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Original poster

The mushroom poisoning in Vic.... I am gripped

989 replies

Dustyblue · 09/08/2023 04:58

This has been all over the news. I live one town over from Leongatha and believe me, it's the talk of the towns.

We have loads of mushrooms around our place but wouldn't dream of eating them. About 90% of foraged mushrooms in Australia are poisonous.

Then again, you do get groups of people who think they know what they're doing, and perhaps they do.

Meanwhile this is suss-as.

Three people died from suspected mushroom poisoning after sharing a meal. Here's what we know - ABC News

Three dead and another fighting for life: What we know so far about suspected mushroom poisonings in Victoria

Police continue to investigate three suspected mushroom poisoning deaths after a family lunch last month in Leongatha in Victoria's east. Detectives have not laid any charges, but say the woman who served the meal remains a suspect. Here's what we know...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-09/poisonous-mushroom-deaths-victoria-leongatha-explainer/102703430

OP posts:
Thread gallery
42
velvetandsatin · 12/08/2023 14:42

MissLucyEyelesbarrow · 12/08/2023 14:34

Interesting question! The whole thing would make so much more sense (in a crazed homicidal way) if it was Erin who was being pressured by the people who were poisoned instead of - as being reported in the media - it being the husband who wanted out, and Erin who was pushing for a reconciliation, with the pastor and others backing her up.

As it has been reported so far, it is really confusing as to why she would want to harm them, as they were on her side. But maybe that isn't correct?

Show quote history

They weren't on her side. They were there to advocate for their son/relative, and were against him getting back with her.

Janieforever · 12/08/2023 14:47

MissLucyEyelesbarrow · 12/08/2023 14:34

Interesting question! The whole thing would make so much more sense (in a crazed homicidal way) if it was Erin who was being pressured by the people who were poisoned instead of - as being reported in the media - it being the husband who wanted out, and Erin who was pushing for a reconciliation, with the pastor and others backing her up.

As it has been reported so far, it is really confusing as to why she would want to harm them, as they were on her side. But maybe that isn't correct?

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That’s not right, it’s widely reported the family didn’t want them back together , they wished the divorce to proceed. The aunt and uncle were there to mediate to make that happen.

MissLucyEyelesbarrow · 12/08/2023 15:17

Janieforever · 12/08/2023 14:47

That’s not right, it’s widely reported the family didn’t want them back together , they wished the divorce to proceed. The aunt and uncle were there to mediate to make that happen.

Show quote history

So that could explain her targeting them though I still think that - if it was deliberate - the main motive must have been a love of poisoning. No rational person could have believed that they would get away with it. Short of shooting everyone, then turning yourself in at the police station with the smoking gun, it's hard to think of a crime that points more obviously at one suspect.

WatchOutMissMarpleIsAbout · 12/08/2023 15:47

Just realised that both @MissEmmaCrackenthorpe and @MissLucyEyelesbarrow both on the same thread. One of my favourite Christie adaptations 😁

Agree the whole thing is very odd!

VeryWeirdBarbie · 12/08/2023 16:50

Maybe she thought that with his closest family members dead her estranged husband would be so distraught he'd come running back to her to be comforted and consoled?

FallingStar21 · 12/08/2023 22:27

VeryWeirdBarbie · 12/08/2023 16:50

Maybe she thought that with his closest family members dead her estranged husband would be so distraught he'd come running back to her to be comforted and consoled?

Wouldn't put it past a warped mind!

Or what a previous poster suggested, that she did it out of spite/ as a revenge to him for not wanting her back.

FallingStar21 · 12/08/2023 22:34

velvetandsatin · 12/08/2023 11:48

According to The Times, the dehydrator was taken to the tip the day after the lunch! So this would have been before anyone died and before police involvement.

It was dumped after the first two victims died, on the Friday after the previous Saturday's lunch. Also not dumped at the local tip, but one 15 k away.

Even more interesting then, how the police ended up searching a far away tip. Must have been some clues to lead to it.
I know we can't say "guilty" for sure, but I struggle to see how it could have happened "by accident" or elsewhere - that's ALL 4 guests severely poisoned, 3 Dead at the same time!
PPs suggesting her ex could have set her up, how would he have the means to do so when he didn't even live there?

alwaysonadiet1 · 12/08/2023 22:56

I still think the ex has something to do with it. Possibly planned it together.

VanGoghsDog · 12/08/2023 23:07

AutumnCrow · 12/08/2023 09:17

Someone mentioned upthread that a person might be able to build up a tolerance to the toxins in death cap mushrooms, the Amonita phalloides.

Is this actually true, or was it just a guess? I've googled and can't find anything.

I know that you can do this with some other poisons like arsenic (Victorian era 'arsenic eating' was a weird old thing), but this toxin is very different I guess? Anyone got more knowledge than me? (Or can search the internet more competently!)

I think that was me, and I think I said "some poisons", not this specific one.

However, it seems you may be able to, pretty risky though!

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0041008X76902076#:~:text=Tolerated%20doses%20of%20an%20extract,lethal%20doses%20of%20the%20mushroom.

VanGoghsDog · 12/08/2023 23:15

BreatheAndFocus · 12/08/2023 08:48

Beef Wellington (and presumable Pie) has the mushrooms in it with the beef. Why would you then make an additional mushroom gravy? It wouldn’t go. You’d need a thin, clearish gravy just to moisten the beef a bit. Perhaps she liked to use a pinch of dried powdered mushrooms to add to the gravy for just a hint of mushroom flavour, but then mistakenly added a pinch of death caps that she’d pre-dried in order to poison her ex? She could hardly explain that accident to the police, could she?

Where did the gravy bit come from anyway? I’d have thought the mushrooms would just be the ones in the Beef Wellington. Maybe she meant she just picked out the beef for herself and left the mushrooms as she didn’t like them? If they were death caps though, she’d still have been ill from the proximity to the beef. It just seems very convenient that neither she nor her DC ate the mushrooms. She never tasted a mushroom while cooking, she never tasted the hypothetical gravy to check for seasoning, she didn’t accidentally eat a small piece of mushroom that she’d failed to pick out when she served her portion?

My mum used to make beef Wellington fairly frequently. It was always served with potatoes, veg and lots of gravy.

I guess you could use un poisonous mushrooms in the pate, and put the poisonous ones in the gravy.

AutumnCrow · 12/08/2023 23:33

VanGoghsDog · 12/08/2023 23:07

I think that was me, and I think I said "some poisons", not this specific one.

However, it seems you may be able to, pretty risky though!

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0041008X76902076#:~:text=Tolerated%20doses%20of%20an%20extract,lethal%20doses%20of%20the%20mushroom.

Show quote history

Feckin hell that does look risky! (And those poor lab mice.)

And so, so Agatha Christie. I recall one book where the poisoner ate the food, and then went and made herself sick in the kitchen sink. Miss Marple figured it out.

Original poster
Dustyblue · 12/08/2023 23:55

Not many new details here, just more background. The old school kidnapping case from 1977 took me back, wow, some Victorians of my old age might remember it!

It's not relevant to this case, just town history. Must say it's bizarre to see so many media pics of our little corner of the world, for such a terrible reason.

Three suspected mushroom-poisoning deaths put a national spotlight on a community in grief - ABC News

Grief grips a small town in Victoria's south-east, while questions over deadly mushrooms remain

A rural community stunned by the sudden loss of friends following suspected mushroom poisoning is grappling with its grief, while under the unfamiliar gaze of national and international media.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-12/victorian-leongatha-mushroom-poisoning-deaths-erin-patterson/102719906

OP posts:
echt · 13/08/2023 00:02

Love the furniture on the verandah. How Australian is that! There should be a question about it on the citizenship test. Grin

Original poster
Dustyblue · 13/08/2023 00:04

You'd freeze sitting out there this morning! It's frosty-as

OP posts:
echt · 13/08/2023 00:44

Too true. It's parky enough here, close to the sea.

oakleaffy · 13/08/2023 01:23

Seems highly suspicious to me- why didn't this woman and her children eat the same food as her guests...?

She looks like she's ''Dry crying''..Local stores don't sell Death Caps, surely.

oakleaffy · 13/08/2023 01:30

ladeluge · 11/08/2023 19:18

Only if she is deemed a suspect and arrested and charged, and then found guilty.

It is over two weeks now and I realise that toxicology reports are not in yet. But the fact that she is still free, not arrested or on bail is weird. I think it was planned, and that she will get away with it.

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My gut feeling is that it was planned, too- because she and her children didn't eat the toadstool poisoned meal herself.

If the food dehydrator that was thrown away was the woman's- that's suss.

IF they were sold by a supermarket,{in error} as the woman alleges, why were no more people taken ill?

The Dry crying, the general demeanour of her- It feels fake.

ImustLearn2Cook · 13/08/2023 01:36

I heard that it is reported in The Australian (news with a paywall so I can’t link it) that the children are teenagers.

I get young children having a different meal but think generally older kids/teenagers would eat the same meal as the adults. So, that’s a bit unusual.

Also, those poor kids are old enough to understand what has happened.

Sagealicious · 13/08/2023 02:30

I don't think it's unusual the kids didn't eat the meal. Maybe they don't like mushrooms or beef wellington?

JobMatch3000 · 13/08/2023 03:33

Where I live (Scotland) you have to book to visit the tip - using your home address and vehicle registration.
Presumably Aussie Police have been tracking her travels so can any Aussie MNs confirm if a similar booking system is in place in Victoria?
How else might they have known she'd gone to the tip?

Seddon · 13/08/2023 03:50

JobMatch3000 · 13/08/2023 03:33

Where I live (Scotland) you have to book to visit the tip - using your home address and vehicle registration.
Presumably Aussie Police have been tracking her travels so can any Aussie MNs confirm if a similar booking system is in place in Victoria?
How else might they have known she'd gone to the tip?

I posted upthread a couple of days ago - triangulating 'pings' from her mobile phone to nearby towers. Police can pinpoint just about everyone's whereabouts at a given time with a warrant to access the telco's records. Surely that's the case the world over?

This is the Aussie/NZ mumsnetters thread by the way... I get people from everywhere are interested in this case but do you really expect to drop into our conversations and have us explain how everything works here for you? It wouldn't happen in reverse on any other MN thread. You're not the first to do it so I'm not having a go at you personally, it's just an observation, after we fought to get our own little space on here, against opposition from some MNers who argued we didn't deserve it!

Fraaahnces · 13/08/2023 03:55

@JobMatch3000 There are cameras everywhere here that police can access to see number plates like toll roads, etc. Also our tips are run by our councils and they give us X no of visits for free per year, or charge higher fees for people who don’t reside in the council zone. She may have used a voucher or had her driver’s Licence scanned.

oakleaffy · 13/08/2023 05:59

It will be very interesting to see what pans out, with the suspect.

I hope she isn’t a flight risk- I’m surprised she hasn’t been charged yet- Saying the toadstools came from a shop is absolutely ludicrous.

It could be the “ Perfect “ murder..

“Oops! I didn’t realise the fungi were deadly, my bad”

What would be the motivation for wanting the ex husband’s family dead?

All very strange.

ImustLearn2Cook · 13/08/2023 06:08

Don’t take Seddon’s pp seriously. As an Aussie I am more than happy to answer any questions about Australia if I know the answer.

I have asked lovely UK Mumsnetters questions about the UK and how things work in the UK. And have always received helpful responses and have always felt welcome.

Anyone, is welcome on any of the sections on Mumsnet.