Erin Patterson, woman at the center of suspected Leongatha mushroom poisoning, admits she lied to police

The woman who prepared a mushroom meal, believed to have caused the deaths of three people, says she bought the mushrooms from both a supermarket and an Asian grocery store and was herself hospitalized after eating the meal.

Erin Patterson, 48, invited her former in-laws Gail and Don Patterson, along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian, to lunch at her home in Leongatha, Victoria’s Gippsland region on July 29.

Within days, three of her four guests died of suspected mushroom poisoning from the beef wellington served by the mother of two.

The surviving guest, Mr. Wilkinson, is in critical but stable condition.

Ms Patterson gave her first detailed account of the fatal meal in a lengthy statement to Victoria Police obtained by the ABC on Monday.

She also admitted to lying about the dehydrator dumped nearby when she was first questioned by police and that ex-husband accused her of poisoning his parents.

“I now want to clear the record as I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones,” Ms Patterson said.

“I hope this statement can help in some way. I believe that if people understood the background better, they wouldn’t be so quick to judge.

“I am devastated now to think that these mushrooms may have contributed to the illness of my loved ones. I really want to reiterate that I had absolutely no reason to hurt these people I loved.”

Ms Patterson also addressed media reports that police investigating the deaths seized a food dehydrator at a local tip, saying it belonged to her.

In the statement, Ms. Patterson admitted to lying to investigators when she told them she dumped it at the tip “a long time ago”.

Ms Patterson said she was at the hospital with her children “to discuss the food hydrator” when her ex-husband, the son of the deceased couple, asked: “Is that what you used to poison them with?”

Concerned that she would lose custody of the couple’s children, Ms. Patterson said she panicked and threw the dehydrator on the tip.

Police previously alleged that Ms Paterson’s two children were present at the luncheon but were given a different meal.

It has since been revealed that the kids were actually at the movie theater at the time