Australian mushroom poisoning: Funerals of three victims to be delayed

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The grieving families of three Australians who died in a suspected mushroom poisoning have been forced to delay their funerals to allow police time to complete their investigations.

The Herald Sun has reported that the families face a longer wait to say goodbye but also that Ian Wilkinson, the sole survivor of the group taken to hospital after the fatal lunch, is showing signs of improvement.

He is making slow progress and may now not require a liver transplant.

On July 29, Erin Patterson cooked a beef wellington lunch at her home in Victoria for her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian Wilkinson.

However, the lunch turned deadly when Don, Gail and Heather all died after eating the meal, which allegedly contained death cap mushrooms.

Patterson’s former husband Simon was supposed to be at the lunch but had to pull out at the last minute.

Erin Patterson has been under intense public scrutiny since the case first went public, but has denied deliberately poisoning her guests.

She recently spoke out to deny leaking her earlier statement to police and 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.

“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.”

While police have only said Erin Patterson is a person of interest, and haven’t suggested she tried intentionally poisoning her in-laws, experienced psychologist Tim Watson-Munro says there are a number of bizarre elements that need to be investigated.

Speaking to the Australian, Watson-Munro, who has worked on catching some of Australia’s biggest criminal offenders, stated: “I’m not a big believer in coincidences.”

Simon Patterson spent 21 days in intensive care in 2022 after collapsing from a mystery stomach illness at his home, where his friends and family were told to come and say goodbye in case he died.

The Herald Sun reported a family friend said Simon felt “a bit off” and his illnesses “often coincided [with] when he spent time with her [Erin]”.

In a police statement regarding July’s deaths, Patterson also questioned herself as to whether she poisoned Simon’s parents and aunty.

“Obviously, he was either wilfully poisoned or it was just bad luck,” Watson-Munro told the Australian.

Watson-Munro isn’t convinced by Patterson’s statement in which she claimed she purchased the mushrooms at an unnamed Asian supermarket.

In his view, he believes her claim sounds “ludicrous” because death cap mushrooms are not commercial products.

He said: “People just don’t retail them. It’s not that loose.”

Patterson revealed in a follow-up statement to police that her children were not present at the lunch, despite initial reports they were.

She claimed they were at the movies, but ate leftovers of the meal the following day.

Watson-Munro believes it is “weird” the children were out of the house during what was meant to be a family lunch.

Watson-Munro says police would be looking for points of weakness and the slow, steady approach would be tactical. He said: “It is a fascinating case. Everyone is talking about it.”

Another controversial part of the case is the details surrounding the dumping of a food dehydrator.

A police statement by Patterson was reportedly leaked to the media, revealing she became unwell after eating the meal.

She admitted she then dumped a dehydrator she used to prepare the meal at a nearby tip soon afterwards because she was in a panic.

However, she admitted lying to police about how long ago she disposed of the food dehydrator.

She told them she dumped it there a “long time ago”, before revealing she did it after her guests fell ill.

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?”

The investigation is continuing.

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