The woman who served up a meal that left three people dead and one person fighting for their life in a small Victoria town is an experienced wild mushroom forager, according to a family friend.
Erin Patterson made a beef wellington for a family lunch at her Leongatha home on July 29.
Shortly afterwards the guests who ate it, Patterson's former parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian, fell sick. Don, Gail and Heather all died in hospital, with Ian left in a coma.
Police later announced the trio died of suspected death cap mushroom poisoning, with Patterson named as a person of interest.
Today, Daily Mail Australia said a family friend revealed Patterson and her former husband Simon Patterson, who was invited to the lunch but pulled out the day before, were known to forage for wild mushrooms.
"The Patterson family (including Erin and Simon) would pick mushrooms each year when they were in season," the friend said.
"It's very common for people to go mushroom picking around that area."
They added that Erin Patterson was "very good at foraging".
Four people were taken to hospital a day after eating at a home in Leongatha, in Victoria's South Gippsland area - three of them died and the fourth is fighting for life. (Source: 1News)
Patterson's version of events
It comes as the ABC this week obtained the statement of Erin Patterson which outlines what she claims happened before and after the lunch she served up.
The statement was sent to Victoria Police on Friday, according to ABC.
"I am now wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones," Patterson said.
"I am hoping this statement might help in some way. I believe if people understood the background more, they would not be so quick to rush to judgement.
"I am now devastated to think that these mushrooms may have contributed to the illness suffered by my loved ones. I really want to repeat that I had absolutely no reason to hurt these people whom I loved."
In the statement Patterson claims she bought the mushrooms, which Patterson confirmed were served up in a beef wellington, from an Asian grocery store. Patterson also said she was hospitalised after eating the meal.
Patterson said her children had gone to the movies before the lunch on July 29 and weren't present with her and her four guests.
In the statement, Patterson said the mushrooms used in the meal were a mixture of button mushrooms bought from a major supermarket chain, and dried mushrooms purchased at an Asian grocery store in Melbourne months ago.
ABC reports she said her children ate lunch leftovers the next night but the mushrooms were scraped off the meal as they don't like them.
She also claims she was hospitalised with stomach pains and diarrhoea, needing to receive saline from a drip and put on a "liver protective drug". Patterson said an ambulance took her from Leongatha Hospital to Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne on July 31.
ABC said The Gippsland Southern Health Service confirmed to it that a fifth person presented at Leongatha Hospital on July 30 with suspected food poisoning and they later returned and were sent to Monash.
Patterson said she provided samples of the lunch to hospital toxicologists for examination and was also in contact with the Department of Health.
Patterson admitted lying to police investigators that a food dehydrator found at a local tip had been dumped by her months ago.
Her statement said she actually dumped the food dehydrator after the lunch as her ex-husband, and the son of dead couple Don and Gail, asked her if she used it to poison those in attendance, causing her to panic and dump it at the tip as she feared losing custody of her kids.
Patterson confirmed her ex-husband Simon Patterson was meant to be at the lunch but declined a day before it happened.
The investigation is continuing.
SHARE ME