The mushroom cook behind the toxic beef wellington that poisoned four of her relatives was an experienced fungi forager, a source close to the family says.
Erin Patterson, 48, was known to pick wild mushrooms around Victoria’s Gippsland region, Daily Mail Australia can reveal.
A friend of the Patterson family said Erin was ‘very good at foraging’ and identifying different mushroom varieties.
‘The Patterson family (including Erin and Simon) would pick mushrooms each year when they were in season,’ the friend said.
‘It’s very common for people to go mushroom picking around that area.’
Erin’s former parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian fell sick after a family lunch at her Leongatha home on July 29.
A friend of the Patterson family has revealed Erin Patterson (pictured) was an experienced mushroom forager
Erin Patterson hosted the deadly lunch at her Leongatha home (pictured), in Victoria’s Gippsland region, on July 29
Don, 70, Gail , 70, and Heather, 66, have since died, while Ian is fighting for life in a critical but stable condition at Melbourne’s Austin hospital, where he is awaiting a liver transplant.
Her estranged husband Simon Patterson was also invited to the lunch but pulled out beforehand.
Homicide detectives are investigating the ‘unexplained’ deaths, which are believed to have been caused by death cap mushrooms, which are among the most poisonous in the world.
Erin has denied any wrongdoing and has written a statement to police claiming the mushrooms were a mixture of button mushrooms from a supermarket and dried mushrooms she purchased months ago at an Asian grocery store in Melbourne.
She said the dried mushrooms came in a package with a hand-written label, however, she was unable to identify the particular Asian grocer she visited.
She said she had passed on what was left of the meal on to authorities for testing.
In the statement, Erin also admitted to lying to police about a vegetable dehydrator she dumped at the local tip, which has been seized for forensic examination.
Erin said while she had told officers she dropped it off there ‘a long time ago’, she actually got rid of it in the days after the lunch.
Friends of the family say the Pattersons were regular mushroom foragers. Pictured: The home where the fatal lunch was held
Mushrooms pictured on Erin’s Leongatha property in a property ad from 2019
Erin’s estranged husband Simon Patterson was also meant to attend the lunch but pulled out
She said she was at the hospital discussing the food dehydrator with her two kids when her ex-husband Simon asked: ‘Is that what you used to poison them?’
Erin said the accusation made her panic and she disposed of the device, fearing she may lose custody of the couple’s children.
The friend confirmed to Daily Mail Australia the Patterson and Wilkinson families, like Simon, harbour doubts about her version of events.
‘The family would go foraging regularly and knew what to pick.’
Daily Mail Australia does not suggest Erin intentionally poisoned her four relatives, only that she is known to forage.
A local man who runs one of the many foraging courses around the region said he started the program to focus on the dangers of picking the wrong species.
While he had never seen Erin in his classes, he said he tells students there are general rules to identifying toxic varieties and the main one is not to pick mushrooms that grow under oak trees.
‘Death caps mainly grow under oaks, which are usually in parks,’ he said.
‘They [mushrooms that grow under oak trees] aren’t all bad, but they are easy to mistake on the untrained eye.’
Gail and Don Patterson died after eating the mushrooms
Ian Wilkinson and Heather Wilkinson (both pictured) became severely ill after they ate wild mushrooms. Mrs Wilkinson died on Friday while her husband remains in a critical condition in hospital
Police are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the lunch, which was arranged to negotiate a reconciliation between Simon and Erin.
Detective Inspector Dean Thomas telling reporters last week Erin was a ‘person of interest’ because she cooked the meals, but stressed police were still working to determine if the tragedy was accidental or suspicious.
Inspector Thomas said Erin’s two children were present at the lunch but ate separate meals, with the kids and their mother all later turning up to hospital as a precaution despite not presenting with symptoms.
Erin initially told police she bought the mushrooms at a supermarket before giving a ‘no comment’ interview.
Late last week, she provided a sworn statement to police to tell her side of the story, saying she was advised by a lawyer who no longer represents her to not speak to detectives.
Despite initial police reports that the children were present at the lunch, Erin said they were actually at the movies instead.
However, she said the kids ate the leftovers from lunch the following night, but they do not like mushrooms, so she scraped them off the meal.
Like the four victims, she said also presented to hospital on July 30 with bad stomach pains and diarrhoea, before being transferred by ambulance to a Melbourne hospital.
Erin said she was ‘devastated to think that these mushrooms may have contributed to the illness suffered by my loved ones’ and reiterated that she ‘had absolutely no reason to hurt these people whom I loved.’
She also paid tribute to her former in-laws and insists she maintained a positive and amicable relationship with them even after her marriage with their son fell apart.
‘I had been close with Simon’s parents for a long period of time. Our relationship had continued in a fairly amicable way after I finished the relationship with their son Simon,’ she said.
‘Our relationship was affected to some degree by seeing them less after my marriage breakdown with Simon however I have never felt differently towards his parents.
‘I had a deep love and respect for Simon’s parents and had encouraged my children to spend time with their grandparents as I believed they were exceptional role models.’
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