Erin Patterson had a collection of books about mushrooms that she kept in her home where her fatal beef wellington luncheon took place, Daily Mail Australia reports.
A friend claimed that the shelves of her childhood home in Leongatha contained books about delicious but potentially deadly fungi.
Daily Mail Australia reported on Wednesday that Ms Patterson, 48, was an ‘experienced forager’ who – like many families in the area – picked mushrooms when they were in season.
The friend said she had several books on the subject in her library.
A friend told Daily Mail Australia that Erin Patterson had a collection of books about mushrooms that she kept in her home
The Leongatha house where the now infamous luncheon took place
Erin’s former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson died after eating a beef wellington prepared by Mrs. Patterson on July 29.
Heather’s pastor husband Ian survived, but is still in critical condition in hospital.
It is believed that the meal contained deadly mushrooms.
And on Friday, a false claim that Erin’s own parents had died of poisoning was exposed as a lie. The couple actually died of natural causes.
According to a neighbor of Ms Patterson’s mother, Dr Heather Scutter’s death from cancer in 2019 was not a quick one.
“It took her slowly. She went to Melbourne for treatment and came back. Then she died,” a neighbor told the Daily Mail Australia.
Her husband had died in 2011 after his own battle with cancer – with his ashes scattered on the beach.
Gail and Don Patterson died after eating the beef wellington
Erin Patterson’s mom’s multi-million dollar home before she ‘slowly died’
The beachfront property offers beautiful ocean views
Ms. Patterson’s mother was a well-known children’s literature professor who left a house on the South Pacific headland in Eden to her two daughters in her will when she died in early 2019.
A copy of the will obtained by Daily Mail Australia on Friday shows that she left her entire estate in equal shares to her daughters.
Since her inheritance, Mrs. Patterson has purchased three properties, including a house now infamous for her children’s “satanic” scribbles on the wall and the land on which she built the Leongatha House where she held mushroom pie luncheons.
Investigating police have said Ms Patterson is a person of interest in the three deaths.
She has denied any wrongdoing and Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting she deliberately poisoned her four family members.
Her ex-husband Simon Patterson was invited to lunch, but luckily backed out at the last minute.
Mr Patterson himself spent 21 days in intensive care after collapsing at his home in May 2022 from a mysterious stomach ailment.
During his hospital stay, Ms. Patterson updated his concerned friends on social media about his condition.
Ms Patterson confirmed this week that she had dumped a lawyer she initially engaged after police declared her a ‘person of interest’ in the death of her in-laws.
Simon Patterson, pictured leaving his home, came out of the fatal luncheon happy
A man acting for Erin Patterson’s original attorney tried to deliver her a note after police seized her phone and computers
The 48-year-old told the ABC she voluntarily gave a statement to police after realizing she had made a “serious mistake” by leaving an interview without comment to investigators on the advice of her lawyer, who promptly dumped her.
Ms Patterson is now represented by a prominent Melbourne criminal lawyer.
On Thursday, Victoria Deputy Police Commissioner Wendy Steendam told ABC radio that Ms Patterson’s lengthy written account may have hindered the investigation.
“What I would say is that anything that gets into the media… working on an investigation through the media doesn’t help our investigation,” Ms. Steendam said.
“The matter must be heard by us, looked at (by) us, and thoroughly determined by us what actually happened, and using the evidence we have to establish and understand exactly what happened and or we can explain the cause of the deaths.’
The police have hardly commented on the ongoing investigation, which according to Ms. Steendam is ‘lengthy’.
“I don’t think it’s helpful to comment further on this research,” she said.
“It is an active matter and if we have more to say publicly, we will. But I think it is useless to speculate or talk at length about the aspects of the investigation.’