Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #9 *Arrest*

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  • #261
3m ago22.19 EDT
Dr Thomas May: there are hundreds of species of amanita mushrooms

He says the mushroom amanita phalloides has the common name of “death cap”.

May says the mushroom’s “sporing bodies” appear for a few weeks at certain times of the year, the court hears.

The death cap’s native area of distribution to Europe and has spread to numerous countries – including Australia, May says.

He tells the jury that mushrooms have a symbiotic relationship with trees.

In Australia, death caps are almost always with oak trees, he says.

May says the mushrooms’ gills are white and remain so at maturity, while the stems are white or pale yellow.

 
  • #262
less than a minute ago

A lesson in death cap mushrooms​

Dr Tom May, a mycologist or fungi specialist, has taken to the witness box.
He told the court the scientific name for death cap mushrooms is amanita phalloides.
“Amanita is a particular group of mushrooms and phallodies is a particular species within that group,” he said.
Dr May said while not all amanitas were poisonous, most of them were.
The court heard death cap mushrooms grew from “fine threads” within the soil, which were connected to the roots of living trees, particularly oak trees.
He said death cap mushrooms were “relatively short-lived”.
“They would not last longer than a couple of weeks when they’re sitting in the field,” he said.
The court heard death cap mushrooms were exotic to Australia, having originated overseas.
Dr May said it was likely “accidentally introduced” to Australia and was first reported in Melbourne in the 1970s.

 
  • #263
Does anyone remember the location where she foraged for the Death Cap mushrooms? I don't think it was in Leongatha where she lived.

The prosecution has made some suggestions that they might have come from either a place called Loch or a place called Outtrim. These are locations nearby to where Erin Patterson lives. The reason they pointed out these spots is that there is a website called iNaturalist, which is a place where science enthusiasts go and document various things. And on that website, people have posted confirmed sightings of deathcap mushrooms. Prosecutors say Ms Patterson went to these areas shortly after these posts went up, the strong implication being, she went there to pick the mushrooms.

 
  • #264

Death caps can only last for two weeks in the fridge once collected, mushroom expert says​

  • The native area of distribution of death cap is Europe
  • It has spread to various countries, including USA, New Zealand and Australia
  • It was accidentally introduced, probably in soil with tree
  • It was first reported in Canberra in the 1960s and Melbourne in the 1970s
  • It is now in a wild number of locations in Victoria, it also occurs in Tasmania, Canberra, and South Australia.
  • Death cap grows in a symbiotic relationship with trees
  • In Australia, death cap is almost always with oak trees, but has been reported under beech and chestnut trees.
  • The sporing bodies (mushrooms) of death cap are found under or very near to the canopy of the host tree.
Asked by the prosecution how long death caps normally last in nature, May said “up to two weeks”.

Prosecution: “Once collected, how long might it last?”

May: “If it was in a refrigerator, maybe a couple of weeks.”

Prosecutor: “How does that compare to commercial mushrooms?”

May: “Commercial mushrooms will last longer because they are not infested with insects.”

 
  • #265

Databases of where death cap mushrooms are found​

By Judd Boaz​

Dr May says the distribution and location of death cap mushrooms is determined by a mixture of specimens collected and "citizen science portals".

These are then are brought together by data aggregators such as the Atlas of Living Australia, a publicly accessible online database.

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC asks about citizen science portals, and names the website iNaturalist.

“For fungi, [iNaturalist] is the largest citizen science platform,” Dr May says.
He tells the court more than 440,000 images of fungi in Australia have been posted to the site.

Slides are shown of screenshots from the iNaturalist website, showing records of where fungi is found on a map of Australia.

A map of south-eastern Australia with red dots pinpointing the location of death cap mushroom observations is shown to the court.
 
  • #266


11:07

Friend of Patterson's son says 'Erin just seemed like her normal self'​

The jury heard a statement from a friend of Patterson's now 16-year-old son.
Patterson, who is wearing a brown cardigan and a green top, sat quietly as the statement from the then 15-year-old boy was read to the jury.
The teenager said he had been friends with Patterson's son since Year 6, but couldn't remember the name of his friend's dad.
'Sam and I are very close friends,' he said.
The teenager said he would visit Patterson's son at their Leongatha home every Tuesday and Friday after youth club.
He said he stayed the night before the lunch and the next day attended the movies with his friend and sister.
The boy said his friend's dad dropped him and Patterson's son at the Leongatha home as the lunch gathering was wrapping up.
He said they all greeted each other and spoke about the son's flying lessons.
The boy said he and his friend ate some dessert, which he thought may have been a cake or muffin.
The teenager claimed he thought he saw his friend's grandma cleaning a plate, and believes he saw some white plates in the kitchen sink.
Later that evening, he said Patterson drove him home.
The boy said he spoke with his mate about school and can't remember if he spoke to Patterson.
'Erin just seemed like her normal self to me,' the boy said.
The court heard the boy went home because his friend had a flying lesson the following day.
Flight instructor Ulysses Villalobos made a statement that Patterson seemed 'easy-going' and a 'typical mum'.
He recalled Patterson dropping him off one time and they discussed the son’s flying performance.
'I told her he was good, and she seemed pretty proud,' he said in his statement.
He recalled on the Sunday after the lunch that he called Patterson to say he was running late for that afternoon's lesson.
The lesson was pushed from 2pm to 4pm, but he later called Patterson to cancel due to poor weather.
'She got grumpy at me,' he said.
She complained about the hour-long drive and why she hadn’t been contacted earlier.



11:25

Jury hears Patterson wanted to know why doctor was asking questions about mushrooms​

Dr Rhonda Stuart, who is the director of infection prevention and epidemiology at Monash Health, said she was asked to quiz Patterson on where she got her mushrooms.
'I was asked to come back and talk to her about a possible public health issue,' Dr Stuart told the jury.
'We were worried about the meal. I turned around and drove back to Monash Health to talk to her face-to-face. I saw her in the emergency room about 20 minutes later.'
The doctor said she asked Patterson a series of questions.
'I asked how she prepared the meal,' she said.
The doctor said Patterson told her she came to hospital to have her kids checked out.
She said she had given the kids some of that meal, but scraped off the mushroom paste, the jury heard.
Dr Stuart also told the jury Patterson said she’d been unwell on Sunday with 'gastro-like symptoms'.

'I asked about the meal,' she said.
‘She told me she made a beef Wellington and she’d made it with a mushroom paste.
‘I quizzed her about those mushrooms.'
The doctor said Patterson said they came from the supermarket and Asian food shop ‘a number of weeks prior’.
Patterson told the doctor the Asian shop mushrooms were in a sealed packet, which she removed and put into another container, the jury heard.
Dr Stuart said she had been interested in that packet, but it was gone.
She said Patterson told her she made a paste and that she used all of the dried mushrooms to make it.
'I was worried about those mushrooms but she couldn’t tell me where she got them, Oakleigh or Glen Waverley,' Dr Stuart said.
The doctor said Patterson said if she 'drove past that shop she might recognise it.'
‘She did say they had a strong smell,’ Dr Stuart said.
The doctor also denied she had foraged mushrooms.
Dr Stuart said Patterson wanted to know why she was being asked these questions.
'I told her I was worried about a public health issue,' Dr Stuart said.


11:48

Patterson given clean bill of health​

Consultant emergency physician Dr Varuna Ruggoo (pictured below) told the jury Patterson came into her care at the Monash Medical Centre on the morning of August 1.
The doctor said Patterson's liver function tests were all 'within normal limits'.
Dr Ruggoo told the jury it seemed Patterson's health was stable enough to be discharged.
She said it was presumed any suspected food poisoning was likely caused by death cap mushrooms.
Dr Ruggoo said she asked Patterson ‘specifically’ about symptoms including vomiting and diarrhoea and all of the answers were 'no'.
'She seemed clinically well with good mood and affect,' she said.
The doctor added Patterson had a normal respiratory rate, no respiratory distress, normal pulse range, normal blood pressure, that she was alert and her temperature was 'again within normal limits'.
'I did (deem her fit for discharge),' Dr Ruggoo said.
Dr Ruggoo was one of several medical experts including Dr Rhonda Stuart who spoke with Patterson at the Monash Medical Centre.


11:35

Patterson's blood test showed 'no evidence of poisoning of any kind'​

Monash Health emergency registrar Dr Laura Muldoon (pictured below) told the jury she asked Patterson about 'her symptoms' and 'clinical condition'.
Dr Muldoon told the jury she reported Patterson had nausea and diarrhoea throughout Sunday and into Monday.
'Erin felt she had suffered food poisoning from a home cooked meal of beef Wellington,' she said.
'I asked her about the ingredients (and) she reported eye fillet steak, garlic, dried dehydrated mushrooms, possibly shitake or porcini.’
The doctor said Patterson didn’t have the packed, or any leftover, mushrooms and denied foraging for mushrooms.
‘I noted that she looked clinically well. She had chapped lips, but otherwise looked well,’ she said.
The doctor told the jury she provided advice to continue the liver protection drugs.
She said she saw Patterson again sometime between 9am and 10am on August 1 and reviewed her.
‘She had remained well, she reported she was feeling better,’ Dr Muldoon said.
'All her blood tests and vitals were normal, there was no evidence of poisoning of any kind.
'After seeing her, I was tasked with sending the leftovers to a mycologist (a mushroom specialist) at the Royal Botanical Gardens.'
The jury was then shown an image of the leftovers which had been sent for testing.
The image depicted a pastie with some of the mushroom paste removed.
 
  • #267
1m ago03.28 BST

Death cap mushrooms can last up to a few weeks in fridge, expert tells court​

Dr Thomas May says mushrooms picked from the field last a few weeks before they begin to compose but the exact rate would depend on the insect infestation.

He says if the weather is wet, the decay of mushrooms may be quicker.

He says a fresh mushroom from the field could last up to a few weeks in the fridge.

May says fresh, commercial mushrooms will last longer because they are not infested with insects.

1m ago12.29 AEST
Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers is walking May through the website iNaturalist, a publicly available website where people post about nature.

May says you do not need an account to view observations on the website. But you do need an account to post an observation.

Each post contains an image, he says.

May says it is the “largest citizen platform” for fungi. May says each post also contains the location of where the fungi was spotted.

He says more than 440,000 images for fungi in Australia had been uploaded by February 2024.

 
  • #268
1m ago

iNaturalist website further explained to court​


By Judd Boaz​

Dr May says a user can find the exact location of each observation of death cap mushrooms.

"You can get the GPS point for each location ... by clicking on the red point," Dr May says.

lcimg-c041b26e-791f-4e1c-acee-bb7b9b9442ab.png
The iNaturalist website is one of the biggest platforms for logging fungi observations (iNaturalist)
He tells the court iNaturalist is incredibly precise, and can pinpoint locations of mushrooms to a particular suburban park.

The site shows the time and date of the observation, as well as who made the observation.

 
  • #269

iNaturalist website explained​

The jury has been shown screenshots of the iNaturalist website, which the prosecution alleges Patterson accessed to find the location of death cap mushrooms.

Myocologist Thomas May explained that sources of information about distribution, time, and appearance of death cap mushrooms in Australia are made through various ways, including:

  • Specimens in scientific reference collections such as fungaria (a museum for fungi)
  • Observations, often with photos but usually do not link to specimens (usually submitted through various citizen science portals, as apps or online)
  • Data aggregators combine data from all sources, specimens, and observations
May said iNaturalist is one of the sites that is used to document observations.

“It is a publicly accessible website.

“Members of the public make observations about nature

“You need an account to post an observation, (but) you do not need an account to view observations.

“iNaturalist covers all kinds of plant, animals, and fungi (and) all observations contain a photo.”

 
  • #270

Naturalist website further explained to court​

By Judd Boaz​

Dr May says a user can find the exact location of each observation of death cap mushrooms.

"You can get the GPS point for each location ... by clicking on the red point," Dr May says.

The iNaturalist website is one of the biggest platforms for logging fungi observations (iNaturalist)
He tells the court iNaturalist is incredibly precise, and can pinpoint locations of mushrooms to a particular suburban park.

The site shows the time and date of the observation, as well as who made the observation.
 
  • #271
1m ago

iNaturalist website further explained to court​


By Judd Boaz​

Dr May says a user can find the exact location of each observation of death cap mushrooms.

"You can get the GPS point for each location ... by clicking on the red point," Dr May says.

lcimg-c041b26e-791f-4e1c-acee-bb7b9b9442ab.png
The iNaturalist website is one of the biggest platforms for logging fungi observations (iNaturalist)
He tells the court iNaturalist is incredibly precise, and can pinpoint locations of mushrooms to a particular suburban park.

The site shows the time and date of the observation, as well as who made the observation.


Interesting that they only last a few weeks. That is rather a specific time frame to find them.
 
  • #272

Court hears no evidence of death cap mushrooms in China​

By Melissa Brown​

Dr May and the prosecutor are now discussing the distribution of death cap mushrooms around the world.

Using data from organisations that dedicate resources to mapping the spread of death caps, he agrees that they had first been reported in Australia from 1960s.

He says the data did not show them being recorded in China.

He said there was doubt about whether they were recorded South Korea, Japan and far eastern Asia.

Dr May says a study of the death cap from China in 2010 concluded "that currently there is no evidence that amanita phalloides occurs in China".
 
  • #273

Death cap mushrooms do not grow in China, court told​

The court has been shown a distribution map of death cap mushrooms across the world.

Under questioning from the prosecution, mycologist Thomas May confirmed death cap mushrooms have not been reported to grow in China.

 
  • #274
3 minutes ago

Death caps found on nature-tracking website in Victoria​

Dr May is giving evidence about a citizen website called iNaturalist.
He said it is a website where members of the public can make observations about nature, including plants, animals and fungi.
He agreed it was the largest platform for citizen science uploads of fungi.
“For fungi, there are more than 440,000 images posted for Australia,” a slide reads.
The jury is now being shown a search result for death cap mushrooms on iNaturalist.
The jury heard that the red dots on a map of Victoria, which appeared on a screen in the courtroom, indicated where death cap mushrooms were found to have grown.
“The full iNaturalist record shows an image, the location on a map, the date of the observation and the people who have identified the observation,” another slide reads.

 
  • #275

DNA testing and location of death cap mushrooms in Victoria​

By Judd Boaz​

Dr May tells the court about DNA testing that can be conducted on death cap mushrooms to identify particular species.

“A molecular fingerprint, we could call it like a barcode to identify individual species,” Dr May says.

Dr Rogers confirms with Dr May that no species have been traced back to China.

The mycologist tells the court that death cap mushrooms are found in a variety of locations across Victoria, both near Melbourne and regionally.

In Gippsland, Dr May says there are "only three reports from Outtrim, Loch and near Morwell".

He explains to the jury that there are more reports in well-populated areas such as Melbourne than there would be in less-populated areas in the country.
 
  • #276

Mushroom expert discusses death cap lookalikes​

By Judd Boaz​

A slide is shown of death cap mushroom reports around Melbourne.

"All these records just come from the random activities of citizen scientist and collectors," Dr May says.
Dr May again tells the court that occurrences of death cap are only found around members of the oak tree family.

Dr Rogers asked if there are similar-looking mushrooms to the death cap.

"There are certainly some mushrooms that occur in Victoria that are quite similar to the death cap," he says.
He outlines the visual differences between the death cap mushroom and some different mushrooms found in Victoria, such as the highly toxic marbled death cap or amanita marmorata.
 
  • #277
now12.44 AEST

‘Death cap’ mushrooms found throughout Victoria, expert tells court​

Dr Thomas May says, in Victoria, death cap mushrooms are found from eastern Melbourne to the Dandenong ranges – as well as in regional centres.

In the Gippsland region, there are three records of death cap mushrooms, in Loch, Outtrim and near Morwell, the court hears.

May says the Loch record was in April 2023 and the Outtrim record was in May 2023.

The third record, which is near Morwell, was within the past 20 years, he says.

May says there are more reports in well-populated areas such as Melbourne.

He says there are mushrooms that occur in Victoria that have a similar appearance to death caps, such as the stubble rosegill and marbled death cap.

 
  • #278
now03.46 BST
Dr Thomas May says death cap mushrooms appear for a short period “after suitable rain” – usually in autumn. They can also appear in winter or summer.

He says most observations of death caps have been made in May but also observed in all months from January to July, though rarely in December.

 
  • #279
Does anyone remember the location where she foraged for the Death Cap mushrooms? I don't think it was in Leongatha where she lived.

Police confirmed on 14 August that Patterson provided them with a detailed statement, in which she said she had bought dried mushrooms from an Asian supermarket in Mount Waverley (around 118 kilometres (73 mi) away from Leongatha) three months before the lunch.


From today's court proceedings...
The mycologist tells the court that death cap mushrooms are found in a variety of locations across Victoria, both near Melbourne and regionally.

In Gippsland, Dr May says there are "only three reports from Outtrim, Loch and near Morwell".

He explains to the jury that there are more reports in well-populated areas such as Melbourne than there would be in less-populated areas in the country.
April 28

The prosecution says Erin's mobile phone data suggests she travels to Loch before returning to Korumburra.

Two and a half hours later, Erin allegedly purchases a Sunbeam food lab electronic dehydrator from a Leongatha store.



 
Last edited:
  • #280

Death cap mushrooms do not grow in China, court told​

The court has been shown a distribution map of death cap mushrooms across the world.

Under questioning from the prosecution, mycologist Thomas May confirmed death cap mushrooms have not been reported to grow in China.

So this is to prove that she can't blame them on having bought them in an Asian grocery store and that she had to have picked them? Earlier in the thread someone showed a picture of a box of mixed variety mushrooms. In the states mushrooms are only sold by the specific variety- like you buy a box of only Bella or Crimini mushrooms or Portabella or Shitaki for example, not varieties.
 
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