Poisonous mushroom chef Erin Patterson has finally spoken at length about the lethal family lunch at her Leongatha home which has left three relatives dead and a fourth fighting for life.
But while her leaked police statement answered some lingering questions about the baffling case, it also raised many more.
Erin Patterson invited her former parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, Gail’s sister Heather and her pastor husband Ian to her property in Victoria’s Gippsland region on July 29, for a slice of beef Wellington pie.
The meal is believed to have contained death cap mushrooms. Don, 70, Gail, 70, and Heather, 66, have since died and Ian is fighting for life in hospital awaiting a liver transplant.
As police investigate the case, the mysterious tragedy has been plagued by inconsistencies – from who was at the lunch, who fell sick, to when exactly she got rid of a vegetable dehydrator which has been seized by police.
Here, Daily Mail Australia looks at the outstanding contradictions between initial police and media reports and Erin’s version of events.
Erin Patterson is pictured talking to reporters outside her Leongatha home, in Victoria’s Gippsland region, last week
1. Who was present at the lunch
Homicide Squad Detective Inspector Dean Thomas addressed the media on August 7 to announce his police unit was looking into the three ‘unexplained’ deaths.
He said the four family members were invited to the home on July 29, where they had lunch with Erin and her two kids.
Inspector Thomas said the two children ate a different meal to the adults. He would not confirm which of the two meals Erin had eaten, but said that would form part of the investigation.
However, in Erin’s statement tendered to police on Friday, she said the children were not present at the lunch and were at the movies instead.
She said the kids did eat the beef Wellington as leftovers for dinner the following night – but the mushrooms were scrapped off as the children don’t like them.
2. Who fell sick
Last week, Inspector Thomas said the four guests fell sick after attending the lunch and presented to local hospitals around midnight that evening, suspecting they had gastro.
As their conditions deteriorated, they were transferred to Melbourne hospitals where medical staff noticed their symptoms were consistent with death cap mushroom poisoning.
Inspector Thomas said that Erin and her two children also presented to hospital as a precaution, but noted they did not have symptoms.
However, Erin has since said she was hospitalised with bad stomach pains and diarrhoea, put on a saline drip and given a ‘liver protective drug’, then later transferred to a hospital in Melbourne.
Gippsland Southern Health Service confirmed last Friday that a fifth individual, who initially came to Leongatha Hospital on July 30 with symptoms of possible food poisoning, later returned and was subsequently transferred to Monash Medical Centre on July 31.
It remains unclear when she was discharged from the Melbourne facility.
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
Erin claims she bought the mushrooms from a two stores (pictured, foraged mushroom)
3. Where the mushrooms came from
Early last week, Erin spoke to reporters outside her home, where she denied any wrongdoing and said she was ‘devastated’ about the deaths.
However, when asked by reporters where she got the mushrooms and how they made their way into the meal, she fell silent.
Around the same time, it was reported Erin had told police initially that she bought the stores from a supermarket before giving a ‘no comment’ interview when called in for a second round of questioning.
But in her recent statement, Erin went into further detail about the source of the mushrooms and how they came to be in the meal.
Erin claimed the mushrooms were a mixture of button mushrooms from a supermarket chain and dried mushrooms she bought months ago from an Asian grocer in Melbourne.
She said the dried mushrooms purchased in Mount Waverley came in a package with a hand-written label and that she had passed on this information to the Victorian Department of Health when they contacted her after her guests fell ill.
Erin claimed the mushrooms were a mixture of button mushrooms from a supermarket chain and dried mushrooms she bought months ago from an Asian grocer in Melbourne
But she did not identify the particular store in her statement to police.
She said she handed the remnants of the dish on to the hospital for toxicology testing.
Erin said officials from the department later sent her photos of packages similar to those she described to confirm if they were the same as the type she had purchased.
However, Victoria’s Health Department have confirmed there are no warnings out for any mushrooms for sale in the state.
Friends of the Patterson family have also told Daily Mail Australia she was an experienced mushroom forager and the family would pick fungi yearly.
Daily Mail Australia does not suggest Erin intentionally poisoned her four relatives, only that she is known to forage.
4. The reason for the lunch
Daily Mail Australia revealed last week that Erin held the lunch in a bid to reconcile her marriage with Simon Patterson, the son of Don and Gail.
A source close to Simon said his mate, who has rarely been seen since the tragedy, had no interest in getting back together with the mother of his two children.
‘They went to her house for a mediation to talk to the family. Simon was supposed to go there for lunch, but he pulled out [at] the last minute. Otherwise he would be in that death bed too,’ the friend said last week.
‘The people who died, Gail, Don and the Wilkinsons, were talking to them because they’re heavily ingrained with the church and they wanted to make sure she was right to resume a relationship with Simon… she was basically petitioning to get back with him and the family didn’t think that was a good move.
‘They basically didn’t think she was good enough for him in their eyes.
‘This wasn’t just a lunch; it was an intervention with the pastor as mediator. That’s why this lunch happened.’
However, Erin claimed in her statement she had ‘reluctantly’ nursed her ex-husband back to health when he fell sick with a mystery illness last year, before telling him she did not want to get back together.
A source close to Simon said his mate, who has rarely been seen since the tragedy, had no interest in getting back together with the mother of his two children
5. When Simon pulled out of the lunch
Daily Mail Australia revealed last week that Simon was invited to the lunch but pulled out at the last minute.
‘Simon was supposed to go to the lunch but couldn’t make it at the last minute,’ a friend of Simon told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday.
However, Erin claims that is not entirely correct.
The mother-of-two has since said in her statement that Simon cancelled ‘prior to the day’.
A source close to Simon (pictured), who has been in hiding since the tragedy, said his mate had no interest in getting back together with the mother of his two children
6. The food dehydrator
Last week, it was revealed police had seized a vegetable dehydrator found dumped at a tip near Erin’s home.
The device is undergoing forensic testing to determine whether it was used in the preparation of the meal.
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.
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.
Pictured: The rubbish tip where a dehydrator was found by police
Why did Erin decide to make a statement to police now?
Writing to police, Erin said she gave the no comment interview on the advice of a lawyer, who is no longer representing her, and that she found the questioning process ‘terrifying and anxiety provoking’.
She said she now regrets that decision and wanted to finally speak out to set her side of the story straight after what she claims was wildly incorrect media reporting.
‘I am now wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones,’ Erin said.
‘I now very much regret not answering some questions following this advice given the nightmare that this process has become.
‘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 judgement.
‘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.’
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