‘I didn’t do anything; I loved them’: How a quiet family lunch turned into a tragedy

In the cluster of towns that sprawl into the southernmost tip of Victoria, connections run deep. It’s the kind of place that residents often describe as tight-knit and mean it.

Late last week, the district was reverberating with disbelief as word started to spread that four people had been taken to hospital with gastro, all sick after sharing a meal together on a Saturday afternoon in Leongatha. Wild mushrooms were served, they heard. Soon, they learnt the ill were dying.

By the end of the week, three of the guests Erin Patterson had over to her home were dead. Police are still baffled.

“I can’t believe that this has happened, and I am so sorry that they have lost their lives,” Patterson told a media pack as she wept outside her country home.

She’d made the meal for “the best people I’ve ever known” – her in-laws and their relatives. One of them, her mother-in-law, she loved like her own mother, she said.

“I didn’t do anything; I loved them. I just can’t fathom what has happened.”

Police and locals are also trying to piece together what went wrong.

“This sort of thing doesn’t happen here,” said one local.

It’s not the sort of thing that would be thought of as happening anywhere.

On Monday, Detective Inspector Dean Thomas, head of the homicide squad, said he could not think of a case like it in recent times.

The details police received at the weekend were scant, but devastating. On July 29, five adults gathered for lunch in Leongatha.

Homicide detectives have questioned Patterson, 48, who cooked the meal, and are still looking into the lunch. Patterson’s two children were also at the gathering.

Korumburra pastor Ian Wilkinson and his wife, Heather, along with her sister, Gail Patterson, and brother-in-law, Don Patterson – the parents of Erin’s estranged husband – were all taken to hospital with what they first believed was gastro.

Heather, 66, and Gail, 70, both died in hospital on Friday, while Don, 70, died on Saturday night.

Ian, 68, was in a critical condition at the Austin Hospital on Monday, awaiting a liver transplant.

All four suffered symptoms consistent with the ingestion of death cap mushrooms; from gastro-like illness to nausea, stomach pain, and, in the case of at least Ian, liver damage.

Meanwhile, police have searched Erin Patterson’s home. She is separated from her husband, but police said the relationship was amicable.

Investigators are still unsure whether she too ate the meal. It is also unclear, Thomas said, if the mushrooms were even in the dish.

Left to right: Don Patterson, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson all died after ingesting death cap mushrooms. Ian Wilkinson remains in a critical condition at a Melbourne hospital.

When asked on Monday at a Melbourne press conference whether the 48-year-old was a suspect, Thomas said: “Yes she is. And she is because she cooked those meals.”

Thomas also told 3AW: “At this stage, I can say that the deaths are really unexplained.

“We work to try and determine what has gone on to see if there is any nefarious activity that’s occurred, or if it’s … in this case ... an accidental-type situation where these people have passed away from some form of poisoning, not at the hands of somebody else. So, we don’t know yet.”

Erin Patterson did not respond to questions about the origin of the mushrooms and what meals she served her guests.

Thomas told reporters the investigation was complex and it would “take some time” to piece together what had happened.

“We will be working closely with medical experts, toxicologists ... in the hope we can understand exactly what has gone on and provide some answers to the family,” he said.

“The four patients had ended up in the Austin Hospital, three of whom have passed away, and then there was another person present who prepared the meal and whose address they attended for the meal, and they did not become ill.

“As far as we know, at this stage, there is nothing to suggest they became ill. And obviously, on Saturday we executed a search warrant at the home address in Leongatha where the lunch took place, and we conducted an interview with that person, so our investigation is continuing.

“We’re trying to understand who ate what at the lunch, whether that person that did not become ill did or did not eat the mushrooms ... And of course, we’re trying to ascertain what it is that has actually caused the poisoning ... to the four people that attended.”

The religious community in Korumburra is strong, and the Anglican and Baptist parishes often combine to hold events and services.

Bouquets left at the doorstep of the Korumburra home of Ian and Heather Wilkinson.Credit: Marta Pascual Juanola

For years, Korumburra Anglican minister Fran Grimes worked closely with Ian Wilkinson, a minister in the Baptist church. She said the news had affected everyone in town, including parishioners from other churches as the victims were well known.

Don Patterson worked at the local high school and ran the town’s newsletter, The Burra Flyer, with his wife for several years.

“I think it’s devastating,” Grimes said.

She said the tragedy had left a big hole in the two Gippsland towns and some had turned to faith to find some solace.

“Dark things happen in this world,” she said. “We need to look to Jesus for some light.“

Her church, St Paul’s Anglican Church in Korumburra, prayed for the victims on Sunday.

Erin Patterson said she was searching for answers after losing three of the best people she’d ever known and a woman she’d come to love like a mother.

“They are some of the best people that I’ve ever met. Gail is the mum that I didn’t have because my mum passed away four years ago. And Gail’s never been anything but good and kind to me.”

She loved all four of her guests, she said. “I’m so devastated about what’s happened and the loss to the community, and the families and to my own children.”

With Madeleine Heffernan

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