Mushroom lunch victim gave key clue to paramedic

An ambulance officer alerted police to a conversation they had with a patient who ate the toxic mushrooms at the Leongatha lunch.

A paramedic’s final conversation with a victim of the deadly mushroom lunch has been relayed to homicide detectives.

Sources close to the investigation say an ambulance officer alerted investigators to the conversation with the ­patient, who ate the toxic mushrooms at the Leongatha lunch and later died.

It’s not known what the ­patient told the healthcare worker, only that they ­believed it necessary to pass on to police.

It comes as the woman at the centre of the mystery, who cooked the fatal meal that resulted in three people dead told The Australian she was “being painted as an evil witch’’.

Erin Patterson, 48, said: “I lost my parents-in-law, my children lost their grandparents. And I’ve been painted as an evil witch. 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.’’

Ms Patterson admits to cooking the beef wellington dish but has denied wrongdoing and has claimed she used mushrooms from two shops, prompting Asian grocers and mushroom growers to reassure customers they had no issues with their produce.

An assortment of dried mushrooms at Besneu Mart in Mount Waverley. Picture: Brooke Grebert-Craig

In a previous statement, Erin Patterson said she used dried mushrooms bought at an Asian grocery store and button mushrooms from a supermarket in the meal she served to her former parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian Wilkinson.

Mr and Ms Patterson and Ms Wilkinson died this month while Mr Wilkinson remains in a critical but stable condition.

Erin Patterson, who denies wrongdoing, offered the new information in a statement her lawyers sent to police after ­detectives had said all three of those who perished had symptoms consistent with death cap mushroom poisoning.

She used button mushrooms bought at a supermarket near her Leongatha home, she said, as well as a package of dried mushrooms with a handwritten label purchased about three months earlier at an Asian grocer in Mt Waverley.

Given these claims, the Herald Sun asked Victoria’s Health Department whether any concerns had been raised about mushrooms sold in Victoria, or if any had been recalled.

Erin Patterson told police she bought the dried mushrooms from an Asian supermarket in Mount Waverley. Picture: Brooke Grebert-Craig

The lethal lunch was held at Ms Patterson’s home in Leongatha. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

A spokesman referred the newspaper to the latest health advisories published by the chief health officer, as well as the Food Standards Australia New Zealand recalls database.

The only recent recall, listed on the FSANZ database, relates to two brands of enoki mushrooms sold by some Asian stores with an incorrect use-by date of July 13, 2023, increasing the risk of Listeria infection, but these packages did not have handwritten labels.

Eleven Asian grocery stores in and near Mt Waverley visited by the Herald Sun on Tuesday also reassured customers none of their mushroom products had been recalled.

Don and Gail Patterson died after ingesting poisonous mushrooms. Picture: Supplied

Heather Wilkinson also died following the meal. Picture: Supplied

Ian Wilkinson remains in a critical but stable condition. Picture: Supplied

The Australian Mushroom Growers Association released a statement on Tuesday, saying: “Given the recent focus on mushrooms, the AMGA feels it necessary to inform the public that commercially grown mushrooms, produced in Australia, are safe and high quality.

“If you want safe mushrooms, buy fresh, Australian-grown mushrooms.”

The statement was headed: “The only poisonous mushrooms are those picked in the wild”.

Photographs emerged on Tuesday purportedly of a wall inside Ms Patterson’s former home covered in scrawled children’s drawings of tombstones and messages including “you don’t (have) long to live”.

It’s understood the messages were written by Ms Patterson’s children and the photo was taken by a tradie tasked with painting the wall before the Korumburra home was sold last year.

– With Mitch Clarke