them closer to the truth.

Detectives will be closely monitoring the recovery of Mr Wilkinson, who remains gravely ill at the Austin Hospital.

What he says will likely assist detectives one way or the other in how the case progresses.

The highly publicised illness of Ms Patterson's former husband will be thoroughly examined, with officers working to rule in or out any links to her cooking.


IMO, going by the things he's said, the 'seasoned' DI Dean Thomas sounds like he's out of his depth when it comes to making statements to the media.

Inside the mushroom deaths investigation

Victorian detectives could take months to finalise their investigation into the mysterious deaths of Erin Patterson's lunch guests.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Oh seasoned investigator has definitely imo gone off-script, and off-message.

While testing delays are cause for some concern, police sources have told Daily Mail Australia detectives will hardly have their 'cue in the rack'.

Does anyone know what this means, to “hardly have their cue in the rack”??

Thanks in advance x

 

[CityKid]

We do this in my family all the time.

When you have guests? When the host prepared a special meal, one that makes for a special presentation? They plate it up and put the plates somewhere so the presumably seated guests have to get up and select a plate?

 

[MoominMama222]

When you have guests? When the host prepared a special meal, one that makes for a special presentation? They plate it up and put the plates somewhere so the presumably seated guests have to get up and select a plate?

Yes, every time. We all stand in a semi circle and pray first and then my mother dishes out the plates and we all go sit down at the fancy table.

 

[Ellery84]

With regard to a lack of confidence, in 2018 Simon apparently posted on FB that EP does not like to have her photo taken.

Before she opened the door to The Australian reporter (John Ferguson) last week, she asked if he had a camera. He did not have a camera, so EP opened the door.

Maybe she’s confident, but she’s also very discreet.

Or maybe she is not confident and also very discreet.

Or maybe she is, as you said, not confident.

All my opinion only.

 

[Ellery84]

Isn't it possible that she was an odd duck and foraged mushrooms and threw the dehydrator away in a panic because she thought maybe some batch of mushrooms might have been devils cap and now she's just accidentally killed her in laws and her ex hates her and they all think she's a weirdo already, so they'll think she did it on purpose?

IMO Simon will never take her back now.

What a pickle she is in.

Jmo

 

[seasideForest]

The remaining toxic beef Wellington, the poisoned one, went into the toilet. The clean one was leftovers.

Do you have a source for this? Or is it your conjecture?

 

[Baby baby Jane]

Do you have a source for this? Or is it your conjecture?

Pure conjecture.

 

[JLZ]

Is there any consensus about when EP and SP separated?
In SP’s Facebook post during his 2022 stay in hospital with his “gut illness” SP refers to his wife and kids coming to visit him.
Yet it has been stated (by EP?) that she “ reluctantly agreed” to care for him during his recovery. Seems a bit strange to me. Her version is that she decided not to reconcile with him after this period of taking care of him.
Also could his parents not have cared for him if he and EP were separating?

(snipped & BBM)
I think she may have overstated the extent of her care. He stayed with his parents and she dropped in and ran a few errands for him and this and that--maybe? And then he accused her of using his illness to get closer to him, and she angrily responded that she wouldn't have him back in a million years. And then they all calmed down and returned to their peaceful separation. And then--I don't know. Were they really thinking of undivorcing?

 

[Charlot123]

.

Well what if the Ex husband had decided he wanted full custody and it was going to get nasty?


People don’t always react normally when confronted with things

Look at that freaky wall I know some believe it’s normal but I don’t and seems like not all was well IMO

JMO. We have the link to Simon’s posts about EP on a photography forum in this thread, and also one of newspapers posted them. JMO, they are slightly eccentric, too. Tell me what you think, to me, the joke is strained and humorless. The photo of her feet in a gym, looked odd to me. Not criticizing, but to me both SP and EP appear somewhat similar. So kids drawing stuff on the wall doesn’t surprise me. (I used to have friends who allowed their four-year old to draw on the walls of the third floor of their house. Whatever he wanted. No biggie, the floor was his, who’d care what was there?) That some part of the drawing seemed to be written by an adult was unusual. However, but did the guy who 1) was invited to paint the wall (a professional) 2) took photos of the wall and sent them to a newspaper one year later (unprofessional).

Taking a wild guess here … I’ll bet they don’t sell any kind of Asian plant-rat-insect killer anything at the Asian grocery. Just thinking that Aussie trade import would say “no” to that.

The biologist in me, lol! I read about different types of poisons, what they do, and amidst “sources”, found out that some are obtainable in Australia as rodenticides and ant-killers. Bottom line: any country sells poisons, mostly for farming and households, think pest control. Which ones, depends on the regulations specific for countries. Then I read about solitary cases of poisoning by food with traces of herbicides. Don’t want to mention the specific sources/places, suffice it to say that any huge industrial production could lead to it. Bottom line: in US, some poisons are forbidden but others are not. Same in Australia, the lists of ingredients differ. You can buy some poison like RAID in Australian Costco, you probably can also buy it in an Asian store, with Asian letters. I suspect that EP bought something in Asian grocery store, only not in food section, and not mushrooms. Probably in gardening. EP doesn’t outright lie, but seriously twists the truth. JMO. She might be innocent, but I personally view her as the major poi. MOO.