[Cherie]

Police investigating the mysterious deaths of three people following a family lunch believe a food dehydrator found at a nearby rubbish dump may help solve the case.

Homicide detectives in Victoria, Australia, sifted through rubbish and questioned workers at a tip on Wednesday, as they tried to determine whether a woman had “nefarious” intentions when she invited her in-laws to lunch.

Four guests at the lunch last week at Erin Patterson’s home in Leongatha, two hours southeast of Melbourne, fell ill soon afterwards.

Her in-laws, Gail Patterson and Don Patterson, both 70, died in hospital.

Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, also died, while her husband Reverend Ian Wilkinson, the pastor of Korumburra Baptist Church, is in a critical condition in a Melbourne hospital awaiting a liver transplant.

The host did not fall ill nor did her two children.

Investigators now hope a food dehydrator found discarded at the tip would yield answers for the “tight-knit” community mourning the loss of “well-respected” locals.

Symptoms experienced by the senior Pattersons and Wilkinsons have led doctors to suspect they had eaten death cap mushrooms.

One of the most dangerous varieties of mushrooms, death caps can cause liver and kidney failure. Just a teaspoon full is enough to kill an adult.

“We’re working to determine what has gone on, to see if there is any nefarious activity that has occurred or if it was accidental,” said Dean Thomas, Detective Inspector of the Victoria Police Homicide Squad.

Ms Patterson, 48, has said she does not know what happened to her guests and has steadfastly maintained she did not intend to hurt her relatives.

Ms Patterson told reporters she was “devastated” and added: “My own children have lost their grandmother. I can’t believe this has happened and I’m so sorry that they have lost their lives.”

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Ms Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon, who she has remained amicable with, came close to death last year when he collapsed and required emergency surgery on his intestines.

Detectives are aware of the family’s medical history but have declined to comment on the circumstances. There was no suggestion the younger Mr Patterson’s health condition was suspicious.

Foraging dangers
Parishioners of the Baptist church in the Gippsland region where Mr Wilkinson is a “much-loved” pastor were praying for his recovery while the Patterson and Wilkinson families paid tribute to the “pillars of faith”.

Nathan Hersey, the mayor of the South Gippsland Shire, said: “Many people in our community are grieving the loss of three very important, much-loved, and very well-respected people.”

With foraging becoming an increasingly popular activity during the Australian winter, state governments had warned about the dangers of mistaking poisonous fungi for edible mushrooms.

The state of Victoria was rocked by a spate of mushroom poisonings in 2020 when one person died from eating death caps and seven others were hospitalised.

In 2012, a respected Chinese chef and his assistant died in Canberra after eating death cap mushrooms they had foraged in preparation for a New Year’s Eve dinner.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...4f1597d15&ei=7