CONFLICTING accounts of what happened at a family lunch in Leongatha on Saturday, July 29, which led to the deaths of three Korumburra people, and the hospitalization of two more, have only added to the confusion surrounding an incident of apparent mushroom poisoning in the town.
Now a city chef, specializing in the dish allegedly served at the family lunch, Beef Wellington, has cast doubt over claims made by the police suspect in the case, Erin Patterson, 48, that she could have “scaped [the mushrooms] off the meal” before serving leftovers to her two children the following night.
“It’s impossible,” he said of the claim the mushrooms could be “scrapped off” a true Beef Wellington, thereby saving the kids from poisoning.
“The mushrooms need to be cooked inside the pastry otherwise you don’t get the flavours of the mushrooms through the rest of the dish.
“You always cook the mushrooms inside the pastry.
“We use button mushrooms and other varieties of mushrooms in season, not oyster mushrooms because they tend to break up when you are slicing them, but we get them all from a certified supplier.”
Beef Wellington essentially calls for a cooked, whole beef fillet to be covered in a sauteed mix of mushrooms, garlic, onions, and herbs, wrapped in slices of ham and encased in pastry.
The package is chilled and then cooked as one, on a baking tray in the oven, sliced and served with seasonal veggies.
The juices of the mushroom mix, generally featuring two types of mushrooms, are baked into the meat and its pastry covering.
It’s one of dozens of inconsistencies in the case, between the official position of the police, revealed by Homicide Squad Detective Inspector Dean Thomas, in a media conference on Monday, August 7, the account issued by the police suspect, Erin Patterson, on the following Friday, August 11, and details released by other agencies and the media.
Here are a some examples:
In a media release from Gippsland Southern Health Service, which operates the Leongatha and Korumburra hospitals, on Monday, August 7, it was “confirmed” that “it briefly treated and transferred four people who presented with suspected food poisoning on July 30”.
The hospital said, “a fifth person was discharged after a short presentation at Leongatha”. However, in a statement by Ms Patterson on August 11, she said that she presented to the Leongatha Hospital on July 30 with symptoms of possible food poisoning, but returned later and was subsequently transferred to Monash Medical Centre on July 31, complaining of bad stomach pains and diarrhoea.
Asked about this apparent inconsistency, that they reported transferring the four to Melbourne, but not the fifth person, Erin Patterson, a spokesperson for the hospital said it was a matter of patient confidentiality that they hadn’t mentioned they also transferred Ms Patterson.
Gippsland Southern has since confirmed Ms Patterson was transferred to Monash Medical Centre.
But Detective Inspector Dean Thomas didn’t seem to be aware of a fifth person being transferred to Melbourne when he addressed the assembled media on Monday, August 7, more than a week after the ill-fated lunch, and in fact said twice that the 48-year-old had presented with no symptoms.
In answer to a question about whether the 48-year-old (Erin Patterson) was a suspect, he said yes.
“The 48-year-old is, yes, she is. And she is because she cooked those meals for those people that were present. Now, again, she hasn’t presented with any symptoms, but we have to keep an open mind in relation to this, that it could be very innocent,” he said.
Later in the media conference, when asked if the children presented to hospital, he said they did, while also repeating that Erin Patterson had no symptoms.
“The children were taken to hospital as a precaution, and they were fine. And the host, I believe, also attended hospital, and was found to be fine.”
But when asked to clarify when people attended hospital, he said “the same night or within a day or so of each other”.
He said authorities hadn’t landed on the cause of the poisoning but said the symptoms were consistent with eating death cap mushrooms.
Other inconsistencies include:
- Erin Patterson claimed in her statement on Friday, August 11 that the mushrooms were a mixture of button mushrooms from a local supermarket chain and dried mushrooms, which she bought months earlier from an Asian grocer in the Mount Waverley area, but couldn’t recall which one. If she bought the mushrooms, why throw away the food dehydrator that police recovered from the Koonwarra tip? Also, the Herald-Sun reported during the week that they visited 11 Asian grocers in the Mt Waverley area and found no details of bagged mushrooms, with hand-written labels. There have also been no Health Department recalls of mushrooms.
- Homicide Detective Inspector Dean Thomas told the assembled media on Monday, August 7 that the children attended the lunch but ate separate meals. But by Friday, August 11, Ms Patterson said the children didn’t attend and were at the movies when other family members, including their grandparents visited their home in Leongatha.
- It has also been reported by the Daily Mail Australia that a friend of Ms Patterson’s revealed that Erin was known for going wild mushroom foraging around the Gippsland region, with other members of her family, and was good at identifying the various types.
In her written statement to police, also leaked to the ABC, Ms Patterson said she hoped to provide a clear narrative about what happened at the lunch, and afterwards, so people wouldn’t be so quick to judge her.
"I am now wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones," Ms 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."
But Deputy Police Commissioner Wendy Steendam, said this week that the statement, which wouldn’t be viewed as a formal police document, may actually hamper the police investigation.
Steendam told ABC radio that the statement being "provided to media outlets" was "unhelpful" to the police investigation.
"What I would say is… working on an investigation through the media is unhelpful to our investigation," she said.
Although Erin Patterson has been nominated by police as a “suspect” in the deaths of three Korumburra people, her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, as well as the hospitalisation of Ian Wilkinson, the Pastor of the Korumburra Baptist Church and Heather Wilkinson’s husband, because she prepared the meals, Erin Patterson has maintained her innocence.
