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

[jepop]

"DARVO" sure looks like it's Aussie lingo (AKA "Strine"), but I don't think it is.

As any Aussie will tell you, we tend to shorten words, especially names. "Davo" is a name often used when referring to someone called "David". "Dave"'s more popular though IMO.
"Andy", "Johnno" etc. are the norm. (Pun unintended, but "Norm" refers to "Norman."

A tall person may find themselves being referred as "Lofty", Shorty", "Tiny"
"Arvo" means "afternoon", "barbie" means barbecue etc.

I'm sure some of us Aussies here could come up with all sorts of meanings for DARVO other than the "Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender" (not with the same meaning though).

Quick OT, first thing that came to mind for me was Davros of the Daeleks!

The era of the acronym. Language is going through rapid change and developing new paths and tangents at this point in history via the internet and the tech revolution. It's fascinating from an historical and linguistic perspective. The initial rate of change was extremely rapid. All Moo

 

[jjleroche]

Yes, useful in that they now have her written word to verify. And she has already admitted that she lied about one thing.

She is not doing herself any favours.
3 people died after her meal, another is finally in a stable condition (for who knows how long, if it might become unstable and dire as they say can happen with this toxin).

If that doesn't warrant a good chat with the police, I don't know what does.

Do we know that she hasn't "submitted to interrogation"?

 

[MsMarple]

Reads to me like police would have preferred that the media not be speculating left right and centre on the leaked (if that's what happened) statement, and more generally with media speculation. Naturally there is a lot of trial by social media these days and plenty of suggestion and unverified reporting in the main stream. That seems the basis for why "unhelpful' Imo. ie Only the police can develop what potential evidence might be. I'd imagine Msm and social media has an impact on police interviews and police trying to develop back-ground and context to the case. Moo

And to add, it seems like LE would have preferred if EP and her lawyer had refrained from releasing that statement to the media in the first place.

EP complained about the media attention and then gave the media a copy of her statement. What did she expect would happen?

 

[jepop]

And to add, it seems like LE would have preferred if EP and her lawyer had refrained from releasing that statement to the media in the first place.

EP complained about the media attention and then gave the media a copy of her statement. What did she expect would happen?

She may have done, she denies that she did from what I read. Moo

 

[MsMarple]

She may have done, she denies that she did from what I read. Moo

I haven’t seen that yet, can you link the article? Thanks.

ETA: Never mind, I found it.

Speaking to the Australian, she denied she had leaked the statement, saying she had no idea how it got out.

Leongatha suspected mushroom poisoning: Erin Patterson says media has portrayed her as an ‘evil witch’

Woman at centre of Victoria mushroom lunch that left three dead says she feels trapped in her home because reporters are camped outside

www.theguardian.com

"I am now wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones," Ms Patterson said.

"I am hoping this statement might help in some way. I believe if people understood the background more, they would not be so quick to rush to judgement.

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

Maybe that’s why I assumed she and her lawyer leaked the statement; it’s a little misleading that she says she hopes her statement will help people understand the background. It would be unusual for LE to discuss it with the media.

 

[JLZ]

Do we know that she hasn't "submitted to interrogation"?

I thought she made an initial attempt. At least one lie and then no-comment. She said she regretted the no-comment, blaming bad advice.

 

[jepop]

I haven’t seen that yet, can you link the article? Thanks.

Reported by Guardian Australia - a re-report of a report by the Australian (which is under paywall)

"Speaking to the Australian, she denied she had leaked the statement, saying she had no idea how it got out."

Leongatha suspected mushroom poisoning: Erin Patterson says media has portrayed her as an ‘evil witch’

Woman at centre of Victoria mushroom lunch that left three dead says she feels trapped in her home because reporters are camped outside

www.theguardian.com

 

[jepop]

I haven’t seen that yet, can you link the article? Thanks.

ETA: Never mind, I found it.

Speaking to the Australian, she denied she had leaked the statement, saying she had no idea how it got out.

Leongatha suspected mushroom poisoning: Erin Patterson says media has portrayed her as an ‘evil witch’

Woman at centre of Victoria mushroom lunch that left three dead says she feels trapped in her home because reporters are camped outside

www.theguardian.com

"I am now wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones," Ms Patterson said.

"I am hoping this statement might help in some way. I believe if people understood the background more, they would not be so quick to rush to judgement.

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

Maybe that’s why I assumed she and her lawyer leaked the statement; it’s a little misleading that she says she hopes her statement will help people understand the background. It would be unusual for LE to discuss it with the media.

Well, that is part of the statement so I assumed she was addressing those comments to the police, not the public. Coming from the position of a POI and in the context of explaining regret over her initial 'no comment' interview with the police. Jmo

 

[JBowie]

Speaking to the Australian, she denied she had leaked the statement, saying she had no idea how it got out. [bbm]

... and pigs may fly.

 

[Kemug]

Yes! Where did they go before lunch at Erin’s house? Where did they go after lunch at Erin’s house? Did they go to Simon’s house for brunch or maybe to a restaurant for dinner?

Hmmmm…. Thank you for suggesting this possibility.

Not convinced they went anywhere else either before or after lunch. Likewise I'm not convinced they went anywhere for dinner - although there are exceptions, in general a pastor/minister prefers to be at home to put the finishing touches on Sunday's sermon.

 

[Neet_Mc]

The varying accounts of who was at her house for the lunch, why they were there in the first place, manner in which the meal was prepared and then served etc will stay vague for the foreseeable future. IMO, LE are not going to publicly confirm/deny until there are charges laid and there is a day in court. In the meantime, the continued interest and subsequent pressure on EP will just result in her potentially fabricating more of the details and her watertight story coming more and more unstuck.

Assuming EP drove children to the cinemas, in my mind, this would achieve multiple purposes:
1) children absent when poisoned meal being served, thereby eliminating possibility of them ingesting it.
2) provides an opportunity for EP to do a tip run to offload the, now contaminated, dehydrator (would also account for how a conversation about the dehydrator may have been struck up between the kids and her in the first place) which according to the documentary may actually have been disposed of earlier than stated by EP in her statement.
3) reduces number of potential witnesses to the preparation, plating and serving of the meal.

The manner in which the beef Wellington was served, in particular her emphasis on guest’s choosing their serving, I think is quite important. This introduced aspect of chance in getting a poisoned meal, I imagine EP believes this would just work to deflect the culpability off her…murkying the waters at the very least.

Personally, I’ve always thought the scraping off of mushrooms from the kid’s sounded like absolute BS. And the whole serving them the leftovers after guests have already started falling ill, more BS. Whole situation lends itself completely to there being separate beef Wellington’s, either individual portions or just two larger ones, with the guests eating/sharing the poisoned beef wellie and EP and kids eating/sharing another. Based on this scenario, EP and kid’s meals may have not have had mushrooms in them at all - kids had none, possibly not there to see any mushrooms being scraped off, and we only have EPs word to go on as to what her meal actually was! Obviously the pastor was there and could shed light on the lunch, however he may not have recollection following the near-death experience and medical interventions that he required.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

If the object was to discuss the situation re the marriage, I can see the four inlaws spending some time together by themselves to talk over their opinions re EP.

If so I can see a cup of coffee or tea being offered. Either a call in to a nearby cafe or at one of their homes.

Yes they already ate, but most people over a discussion would still have something to drink.

 

[MissTwiddle]

I understand why people are wondering if the four guests ate or drank elsewhere that day, but who else would stand to gain from poisoning these four particular people?

Does the timeline for symptoms appearing absolutely only fit in with the day of the meal EP served, or is there a window where they could have ingested it a day or even two days before?

Moo - I swing from feeling she is innocent, this is a terrible accident not of her doing, and has handled the press attention very badly thus making herself look guilty, to the other extreme where she is a twisted psychopath who cold heartedly planned and prepared a poisoned ‘last supper’ and watched them eat every morsel knowing she’d never have to see or hear from them again. There is no in-between for me.

 

[Rumination1]

Dehydrator, not hydrator. And if she didn't use it for anything nefarious, I fail to see what she would be concerned about. If police were to analyze it, they would have presumably found nothing, if it wasn't used for anything nefarious. I mean, she saved the beef wellington for analysis. But dehydrator, she dumps and lies to police about it.

The fact she had a dehydrator suggests to me that was a known common cooking habit of hers.
Family would know what she typically likes to dehydrate
I mean it’s not that usual to do so ( imo)

If she knew mushrooms had never been in it she would have no need to dump it

That she did dump it suggests mushrooms had been in there and People knew !

She served the food . She didn’t get sick . She looks suspicious . She ought to be going out of her way to show innocence not muddy the waters!

I think extended friends and family will have more to add soon

 

[Ellery84]

There's also the possibility that Msm scour social media (ie reddit/twitter?) and re-phrase rumour/posts and then report such as 'a friend' said.

So you’re saying that in this suspected mushroom poisoning case, the crime-writers are scouring social media, and then they’re looking for rumours, and then they take them as truth even though they are on face-value unsubstantiated, and they re-phrase them in their own language and then they incorrectly attribute the rumours in their articles to “a ‘friend’ said”…instead of just reporting exactly what the social media post said and attributing the source of the information as a rumour written on or published to a particular platform?

Wouldn’t it make more sense for their sources to be actual sources, like say a friend of Erin
or a friend of Simon?

I also wanted to add that as far as “content” goes, the personal social media platforms of both Erin and her estranged husband are either wiped and deleted now or locked-down hard - so it would be about as difficult to get juicy information out of those as, say, getting blood out of a stone, or poison out of a button Mushroom purchased at Woolies.

All MOO

 

[Kemug]

There are a few too many coincidences for me. SP's previous hospitalisation, the kid's absence, the dumping of the dehydrator - I would need to be very sure of alternate explanations for those things before I decided that EP had no part in these horrific deaths.

 

[JLZ]

I understand why people are wondering if the four guests ate or drank elsewhere that day, but who else would stand to gain from poisoning these four particular people?

(snipped)
If it happened at a cafe, they might not have been the intended victims.

 

[Kemug]

Plus, whatever it was that one of the victims said to the medic, which caused the police to be called in. I look forward to learning what that was, and seeing if that can be explained away.

 

[SouthAussie]

This is a screenshot of the map Under Investigation showed of the two local rubbish dumps.

EP apparently dumped the dehydrator at the Korumburra rubbish dump.

I measured the driving distances on Google maps, to try to confirm what the private detective said (about EP using the dump that is further from her home).

From Leongatha to Koonwarra rubbish dump is an 8 minute drive. Link
From Leongatha to Korumburra rubbish dump is a 13 min drive. Link
(Keep in mind that Google is giving me the Sunday night driving time, I expect traffic would be very light/non existent.)

Both rubbish dumps seem to have the exact same disposal conditions - recyclables free to dump, charges apply to other items. (links below)



Waste Disposal Facilities (Tips) - Korumburra
Waste Disposal Facilities (Tips) - Koonwarra

Watch Under Investigation - Season 5 - Ep 9 The Last Lunch | 9Now

Liz Hayes and her team of investigators probe the mystery gripping Australia and the world. Three dead, another clinging to life, after a mushroom lunch in small-town Victoria.

www.9now.com.au

 

[CityKid]

I don't accept that it's clear that she has a fear of losing her children, or that she has any reason (other than possibly being a murderer) to fear that she might lose them. I think she's quite clever at implying that she's the victim in a range of situations.

I may be reading too much into her explanation of plating the food and having each guest choose their own, but IMO this fits in with your victim-mentality mention. "The guests picked their own plates; I didn't "give" them poisoned food."