A food dehydrator recovered from a rubbish dump will be forensically tested to see if it is linked to the deaths of three people who ate a meal containing toxic mushrooms in Australia.
Korumburra woman Heather Wilkinson, 66, and her sister Gail Patterson, 70, died on Friday after eating lunch containing the mushrooms at a home in Leongatha, in southeast Victoria, on July 29.
Patterson's husband, 70-year-old Don Patterson, died in hospital on Saturday.
A fourth person, Wilkinson’s husband Ian Patterson, remains in hospital in a critical condition.
A dehydrator has been taken in for forensic testing, The Age reports.
The Pattersons' daughter-in-law, Erin Patterson, cooked the meal but did not fall ill.
Her children were also present at the party but did not eat the meal.
It comes as her husband Simon Patterson, with whom she is separated, fell ill and was "not expected to live" following a mysterious gut illness last year.
"I collapsed at home, then was in an induced coma for 16 days through which I had 3 emergency operations mainly on my small intestine, plus an additional planned operation," he wrote on Facebook.
"My family were asked to come and say goodbye to me twice, as I was not expected to live. I was in intensive care for 21 days, after which I was in the general ward for a week, and now I'm at a rehab place since last Saturday.
"I'm pleased to say all the medical work has seemed to have fixed the serious gut problems I had, and I've been feeling great for many days."
No charges have been laid against Erin Patterson, 48, but she remains a suspect in their deaths.
"I didn't do anything," she told reporters on Monday.
"I loved them and I'm devastated they're gone."
While the type of mushrooms consumed by the guests are unknown at this stage, Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said the symptoms were consistent with death caps.
"It could be very innocent but, again, we just don't know," he said on Monday.
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