Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #4

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

When were the police actually notified?

Excellent question

 

[SouthAussie]

Interesting that this online friend says EP wanted out of the marriage and did not want to reconcile. I may have had it backwards because I thought she probably wanted to get back w/him.

I am still wondering though. Did she tell her online friends the whole truth? IDK

Online friend (who has never actually met EP) says this.
And SP's unidentified friend said the opposite.

He said, she said. It hasn't made anything clearer.

Maybe no-one wanted to reconcile, and the "problems in the family" (as stated by the PI in the Under Investigation show) are about something else. Custody? Visitation? Settlement of marital assets?

imo

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Dog makes an appearance at 0.42 minutes Video: Erin Patterson speaks to the media outside her Leongatha home | Daily Mail Online

Labradors - stomach on legs as they call them, non stop eaters. Would be hard to hide the Beef Wellington scraps from such a dog!

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Interesting that this online friend says EP wanted out of the marriage and did not want to reconcile. I may have had it backwards because I thought she probably wanted to get back w/him.

I am still wondering though. Did she tell her online friends the whole truth? IDK

Pure speculation here but *if* EP really has tried in the past to poison SP and also did again in this situation albeit he wasn't actually there... I would strongly suggest she did not wish to reconcile - far from it and quite the opposite!

 

[Oona]

Well shows she obviously was a bitter woman in the marriage.

So if her In-laws were trying to get her to back together with them and she had hated the marriage there is a Motive imo

If the DM article contains any truth, it doesn’t sound like a very healthy relationship with all EP’s resentment, deceitfulness (about the cleaner), and SP’s hardly being home. It also appears that she was scornful and arrogant towards her local community.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Mushroom chef's Facebook messages leak

Mushroom chef Erin Patterson lashed out at her local community while putting together the local newspaper, an insider has revealed.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Daily mail answering lots of questions!! A former friend spilling all the goss…

The so-called 'ex-friend' claimed to have met Erin online through the true crime group.

'I think she was also into a lot of crime fiction. Like Agatha Christie,' the person claimed.

And….It seems SP was sick in 2022 with a clostridium difficile infection.

Doesn't sound like she wants to be with the (ex) husband to me.

Also c-diff is very well known as being a hospital acquired infection, I don't see how she could have 'poisoned him' with that but maybe he acquired it during a hospitalisation for something else (such as actually being poisoned)?

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

I don't think comments in that FB group posed any threat to a "fair trial" until the reporters decided to sneak in and write about it.
It's a private group, so, not "widely-accessible" to everyone, and as a private group posts from there shouldn't really be shared outside of it (although it happens a lot, but I think it's ugly - - groups are private so people can discuss things freely and openly - obviously adhering to FB rules).
imo. Every word the "ex-friend" said in DM was also copied from that group.
Media aren't worried about a fair or unfair trial, if they were they wouldn't be using unethical methods to gather irrelevant info.
Obviously I'm a member and there's nothing slanderous or bullying about it, just pretty much a meme and joke group about mushrooms for people with a dark sense of humour.

I don't 'do' FB anymore but whenever I leave a group where I've shared personal information or it's clear my identity can be linked directly to my personal opinions or input, I go through and literally delete every single post and shared link etc.

I have also done same when blocking someone off my IG account if it turns out they're not a nice person - before I block I go through every post and comment to delete or remove any likes from me to them or them to me.

This is a precaution because one never knows in the future what can become of a social media account or platform, how it's all going to unfold, and if having left the group onself but all the content is still there, you can find yourself in exactly this situation.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

If the DM article contains any truth, it doesn’t sound like a very healthy relationship with all EP’s resentment, deceitfulness (about the cleaner), and SP’s hardly being home. It also appears that she was scornful and arrogant towards her local community.

True but it could have been said in jest more than bitterness

I do think if one's relationship is in such a poor state that you have to start playing games and covert counter-acting tactics, that's the fast track to insanity.

I said this before but I saw both my parents do that and it's horrific what they did to one another, it was extremely serious and completely deranged. That would be the exact sort of situation where one could end up poisoning someone because all usual open direct communication is off the cards.

I could imagine that SP thought he was onto a good thing with a wealthy wife if he's a slacker. If she was excellent at editing the local magazine just like his parents had once done, I'm sure they must have been fond of her to hand over the job and entrust it to her - maybe they didn't want the marriage to break up and were pressurising on religious grounds too?

 

[Oona]

Online friend (who has never actually met EP) says this.
And SP's unidentified friend said the opposite.

He said, she said. It hasn't made anything clearer.

Maybe no-one wanted to reconcile, and the "problems in the family" (as stated by the PI in the Under Investigation show) are about something else. Custody? Visitation? Settlement of marital assets?

imo

I agree that there are contradictory statements from “friends.” What I am perceiving overall is that the relationship is dysfunctional.

If the poisoning was deliberate, I wonder why she felt the need to get rid of these people.
Some motives I have been musing over are:
Were they refusing to support her in a dispute over the children?
Did they know something she needed silenced?
Were they disapproving of her parenting?

 

[Salah11]

True but it could have been said in jest more than bitterness

I do think if one's relationship is in such a poor state that you have to start playing games and covert counter-acting tactics, that's the fast track to insanity.

I said this before but I saw both my parents do that and it's horrific what they did to one another, it was extremely serious and completely deranged. That would be the exact sort of situation where one could end up poisoning someone because all usual open direct communication is off the cards.

I could imagine that SP thought he was onto a good thing with a wealthy wife if he's a slacker. If she was excellent at editing the local magazine just like his parents had once done, I'm sure they must have been fond of her to hand over the job and entrust it to her - maybe they didn't want the marriage to break up and were pressurising on religious grounds too?

In jest it certainly doesn’t read that way at all.

 

[CityKid]

I've had some further thoughts about the conversation at the hospital and the dumping of the dehydrator. In previous posts I thought it was somewhat unlikely that SP said what EP said he said, and rather unlikely that he said it while he knew his parents were dying. I am now thinking that SP did say it and it was a set-up between SP and police. That SP, immediately suspicious, told police that EP foraged mushrooms and used the dehydrator to dry them. Police asked SP to suggest to EP that the dehydrator was used in poisoning the guests, so that they could see what she did. The reasoning being that if the dehydrator had not been used, EP would want it preserved in its current state, not, for example, soaked in bleach overnight or buried in the garden. But if it had been used there might be some interesting, incriminating activity. However, as other posters have pointed out, the prompt dumping of the dehydrator can bear other explanations.

BBM. I had mentioned the same thought here about him wearing his wedding ring to his parents' service (although I'm open to what other sleuthers here said about it possibly belonging to his dad). I think that was to keep EP from going off the rails.

 

[SouthAussie]

<modsnip - quoted post was not victim friendly>

He has a younger brother ... one of the articles spoke about how he and his brother were schooled over the radio while their parents were missionaries in Botswana. His father built a satellite dish out of chicken wire so the Botswana community could get radio. (see edit below)

This article mentions his brother reading letters from loved ones around the world, at the memorial.

Mushroom chef’s ex breaks his silence

The son of an elderly couple killed after eating suspected death cap mushrooms at a family lunch has revealed his mum’s final text as the pair are farewelled.

www.perthnow.com.au

ETA: Just found the link ... his father built a satellite dish out of chicken wire (not an antenna) so the community could watch television. His father was a science teacher by profession.

‘They were very much a team’: Son reveals final moments of mushroom poisoning victims

 

[SouthAussie]

I agree that there are contradictory statements from “friends.” What I am perceiving overall is that the relationship is dysfunctional.

If the poisoning was deliberate, I wonder why she felt the need to get rid of these people.
Some motives I have been musing over are:
Were they refusing to support her in a dispute over the children?
Did they know something she needed silenced?
Were they disapproving of her parenting?

I would guess that if EP has caused the grandparents harm, it would be about the kids in one way or another.
Those two children may be her whole world.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

In jest it certainly doesn’t read that way at all.

It's entirely subjective.

Also, it's slightly malicious reporting as clearly this person sought to throw her under the bus somewhat and is totally unreliable. We're still really none the wiser except this is clear confirmation the relationship was dysfunctional.

 

[Baby baby Jane]

No. I simply stated she has a dog and it appears to be a breed renowned for eating everything.
If there were leftovers, then potentially dog had some.
The dog is not dead, nor reported anywhere as being sick, so presumably it either:
(a) didn’t eat any leftovers, or
(b) like EP and kids, if it did eat them then it didn’t eat any poisoned beef Wellington.
To feed EP, two kids, 4 visitors, potentially the dog, AND have some to still give to health dept, there must have been A LOT of beef Wellington. To me this still lends itself to there being two of them.

Still convinced the toxin wasn’t in the Wellington, that’s the red-herring diversion. It was in something much easier to dispose of - sauce, gravy, tea …
This is a paraphrase from a Daily Mail where an “expert” medical Dr discusses the “clever poison”
He says … the poison is so potent that you do not even need to consume part of an actual mushroom to die, but simply eating or drinking liquid in which the mushrooms were cooked or boiled can be enough to kill you.

Seems like person could DRY them in the food dehydrator, and then rehydrate them in water and then use the tainted water to make tea, iced tea, sauce, gravy, …
Could hand over all of the solid leftovers for testing knowing 100% they are clean. Eat them, feed to kids, no problems because the toxin was in a gravy jug, or teapot, or iced tea jug. Just poured down the drain. Jug chucked out …

 

[Forest_Wood]

Could hand over all of the solid leftovers for testing knowing 100% they are clean. Eat them, feed to kids, no problems because the toxin was in a gravy jug, or teapot, or iced tea jug. Just poured down the drain. Jug chucked out …

In that case, I wonder if the drains can be tested for residue?

 

[TootsieFootsie]

So many rumours, it's hard to know what's true or what is just mischief making.

 

[jjenny]

I don’t think it is unusual if he experienced a bowel perforation or sepsis. Also possible he contracted C diff in hospital after routine surgery. Didn‘t SP mention one planned operation or procedure in his Facebook post?

Planned operation was after he already got sick and spend time in the hospital. He needed multiple operations.

 

[Forest_Wood]

He has a younger brother ... one of the articles spoke about how he and his brother were schooled over the radio while their parents were missionaries in Botswana. His father built a satellite dish out of chicken wire so the Botswana community could get radio. (see edit below)

This article mentions his brother reading letters from loved ones around the world, at the memorial.

Mushroom chef’s ex breaks his silence

The son of an elderly couple killed after eating suspected death cap mushrooms at a family lunch has revealed his mum’s final text as the pair are farewelled.

www.perthnow.com.au

ETA: Just found the link ... his father built a satellite dish out of chicken wire (not an antenna) so the community could watch television. His father was a science teacher by profession.

‘They were very much a team’: Son reveals final moments of mushroom poisoning victims

I don't see where this article speaks of a brother to SP. A brother of Don Patterson spoke.

ETA: It looks like you added a different link afterwards and that one does speak of The Patterson's son "Matt".

ETA: I missed it the first time but yes it is there. "Loved ones from around the world sent in letters which were read out by Simon’s younger brother Matthew."

 

[Salah11]

It's entirely subjective.

Also, it's slightly malicious reporting as clearly this person sought to throw her under the bus somewhat and is totally unreliable. We're still really none the wiser except this is clear confirmation the relationship was dysfunctional.

Well if she did kill 3 people I can’t blame them for throwing her under the bus.


Her story has more Holes than a colander at this stage and we literally know so little as it is but so far her story is farcical.