It sounds like a tragic enough story: four people hospitalised, three of them dying, after a family lunch in a quiet country town apparently went horribly wrong. Or is it something more sinister?
On Saturday, July 29, 48-year-old Erin Patterson cooked a lunch of wild mushrooms for her ex-husband’s parents and her former mother-in-law’s parents. Her children were served a different meal. Within hours, the four guests were feeling unwell. Within a week, three of them were dead. The fourth is in critical condition in hospital and will require a liver transplant if he survives. The illnesses are consistent with poisoning by the aptly-named death cap mushrooms.
The question now, though is: was it really just a tragedy? Or something else?
A major police probe has been launched after three people died from a suspected poisoning from wild mushrooms in Victoria’s southeast […]
In a statement, Victoria Police said a search warrant was executed at a home in Leongatha on Saturday.
“Detectives interviewed a 48-year-old Leongatha woman who was released pending further enquiries,” a police spokeswoman said.
The Australian
Erin Patterson is naturally protesting her innocence. Although it may be suspicious that her children were served a different meal, that could be nothing more sinister than kids preferring some nuggies and chips to mushrooms.
Victoria Police have stressed that the poisoning may have been accidental, with toxicologists still investigating what killed the three elderly people in country Victoria.
Detective Inspector Dean Thomas, of the Homicide Squad, said the 48-year-old host was the former daughter-in-law of two of the victims.
The July 29 host, Erin Patterson, did not fall ill after the meal was served but on Monday said she was devastated by the deaths.
“I didn’t do anything,’’ she reportedly said. “I loved them and I’m devastated they are gone.
The Australian
Nevertheless, police are scouring the local tip, where they’ve already seized a food dehydrator. Police are forensically testing the dehydrator.
But in another twist to the case, it’s been revealed that Erin Patterson’s ex-husband, the son of two of the victims, also fell mysteriously ill last year.
Detectives are to examine the medical records of the shattered ex-husband of the cook whose mushrooms are feared to have killed his parents and his aunt.
Victorian homicide squad investigators were alerted this week to a mystery illness that almost killed Simon Patterson twice last year when he was floored by the gut infection.
A source close to the family told the Herald Sun that Mr Patterson believed his ex-wife Erin Patterson had tried to poison him through an “ingested toxin”.
“Simon suspected he had been poisoned by Erin,” the friend said.
“There were times he had felt … a bit off and it often coincided when he spent time with her.”
Mr Patterson says he spent 16 days in an induced coma and underwent three emergency operations, “mainly on my small intestine”. A further operation is apparently planned.
Friends of Simon Patterson said the couple had tried to maintain an amicable relationship after separating; they have two children who are around high school age.
This had apparently included going on holiday together
The Australian
Nonetheless, Ms Patterson is vehemently denying any wrongdoing. Despite the police investigation and air of suspicion, there is nothing as yet to suggest that this was anything other than a tragic accident.