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

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

I wonder if LE are testing any soiled clothing or dirty laundry of the victims and will be able to prove they consumed death cap mushrooms?

Maybe if the poisoning would induce fairly quick vomiting and diarrhoea but not cause death until a few days later, there's not much left in terms of any stomach contents or bodily evidence?

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Yes I don’t understand the confusion as she never claimed she foraged them. They are shop brought and that came from the horses mouth.

This is true and if the victims did die of poisonous mushrooms, it makes her look more guilty - as opposed to if she'd have said she used a mixture of wild mushrooms foraged from her land then nobody would really be able to 'prove' her intention and it would seem far more like a terrible accident / tragedy.

After all, who would poison four people and think they'd get away with it?

 

[Salah11]

This is true and if the victims did die of poisonous mushrooms, it makes her look more guilty - as opposed to if she'd have said she used a mixture of wild mushrooms foraged from her land then nobody would really be able to 'prove' her intention and it would seem far more like a terrible accident / tragedy.

After all, who would poison four people and think they'd get away with it?

Exactly it would have actually of made more sense to say she made an awful mistake and had picked them. But she has never done that and claims shop brought which begs the question of why was there no other cases of people being Poisoned and why the department of health didn’t do a urgent recall on them imo

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I think there are some parts of the puzzle missing and it won't be what the majority here seem to think.

And that's all I'm saying.

 

[Salah11]

No doubt we are missing a big chunk of the puzzle but the facts we do know don’t paint a very pretty picture of EP imo

 

[Forest_Wood]

After all, who would poison four people and think they'd get away with it?

Exactly!!!!

 

[Forest_Wood]

<modsnip> the above is irrelevant since EP herself has stated that she purchased the mushrooms from grocers (which purchase farmed mushrooms) so the mushrooms were not wild-foraged.

<modsnip: Quoted post was modsnipped> There may be a valid reason for a mushroom mixup as many experts attest to. Reasonable doubt.

 

[Salah11]

<modsnip: Quoted post was modsnipped> There may be a valid reason for a mushroom mixup as many experts attest to. Reasonable doubt.

Of course and she just happened to be fine and then add in the fact she has outright lied and tried to cover her tracks.

ETA - her ex husband clearly also called her out on the deaths and accused her as well. He was married to her so clearly believes she is capable of such a horrific crime as well.

 

[SMK777]

Australia wheels of justice really move slowly don’t they?!


How is it a month in from the poisoning and there is still no movement here. It’s farcical at this stage that she hasn’t been arrested ( if guilty) 1 month later when 3 people are dead and 1 critically ill. In the U.S and U.K. there is simply no way it would take this long to get a basic idea about what happened with the food that lunch time.



Moo

I agree.
They should have either cleared her or charged her at this point, considering that if it was in fact a premeditated crime, it was premeditated murder of 3, and an attempted murder of 1.

 

[CityKid]

However , so are Death Caps wild foraged which has been most of the topic of this thread. So it's relevant imo.

For example, what if there were wild foraged mushrooms in the bag that she thought was store bought. It's easy to lose track of what's inside certain containers sometimes. And maybe they were not stored properly from the beginning. Moo

BBM. She specifically remembers the bag of dried mushrooms she bought. She doesn't "think they were store bought"; she remembers the specific packet. She said it had a handwritten label on it and it came from an Asian store in Melbourne. Police checked all the Asian groceries in Melbourne. If there was any chance any of these shops were selling death caps, police would have warned the public. Any possibly contaminated products would have been removed from the shelves. She also says she bought fresh button mushrooms from a chain supermarket. These are her words.
Look, she's a known liar by her own admission. She admits she lied to the police about the mushrooms and the dehydrator. She also lied to the police for a DWI in which she hit property and fled, then refused to give her name or address. This was long before her marriage (for those who've been insinuating that her responses to being blamed for things is due to her husband). MOO.
I'm not understanding the hoops that some are willing to jump through to think EP is completely uninvolved with the deaths of three people. Sure, there's a slim possibility that she didn't realise she'd served something deadly to her guests. But I can't imagine something less innocent than that. MOO. I think it was a deliberate attempt to sicken or kill these people.

Mushroom chef crashed car and fled the scene

Erin Patterson, 48, lost her licence for 30 months in 2004 and was fined $1,000 for crashing her vehicle in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Glen Waverley.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[ch_13]

However , so are Death Caps wild foraged which has been most of the topic of this thread. So it's relevant imo.

For example, what if there were wild foraged mushrooms in the bag that she thought was store bought. It's easy to lose track of what's inside certain containers sometimes. And maybe they were not stored properly from the beginning. Moo

If she had only made the original statement to the police, then I could believe that she could have misspoke or misremembered where the mushrooms were sourced from. She was scared, under intense police questioning and people have been known to make false statements under duress.

However, two weeks later she made another written statement where she categorically stated that the mushrooms were store-bought. She made this statement under no pressure or coercion. She had plenty of time to recollect any past instances of foraging. She also received advice from an eminent defense attorney before issuing the statement.

This is undoubtedly the most important event that has ever happened in her life. Her very freedom is dependent on her accurate recall. The idea that she still didn't remember that she picked wild mushrooms is simply not credible IMO.

 

[JLZ]

She also lied to the police for a DWI in which she hit property and fled, then refused to give her name or address.

Hi CityKid, I don't understand what you mean saying she lied to police with regard to the driving incident? And what do you mean that she refused to give her details after fleeing? It seems she must have identified herself fairly promptly if she did an alcohol test within three hours. (And I don't know what DWI means so perhaps part of the answer is in that.)

 

[Stunned]

Of course and she just happened to be fine and then add in the fact she has outright lied and tried to cover her tracks.

ETA - her ex husband clearly also called her out on the deaths and accused her as well. He was married to her so clearly believes she is capable of such a horrific crime as well.

Or wants her to be. IMO

 

[JLZ]

If she had only made the original statement to the police, then I could believe that she could have misspoke or misremembered where the mushrooms were sourced from. She was scared, under intense police questioning and people have been known to make false statements under duress.

However, two weeks later she made another written statement where she categorically stated that the mushrooms were store-bought. She made this statement under no pressure or coercion. She had plenty of time to recollect any past instances of foraging. She also received advice from an eminent defense attorney before issuing the statement.

This is undoubtedly the most important event that has ever happened in her life. Her very freedom is dependent on her accurate recall. The idea that she still didn't remember that she picked wild mushrooms is simply not credible.

I'd like to know if her statement was a stat dec or equivalent, so that she'd risk a charge of perjury if she later says it's not true.

 

[Baby baby Jane]

This is true and if the victims did die of poisonous mushrooms, it makes her look more guilty - as opposed to if she'd have said she used a mixture of wild mushrooms foraged from her land then nobody would really be able to 'prove' her intention and it would seem far more like a terrible accident / tragedy.

After all, who would poison four people and think they'd get away with it?

1. Maybe she was expecting it to look like an innocent accident blaming it on her purchase from un-named “Asian grocery” She described handwritten packaging and probably means handwritten in language she couldn’t read so she didn’t know what she was buying.

2. Or, was this supposed to be a “cover up” for the prior years poisoning? To make it look like that situation was accidental last year too . If the ex had been saying she poisoned him, maybe she wanted the second occurrence to look like another “accident” from same packet. She could say, “look, I wasn’t trying to poison you! It was these mushrooms from Asia.” (Clearly was not intending death)
A second occurrence to make her look innocent of the first is crazy logic, but we don’t know what we’re dealing with.

So, was expecting the blame would fall on store bought dried packet as either a Tylenol tamper style situation, or those Asians with their mysterious mushrooms.

 

[JLZ]

1. Maybe she was expecting it to look like an innocent accident blaming it on her purchase from un-named “Asian grocery” She described handwritten packaging and probably means handwritten in language she couldn’t read so she didn’t know what she was buying.

(snipped)
No, I disagree that a handwritten label in an Asian-type grocery store means handwritten in a foreign language. That seems very unlikely to me. I think EP's point was that the product wasn't mass-produced, quality-controlled or traceable.

 

[Ellery84]

I agree.
They should have either cleared her or charged her at this point, considering that if it was in fact a premeditated crime, it was premeditated murder of 3, and an attempted murder of 1.

I guess LE don’t work to our preferred timelines. <modsnip - off topic>

Moo

 

[Ellery84]

I'd like to know if her statement was a stat dec or equivalent, so that she'd risk a charge of perjury if she later says it's not true.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was not a stat dec.

Jmo

 

[JLZ]

Australia wheels of justice really move slowly don’t they?!


How is it a month in from the poisoning and there is still no movement here. It’s farcical at this stage that she hasn’t been arrested ( if guilty) 1 month later when 3 people are dead and 1 critically ill. In the U.S and U.K. there is simply no way it would take this long to get a basic idea about what happened with the food that lunch time.



Moo

A basic idea isn't enough to charge someone. There are cases in Australia where people are charged with murder immediately, but something like this can take over a year. There is no case that will stand up in court at the present time.

 

[jjenny]

I agree.
They should have either cleared her or charged her at this point, considering that if it was in fact a premeditated crime, it was premeditated murder of 3, and an attempted murder of 1.

Having suspicion and being able to prove it are two different things. This case is going to hinge on forensic evidence such as toxin analysis which takes time to obtain.