Mushroom Murder Denouement

[mike carey]

It started just over two years ago with a story of four people who had become ill in mysterious circumstances. Over the next days it emerged that they were all suffering from poisoning, soon identified as being from poisonous mushrooms. Suspicions grew as it emerged they had shared a lunch of beef Wellington, perhaps a tragic accident, the use of foraged mushrooms, 'death caps' that are similar to edible field mushrooms. Three of the four victims died over the following days, one despite a liver transplant as their own had failed from the toxins. The fourth went through a slow recovery in hospital in Melbourne.

The cook and host of the lunch, Erin Patterson, maintained that she had used mushrooms from a supermarket and dried mushrooms from an Asian grocery store. That story gradually crumbled. Accidental contamination of commercially sold mushrooms seemed implausible. It emerged that Ms Patterson had been less than forthcoming in her discussions with investigators. She denied having foraged, or of drying those mushrooms. She was photographed taking a dehydrator to a waste management centre. It was recovered by police and residues of death caps detected.

That, of course didn't demonstrate that she had done anything deliberate. She could have simply been lying about foraging, and mistaken the poisonous mushrooms for edible ones. It was not to be. Police detected evidence in her search history of searches for toxic mushrooms, and phone records showed she had travelled to places where foragers had reported death caps (as warnings not as suggestions).

The supreme court trial began a few months ago at a court in a regional city near the area where she and her victims, her parents-in-law and her mother-in-law's sister and her husband, had lived. The trial lasted 10 weeks and ended in her conviction on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder.

Today, the final act in this drama. Erin Patterson was sentenced to 25 years for attempted murder, and three life sentences for murder, to be served concurrently. Parole was set at 33 years. She had never shown remorse and had lied and obfuscated to investigators throughout the process.

All this may have flashed across your screens, or passed you by. It did make international news, even the Economist reported on it. Most likely only because it was an almost fantastical story. Bizarre stories of things that kill you seem almost to be a staple for reporting about Australia. But it has been a constant presence here, to a greater or lesser extent, the first item on the evening news on many days.

Erin Patterson: Mushroom murderer sentenced to life over toxic family lunch

WWW.BBC.COM

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She will serve a non-parole period of 33 years for killing three relatives and trying to kill another.

 

[+ PhileasFogg]

Well, the good news is that, if THIS is repetitively the topic of the “lead story” on the news, it’s been a pretty good day 😉
hmmm, maybe it’s time to plan a trip down under…

Edited Monday at 11:29 AM by PhileasFogg

[mike carey]

8 minutes ago, PhileasFogg said:

Well, the good news is that, if THIS is repetitively the topic of the “lead story” on the news, it’s been a pretty good day 😉
hmmm, maybe it’s time to plan a trip down under…

Well, I generally watch the public broadcaster, and they can tend away from some of the more click-bait style stories that other channels show., and that now social media scream. Not that this isn't something of a 'look at this' story. From my times living in and visiting the US, the tone and feel of what piques broadcasters' and also the public's interest differs between the two counties.