Six things that don’t stack up in mushroom death case

The mushroom lunch that killed three people and left another gravely ill is still shrouded in mystery, but several key claims will have police – and the public – scratching their heads.

The deaths of three people from suspected mushroom poisoning at a family lunch in Leongatha continue to baffle, with several inconsistencies likely to play a key role in the police investigation.

Erin Patterson cooked the beef wellington dish, which police say is linked to the deaths of Ms Patterson’s former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson.

Heather’s husband, Ian, remains in hospital in a critical but stable condition and may require a liver transplant.

After initially giving a “no comment” interview to police, Ms Patterson later issued a statement to police via her lawyer in the hope of “clearing the record” following intense media and public scrutiny.

But her account of the tragic meal is at odds with what police said at a press conference earlier this month.

The Herald Sun is not suggesting that Ms Patterson intentionally poisoned her guests, only that police are investigating the matter.

And these key inconsistencies are likely to be thoroughly probed by detectives in a bid to unravel the mystery.

The things that don’t add up

1. Where did the mushrooms come from?

Ms Patterson claims she used a mixture of mushrooms in the beef wellington – button mushrooms bought from a local supermarket and dried mushrooms from an Asian grocery store she can’t recall the name of.

However, no mushroom products have been recalled within in Victoria in the past month.

Detectives also said all three people who had died had symptoms consistent with poisoning from death cap mushrooms – a deadly variety of wild mushrooms known to grow under oak trees.

Erin Patterson has denied any wrongdoing as police continue to probe the matter.

2. Why dump the dehydrator?

The Herald Sun first revealed that police were probing whether a food dehydrator was used to prepare the lunch and then dumped at a tip the day after the meals were served. A dehydrator is now being forensically tested.

Ms Patterson initially told police she had dumped the appliance “a long time ago” but later admitted she had lied to them and dumped it because her ex-husband Simon asked her: “Is that what you used to poison them?”.

In her statement, Ms Patterson claims she used dried mushrooms bought at an Asian grocery store in the meal.

Ms Patterson also claims she provided leftovers of the meal to hospital toxicologists for testing.

So two key questions remain: Why dump the dehydrator if it had not been used to dry mushrooms linked to the fatal meal? And why dump the dehydrator but provide leftovers for testing?

3. Did Ms Patterson’s children attend the lunch?

Ms Patterson said her two children were not present for the meal because they had gone to the movies, however homicide detectives said they had attended.

Detectives said the two children had presented at a hospital within days of the lunch “as a precaution”, although they believed neither of them had eaten the beef wellington.

Ms Patterson says she bought the dried mushrooms from an Asian grocery store in Melbourne. Picture: Brooke Grebert-Craig

4. Did the children eat leftovers?

At a press conference this month, detectives said Ms Patterson had prepared separate meals for herself and her children.

However, Ms Patterson’s statement says that she served the children leftovers the next night.

After eating the meal on July 29, the four other guests had all fallen ill by lunchtime the following day.

The key question is: Did Ms Patterson know the others and fallen ill on July 30? And if so, why then serve up the leftovers?

5. Is it possible to scrape poisonous mushrooms off the beef wellington?

Ms Patterson claimed she had scraped the mushrooms off the leftovers because her children don’t like them.

Is it feasible to scrape mushrooms off a beef wellington, given that the dish consists of beef fillets layered with mushrooms and wrapped in puff pastry?

Under the hot temperature of the oven, any toxins they may have been present in the meal would likely have infused into the meat and the pastry.

6. Did Ms Patterson eat the beef wellington?

Ms Patterson claims that she ate a serving of the lunch and was later admitted to hospital with bad stomach pains and diarrhoea.

She says she was put on a saline drip and given a “liver protective drug” before being taken by ambulance to the Monash Medical Centre on July 31.

However, police say that while Ms Patterson had presented to hospital “as a precaution”, she did not have any symptoms of poisoning but that they were “keeping an open mind” as they continue to investigate.