Leongatha mushroom poisoning: hope among the deaths for Ian Wilkinson
Can Ian Wilkinson defy the odds? The 68-year-old pastor finds himself as something of a miracle man in his own right, a potential key witness to the three mushroom deaths.
For much of his life Ian Wilkinson has trafficked in miracles. A pastor from the small South Gippsland town of Korumburra, Wilkinson is known among his friends and followers for his compassion and commitment to the scriptures, preaching from the pulpit inside the weatherboard Baptist church that stands above the town.
At 68, Wilkinson, a volunteer lawn mower, finds himself today something of a miracle man in his own right, a potential key witness to the three mushroom deaths after a beef Wellington meal went pear-shaped.
Against the odds, his condition has been improving slowly after his poisoning at lunch on July 29, although no expert would predict he will necessarily survive because of the crooked path death cap mushrooms can take through the human body.
“It’s more likely that you’re going to die than recover,” Greg Moore, of the University of Melbourne’s school of agriculture, food and ecosystem sciences, warns of the impact of the death cap mushrooms police believe were served to Wilkinson by Leongatha woman Erin Patterson.
“Very often it’s lethal. I would describe him (Wilkinson) as exceptional at the moment.”
Just under a month since Wilkinson’s former niece through marriage, Patterson, served him the beef Wellington, the homicide squad’s investigation has started to progress.
In the quiet, stillness of Victoria’s normally waterlogged South Gippsland, two of the dead – Don and Gail Patterson, both 70 – were farewelled by family in a private funeral this week, suggesting police had gathered all the evidence they needed from the two bodies.
Global experts have been called on to help fortify the forensic evidence to determine whether a potential case can be built against Erin Patterson, 48, the former daughter-in-law of Don and Gail Patterson.
Whatever Wilkinson can say – or has said – to investigators would be central to the case as he is the only person, other than Erin Patterson, who was at the meal in nearby Leongatha who survived. His wife, Heather, 66 – Gail’s sister – also succumbed to the toxins, dying six days after eating the death caps.
Ian Wilkinson shared a very modest country life with Heather in a small but tidy plasterboard house in an unremarkable area in Korumburra. The pair were loved.
“And I’m hoping it was an accident,’’ neighbour Gina Clement told The Australian after the poisonings, before enthusiastically emphasising the support provided to her by the Wilkinsons.
Ian Wilkinson also would be able to tell police of the dysfunctional family dynamic that has heaped suspicion on Erin Patterson, a mother of two whom police have named as a suspect in the three deaths, although they are having a bet each way on what happened.
It also just may be simply a dish gone wrong, and her claims the death cap mushrooms were bought at an Asian shop or mainstream supermarket eventually nay prove true.
Wilkinson also would be able to paint a picture of why the lunch ever took place, about 120km southeast of Melbourne, amid speculation it was an attempted mediation to revive the dead marriage between Simon and Erin Patterson or build a smoother runway for the two school-age children whom the couple share.
The last official update had Ian Wilkinson’s health slowly improving but the hospital declined to comment.
The second key police witness is Simon Patterson, who separated from Erin Patterson several years ago. The middle-aged father of her children, Patterson is a very sad, tormented figure as he winds his way through the back streets of Korumburra, past the Baptist church on Mine Road in his white Isuzu ute, having lost his parents and aunt, and his uncle Ian is still gravely ill. Friends say he is also still not 100 per cent after a mystery gastric illness last year led to him almost dying twice.
In her statement to police, Erin Patterson confirmed that her estranged partner was suspicious of her role in the July 29 meal.
Simon Patterson, who went to school in Korumburra, is a civil engineer, has had a long association with local basketball and was an avid traveller and adventure photographer. He knows better than any living person just how acrimonious the family dynamic had become, which has split friends of he and his ex-wife.
Erin Patterson insists she still has friends but they are too gun-shy to visit her because of the global media attention.
The communities have struggled with the unbearable weight of the grief and attention.
Next Thursday will be the first time a proper public memorial is to be held for Don and Gail Patterson, both of whom were pillars of Korumburra through schools, the church and the local business magazine they published for years. It will be held at the Korumburra Recreational Centre because the weatherboard church is so small. Hundreds will attend.
“There has been so much attention,’’ local mayor Nathan Hersey says. “We need to stop and reflect on how it has affected people.”
No one is expecting Ian Wilkinson, if he is still alive, to attend.
At best for Erin Patterson, the deaths of her three former in-laws are a case of accidental death by mushrooms, having gone to the trouble of sourcing the fungi to create a complicated dish of eye fillet, pastry and mushroom-based paste that normally permeates the meal.
The story has captured attention like few others; consider the awfulness of the Snowtown murders, Azaria Chamberlain’s disappearance and the disappearance of William Tyrrell. So entranced has the community become that Erin Patterson even has sparked peak interest in beef Wellington.
Troy Wheeler is something of a celebrity butcher in Melbourne, working with the high-profile chef Andrew McConnell, the pair owning a series of shops specialising in high-end produce.
Meatsmith’s 1kg beef Wellingtons, with eye fillet wrapped in pastry and sporting a world’s best mushroom duxelles, sells for $95; forget the price, there is a run on them. “We’ve actually had crazy sales of it over the last couple of weeks,” Wheeler said, noting the unfortunate nature of the deaths.
Erin Patterson, the daughter of children’s literature academic Heather Scutter, likes beef Wellington but she also likes McDonald’s. Police are dealing with a smart woman, and both sides of the mushroom fence are shadowed by contradictions.
She has posted a no trespassing sign on the farm gate at the front of her Leongatha house and small acreage to prevent unwanted media attention, although as much as anything she seems to be allergic to having her photo taken as she scurries from her front door to her MG SUV.
In 2018, Simon Patterson posted on social media that his wife hated having her photo taken, The Daily Mail reported. Before she opened the door to The Australian last week, Erin Patterson asked whether I had a camera. I didn’t, so she willingly opened the door.
Given the publicity, it will be a deep injustice to Erin Patterson if the deaths were purely misadventure, as is quite possible. As homicide squad head Detective-Inspector Dean Thomas said, it is possible that the deaths are innocent. But until she is cleared by police, she will remain under suspicion. She has stridently denied wrongdoing.
Suspicion remains as much as anything because she didn’t fall seriously ill, despite claiming to have eaten the beef Wellington with the other four adults. She did, however, twice attend hospital but with none of the grave symptoms inflicted on the three dead and Ian Wilkinson. She did receive some treatment, she claimed.
The Leongatha-based Sentinel-Times has been necessarily cautious and sensitive in its coverage of the triple tragedy.
It has noted, however, what it says are many inconsistencies in the case, one of which is how Erin Patterson ate the dish on July 29 without becoming spectacularly sick. Or how her children ate the dish the next day but with the mushrooms removed.
“It’s impossible,” the newspaper quoted an unnamed chef as saying. “The mushrooms need to be cooked inside the pastry, otherwise you don’t get the flavours of the mushrooms through the rest of the dish.”
The criminal investigation is being assisted by global experts including academics, and the release of Don and Gail Patterson’s bodies suggests inquiries are gathering at a reasonable pace.
Police have criticised the release to the media of a statement cobbled together by Erin Patterson or her legal team, which basically outlines her position on key elements of the investigation.
We know she has lied. She admits telling a falsehood about the disposal of a food dehydrator, where she had initially claimed it was thrown away months ago when it was discarded after the victims fell ill.
Perhaps most telling was her claim in the statement sent to police that her former husband had accused her in hospital of poisoning his relatives at the lunch.
Erin Patterson said she was discussing the food dehydrator when her ex-husband asked: “Is that what you used to poison them?”
The ABC reported that Erin Patterson was worried about losing custody of the couple’s children, which had then led to her panicking and dumping the dehydrator at the local tip.
The big question here is why Simon Patterson would have reason to suspect his estranged wife had deliberately poisoned the four elderly people.
Logic suggests he had reason to be concerned or was told by police that poisoning was a line of inquiry. The Weekend Australian is not suggesting Erin Patterson deliberately served the toxic mushrooms but is simply reporting the facts around the case.
In her statement, Erin Patterson said advice she received immediately after the deaths to give a “no comment” interview to police was unfortunate. “I now very much regret not answering some questions following this advice given the nightmare that this process has become,” she lamented.
But with the spotlight of suspicion shining in Erin Patterson’s eyes, she is struggling to be heard.
The Patterson and Wilkinson families have hired local PR woman Jessica O’Donnell to liaise with journalists but it is largely a no comment strategy. It is quite likely this is on the advice of police.
It’s also telling that Erin Patterson is not represented by O’Donnell, in just another sign that there are two distinct camps in this story.
When the public memorial is held for Don and Gail Patterson on Thursday, it will be a gutting time for the community.
It will also pose a difficult question for Erin Patterson, who has professed her love for the dead. Should she go to the memorial service? “I lost my parents-in-law, my children lost their grandparents,” she told The Australian last week. “And I’ve been painted as an evil witch.”
Erin Patterson, no doubt grieving for her old life, will know that the court of public opinion in Korumburra is one thing and the legal process quite another.
“I didn’t do anything. I loved them. I just can’t fathom what has happened,” she said soon after the tragedy unfolded.
It will be up to police and prosecutors to determine whether there is enough evidence to drag her through the courts.
Emotion, rumour, speculation and the volume of tears shed at a public memorial will play no role in whether or not she is charged.
This is Erin Patterson’s best hope.
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