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Mushroom Lunch Deaths: Family Meal Mystery In Australia

Don't know what kind of expert fight this is:

A world expert on death cap mushroom poisoning has blasted as 'nonsense' speculation there would be no trace of the toxin that killed Erin Patterson's lunch guests.
The physician, who asked to be referred to only as Dr L, told Daily Mail Australia that the active poison in amanita phalloides mushrooms, amatoxin, would have remained in the organs of Erin's three relatives after their deaths.
He said autopsies on her former in-laws Gail and Don Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, who died after eating a beef wellington lunch at Leongatha, in Victoria's Gippsland region on July 29, would reveal the poison.
'Amatoxin would remain detectable in post-mortem liver and kidney tissue from post-mortem samples as well as gallbladder fluid obtained during the autopsy,' Dr L said.
He rejected claims by Australian toxicologists that there would be no residue of the toxin for forensic police to examine.

One Melbourne toxicologist said that 'the toxin found in death cap mushrooms are only detectable for about 48 hours after ingestion'.
 
catseye said:
Yes that was the conclusion of the documentary I watched. There seemed to be no other evidence (apart from some dodgy eye witness account from a woman driving past) to put him at the scene. He seemed (from the programme) to have been convicted purely on the fact that everyone thought he was a devil-worshipper and he smoked dope.
Edited to add: Oh, and he liked Marilyn Manson. I like Marilyn Manson and I've managed not to kill anyone yet.
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The mushroom case has certainly attracted national publicity in Australia. It's become one of those memes that rattle around in people's minds. Of course, there's been one consequence that should have been entirely predictable: a drop in mushroom sales. The drop is enough to impact on supermarkets and this in turn feeds back to the mushroom farmers.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09...after-suspected-death-cap-poisoning/102811418

It's entirely illogical in one way, since the mushrooms sold in supermarkets are not your death cap type and have always been safe to eat. But that's not the way the mind works. "Mushrooms = death" is the equation our monkey minds are making.

In fact I was having lunch with friends yesterday and ordered a steak and mushroom pie. I found myself commenting cheerfully that if I didn't wake up in the morning, they could assume 'it was the mushrooms wot done it.'

Still alive today, so I don't think it's going to happen.
 

Australia mushroom deaths: Police arrest Erin Patterson over suspected lunch poisonings​


Australian police have arrested Erin Patterson, the woman at the centre of a suspected mushroom poisoning in August that left three people dead in Leongatha, Victoria.

Victoria state police said they had arrested a 49-year-old woman and searched her house with the help of technology detector dogs – trained to sniff out tiny electronic devices such as USBs and SIM cards, which are easy to hide.

No charges against her have been laid. She has publicly denied any wrongdoing.

Ms Patterson will to be interviewed by homicide detectives after the search of her home is completed.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/worl...n-over-suspected-lunch-poisonings/ar-AA1jfion

maximus otter
 
She has been charged with murder now.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-67293752

An Australian woman has been charged with murder over the suspected mushroom poisoning deaths of three people.
Erin Patterson was arrested on Thursday morning and police have spent the day searching her home east of Melbourne.
Ms Patterson, 49, had served the family lunch after which the trio, who included her former in-laws, fell ill. A fourth person survived.
Toxicology reports suggest the victims consumed deathcap mushrooms. Ms Patterson maintains she is innocent.
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catseye said:
'she said'... Surely it's a matter of record and will be in her personal medical notes? I know Australia's health care system isn't like the good old NHS, but somewhere there will be a record of this, not just 'she said'...?
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Personally, I think that it's as good if not better, and yes...there would be records of admission and treatment on the data base.
 
Salmonellus said:
The mushroom case has certainly attracted national publicity in Australia. It's become one of those memes that rattle around in people's minds. Of course, there's been one consequence that should have been entirely predictable: a drop in mushroom sales. The drop is enough to impact on supermarkets and this in turn feeds back to the mushroom farmers.

It's entirely illogical in one way, since the mushrooms sold in supermarkets are not your death cap type and have always been safe to eat. But that's not the way the mind works. "Mushrooms = death" is the equation our monkey minds are making.
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In the same way that sales of Corona beer fell during the Coronavirus pandemic. We are a strange species.
 
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