GUILTY Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 *Arrest* #17

[Penny68]

A clip from Sentinel-Times 6July2025 (link below) ...

"Mr Mandy also addressed claims made by the prosecution that the Patterson’s daughter did not have a ballet lesson on Monday night, July 31, 2023, for which Mrs Patterson claimed she had to leave the Leongatha Hospital to pack a ballet bag.

According to Mrs Patterson, there actually was a special extra lesson scheduled that evening for the mid-year concert.

Mr Mandy produced a message recovered from Simon Patterson's phone indicating that he had contacted the local ballet school and cancelled the lesson as Mrs Patterson had asked him to do.

Erin Patterson started to cry in the witness box while answering questions about her daughter’s ballet schedule.

She also cried while answering questions about not wanting her son to miss out on his flying lesson on the Sunday after the beef Wellington lunch."

Case all wrapped up in triple ‘mushroom’ murder trial - South Gippsland Sentinel Times

AFTER five days of cross-examination and a gruelling eight days in total in the witness stand, it was all over for Erin Patterson just before lunch on Day 31, Thursday, June 12. It was a significant moment in the so-called “Mushroom Murder...

www.sgst.com.au

Thankyou so much for finding this.

 

[Deleted member 363451]

I just can't get onboard with the theory she just wanted them to get sick.

She fed them DEATH CAPS---one of the most toxic natural substances known to man.

And she weighed them out. And powdered them to disguise them. And meticulously crafted 6 separate BW's. So she knew how much poison was in each serving. Way more than necessary to make one just feel unwell.

Exactly!!

 

[Scuffy35]

RSBM
I was looking forward to Dr Sorells evidence but I was left disappointed, not just for this trial, but also Samantha Murphy’s trial later this year.

I agree on both these points.

Same with evidence from Mr Fox who was not fully qualified and also couldn't answer when testifying if the time stamps were in UTC or local time.

I think other evidence is strong enough to overcome some of these shortcomings though.

 

[Sillybilly]

ADMIN NOTE:

This case is not for discussion of the details of the Lindy Chamberlain case or the Kathleen Folbigg case.

Stay on topic please.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Re people finding it strange that the dog wasn't given the leftover, like I've posted before, many people these days stick to designated dog food.

Can we give our dogs leftovers from our meals? - Dog Chef

It's mealtime and your hairy friend is already waiting patiently at your feet for their share. Lots of us give into temptation and slip them a bit of meat here and a hunk of bread there... But is it really good for man's best friend? The answer is in the article of the week!

www.dogchef.com

Why are you not recommended to give your dog leftovers?​

Even if we think we’ll make our companion happy, giving them the leftovers from our meals is not recommended. Dogs need a balanced diet suited to their nutritional needs.

Our food is often made with ingredients that aren’t suitable for dogs. Leftovers can interfere with your dog’s digestion, but that’s not all!

The foods we eat are often sweet, salty or fatty which is not suited to dogs’ needs and can cause an imbalance in their diet.
Even though certain ingredients seem harmless, they can actually turn out to be harmful and cause poisoning

 

[Two SCents]

1. She brought a duffel bag with her to the hospital. To me, this implies that she did think it were likely that she would be staying at the hospital for an extended period of time. IMO.

2. The prosecution evidence shows that it doesn’t seem that Erin was at home for the whole 90 minutes as she suggests she was. See snipped quotes below. Do you think this evidence is incorrect?

1. It was winter, she may have had an extra jacket and something to occupy her. She went in for fluids so she expected to be there probably for a few hours and be home before the children. If staying overnight she needed to attend to animals. Apart from the dog, she mentioned lambs needing to be brought in.

2. The evidence was inconclusive and unconvincing.

 

[Deleted member 367982]

I cannot get over the fact that EP was accused of trying to kill her husband four times. Surely there must have been some evidence to support all those charges and yet in this trial the jury has been told not to take them into account.
The judges 365 pages of summing up also did not help the jury to return a guilty verdict IMO

The Canberra Times reported in April 2024 "Ms Patterson is accused of plotting to kill her estranged husband four times. Aside from the alleged poisoned lunch in 2023, Mr Patterson's life was under threat on November 16/17, 2021, May 25, 2022 and September 6, 2022, according to police. Police levelled five attempted murder charges dating back to 2021 against Ms Patterson on November 2, 2023."

 

[SarahSherlock]

I’ve thrown steaks out many times over the years as I wouldn’t give anything to my dogs with traces of mushrooms. They were considered poisonous.

I’ve just googled a vet site

Can dogs eat mushrooms?​

Similar to humans, some mushrooms are fine for dogs to eat, while others can be toxic. Dogs can eat mushrooms bought from a supermarket or other shop, preferably organic

 

[Scuffy35]

I was just stating what her testimony is.

RSBM
As i pointed out above and going back to my earlier post regarding the preparation of the meal, how can it be "reckless" if she didn't consciously use foraged mushrooms?

I think the reckless part, if we assume for a moment that Erin's testimony was truthful, is without any research of the type of mushroom that she foraged,
1) putting the foraged mushrooms in a Tupperware container in the kitchen, and/or,
2) putting them in the same Tupperware container as store bought Asian mushrooms.
IMO

 

[SarahSherlock]

Re people finding it strange that the dog wasn't given the leftover, like I've posted before, many people these days stick to designated dog food.

Can we give our dogs leftovers from our meals? - Dog Chef

It's mealtime and your hairy friend is already waiting patiently at your feet for their share. Lots of us give into temptation and slip them a bit of meat here and a hunk of bread there... But is it really good for man's best friend? The answer is in the article of the week!

www.dogchef.com

Why are you not recommended to give your dog leftovers?​

Even if we think we’ll make our companion happy, giving them the leftovers from our meals is not recommended. Dogs need a balanced diet suited to their nutritional needs.

Our food is often made with ingredients that aren’t suitable for dogs. Leftovers can interfere with your dog’s digestion, but that’s not all!

The foods we eat are often sweet, salty or fatty which is not suited to dogs’ needs and can cause an imbalance in their diet.
Even though certain ingredients seem harmless, they can actually turn out to be harmful and cause poisoning

I wonder though - if it was customary for her to give leftovers to her dog?

 

[Scuffy35]

I know, and I agree to a point.

One dc is enough to kill a healthy adult but she may not have intended to use 50g, maybe she was intending to use, say 10g per person. It’s possible drying and using powdered is likely to be intensified both from flavour and the toxin, as heat doesn’t diminish its toxicity.

The DC toxin kills liver cells. These liver cells do not recover. Maybe less liver cells would die if a smaller dose was used, but I do not think it is reasonable to assume one would be just a little bit sick if they injested a small dose.

It has been established that Erin is an intelligent woman and does her research. I don't think it is reasonable that she would not be aware that death would be a highly possible outcome.

IMO

 

[Sarahlou]

I just can't get onboard with the theory she just wanted them to get sick.

She fed them DEATH CAPS---one of the most toxic natural substances known to man.

And she weighed them out. And powdered them to disguise them. And meticulously crafted 6 separate BW's. So she knew how much poison was in each serving. Way more than necessary to make one just feel unwell.

It's obvious what she intended IMO. It's baffling how people can't see/deny this.

Hoping we hear a verdict tomorrow.

 

[iamshadow21]

I’ve just googled a vet site

Can dogs eat mushrooms?​

Similar to humans, some mushrooms are fine for dogs to eat, while others can be toxic. Dogs can eat mushrooms bought from a supermarket or other shop, preferably organic

Provided the mushrooms used to make a beef Wellington are not toxic, the problem isn't the mushrooms, it's the onions in the duxelles.

Apart from the amounts of salt and sugar, etc. , alliums like onions and garlic are one of the big reasons you shouldn't feed your pet leftovers. They're in everything, hiding under innocuous sounding labels like 'dehydrated vegetables' in ingredients lists.

MOO

 

[Kemug]

Maybe she had plans to start a home birthing business, given her fear of hospitals. She enrolled in Nursing & Midwifery.

Well, that would tie in with her general love of humankind.

 

[Scuffy35]

Wasn’t the flying lesson cancelled?

She was told it was cancelled after she had already arived after the long drive with bad diarrhoea that day ( or so she claimed) with her cream coloured pants and doing a poo into a plastic bag on the side of the road (or so she claimed).

I think it was cancelled due to poor weather conditions for flying.

 

[Salah11]

She was told it was cancelled after she had already arived after the long drive with her cream coloured pants and doing a poo into a plastic bag on the side of the road (or so she claimed).

I think it was cancelled due to poor weather conditions for flying.

Wasn’t it kind of the diarrhea to go neatly into a Bag.

Most people when they have diarrhea it’s explosive and doesn’t simply plop into a bag.

The fact she was wearing white/cream as well is just the icing on the cake. I am amazed it wasn’t cancelled due to the fact she would have smelt like Poop.

 

[drsleuth]

I wonder what the jury have spent the day doing? They must be really missing everyday things by now.

I hope they had a relaxing day & we get a verdict tomorrow.

 

[Doesitmakesense]

I wonder what the jury have spent the day doing? They must be really missing everyday things by now.

I hope they had a relaxing day & we get a verdict tomorrow.

I think I would want to take a few days annual leave before I went back to work

 

[Hercule Holmes]

Wasn’t it kind of the diarrhea to go neatly into a Bag.

Most people when they have diarrhea it’s explosive and doesn’t simply plop into a bag.

The fact she was wearing white/cream as well is just the icing on the cake. I am amazed it wasn’t cancelled due to the fact she would have smelt like Poop.

I don’t want to defend her, but I don’t think she said she shat in the bag.

The story was she used tissues to wipe and they went in the bag.

It still would have stunk in the car and there is no way the son could ever remove that scenario from his brain.

Symbolically, there would be a pile of poo where she went, because that is what the story is.

IMO.

 

[Detechtive]

I wonder what the jury have spent the day doing? They must be really missing everyday things by now.

I hope they had a relaxing day & we get a verdict tomorrow.

Hopefully thinking deeply about the case without the distraction of other people and the court process.