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

[JBowie]

I can't provide citations here because I read it years ago, but - as a forager - I have read accounts in the past that people who had accidentally ingested death caps had said it was the most delicious mushroom they had ever had. The forbidden mushie!

As Robert Wasson, the first Westerner to popularise the consumption of hallucinogenic mushrooms, wrote for Harvard University in 1972, “The symptoms of poisoning by the deadly amanitas are distinctive, dramatic and terrifying. To begin with, the lethal amanitas taste good – on this the abundant testimony of victims shows no dissenting voice. Nothing arouses suspicion as the greedy diner consumes his fateful dish; nor does he suspect anything for many hours after.

[...]

When cooking wild mushrooms, [mycologist (fungi expert) at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria] Dr Lebel says, “leave half for the coroner”.

The genus Amanita contains about 600 species of agarics, including some of the most toxic known mushrooms found worldwide, as well as some well-regarded edible species (and many species of unknown edibility) -- Wiki

Elegant but deadly: why death cap mushrooms are a forager's nightmare

It’s peak season for wild mushrooms but be careful about picking your own. Just one morsel of the wrong fungus can kill.

www.smh.com.au

 

[Spectrix]

I think she spent a lot of time online, in true crime groups and chatting to "friends" to fill her time.

Um, pretty sure you just described everyone in this thread

 

[Little Jack]

Um, pretty sure you just described everyone in this thread

Hey dont call me out like that

 

[Spectrix]

“The symptoms of poisoning by the deadly amanitas are distinctive, dramatic and terrifying. To begin with, the lethal amanitas taste good...
When cooking wild mushrooms Dr Lebel says, “leave half for the coroner”.

That reminds me it's time for a midnight snack

 

[Tortoise]

That reminds me it's time for a midnight snack

View attachment 586215

Actually they look like they'd make good corks too!

 

[Baby baby Jane]

Motive --> Rejection

“She said Don and Gail had been the parents she hadn’t had. That her parents died a long time ago. That she felt loved and supported by them. But that relationship had changed recently and she felt isolated from them,” the worker said.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

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[Baby baby Jane]

Interesting....Both leftover residue from Erin Patterson's dehydrator and mushroom paste leftovers from the lunch tested positive for death cap mushroom toxins.

She also refused to let her lunch guests help plate up food and was "reluctant" to allow them to view her pantry, her trial has been told. The claim was made by pastor Ian Wilkinson, the sole survivor

Possible that there were “No DC Mushrooms” when examined in microscope because the Death Caps were powderised.

The mushroom experts didn’t see the death cap mushrooms structure under microscope … but the micro-analysis showed the A&B toxins. So she was a bit clever??

Meat marinated in solution w the powder? Powder added to the paste? The possible gravy. Blitzing in the food processor destroyed the mushroom structure … but kept the toxins.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Even if they hadn't made it to hospital and died at home a lot quicker (maybe that's what she was expecting?!), didn't she foresee that there would be a major inquiry and a clear link to these 4 people from different households attending the same lunch and then dying a short time after??
I really do wonder if she is on the spectrum, highly intelligent with certain subject matters but not able to see the big picture?

It's my firm belief she either thought

- they would become sickly and die in the long term slowly from organ failure and this would happen at different rates depending on age / health & fitness and would be impossible to prove in the future;

-or- she saw no viable future for herself and planned this revenge fully knowing she will be incarcerated and doesn't care about that consequence;

-or- she was in some form of psychosis / delusion whereby she had lost contact with reality (there has been no reference to a severe mental health episode I don't think);

JMO MOO

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

I think it's a case of small town thinking. Out there in the sticks, they are quite isolated and it may have gone down as a simple case of salmonella (in her mind).

Add to that, autopsies on elderly people are not routinely done.

I think she grossly overestimated her intelligence and grossly underestimated the public health sector and the detectives. Dunning Kruger.

But even then, perhaps she wasn't in a rational state of mind and her resentments and anger clouded her judgment and there is no method to her madness. Murder never makes sense after all.

Also an idea, maybe she thought or even knew that they'd be declared dead due to covid or long covid as many people had their deaths signed off as during recent years in the pandemic.

JMO MOO

 

[Mirabel091]

It's my firm belief she either thought

- they would become sickly and die in the long term slowly from organ failure and this would happen at different rates depending on age / health & fitness and would be impossible to prove in the future;

-or- she saw no viable future for herself and planned this revenge fully knowing she will be incarcerated and doesn't care about that consequence;

-or- she was in some form of psychosis / delusion whereby she had lost contact with reality (there has been no reference to a severe mental health episode I don't think);

JMO MOO

I wonder - We've heard there's no safe dose for death cap mushrooms. But, if you thought you were clever, you might attempt to dose the individual pastries with different amounts of toxin, thinking that symptoms would come on at different times and with different severity, making it harder to trace back to a single deliberate act.

And, if you had got used to dosing your ex's meals without being questioned, you might even start to believe you could pull it off.

 

[katydid23]

Just now

Child protection worker was told Patterson children ate lunch leftovers​

​

By Judd Boaz​

Ms Cripps says Erin reported that her children had eaten leftovers of the meal the following day.

Erin claimed she had scraped the mushrooms off the dish for the children, Ms Cripps says.

She also told the court about Erin's reported illness.

"She said that she had started to feel unwell that evening … she was experiencing loose bowel movements," Ms Cripps says.

Ms Cripps says when Erin later took her son to the shops, she did not want to get out of the car and preferred to remain seated to prevent incontinence.

Juror dismissed in Erin Patterson murder trial — as it happened

Erin Patterson faces three charges of murder in the Latrobe Valley Law Courts. She's accused of killing three relatives by serving them beef Wellington containing poisonous mushrooms. Follow the events as they happened in our live blog.

www.abc.net.au

Ms Cripps says when Erin later took her son to the shops, she did not want to get out of the car and preferred to remain seated to prevent incontinence.

If she really had diarrhoea, remaining seated in the car would not have helped much,. It must nit have been a very serious case if just sitting prevents an eruption, imo.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

I wonder - We've heard there's no safe dose for death cap mushrooms. But, if you thought you were clever, you might attempt to dose the individual pastries with different amounts of toxin, thinking that symptoms would come on at different times and with different severity, making it harder to trace back to a single deliberate act.

And, if you had got used to dosing your ex's meals without being questioned, you might even start to believe you could pull

IMO she went into shock and hadn't accounted for the future investigation because either she never thought anything would happen so quickly -or- her bold stance collapsed under her feet when reality hit and she began to panic and not be OK with prison after all!

Maybe even there's a part or side or her personality that performed this vicious cruel murderous act and then another side that wept for the death of the woman who was 'like a second mother' and both things are true within the one person.

It would be interesting to know whether she'll ever speak out, I wish more people would just tell it how it is when they get sentenced and have nothing to lose.

JMO MOO

 

[Neet_Mc]

12:30 PM
May 15, 2025

Erin Patterson told child protection worker she found beef wellington recipe in cookbook
Adriana Mageros
Child protection worker Katrina Cripps said Erin Patterson told her she found the beef wellington recipe in a cookbook.
Ms Cripps spoke with Ms Patterson and her two children at Monash Children’s Hospital on August 1, 2023, in the days following the lunch on July 29.
“She said that she’d found it (the beef wellington recipe) in a cookbook… and she wanted to do something new and special,” Ms Cripps said.
The court heard Ms Patterson told Ms Cripps some details of the beef wellington meal.
“She told us that she prepared a beef wellington with mashed potato, green beans and a packet gravy,” Ms Cripps said.
Ms Cripps said Ms Patterson informed her that she bought the pre-sliced mushrooms from a local Woolworths and the dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer.
Ms Patterson told Ms Cripps she had eaten leftovers of the meal the day after the lunch, as did her two children.
Asked if she knew how much Ms Patterson ate of the beef wellington, Ms Cripps told the court: “I don’t believe she ate it all.”
Recalling more of their conversation about the lunch, Ms Cripps said Ms Patterson told her that she “dished up all the plates” and each lunch guest “chose their own”.
Ms Patterson took a plate that was left over and put others aside for her children, Ms Cripps said.



1:02 PM
May 15, 2025

Erin Patterson considered using dried mushrooms in 'carbonara' dish, court told
Adriana Mageros
Erin Patterson at one stage intended to use dried mushrooms she purchased from an Asian grocer in a carbonara pasta dish, a court has been told.
Child protection worker Katrina Cribbs visited Ms Patterson at her Leongatha home in the days following the lunch, after previously speaking to her and her two children in hospital.
Giving evidence on Thursday, Ms Cripps said Ms Patterson told her more details about the dried mushrooms, which she ended up using in the beef wellington meal on July 29, 2023.
Ms Patterson told Ms Cripps that the packaging of the mushrooms was “not able to be resealed” and had a “white label on it”.
Ms Cripps said Ms Patterson told her that she had planned to use the dried mushrooms in “a carbonara” but noticed “they had a strong smell to them” when she opened the tupperware container they were stored in.
Ms Patterson told the worker she purchased the dried mushrooms around April 2023, the jury heard.
Ms Cripps was asked by the prosecution if she knew why Ms Patterson decided to use the mushrooms in the beef wellington meal given their strong scent.
“She felt they wouldn’t be the primary flavour,” Ms Cripps told the court.
Ms Cripps said Ms Patterson told her she rehydrated the mushrooms, chopped them up and mixed them with other mushrooms she purchased from Woolworths for the beef wellington meal.
Earlier, the court heard Ms Cripps received a phone call from Sally-Anne Atkinson from Victoria’s Department of Heath in relation to which Asian grocer Ms Patterson purchased the mushrooms.

12:31 PM
May 15, 2025

Erin Patterson told child protection worker her estranged husband was 'emotionally abusive', court hears
Adriana Mageros
Child protection worker Katrina Cripps spoke with Erin Patterson and her two kids at Monash Children’s Hospital on August 1, 2023, three days after the lunch.
Giving evidence on Thursday, Ms Cripps said Ms Patterson told her about her relationship with her estranged husband Simon Patterson.
Ms Cripps recalled Ms Patterson describing Simon as “emotionally abusive” and that he would “say things to her that would make her doubt herself as a mother”.
Ms Patterson said her relationship with Simon “changed” when she asked him to pay child support, Ms Cripps told the court.
“She felt like that was the time he had become nasty towards her,” Ms Cripps said.
The court heard Ms Patterson asked Simon to pay child support sometime in 2022.
Ms Cripps said Ms Patterson told her that she felt as though Simon was “isolating her from the family”.
Ms Patterson described her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson as the parents she never had and loved them both “very much”, Ms Cripps told the jury.
The court heard Ms Patterson also informed Ms Cripps about the beef wellington lunch invite, which was extended to Don and Gail, and Ian and Heather Wilkinson.
Ms Cripps said Ms Patterson mentioned she had seen Don and Gail at church the week before the lunch and invited them to the gathering because she had “something she wanted to discuss”.
Asked by Crown prosecutor Sarah Lenthall if she knew why Ms Patterson invited the pair over for lunch, Ms Cripps said it was to “discuss a medical issue” and seek “advice” on the matter.

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/crime/erin-pattersons-murder-trial-more-witnesses-give-evidence-as-alleged-mushroom-poisoning-case-continues-in-victoria/live-coverage/2bc470f3b69325c927ca791a61ed98ae

If she only used fresh sliced Woolworths mushrooms and the Asian supermarket dried mushrooms as stated, then why the need for the tip run to dispose of the dehydrator? If that was the ended lie she was going to stick with, knowing that the dehydrator had been used with death caps, her storyline atleast needed for the Asian supermarket mushrooms to require dehydration. Holes everywhere.

 

[katydid23]

Controlling and emotionally abusive. Geez. Quite serious allegations no? IMO

Meanwhile, she admits she was mad at him because he wrote 'separated' on his tax form. BUT THEY WERE SEPARATED--- so he was telling the truth and she was the one trying to cheat for monetary gain.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Meanwhile, she admits she was mad at him because he wrote 'separated' on his tax form. BUT THEY WERE SEPARATED--- so he was telling the truth and she was the one trying to cheat for monetary gain.

And she didn't want him back. Some women could have become a little broken up at the idea this is a final ending and they'd been yearning for the man to return one day but she really didn't want him back but wanted to benefit from not being separated. That could have only been for financial gain?

Although her ex husband and other people have said she's not motivated by money? Maybe it was more about control and power?

 

[Little Jack]

And she didn't want him back. Some women could have become a little broken up at the idea this is a final ending and they'd been yearning for the man to return one day but she really didn't want him back but wanted to benefit from not being separated. That could have only been for financial gain?

Although her ex husband and other people have said she's not motivated by money? Maybe it was more about control and power?

She sure harped about the cost of the beef to guilt trip simon for someone not motivated by money

 

[tillytatler]

If she only used fresh sliced Woolworths mushrooms and the Asian supermarket dried mushrooms as stated, then why the need for the tip run to dispose of the dehydrator? If that was the ended lie she was going to stick with, knowing that the dehydrator had been used with death caps, her storyline atleast needed for the Asian supermarket mushrooms to require dehydration. Holes everywhere.

Gotta remember to cork up those holes

 

[Spectrix]

she really didn't want him back but wanted to benefit from not being separated. That could have only been for financial gain?
Maybe it was more about control and power?

Perhaps it was all three of these?

Some basic theories courtesy of @Detechtive - hopefully they can weigh in with better detail.

Simon changing his tax form to 'separated' was the start of the end.
It was the avenue to divorce, she would be forced to part ways with half of the assets which were 'rightfully hers' and she would also loose any control and power she felt that she held over Simon and his family.
She liked the closeness and attention she'd received from her inlaws and she could already feel that slipping away. If she was going to loose that anyway, well they needn't be in the picture at all, nor Simon for obvious reasons.

All just theroies, you'd need a psychology degree and Erin willing to share to truly understand.

-

 

[Jake18]

And she didn't want him back. Some women could have become a little broken up at the idea this is a final ending and they'd been yearning for the man to return one day but she really didn't want him back but wanted to benefit from not being separated. That could have only been for financial gain?

Although her ex husband and other people have said she's not motivated by money? Maybe it was more about control and power?

Maybe she didn’t want him but didn’t want anyone else to have him either?