The mushroom poisoning in Vic.... I am gripped - Part 2

[ImustLearn2Cook]

Hi everyone, Aussie Mumsnetter here. As some have requested a new thread be started by an Aussie I decided to do it.

I am still gripped by this case and like many, I am awaiting updates of new information.

Will a matching donor for a liver for Ian be found soon? I hope he makes a full recovery.

Will he be able to shed new light on the lunch they all shared?

And of course is she guilty of deliberately poisoning them or was it an innocent mistake?

@Dustyblue If I was a suspect of murder and was in the news as much as Erin I would be far too anxious to set foot in public. I would probably order my groceries online.

Did she appear anxious or self conscious?

I was thinking the same. I wouldn't want to leave the house. She's either very brazen or wants to put a "nothing to hide" not guilty act.

She (EP) seems shamelessly playing the victim-Eyes Heavenward- check
Wiping away non existent tears - check
Swanning around the Mushroom aisle in supermarket- Nope.

Phew I found Thread 2. Amazing story, I can’t wait to find out what actually happened.

I know what I think anyway.

I just keep thinking about the DCs and wonder if SS have placed them with family or with foster carers. The longer it takes for the investigation, the worse it is for them but equally the police can't rush it. It's a horrible situation for them.

Would the parents have supervised contact with the kids?

It's on 9 this Wednesday, 23rd August, at 8.40 pm.

I mentioned in a post up thread that the UI episode seemed to have an effect in the ultimate charging of Greg Lynn for the murders of Carol Clay and Russel Hill.

I think the police are putting the screws on EP, knowing she is prone to crack and say things not in her best interests.

No, she was like any person doing their shopping. Except for the other shoppers who clocked her and chatted amongst themselves.

@velvetandsatin Thanks, I'll be watching.

Yes, this is the next best thing to making her do a Police Press Conference hey? To put the pressure on, not that the media are in cahoots with the cops or anything like that ;)

I don't want to derail the thread by making it about Lucy Letby but she's an obvious lesson in not judging books by their covers. People found it hard to believe her capable of what she had done until the facts came out in court and it became indisputable.

Oh wow @Dustyblue that is quite some claim to fame! What was in her trolley?!

Bleurgh, don't say that @Wrenjeni !

If this is my claim to fame, I may as well poison myself right now.

Normal stuff in trolley, I didn't take a pic ;)

She's still non-guilty until the cops say otherwise.

Checking in and amused by your comment that she had no mushrooms in her basket!

On a more serious note, I really hope Ian is on the mend.

@Dustyblue Please report back after watching the special. I don't think it will have any new information so am not going to watch, but would love to hear someone's take on it, especially a local.

There was no new information in the special but the mushroom expert did say that it couldn't have been just one death cap mushroom that had accidentally found it's way in among other safe mushrooms. For the amount of illness and death suffered from one meal you'd need at least 10 mushrooms shared among the victims. Also that the toxins would have leached into all parts of the dish so simply scraping off the mushrooms for her kids wouldn't have been sufficient to avoid poisoning.
There was also a sort of hint that the ex-husband could possibly have set her up (since he was the one who mentioned the dehydrator and freaked her out making her feel the need to dispose of it) but obviously they didn't expand on it.
There was no need to use a dehydrator to prepare the meal as she claims to have used fresh mushrooms from the supermarket and dried mushrooms from some random Asian grocery store so disposing of the dehydrator is definitely suspicious.
My theory is that it was a gravy made from dehydrated mushrooms that only the victims ate, assuming the children didn't have any gravy when they ate the leftovers later. Since both her and her ex are known mushroom foragers, it's possible that those mushrooms were supplied by her ex which is why he would have mentioned that there might be traces in her dehydrator (and why he pulled out of the lunch at the last minute).

@ScotInExile yes that makes sense. The Husband set her up

There was also a sort of hint that the ex-husband could possibly have set her up (since he was the one who mentioned the dehydrator and freaked her out making her feel the need to dispose of it) but obviously they didn't expand on it.

I don't know where you got that from.

They also mentioned the odd comment from a worker at the tip, that he "didn't know [about the dehydrator], because he wasn't working Saturday morning."

That would have been before the lunch was held that day. So, he's confused, perhaps. Or he's referring to the following Saturday.

The press reported earlier this month that the police were at the tip the Friday after the lunch, having got a tip off re a dehydrator. Who knows when she dumped it, or when the police were actually there. Maybe they were there Saturday. She said in her statement released by the fairies to the press that she dumped it after SP said, "Is that what you used to poison them?" We don't know if that conversation occurred, given she has admitted she has previously lied to the police, or if it did, what day it was, or even which hospital it was.

All we know is the dehydrator believed to have been dumped by EP, and the tip(s) do have cctv, is being forensically examined for DC spores, etc.

Interesting case

No it doesn't. She cooked the mushroom meal, she knows exactly what she's bought and put in it. Are you suggesting the ex would have -

a) known in advance she'd be making a beef wellington
b) somehow broke into or accessed her home, found the supposed Asian shop mushrooms and replaced them with a very convincing pack of death caps
c) risked poisoning his own children

That is far too far-fetched and doesn't really work within the facts we know so far, doesn't even work with EP's own badly concocted story.

The thing is, we don't have all the facts so anything could have happened.

a) he could have dropped round at any time previously with a lovely fresh batch of foraged mushrooms for her to include in whatever meal she was planning to make. She could have told him what she was planning to make or he could have even suggested making that lovely beef wellington that she's known for.

b) if a) had happened there would be no need to break in and swap her Asian mushrooms
c) he may well have been the one to suggest that the kids went out to the movies while the meal was being served.
And to add in:
d) he cancelled attendance at the lunch at short notice

EP may well be trying not to get him in trouble by saying she got the mushrooms in a random Asian shop that she can't remember. If she hadn't used the dehydrator to make this meal then why would she be getting rid of it so quickly? If she had used it then she must have got the mushrooms from somewhere. If she had picked the mushrooms by mistake it would be an easy thing to admit and the case would be solved.
The program suggested that there was no motive for EP to murder her husband's family so it would be highly unlikely that she intentionally poisoned them. On the other hand, the ex would stand to inherit quite a wealthy estate from both his parents and his estranged wife.

The program suggested that there was no motive for EP to murder her husband's family so it would be highly unlikely that she intentionally poisoned them.

No, it didn't! It mentioned that you don't usually murder people that you like, you murder someone that you don't like.

The program made no suggestion whatsoever that anyone except EP could have murdered those poor people, while carefully not saying so outright.

Exactly! She loved these people so it would be very unlikely that she would murder them.

They were careful not to accuse anyone but it did, indirectly, raise questions about the husband. That's what I took from it anyway.

You don't know that! I would think Simon would be more likely to have loved his own parents, and aunt and uncle.

I think you need to rewatch the program, as you seem to have taken away from it notions it did not in any way support.

Velvet, "I think you need to rewatch the program, as you seem to have taken away from it notions it did not in any way support."

Before watching the program I thought EP must be guilty and hadn't given a thought to her husband. After watching it I doubted her guilt and pondered the possibility that her husband might have been involved.

The narrative from the media is that she's guilty so people watched the program looking for confirmation bias. Maybe you should rewatch it, perhaps you missed something.

Well, by your accounts he must have somehow crept into her house and, having psychically deduced what meal she had planned for the lunch, poisoned the mushroom supplies she innocently cooked into the beef wellington; and then the following evening when she scraped the mushroom duxelle off and fed the beef to her children (that the forensic toxicologist said the DC mushrooms would have leached through into) they did not fall ill. Odd, if Simon had done it. Do you think he played Russian roulette with his children's lives?

I have already watched it twice, by the way, as I wanted to check what they said in the report about the tip.