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

[Dustyblue]

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

I definitely get the impression she thinks she can say anything she likes about the meal itself because she knows everyone else who was there cannot contradict her.

I don't think it's unusual that the guests helped themselves to the wellington. We're very informal and casual here when it comes to dining/entertaining.

I too lost glasses to a voracious puppy! More than once, too..
They are drawn to glasses maybe as they have such an interesting mouth feel.
She also took a bite out of a “ Shaggy ink cap” mushroom on a walk- frantic googling to see if it was toxic or not ( Thankfully not).
Dogs too can be drawn to eat Death Caps.

If they do, getting them to a vet immediately is urgent.
The poor people in this poisoning case probably didn’t suspect Amanita poisoning- you’d suspect food poisoning first, if several of you became Ill.
You’d not assume someone was trying to kill you…

BOOM!
Was waiting for a comment like that 🤣

Blaming an Asian Grocery store, now is she?

She’s got some nerve.

Sometimes I put a plate at each seat, then family choose their seat so I didn't find that part odd.

The article I read said the hospital confirmed she had attended and been transferred and treated for poisoning.

Interesting that the husband's friend has leaked all the information about her begging to get back with him but she said she didn't want back with him. If MN Relationships has taught me anything it's that men always blame everything on their partners and always think they're irresistible. So I'm not sure I believe the husband's leaky friend.

That's not to say I entirely believe her story about everything. The dehydrator and feeding the meal to the DCs doesn't make sense.

Can you link to that? I think the article is erroneous. Every other site is quoting verbatim the hospital press release, which states simply a fifth person presented for a short period and was discharged.

This really made me laugh. I'm the same and then I started worrying about it after a similar thread so started using incognito mode and then read up that only people with something to hide use that mode and the police/service provider can see it anyway- so I've gone back to normal googling and will use 'MN made me do it' as my defence.

Weird, was it a 'parenting' forum like this? Glad you found MN.

Autumn I also remember having to book to call internationally but I didn't have anyone to call- I've never been able to get over the awe of chatting to people in a different country just by writing on a forum.

The article I read said the hospital confirmed she had attended and been transferred and treated for poisoning.

Poisoning, or dehydration??

TMI ALERT: LOOK AWAY LOOK AWAY: I could give myself diarrhea in about six hours with half a bottle of Milk of Magnesia or a few sachets of Movicol.

Autumn um, sweety, Google history.... self hospitalisation plans... think I'm glad I am not coming around for tea.

Ah it was the Daily Mail <hangs head in shame at being duped by them>

The article is here

And for those who don't click the Daily Mail, the paragraph is here:

Gippsland Southern Health Service confirmed last Friday that a fifth individual, who initially came to Leongatha Hospital on July 30 with symptoms of possible food poisoning, later returned and was also subsequently transferred to Monash Medical Centre.

All of this. Her story is now a version of the 2014 Woolworth's case - claimed to be bought from a store, no one else bought deadly mushrooms but police can't prove it's not true as the mushrooms were two weeks old when used by the chef.

Plus if her kids ate the leftovers and didn't get sick at all but she did get sick a little what is she saying? That the half the Wellington the guests ate had a rogue deadly mushroom or two but the rest didn't? How is that possible? Or is she saying the dried mushroom was in the gravy and that all got used up at the lunch and her kids ate different gravy. Is there no leftover dried mushrooms in her pantry or Asian grocery packaging in the bin if she says she used it all up. She can't have used it all in the one lunch for 5 people so how come no one previously died? Or did her ex 'enjoy' Asian dried mushroom gravy last year?

I think police are just going to sit back and wait for her to keep talking and then tie her up in the inconsistencies of everything she has said and done in order to get her convicted. For what it's worth I think she only wanted to make them sick but deadly mushroom doses are hard to control.

Actually that might be right, Leongatha hospital just said 5th person presented discharged. I’d not seen amy confirmation from Gippsland health service. I guess the difference is rhe “later returned”. So she went to Leongatha hospital. Was discharged, then went back with actual symptoms.and was transferred, then discharged.

“Gippsland Southern Health Service confirmed last Friday that a fifth individual, who initially came to Leongatha Hospital on July 30 with symptoms of possible food poisoning, later returned and was also subsequently transferred to Monash Medical Centre.”

Highly unlikely but there could have been just one rogue death cap among straw mushrooms foraged to sell in the Asian store. It would be extremely risky to scrape off the mushrooms and feed your children the leftovers. The children can confirm if that's true or not.

It wouldn't explain dumping the dehydrator though.

The nurses and doctors and their medical records are going to be key witnesses and evidence. Did her symptoms match the symptoms of the others but were just less severe? Did she say or do anything unusual or which casts doubt that she was really ill?

So she did the meal Saturday, the relatives got sick Saturday night/sun morning and presented at the hospital but she then fed her children left overs of a meal on Sunday lunch time. despite the relatives already presenting with food poisoning symptoms and having all been at the meal with her.
Either she is spectacularly stupid, or knew what she was giving her kids didn't have anything in it to cause 'food poisoning'.

Yeah, with this new info, I’m of the mind that she had contaminated her guest’s portions once on the plate with a mushroom powder. Not cooked into the dish.
They may have selected their own plates, while she was already holding hers.

Also strange: one of the articles states how the family were discussing the dehydrator in the hospital waiting room, why on earth would this come up at this point in time, especially as she now says the mushrooms were already dried.

They would have taken blood and/or stool samples so will know. It’s very very easy to fake food poisoning.

From taking a load of laxatives, to simply lying about it. Especially the going in, then feeling fine then going back. As the symptoms usually ease and you feel fine then deteriorate quickly. I’m sure it was reported she initially presented with no symptoms at all.

What you can’t fake is the more serious complications of death cap mushroom poisoning. Like low blood pressure, or kidney or liver failure.

they clearly precautionary treated her like she did have it when she went back the second time claiming symptoms, , but the medical staff will know for sure what was wrong, and she was discharged very quickly.

Is there no leftover dried mushrooms in her pantry or Asian grocery packaging in the bin if she says she used it all up. She can't have used it all in the one lunch for 5 people so how come no one previously died?

This is a good point. She claims to have bought the mushrooms months ago, and the meal also included button mushrooms as well as the dried mushrooms. It's unlikely she used the entire pack of dried mushrooms, so some should be left over for testing. But she didn't mention this, just the leftovers of the meal. If she did used the entire pack (unlikely) then surely she would still have the packaging? 🤔

It's like she's twigged that the dehydrator she took to the tip will have her DNA/fingerprints on it, so she's had to retrofit some 'alternative facts' to create some kind of story making it sound like an accident - or an Asian grocery's fault - including why she took it to the tip.

It is the sort of story that a kid at school would come up with.

She already thought she'd covered herself with the 'I'm poorly too' tale, but didn't bank on her relatives dying and there being a major investigation.

We don't know that she didn't still have the packaging, do we? We just know that it didn't have the details of the shop. I don't know what grocery packaging is like in Australia but here (I'm in the UK) if it's a mini mart where you can scoop your own ingredients then the packaging can be a plain white bag; clear tub, etc.

I'm completely fascinated/appalled/intrigued by this case. No matter the outcome, it's horrific. Whether it was deliberate or accidental, it's still awful. I almost can't decide what would be worse - to have deliberately murdered them or to have accidentally killed three members of your extended family.

If she’s lying then she’s been really stupid by making up such a complicated lie which has the potential for being able to be proven as a lie.

she would have been much better off saying she picked mushrooms and thought they were ok. That it was simple misidentification and that it must just have been one or two dodgy mushrooms in one end of the pie and she must have eaten from the other end. 🤷‍♀️

Yy I thought the dehydrator conversation was odd. I guess if you were going through the steps of cooking the meal, you might mention it. But why would the husband/ex jump to think that's what was used to poison them? Would you assume it was dried mushrooms rather than fresh mushrooms that killed them? I don't know enough about mushrooms to know.

I m assuming what they will be looking for on the dehydrator, apart from her fingerprints will be microscopic spores or pieces of death cap. That will prove whether she did in fact dehydrate the mushrooms herself and what type they were.

We don't know that she didn't still have the packaging, do we?

We don't. But it seems odd she made a point of saying she gave the leftover food to the investigators, but no mention of the mushroom packaging.