Australian police have arrested 49-year-old Erin Patterson in connection with the deaths of three of her guests. They are said to have eaten poisonous mushrooms at the end of July during a lunch organized by Patterson.
Victoria Police searched the woman’s home using technological sniffer dogs. It is unknown what exactly the police were looking for. Patterson is being questioned by police but has not yet been officially charged.
Don Patterson, 70, his wife Gail Patterson, 70, and her sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, fell ill after consuming beef stew during a lunch on July 29 in Leongatha, a small town about 135 km southeast of Melbourne . They died a week later, on August 4 and 5. The Patterson’s 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.
Hostess not sick
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 raises 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 am terribly sorry that they passed away.”
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.
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