Toadstools as an instrument of murder? Or was it a terrible oversight? These questions are currently puzzling Australia. The fact is that three seniors did not survive a lunch with their ex-daughter-in-law.
The story reads like a crime novel written by Agatha Christie, and it is almost as mysterious: an Australian woman invites her ex-in-laws and another couple to lunch. Beef Wellington is served on the table. Beef fillet in crispy puff pastry, refined with mushrooms. In the end, three guests are dead, the fourth only survives by a hair’s breadth.
It later turns out that highly poisonous death cap mushrooms were lurking in the supposed culinary delight. According to experts, poisoning caused by them is extremely painful and usually fatal. How the toxic ingredient got into the food remains a mystery. The cook who was targeted by the police protests her innocence.
Agatha Christie is said to have said: “When mushrooms are simmering somewhere, the criminalist involuntarily pricks up his ears.” And so Erin Patterson, who prepared the fatal lunch, is being treated as a suspect by the police – even though there is currently no evidence of a possible crime, as the well-known crime reporter John Silvester now wrote in the newspaper “The Age”. “Homicide investigators must follow the evidence until they reach a conclusion that rules out all other scenarios,” he explained. And that can take time, as the Victoria State Police themselves admitted.
The authorities have so far kept a low profile
Erin Patterson is at large and authorities have remained tight-lipped about the status of their investigation. The 48-year-old said she wanted to help the police clarify the matter. Through her lawyers, she provided the investigators with her version of events in writing.
“I am devastated to think that these mushrooms may have contributed to the illness of my loved ones. I would like to reiterate that I had absolutely no reason to hurt these people I loved,” Australia’s ABC quoted as saying August exclusively from the statement. They were also the grandparents of her two children, and the relationship was close even after the separation from her ex-husband Simon.
But what exactly happened on that fateful day in the tranquil town of Leongatha, two hours’ drive southeast of Melbourne? It’s July 29th when Patterson invites her ex-husband’s parents and an elderly couple to lunch at her house. The guests are Gail and Don Patterson, both 70 years old, as well as Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson (66) and her husband Ian Wilkinson (68). The cook later explains that she prepared the fillet Wellington with both fresh mushrooms from a supermarket and dried mushrooms from an Asian shop.
Forensic tests have now shown beyond doubt that these were instead poisonous mushrooms, as various media reported this week – apparently the infamous green death cap (Amanita phalloides), also known as the “death cap”.
There is no known antidote
When the guests drive home hours later, the deadly toxin is already spreading through their bodies and targeting their liver and kidneys. The Daily Mail Australia quoted a doctor as saying it was “a very clever poison” because it attacks a person’s body in a catastrophic way, essentially “melting the liver.”
The website “Pilzlexikon.eu” writes: “The green death cap mushroom is considered the poisonous mushroom par excellence, because it is not for nothing that over 90 percent of all fatal mushroom poisonings are caused by it.” The insidious thing is that the organs are already irreversibly damaged when the first symptoms appear. The agony is extremely painful and there is no known antidote. The perfidious thing: death cap mushrooms are supposed to taste good, as survivors report.
That night, all four lunch guests complain of severe abdominal cramps, which become so bad that they have to go to the hospital. At first the doctors thought it was normal food poisoning, but the patient’s condition deteriorated noticeably. Within a week, Gail and Don Patterson and Heather Wilkinson are dead. Ian Wilkinson fights for his life for almost two months. He was only able to leave the hospital a few days ago.
Five people with symptoms of poisoning
The public’s eyes immediately turn to Erin Patterson. Because everyone is wondering: Why didn’t she get sick? Journalists position themselves in front of her house. Finally she appears in front of the cameras on August 7th. In tears, she says the deceased were among “the best people I’ve ever met.” She has no idea what could have happened. At the same time, she denies any wrongdoing: “I didn’t do anything, I love them and I’m devastated that they’re gone.”
What surprises many people is that it was only in her letter to the police a few days later that she made it clear that she had also had symptoms. On July 30, she went to the hospital with severe stomach pain and diarrhea, where she received an infusion and “liver-protecting medication.” According to the ABC, health authorities have confirmed that a total of five people were treated with symptoms of poisoning. Nevertheless, the speculation and allegedly new twists and turns in the case do not subside.
While the deadly lunch will likely keep law enforcement busy for some time, mushroom sales in the country have fallen significantly, media quoted Georgia Beattie, chair of the Australian Mushroom Growers Association, as saying. But it is impossible for death cap mushrooms to get into the supply chain of a supermarket: According to Beattie, they cannot thrive on commercial mushroom farms, only in nature. The toadstools live in symbiosis with trees with which they exchange vital substances. But until the mystery is solved, an uneasy feeling remains.