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

[Megnut]

If it were that easy, why go to the bother of cooking a fancy Beef Wellington meal which requires a lot of effort. Just serve coffee and cake like someone with actual cancer would...

You don't know the half of it (I say facetiously). You maybe don't realize how much effort you'll put into a meal when the ovarian cancer you don't have is bursting out your elbow and you know your time with your guests is finite....

Eat up, Everyone.

JMO

 

[arrogantcat]

When you look at the timeline , she really started to freak out after being interviewed by Dr Rhonda Stuart on Tuesday the 1st from the department of health. Erin the next day on Wed the 2nd does a factory reset on Phone B ( which seems to be her usual phone ?) before discarding the dehydrator the same day. Police start investigating the next day ( Thurs the 3rd ) when Erin than moves SIM card with the number 04XX 835 into Phone B . Police start investigation this day.

Thur 4th Heather & Gail die, Don dies on Friday the 5th. Police find the dehydrator this day.

Police get a search warrant on the 5th & seize Phone B with SIM card number 04XX 835 & take Erin in for questioning.

Erin allegedly remotely conducts a factory reset of Phone B, which is still held by police.

Erin allegedly continues to use Phone A with number 04XX 783. Police say they never recover this phone.

All allegedly

I really think she thought no one would suspect her & that the quests would get sick but not die?


In summary:

Sat 29th July 2023

• the lunch

Sunday 30th July

• Don & Gail get sick - go to Dandenong Hospital
• Simon takes Heather & Ian to Korumburra Hospital than to Leongatha Hospital
• Erin tells kids she feels unwell, but does errands & serves the kids leftovers

Monday 31st July

• Doctors at Leongatha and Dandenong Hospital confer about the poisonings
• Erin takes the kids to school than goes to Leongatha Hospital around 8am & leaves within 5 mins
• Erin returns to the hospital around 9:48am. She is transferred to Monash Medical Centre, and meets Simon and her children there.
• Don and Gail arrive at Austin Hospital.

Tuesday 1st August

• Heather and Ian arrive at Austin Hospital.
• Despite escalating medical treatment, Donald, Gail and Heather continue to deteriorate.
• Erin is assessed by a Dr at Monash ( Dr Laura Muldoon) . She is discharged from hospital about 1pm. She is well.
• The Department of Health interviews Erin about the lunch ( Dr Rhonda Stuart )

Wednesday 2nd August

• Erin allegedly conducts a factory reset on Phone B, which she had been using before February 12.
• She allegedly drives to Koonwarra Transfer Station and Landfill, and deposits items into an e-waste bin.
• Monash Council begins visiting Asian-style grocery stores in Melbourne's south-east to find products matching Erin's description.

Thursday 3rd August

• A Victoria Police investigation is launched into the July 29 lunch.
• Erin allegedly moves her SIM card with the number 04XX 835 into Phone B.

Friday 4th August

• Heather dies at 2:50am.
• Gail dies at 5:55pm.
• Police travel to Koonwarra Transfer Station and find a black Sunbeam dehydrator in an e-waste bin.

Saturday 5th August

• Donald dies at 11:30pm.
• Police get search warrant, where police seize Phone B with SIM card number 04-- ---835.
• Erin is taken to Wonthaggi Police Station and interviewed.

Sunday 6th August -

• Erin allegedly remotely conducts a factory reset of Phone B, which is still held by police.
• Erin allegedly continues to use Phone A with number 04----- 783. Police say they never recover this phone.

Friday August 11th

• The Department of Health concludes its investigation and is unable to find any store selling mushrooms matching Erin's description

Monday 11th September

• Ian Wilkinson is moved into a rehabilitation ward.

The timeline prosecutors alleged in the mushroom murder trial

Erin Patterson has been found guilty of murdering three people and attempting to murder a fourth. Here's what we know about the case, based on material put to the jury.

www.abc.net.au

This is a great catch!
I would like to believe that she only intended to make her guests unwell, and not kill them, although the use of death caps makes that harder. The clue is very much in the name with those!

That being said - a long-term poisoner who aimed to make people unwell, in order to give herself a sense of power and control… I could buy that. Nothing from her history really suggests murderous psychopathy, and her alleged glee at concealing Mushrooms in her daughters’ cakes would fit with this, as would the surprisingly poor cover up.
Awful, cruel and pathological behaviour - but easier to live with long term while blending in.
It would also sketch out a motive: to feel like she had the upper hand and was secretly in control, and able to dole out ‘justice’ against those who hurt her. She would want them to suffer, not die, and then she can be the lovely helpful saviour looking after everyone, or whatever.

This feels like the most plausible fit with what we’ve heard of her character, for me, so far.

Perhaps she had used death caps before with much milder results and believed this would be the same. I know the composition of psilocybin (the ‘magic’ in magic mushrooms) varies a lot depending on age, growing conditions, moisture content and size - and not always in the way you’d expect. Eg, the smaller mushrooms can be much more potent than the large. It’s plausible that the same might be true for the toxins, enough to make safe dosing impossible to guess.

 

[Spectrix]

I would like to believe that she only intended to make her guests unwell, and not kill them, although the use of death caps makes that harder. The clue is very much in the name with those!

One could have chosen Yellow Stainers for instance, they're a far more common mushroom, and the lucky recipients would just have four to six hours of explosive diarrhoea and vomiting to look forward to, instead of enduring several days of it while their livers slowly dissolve and their kidneys fail and the rest of thier organs shut down one by one.

To chose a toxin that causes such a slow, painful and undignified demise surely must suggest utter hatred.
I wouldn't wish that experience upon my worst enemy, if I was unfortunate enough to have any.

I don't think death caps are capable of mild results. <modsnip: sub judice>

 

[drsleuth]

This is a great catch!
I would like to believe that she only intended to make her guests unwell, and not kill them, although the use of death caps makes that harder. The clue is very much in the name with those!

That being said - a long-term poisoner who aimed to make people unwell, in order to give herself a sense of power and control… I could buy that. Nothing from her history really suggests murderous psychopathy, and her alleged glee at concealing Mushrooms in her daughters’ cakes would fit with this, as would the surprisingly poor cover up.
Awful, cruel and pathological behaviour - but easier to live with long term while blending in.
It would also sketch out a motive: to feel like she had the upper hand and was secretly in control, and able to dole out ‘justice’ against those who hurt her. She would want them to suffer, not die, and then she can be the lovely helpful saviour looking after everyone, or whatever.

This feels like the most plausible fit with what we’ve heard of her character, for me, so far.

Perhaps she had used death caps before with much milder results and believed this would be the same. I know the composition of psilocybin (the ‘magic’ in magic mushrooms) varies a lot depending on age, growing conditions, moisture content and size - and not always in the way you’d expect. Eg, the smaller mushrooms can be much more potent than the large. It’s plausible that the same might be true for the toxins, enough to make safe dosing impossible to guess.

At this stage agree , I don't think she wanted the victims to die, but make them quite sick ( which is very cruel )

She was becoming distant to them & Simon IMO & in her warped thinking, to try & "keep" them , she could make them ill & swoop in & be the caring ex daughter in law, the saviour, there to help these poor people etc

But they were very ill & dying, everyone was asking questions , she has freaked out & carried out all the post offence conduct.

She should owned up to foraging the mushrooms & the possibility of death cap mushrooms & maybe saved their lives. But instead she choose not to & that will be her down fall if found guilty IMO

All IMO & allegedly

But I am very interested to see the police case play out & what they found on her digital devices etc . There has to be a reason she remotely wiped her phone/s.

Whey did she have 2 phones???

 

[katydid23]

Wow. I must have missed this. When did she admit to foraging them?

Apparently she admitted it to her defense team because they have said she admitted she foragered for mushrooms and then panicked when her guests got sick so she tipped the dehydrator, etc.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/30/australia/australia-mushroom-poisoning-trial-intl-hnk/index.html

During opening arguments on Wednesday, Patterson’s lawyers admitted that she initially lied to police when she said she hadn’t foraged for mushrooms and didn’t own a dehydrator. They said when she learned how ill her guests had become after eating her meal, she “panicked” and acted in ways that may seem suspicious.

 

[Deleted member 363451]

This is a great catch!
I would like to believe that she only intended to make her guests unwell, and not kill them, although the use of death caps makes that harder. The clue is very much in the name with those!

That being said - a long-term poisoner who aimed to make people unwell, in order to give herself a sense of power and control… I could buy that. Nothing from her history really suggests murderous psychopathy, and her alleged glee at concealing Mushrooms in her daughters’ cakes would fit with this, as would the surprisingly poor cover up.
Awful, cruel and pathological behaviour - but easier to live with long term while blending in.
It would also sketch out a motive: to feel like she had the upper hand and was secretly in control, and able to dole out ‘justice’ against those who hurt her. She would want them to suffer, not die, and then she can be the lovely helpful saviour looking after everyone, or whatever.

This feels like the most plausible fit with what we’ve heard of her character, for me, so far.

Perhaps she had used death caps before with much milder results and believed this would be the same. I know the composition of psilocybin (the ‘magic’ in magic mushrooms) varies a lot depending on age, growing conditions, moisture content and size - and not always in the way you’d expect. Eg, the smaller mushrooms can be much more potent than the large. It’s plausible that the same might be true for the toxins, enough to make safe dosing impossible to guess.

I believe that she had used death caps before. Remember the previous 3 occasions that Simon had fallen mysteriously ill - the third time in 2022, going to ICU and being put into an induced coma? His family members said goodbye to him twice on that occasion. Erin knew that she was playing with fire and just how dangerous death caps are. I think that she had murder on her mind with that fateful lunch...

 

[Spectrix]

She was becoming distant to them & Simon IMO & in her warped thinking, to try & "keep" them , she could make them ill & swoop in & be the caring ex daughter in law, the saviour, there to help these poor people etc

She certainly didn't swoop in and care for these folk while they were lying in hospital dying for days and days.

She chose a toxin that would cause them a slow and agonising death, and even when the hospital staff begged her for answers, she neglected to tell them that she'd foraged for those mushrooms.

She was given multiple opertunities to be the caring daughter in law, and she chose to let them suffer instead.

I believe that she had used death caps before. Remember the previous 3 occasions that Simon had fallen mysteriously ill - the third time in 2022, going to ICU and being put into an induced coma?

No, the first thing that death caps do is start destroying the liver. This is well before the vomiting and diarrhoea starts. Simon had no history of Liver damage.

 

[katydid23]

At this stage agree , I don't think she wanted the victims to die, but make them quite sick ( which is very cruel )

She was becoming distant to them & Simon IMO & in her warped thinking, to try & "keep" them , she could make them ill & swoop in & be the caring ex daughter in law, the saviour, there to help these poor people etc

But they were very ill & dying, everyone was asking questions , she has freaked out & carried out all the post offence conduct.

She should owned up to foraging the mushrooms & the possibility of death cap mushrooms & maybe saved their lives. But instead she choose not to & that will be her down fall if found guilty IMO

All IMO & allegedly

But I am very interested to see the police case play out & what they found on her digital devices etc . There has to be a reason she remotely wiped her phone/s.

Whey did she have 2 phones???

I'd agree with you but one main thing gives me pause---if she didn't want them to die, why didn't she help the doctors with the antidote? Instead she blocked them and continued to lie.

If she just wanted the to get sick but not die, she had a perfect chance to save them but she declined the opportunity.

 

[Deleted member 363451]

She certainly didn't swoop in and care for these folk while they were lying in hospital dying for days and days.

She chose a toxin that would cause them a slow and agonising death, and even when the hospital staff begged her for answers, she neglected to tell them that she'd foraged for those mushrooms.

She was given multiple opertunities to be the caring daughter in law, and she chose to let them suffer instead.



No, the first thing that death caps do is start destroying the liver. This is well before the vomiting and diarrhoea starts. Simon had no history of Liver damage.

Yes, you're right. She must have used something else back then. I still believe that she intended to kill her lunch guests, or at least she was totally aware that they could in fact die.

 

[drsleuth]

She certainly didn't swoop in and care for these folk while they were lying in hospital dying for days and days.

She chose a toxin that would cause them a slow and agonising death, and even when the hospital staff begged her for answers, she neglected to tell them that she'd foraged for those mushrooms.

She was given multiple opertunities to be the caring daughter in law, and she chose to let them suffer instead.



No, the first thing that death caps do is start destroying the liver. This is well before the vomiting and diarrhoea starts. Simon had no history of Liver damage.

Yeah I know

I'd agree with you but one main thing gives me pause---if she didn't want them to die, why didn't she help the doctors with the antidote? Instead she blocked them and continued to lie.

If she just wanted the to get sick but not die, she had a perfect chance to save them but she declined the opportunity.

I don't know.


Just trying to think of a reason why she thought this would ever turn out OK for her.

 

[Megnut]

I wonder what's harder. Telling your children you have ovarian cancer. When you don't. Or telling them that you're being charged with four familial murders, and oh, by the way, I gave you some of what they were having. Oh, and double by the way, I hope it's not too unsettling to know I've been hiding mushrooms in all sorts of places. Cheerio.

Those poor kids. They did not sign up for this.

JMO

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Yeah I know
I don't know.
Just trying to think of a reason why she thought this would ever turn out OK for her.

BBM

This is the crux of the issue isn't it?

After all we know about EP, then we know she's not stupid and also that this is not a crime of rage or passion because the beef wellingtons take a long time to prepare, never mind the time and effort in collecting, drying, and using the DC mushrooms.

She must have had some reason to think this crime would go undetected but what could it possibly be?

 

[Deleted member 363451]

BBM

This is the crux of the issue isn't it?

After all we know about EP, then we know she's not stupid and also that this is not a crime of rage or passion because the beef wellingtons take a long time to prepare, never mind the time and effort in collecting, drying, and using the DC mushrooms.

She must have had some reason to think this crime would go undetected but what could it possibly be?

How can you be sure that this wasn't a crime of rage? I would say. that she must have really resented her lunch guests to have even done such a horrific, evil thing to them...

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

How can you be sure that this wasn't a crime of rage? I would say. that she must have really resented her lunch guests to have even done such a horrific, evil thing to them...

I meant a fit of temper / outburst. Obviously what she's done is a very tortuous and violent act but the amount of time it took to prepare - many days or even several weeks - isn't quite the sort of rage I was thinking of.

 

[Deleted member 363451]

I meant a fit of temper / outburst. Obviously what she's done is a very tortuous and violent act but the amount of time it took to prepare - many days or even several weeks - isn't quite the sort of rage I was thinking of.

More like a quiet or silent rage, which can be just as dangerous...

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

More like a quiet or silent rage, which can be just as dangerous...

I'm thinking more 'hate' to the point it's a sort of mass murder, like a mini genocide against ex husband Simon and his people.

 

[BreakingNews]

She admitted it to police.

So she admitted to police that she foraged specifically for death caps? I think not.

 

[BreakingNews]

"A defence lawyer representing accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson has told a jury she lied about a cancer diagnosis and foraging mushrooms, but is innocent of murdering three relatives with a poisoned meal."

'Panicked' Erin Patterson lied to police but is innocent of triple murder, court hears

Defence lawyers for accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson tell a jury she lied about a cancer diagnosis and foraging mushrooms, but is innocent of murdering three relatives with a poisoned meal.

www.abc.net.au

Thanks Jess. But she did not admit to foraging specifically for death caps as you earlier stated. That's what I was quering.

 

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[Deleted member 363451]

Thanks Jess. But she did not admit to foraging specifically for death caps as you earlier stated. That's what I was quering.

"A defence lawyer representing accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson has told a jury she lied about a cancer diagnosis and foraging mushrooms, but is innocent of murdering three relatives with a poisoned meal."