Woman at centre of suspected mushroom poisoning gives her account of fatal meal
Erin Patterson, the woman who cooked a mushroom meal believed to have killed three people, says she bought the ingredients at a supermarket and an Asian grocery, and was also hospitalised after eating the meal.
Ms Patterson gave a five-page, sworn written statement to police on Friday, details of which have been published by various media, in a bid to answer the questions of homicide investigators.
“I am now wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones,” she said, according to the ABC.
“I am hoping this statement might help in some way. I believe if people understood the background more, they would not be so quick to rush to judgement,” she added.
“I am now devastated to think that these mushrooms may have contributed to the illness suffered by my loved ones. I really want to repeat that I had absolutely no reason to hurt these people whom I loved.”
Ms Patterson said advice she received immediately after the deaths was to give a “no comment” interview to police, which she said she now regretted.
“I now very much regret not answering some questions following this advice given the nightmare that this process has become,” she said in the statement.
Ms Patterson’s in-laws – Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson – died after eating the lunch at her Leongatha home on July 29. Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, has been fighting for life in hospital since the meal.
While not previously reported, Ms Patterson said she was also hospitalised after the lunch, on July 31, suffering from severe stomach pains and diarrhoea. She said she was placed on a saline drip and given a “liver protective drug”.
Ms Patterson also said that – contrary to initial reports from police that her children were present but did not eat the meal – her children had actually gone to the movies prior to lunch.
In her statement, Ms Patterson said she served the meal and allowed the guests to choose their own plates. She said she took the last plate and ate a serve of the beef Wellington.
She said the mushrooms were a mixture of button mushrooms purchased at a major supermarket chain, and dried mushrooms bought from a Melbourne Asian grocery months before.
While the Patterson children ate the leftovers from the lunch the following night, Ms Patterson said they do not like mushrooms and scraped them off their meal.
In the statement to police, Patterson claimed she kept the beef Wellington leftovers for investigators to collect as evidence.
