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?

Talking about personality disorders didn't she say her Mum brought her up with the emotion of being in a Romanian orphanage?
Not that in itself would make her a killer as she certainly showed emotion to her own kids.

She may have manipulated them to think Simon was trying to hurt her, as her son said. He said his Dad phoned the school so he could be on the fees and schedule and didn't contact his Mum. I would do the same dealing with a disgruntled ex if I had to. I would not want to miss what was going on at school. I don't think Simon did it to get at Erin but rather avoid her. All just speculation. But she has come across as manipulative.

She does sound like she might have some form of cluster B personality disorder and being neglected emotionally as a child would increase the chances of that.

Total derail but whilst we're waiting for court to resume- I'm watching Nigella make a mushroom pasta and as always, I'm amazed/envious of the varieties of mushrooms you can apparently buy in English supermarkets.

Here it's pretty much only buttons and flat browns. Sometimes you might see more exotic ones but it seems there aren't many growers and they're very spendy.

So for the UK MN peoples, what can you get at your local Tesco, Waitrose etc?

I don’t think there’s much variety in ours, just the basics, although you can buy a ‘specialty mix’ pack (no idea what’s in it).

I was watching a programme yesterday where they mentioned having 800 types of mushroom in a region.

It got me thinking, that if I was a forager and heard there were DC mushrooms somewhere, then I would avoid that area for foraging, and not drive pretty much straight there to forage.

I live in a densely populated area of a UK city and my local Sainsbury’s might have a selection of button, regular, chestnut, portobello, oyster, shiitake, and possibly even enoki. I say might as depending what time of day you go they may have sold out of oyster, shiitake etc.

It’s a current annoyance of mine that if you want to buy an avocado you need to go before 4pm as they often have none left in the evenings.

This is what you can put in your online order - with prices! They have organic and pre sliced options too.
https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/groceries/fruit-and-vegetables/fresh-vegetables/mushrooms/c:1034111

When Erin told the doc that her kids would be ok as she scraped the mushrooms off their leftovers.
Was this after they realised it was the DC or did they still think was the meat?
I am confused about the timelines.

It beggars belief that she'd actually give tainted food to her children, though it would serve her bona fides and get her out of the hospital.

One of the children did say that they had leftovers, but there's no way of knowing whose.

The lunch was Saturday. Everyone (except Erin) was in hospital in terrible shape by Sunday morning. Erin, despite this, alleges she gave her children the meat from the Wellingons for dinner that night with the mushrooms scraped off.

At this point, all the hospital knows is the patients are very sick, but not that it's death caps. I think at this point they think it is food poisoning from the meat.

By early Monday morning, the hospital has spoken to Dandenong hospital who suggested mushroom poisoning, and the need for time-sensitive treatment to be given.

I don't think she gave them a BW with the mushroms removed. I think she just used up the beef she'd bought to make them - and she knew there was no problem with the meat.

It's the only thing that makes sense. But it means EP lied about having scraped the mushrooms off.

Yep. As weird as she appears, I cannot imagine her harming her children. There's no way of checking up on it either. It's yet another lie.

There is no way that i can believe that she served leftovers of that very same meal to her kids with the mushrooms 'scraped off', and that even when the other guests were dying, she refused to bring her kids to hospital to get checked over. The only way this makes sense is if she very clearly knew what food was poisoned, and what was not. And she was the chef, so....

I'm so envious of that selection! Avocados in season are no problem to find here & pretty cheap. Out of season they're hard as rocks, don't know why they bother selling them.

God those are bloody cheap! Now I see why UK Mumsnetters who move here are always horrified at the price of food.

Exactly this.

The only part I can't work out is why she was seemingly blase about letting the cops go through her bin knowing the leftovers from the lunch were in there. Including, so it seems, the BW that was intended for Simon that she would've known was full of DC. I guess she couldn't exactly stop them.

I think, given if this is a mass murder then it is a pre-meditated mass murder, she thought out some things and didn't think out others. She lies like a toddler with chocolate all over her face.

Ha! She also lies like my 8 y/old who pretends to vomit when he doesn't want to go to school.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-13/erin-patterson-mushroom-murder-trial-jury-hears-court-evidence/105285362

Thanks for the link (and all the others).

There have been other poisonings, but I bet the people who picked those didn’t drive out to where there had just been confirmed DC sightings to forage!

And miraculously not get affected themselves when feeding a group a meal cooked with them!

The fungi expert is marvellous. He's so thorough.

Interesting defence claiming it was mistaken identity when Erin is insisting she didn’t use any foraged mushrooms. Unless she is going to change her testimony and admit she did. Then the defence team can claim
panic etc.

The no evidence of death cap mushrooms from China was interesting.

Isn't he? I did a day course on mushrooms n Daylesford years ago, bought 2 tickets as a birthday present for my Dad. As a child my Dad picked mushrooms, had them on toast and then had 3 days off work with the vomits etc.

The course was run by a mycologist and we all frolicked around for an hour, picking every fungus we saw. Was great fun. Then we had them inspected by the mycologist- he threw about 90% out. The rest were washed and mixed with other edible mushrooms & we ate them for lunch 😍

Oh, no, the defence has already opened saying everything she claimed was in fact a lie - she did forage them, she "just panicked".

Even when asked by multiple medical people where she got the mushrooms and if she'd perhaps foraged them, as they needed to know to treat their ill and dying patients, she lied. Again, one is supposed to believe, because she panicked.

She did after all own a dehydrator. She lied about owning and using one, and she threw it away because she panicked.

She lied about everything, they say, except for when she didn't lie...

That sounds great!

My grandad used to forage for mushrooms and I remember him telling me that they could be poisonous. He put me off ever wanting to do it myself - in fact I’ve always been worried about the DC even just touching ones that we find in the woods based on what he told me!

Maybe she didn’t want them searching the house generally and finding all sorts of other stuff…?!