Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #8 *Arrest*

[Officer Dibble]

She claimed her kids didn't like mushrooms so she started sneaking into sweet baked goods.
Not poison ones, apparently.

Thanks. But why? If they don't like mushrooms why would a mother sneak them into food, on what basis I wonder?

 

[MsMarple]

Thanks. But why? If they don't like mushrooms why would a mother sneak them into food, on what basis I wonder?

It doesn’t make a lot of sense, especially since Erin’s daughter said she didn’t like mushrooms but sometimes ate them. So it’s not like she despised mushrooms and refused to even taste one. What’s the point of sneaking them into her food?

Australia mushroom murders trial: Erin Patterson’s daughter describes eating ‘leftovers’ of fatal lunch in police video

Court also hears from nurse who says triple murder accused told Leongatha hospital staff ‘I don’t want any of this’ in relation to treatment for suspected poisoning

www.theguardian.com

Patterson’s daughter tells the interviewer she does not like mushrooms but sometimes eats them. She says her mother sometimes bought mushrooms at the IGA in Korumburra or Woolworths in Leongatha.

 

[Spectrix]

What’s the point of sneaking them into her food?

One might suggest that it was experimentation for her premeditated murder plot.

 

[Centaurus]

Thanks. But why? If they don't like mushrooms why would a mother sneak them into food, on what basis I wonder?

Same reason parents sneak vegetables into their kid's food. They are super nutritious.

Health Benefits of Mushrooms

Find out what nutrients are in mushrooms and learn how it can help everything from obesity control to lower blood pressure.

www.webmd.com

 

[Spectrix]

One might suggest that it was experimentation for her premeditated murder plot.

Same reason parents sneak vegetables into their kid's food. They are super nutritious.

 

[Montrealaise]

Back at the start of the case, people suggested that maybe someone placed lethal dried mushrooms in her pantry. And unbeknownst to her, she randomly used them that day and poisoned her loved ones.

At the time, I was open to the possibility. But now, there is too much incriminating evidence against her specifically, for that theory to hold water. IMO

Her defense team has admitted she foraged for the mushrooms but was afraid to admit it. And they found traces of the toxins on the dehydrator she tipped. And she bragged on FB about practicing sneaking mushroom powder into everything.

So that alternate theory is out the window now. IMO

But why would she be afraid to admit that she foraged for mushrooms? People do occasionally mistake poisonous mushrooms for edible ones. I just read an article about Nicholas Evans, the author of The Horse Whisperer. He and his wife were staying at her parents' estate in Scotland when he decided to forage for mushrooms and cook them - unfortunately, the ones he picked were toxic and everyone who ate them, including himself, became very very ill and ended up having to have a kidney transplant. Certainly "I mistakenly picked the wrong mushroom" is much more plausible than blaming a grocery store.

 

[JennieM]

But why would she be afraid to admit that she foraged for mushrooms? People do occasionally mistake poisonous mushrooms for edible ones. I just read an article about Nicholas Evans, the author of The Horse Whisperer. He and his wife were staying at her parents' estate in Scotland when he decided to forage for mushrooms and cook them - unfortunately, the ones he picked were toxic and everyone who ate them, including himself, became very very ill and ended up having to have a kidney transplant. Certainly "I mistakenly picked the wrong mushroom" is much more plausible than blaming a grocery store.

BBM - that’s answering your question. She didn’t become ill, neither did her children. Intent to harm. Admitting she foraged for the mushrooms points to guilt because she knows there was an intent to harm, and she did harm.

 

[JLZ]

The fact that she’s up in her room playing Lego the night of the poisoning would really outline to me she was as calm and able to regulate her emotions: I would say if found guilty that she is bad, not mad.

I think she was playing Lego because she didn't feel calm and this was her form of self-soothing, avoiding, shutting down.

 

[Detechtive]

Same reason parents sneak vegetables into their kid's food. They are super nutritious.

Health Benefits of Mushrooms

Find out what nutrients are in mushrooms and learn how it can help everything from obesity control to lower blood pressure.

www.webmd.com

Yeah but her kids aren't little. They are preteen and teen. It is odd.

 

[Ellery84]

why would you sneak mushroom powder into everything though?

Because you’re testing out to see if the person can taste it? Before undertaking diabolical crime?

 

[Detechtive]

Belladonna is another name for Deadly Nightshade which I referenced in my previous posts.
As far as I know, the only mention of it was from an article or two:

A source close to the family addressed the 2022 illness, telling the Herald Sun Simon thought he ingested poison “through nightshade plants”.

I can't see anything reported in MSM referencing Belladonna.

I don't think it's been mentioned by name - I assume it was Belladonna because Tomato, potato, eggplant, capsicum can't make you sick unless you consume a huge amount of them, also, Belladonna causes bowel obstruction which is what I believe Simon had an operation for when he was in a coma. JMO

The only other poisonous nightshades have different names - like Devil's Trumpet, Angel's Trumpet etc.

 

[Porky1]

Yeah but her kids aren't little. They are preteen and teen. It is odd.

Nothing wrong with adding extra nutrients if that was her being a mum and not a potential poisoner.

It’s like adding legumes or extra veg to spaghetti bolognaise, adding vegetables that kids don’t eat but should. Often they develop a taste for those with gradual introduction. I haven’t stopped and my kids are adults.

 

[LinasK]

But the relatives said they were served on grey dishes with the exception of Erin who used a colorful dish. Puzzling.

I'm guessing color-coding of the plates so she knew who got the poisoned portions. She gave herself a non-poisoned one. Grey=poisoned, deathly palor. Colorful=full of life. Inside joke to herself.

 

[MsMarple]

Re: sneaking powdered mushrooms in the children’s food:

I could understand if the kids were picky eaters or vegans but they appear to be omnivores and ate a balanced meal of steak, potatoes and green beans for the leftover meal. That doesn’t sound like kids who need to have nutritious food sneaked into their meals behind their backs. JMO

Australia mushroom murders trial: Erin Patterson’s daughter describes eating ‘leftovers’ of fatal lunch in police video

Court also hears from nurse who says triple murder accused told Leongatha hospital staff ‘I don’t want any of this’ in relation to treatment for suspected poisoning

www.theguardian.com

 

[LinasK]

I know whenever I feel dizzy and clammy, I go firstly for a nice long drive with kids, then I stop by the Koo Wee Rup (the name sounds so appealing) and purchase a hot dog, dim sims and a coffee. It just takes the edge off my nausea. But that’s just me. I’m calling BS on Erin’s illness - and I’m going to actually predict that on Monday the prosecution and defence may come to a joint position on Erin’s good health after the lunch, and in the days following. IMO

The boy said his mum was 'quite insistent' he go flying because there was less chance of her spreading illness at the airfield.

He said the pair turned around and went back home but on the way, stopped at Koo Wee Rup to get some dim sims and hot dogs from a donut van.

'We got three dim sims, a hot dog, and we got mum a coffee,' he said.


Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial LIVE updates

Exactly! Coffee is acidic. Last thing you want to have if you already have diarrhea. Coffee makes me have to go.

 

[KathPlumber]

I do too.
In my opinion, the fake cancer diagnosis was craftily designed to be heard only by people who would end up dead.

Although people do send texts pretty quick. Even older people. If that was my parents who are in their late 70s, I’d have been getting live blog-style updates on the food and company

Edited to add: presuming the defendant to be guilty for hypothetical reasons, I feel like a lot of the actions make more sense if she thought the poison would act much, much faster. With far less time for discussion and far fewer witnesses ie doctors, nurses. It’s hard to know how a switched-on person would make such a mistake, though.

 

[KathPlumber]

cracked up at this

 

[LinasK]

Yep, as he believed she was very close to his Dad, Don, so I don’t believe in his wildest dreams that she would hurt them deliberately. I mean who does this?!

Colorado dentist charged with poisoning his wife's protein shakes faces new charges

and I was thinking of another case where the girlfriend poisoned the mother of her ex, who was a chiropracter that she murdered. Mary Yoder was the victim's name: New York Chiropractor Is Poisoned, Leading to "Dramatic" Court Decision: "We Just Want the Truth"

 

[KathPlumber]

It’s been posted here before, but reminder of this article from 2023 where Erin describes to someone her childhood and relationship w her mother:

In the messages, which were sent shortly after her mother Heather Scutter’s death in 2019, Ms Patterson described her as a “cold robot”.

“My mum was ultra weird her whole life,” she wrote.

“We had a horrible upbringing. Mum was essentially a cold robot.

“It was like being brought up in a Russian orphanage where they don’t touch babies.”

In the messages, first reported by the Herald Sun, Ms Patterson also claimed her late father Eitan Scutter was “a doormat”.

Also, from a colleague regarding air traffic control work:

“She was rated in the field and was actually responsible for running airspace for a while,” the former colleague told the Herald Sun.

Quite a bit more detail in the link itself

 

[katydid23]

But why would she be afraid to admit that she foraged for mushrooms? People do occasionally mistake poisonous mushrooms for edible ones. I just read an article about Nicholas Evans, the author of The Horse Whisperer. He and his wife were staying at her parents' estate in Scotland when he decided to forage for mushrooms and cook them - unfortunately, the ones he picked were toxic and everyone who ate them, including himself, became very very ill and ended up having to have a kidney transplant. Certainly "I mistakenly picked the wrong mushroom" is much more plausible than blaming a grocery store.

I guess she didn't admit it at the very beginning because she thought she could convince them that an Asian market was the source, so she'd be a victim too and not the person at fault.

So she continued with that lie, even while her in-laws were declining and in dire need of the antidote. She hoped they'd never know about the dehydrator and her posts about practicing with sneaking powdered mushrooms into people's food.

By the time LE figured out all of that incriminating stuff, there wasn't much EP could do or say. IMO

But you are right. If she had immediately told the doctors on that first morning, that she had cooked with wild mushrooms she had foraged, and brought in real leftovers, for them to test, she'd be a free woman right now. The family would have had quick treatment, but very ill but eventually recovered.

People would have been suspicious of her, but she wouldn't be facing life in prison.