A Victorian woman who cooked the meal that resulted in the suspected mushroom poisoning death of three people has tearfully broken her silence.
Video / News.com.au
A paramedic who tended to one of the dying victims of the Australian mushroom poisoning case was so concerned by their final conversation that they passed details on to detectives investigating the case.
The Herald Sun quotes sources close to the investigation as saying the ambulance officer felt it necessary to make police aware of what was said, though the details are yet to be released.
The revelation comes as 48-year-old Erin Patterson, the woman who prepared the mushroom-laced meal that killed three, spoke out to deny leaking her earlier statement to police and to hit out at media coverage of the case.
“I lost my parents-in-law, my children lost their grandparents. And I’ve been painted as an evil witch,” Patterson told The Australian.
“And the media is making it impossible for me to live in this town. I can’t have friends over,” she complained.
“The media is at the house where my children are at. The media are at my sister’s house so I can’t go there. This is unfair.’’
Don Patterson and Gail Patterson, Erin's former parents-in-law, died after a suspected mushroom poisoning. Photo / Supplied
She also said she did not leak her police statement, which contained her version of the events that led to her parents-in-law Gail and Don Patterson, as well as Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, dying from suspected death cap mushroom poisoning.
Wilkinson’s husband Ian is still critically ill in a Melbourne hospital.
“I didn’t put any statement out,’’ Patterson told The Australian.
“I have no idea how it got out. I made a statement to the police.’’
The statement
Her written statement, first reported by the ABC, was provided to Victoria police last Friday and in it she said she wants to “clear up the record” after the deaths of three people.
Media reported that police investigating the deaths had seized a food dehydrator at a local rubbish tip, which was reportedly dumped around the time the illnesses and deaths came to light.
However, Patterson admitted she lied to police by originally claiming she had dumped it “a long time ago”, the ABC reported.
She now claims she was at the hospital with her children “discussing the food dehydrator” when her estranged husband Simon Patterson asked: “Is that what you used to poison them?”
Erin Patterson said she had panicked and dumped the dehydrator, worried she might lose custody of her children.
Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian Wilkinson. Photo / Supplied
In a statement to police, she also claims she spent time in hospital after eating the deadly meal. She also claimed her children were not at the lunch, and were instead at the movies.
She then went on to claim they ate leftovers the next day. She also claimed she and her children don’t like mushrooms so they scraped them out.
She also detailed how she served the meal and allowed the guests to choose their own plates. She then took the last plate and ate a serving of the beef Wellington.
It had not been previously reported that she was also hospitalised after the lunch with bad stomach pains and diarrhoea, and was put on a saline drip and given a “liver protective drug”.
She said she was transported by ambulance from the Leongatha Hospital to the Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne on July 31.
Patterson continued to deny any wrongdoing in the police statement and still has no idea how the beef Wellington killed her guests.
“I now very much regret not answering some [police] questions following this advice given the nightmare that this process has become.”
According to Patterson, the media’s coverage was wrong and biased, and as a result, she was inadvertently but purposely painted as the perpetrator rather than the innocent party.
“I am hoping this statement might help in some way. I believe if people understood the background more, they would not be so quick to rush to judgment.”
Erin Patterson, the Australian woman who cooked the mushroom meal that killed three people, says she is being painted as an 'evil witch' by the media.
The mushrooms
In her police statement, Erin Patterson said the fungi used in the dish were a mixture of button mushrooms bought at a supermarket chain and dried ones from an Asian grocery store in Melbourne months prior.
“I am now devastated to think that these mushrooms may have contributed to the illness suffered by my loved ones. I really want to repeat that I had absolutely no reason to hurt these people whom I loved,” she said.
The Herald Sun asked Victoria’s Health Department if Patterson’s claims had resulted in any recalls of mushrooms in Victoria.
The only recall related to enoki mushrooms sold with incorrect use-by dates.
The newspaper visited 11 Asian grocery stores in the area, who all reassured customers that none of their mushroom products has been recalled.
The Australian Mushroom Growers Association also released a statement on Tuesday.
“Given the recent focus on mushrooms, the AMGA feels it necessary to inform the public that commercially grown mushrooms, produced in Australia, are safe and high quality.
“If you want safe mushrooms, buy fresh, Australian-grown mushrooms.”
The statement was headed: “The only poisonous mushrooms are those picked in the wild”.
