Huge breakthrough in mushroom deaths in Victoria as investigators reach major conclusion over deadly lunch that left three dead
Detailed forensic tests have revealed that the three people who tragically died after eating a beef wellington meal were indeed victims of mushroom poisoning.
Pastor Ian Wilkinson was the only person to survive the toxic meal served by stay-at-home mother Erin Patterson in eastern Victoria on July 29.
His wife Heather, 66, was invited to lunch along with her sister Gail and husband Don Patterson as part of a ‘mediation meeting’ to discuss Mrs Patterson’s relationship with her estranged husband Simon.
Simon Patterson was also invited to the lunch, but withdrew at the last minute.
Erin Patterson previously told police the mushrooms used in the lunch were a mixture of button mushrooms she bought at a supermarket and dried mushrooms she bought months earlier at an Asian supermarket in Melbourne.
In her statement, which was leaked to the media by an unknown source, Ms. Patterson said she divided the meal onto plates, let her guests choose their own plates and ate part of the last plate herself.
Erin Patterson is pictured outside her home, days after serving the mushroom meal
Ms. Patterson also said she gave the leftovers to hospital toxicologists for examination and testing after her guests became ill.
Police later found a food dehydrator at a local landfill that Mrs. Patterson claimed she dumped out of fear that her estranged husband would blame her for his parents’ deaths and gain custody of their two children.
Erin has denied any wrongdoing and Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting she deliberately poisoned her four family members.
More to come.