Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #7 *Arrest*

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Set up? Framed? By whom?

I have never seen anything about lodgers. Have you got a link to that?

When the case first broke I found it so unbelievable that anyone would think they'd get away with such a crime, I imagined all sorts of theories about what else might have gone on.

At the beginning there was some mention that maybe EP had people or a person at the house sometimes and I can't recall if it was paid employees (such as cleaner / grounds keeper / admin assistant / childcare assistant) - ie some sort of staff - or whether there was mention of a room let / housemate. I don't have any proof of that.

It originally occurred to me that this could have been a vendetta against EP herself by a malicious person. However, I think that due to all the evidence arising and the fact that LE aren't stupid this cannot be the case. I still find it astounding that someone who has intellectual capacity and a brilliant mind and can do forward planning (air traffic control) would not join the dots and plan for aftermath in this outrageous crime so something is not quite explained. Unless she didn't care anymore and decided the rest of her life in prison is acceptable.

JMO MOO

 

[SouthAussie]

Completely agree but as someone above mentioned, I don't think the intention was to poison her kids but for them to be her 'guinea pigs' in the sense of seeing how to put mushrooms in food in such a way that would be undetected. Perfecting her method maybe? I don't know, you might say it's premeditated if she's moving up from muffins to beef Wellingtons. JMO

Maybe she had some fascination with doing things and getting away with it.

Mushrooms in the brownies. (and told Simon)
Hired a cleaner to secretly clean the house. (and told people on a forum)
Simon's mysterious and serious gut ailment that almost killed him the prior year. (an alleged attempt at murder)

And those are just the things we know about. Maybe there are more secret things she did that no-one knows about.

imo

 

[Sarahlou]

Maybe she had some fascination with doing things and getting away with it.

Mushrooms in the brownies. (and told Simon)
Hired a cleaner to secretly clean the house. (and told people on a forum)
Simon's mysterious and serious gut ailment that almost killed him the prior year. (an alleged attempt at murder)

And those are just the things we know about. Maybe there are more secret things she did that no-one knows about.

imo

I was thinking that too. Maybe she got some kind of weird kick out of it.

 

[MrJ]

I seriously believe the issue is control. She seems to like ‘playing God’ if you like and seeing what she can get away with as you say. The secret cleaning is a mild example but the most striking example to me is that of her response to Simon’s text saying he felt too uncomfortable to attend the lunch. Almost guilt-tripping because of the reaction of being reminded that she can’t control him? And of course the lunch itself. Controlling the narrative she had cancer (later revealed by her defense to be a lie) and the mushrooms (also shown in seeing what it was like feeding her child/ren muffins with powdered mushrooms). All alleged JMO

 

[minusfour]

Could someone please remind me of the age of the children at the time of the lunch?

 

[Salah11]

I just don’t understand how the defense are going to convince the jury this was a tragic accident.

1) She made individual wellingtons.


2) She had her own special coloured plate.

3) Lied about letting her guests pick out their plates first.

4) Left hospital even though at this stage she knew her guests were seriously sick.

5) Lied about having cancer at lunch which got everyone’s to go to lunch.

6) She lied about where she got the mushrooms when time was of an essence.

7) She tried to unsuccessfully throw away evidence.


Probably stuff I’m missing but so far signs don’t look good. IMO

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Perhaps she was using the children as Guinea pigs to test if they could taste (non poisonous) mushroom powder in a variety of food items such as muffins.

She may have had intentions to bake a poisonous cake, slice or batch of muffins to give to intended victims but happened across beef Wellington as the most convincing dish to conceal the death cap mushrooms in.

Yes! Good point, if her kids hated mushrooms and yet she could still sneak dried powdered mushroom into their snacks, then she knew she could disguise the taste of mushrooms in food served to others, maybe?

 

[JennieM]

I just don’t understand how the defense are going to convince the jury this was a tragic accident.

1) She made individual wellingtons.


2) She had her own special coloured plate.

3) Lied about letting her guests pick out their plates first.

4) Left hospital even though at this stage she knew her guests were seriously sick.

5) Lied about having cancer at lunch which got everyone’s to go to lunch.

6) She lied about where she got the mushrooms when time was of an essence.

7) She tried to unsuccessfully throw away evidence.


Probably stuff I’m missing but so far signs don’t look good. IMO

To me the question now is did she set out to kill them or did she want to make them sick? But there was an intent to harm IMO.

 

[JLZ]

I just had an awful thought! Insane or not, would she have possibly ever considered killing the kids too, for the sympathy? Sorry, haven't even thought this through!

Well, there have been a lot of examples of parents killing their children to maximally hurt the other parent.

 

[SouthAussie]

Could someone please remind me of the age of the children at the time of the lunch?

The eldest child was born in 2009, so would have been 14 or approaching 14.

I don't think we know about the younger child's age, but old enough to go to a movie with the older child and friend while the deadly lunch was happening.

imo

 

[andymoz]

Could someone please remind me of the age of the children at the time of the lunch?

Son born 2009, daughter born 2014. (source Herald Sun online 1/5/2025)

 

[Yh5r]

I've just started to follow the case.
Have read up on the trial so far and the info in this thread's last couple of pages.
In my mind there is no doubt of EP's guilt.
- The dehydrator with traces of the DC
- The lie about the cancer diagnosis paints a horrible picture about her character
- Her not getting seriously ill
- Her lying and changing her story about the origins of the mushrooms again reiterates the picture about her dishonest character
- The different coloured plate (yes she could have only had a set of four plates but it this likely? She was a wealthy woman and supposedly spent a lot of time and effort getting ready for this lunch only to not have matching plates, doesn't pass the pub test in my mind)

I am not convinced of the murder intent though at this stage. Could it have been manslaughter instead.

As for her motive, a few things point to lonliness and becoming more and more disconnected from the estranged husband and the in laws:
- Her being upset about the 70th birthday that she was not explicitly invited too
- Her asking about money from the estranged husband for the children was more as a gesture to feel that he deeply cares for her, she is wealthy and does not need the money. When he refused to give her the money, this might have cut her deeper.
- Him wanting to communicate through a mediator also distanced him more from her

She might have been very hurt by losing her mother a few years prior and found it painful to see the happy family the estranged husband and her in laws had. When she became more and more excluded from this family unit, her jealousy, frustration and rage took over and she wanted to cause extreme harm to the family, not really caring who was hit as she believed due to their tight knit family if one was hurt/ injured, all others would suffer as a result too.

JMO

 

[JennieM]

To me the question now is did she set out to kill them or did she want to make them sick? But there was an intent to harm IMO.

Answering my own question… her lying about cancer and her not asking about her in-laws health when they were at hospital (Simon’s testimony), IMO she wanted them dead. If it was just to make them sick and the plan went wrong so they all started dying, I imagine she would be worrying and she’d be checking more about their health.

 

[JennieM]

I think her motive is rage not money. The triggers are Simon putting separated in the tax form and then paying $40 a month only for the children, and his family “rejecting” her following the separation.

 

[JennieM]

How did she think she’d get away with it?

 

[JBowie]

Son born 2009, daughter born 2014. (source Herald Sun online 1/5/2025)

Poor kids, aged 16 and 11, being put through all of this while still at school.

 

[Old Soul]

Are we allowed to discuss the alleged attempted murder charges that were dropped?
Can anyone remind me of the approximate dates these occurred?
Just curious about their timing in relation to the escalation of conflict between EP and SP.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Well, I said it before, and I'll say it again - the only way I can see Erin not guilty of murder and attempted murder is if she didn't actually intend to kill them, but "just" to make them suffer. It seems particularly evil when they were all such good people and apparently went to enormous lengths to be nice to her and include her. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Erin did receive an invitation to the 70th party, but chose to lie about it. Goodness knows how much damage she's done to her children. Perhaps she is actually insane.

Indeed. I've always maintained that happy healthy sane people don't get to the point of murdering others, so it's always problematic when someone who has killed like this is considered 'sane' (which is a different thing again that 'able to understand the charges put to them' or 'legally competent to stand trial'.

In what world would anyone rational decide to murder four or five people - or even just slightly injure them? We know EP is exceptionally intelligent and had previously functioned on a high level in many aspects. So it's the emotional / psychological / mental health issues that are going on here.

I suppose the court only needs to determine that she is culpable for these deaths, however, in the case of something like schizophrenia or someone having a psychotic episode, in my country a person could be found not culpable on the grounds of diminished responsibility and not having agency over their thinking and actions.

There's been no suggestion or mention of this and I suppose we have to assume that either her defence are yet to discuss any potential mental health issues, or they have been ruled out.

There are some clues that not all was well in her mind and the very idea that a lump in the elbow could be ovarian cancer is truly bizarre. The idea that she could report this to others and have them believe her is bizarre. The idea of murdering four or five people and thinking there'll be no consequences is bizarre. JMO MOO

 

[Yh5r]

How did she think she’d get away with it?

That blows my mind too. Apparently she is very intelligent, but this was such poor planning. If the different coloured plate really was too indicate the non toxic version of the dish, why didn't she choose something more subtly, like a small chip in the plate or something. Glad she didn't of course but it is odd.

 

[SouthAussie]

Are we allowed to discuss the alleged attempted murder charges that were dropped?
Can anyone remind me of the approximate dates these occurred?
Just curious about their timing in relation to the escalation of conflict between EP and SP.

I believe the serious one was in June 2022, the fatal lunch was in July 2023.
Simon had reportedly felt queasy and unwell on one or two occasions prior to the serious one, after spending time with Erin.


It was revealed on Tuesday that Simon 'almost died' in June 2022 after suffering from a mystery stomach illness that is still yet to be explained by his doctors.

'I collapsed at home then was in an induced coma for 16 days through which I had three emergency operations mainly on my small intestine, plus an additional planned operation,' he wrote.

'My family were asked to come and say goodbye to me twice as I was not expected to live.

'I was in intensive care for 21 days, after which I was in the general ward for a week, and now I'm at a rehab place.'

MSN