Woman who served deadly mushrooms to family charged with triple murder | Abroad

LOOK. Three killed by poisonous mushrooms at family lunch

Victoria Police searched the woman’s home using technological sniffer dogs. It is unknown exactly what the police were looking for. After questioning by police, Patterson was officially charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder.

Her former parents-in-law Don Patterson (70) and Gail Patterson (70), and Heather Wilkinson (66) – Gail’s sister – were invited to lunch with Erin Patterson on July 29 in Leongatha, a small town about 135 km southeast from Melbourne. After dinner they got sick.

The three guests died a week later, on August 4 and 5. The Pattersons were the parents of the hostess’s ex-husband. A fourth man, Wilkinson’s husband Ian Wilkinson, a minister in a nearby town, also fell ill but was released from hospital in September.

The mysterious deaths are gripping Australia. It is striking that the hostess and her children were the only ones who did not become ill. This raised the question among the police whether Erin Patterson accidentally served the poisonous mushrooms, or whether there was intent.

The woman told reporters in August that she had done nothing wrong. “I loved them. I just can’t understand what happened,” she said in tears at the time. She refused to say where the mushrooms served came from. “But I’m terribly sorry that they passed away,” he said.

Deaths from eating mushrooms are relatively rare in the country. The country has several species of wild mushrooms, including the ‘death cap’ mushroom, which are dangerous enough to poison and kill a human.