- Charges are not expected to be laid at this stage of the investigation
- Erin’s two children were also present at the lunch but Mr Thomas said they ate different meals to the adults and did not experience any illnesses
A woman whose poisonous mushroom lunch killed three of her family members – including her former parents-in-law – in Australia has denied any wrongdoing.
Erin Patterson, 48, hosted a lunch with her former in-laws, Gail and Don Patterson, along with Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, and her husband Ian at her home in Leongatha, in Victoria’s Gippsland region, on July 29.
All four guests became ill after they ate their meal, which included hand-picked mushrooms.
They went to hospital the next day as their condition worsened, with the two sisters, aged 70 and 66, dying on Friday. Don, 70, died on Saturday night.
Ian, 68, remains in a critical condition in hospital and is believed to be waiting on a liver transplant.
On Monday, an emotional Erin – who was reportedly heard ‘wailing’ after cops visited the home over the weekend – spoke publicly for the first time outside the house where the fatal lunch took place.
‘I didn’t do anything,’ she told the media.’I loved them and I’m devastated that they’re gone.’
She then mistakenly confused Don with Ian by expressing her ‘hope’ that ‘Don pulls through’.
Erin spoke for a couple of minutes but did not answer questions about where the mushrooms came from, who picked them or what meal she made for her guests.
‘I’m so devastated by what’s happened,’ she said as she wiped away a tear.
She described the two couples as ‘some of the best people I’ve ever met’.
Erin broke down as she explained that Gail was like a mother to her after her own mother had died.
‘Gail was like the mum I didn’t have because my mum passed away four years ago and Gail had never been anything but good and kind to me,’ she said.
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‘Ian and Heather were some of the best people I’d ever met. They never did anything wrong to me.’
Detectives from the homicide squad questioned Erin when they searched the property on Saturday, and she was reportedly heard ‘wailing’ after cops visited the home at the weekend – according to Seven News.
She was released pending further enquiries.
Victoria Police Detective Inspector for the Homicide Squad, Dean Thomas, confirmed Erin was a person of interest as she had cooked the meal.
‘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 but again we just don’t know at this point,’ he said on Monday.
Charges are not expected to be laid at this stage of the investigation.
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Mr Thomas added that while investigations into the trio’s deaths did not mean they were necessarily being treated as suspicious, they are ‘unexplained’.
Erin’s two children were also present at the lunch but Mr Thomas said they ate different meals to the adults and did not experience any illnesses.
Those two children were taken to hospital as a precaution and have been removed from their mother’s care.
Mr Thomas said police were ‘presuming’ the deaths were from mushrooms, adding the symptoms presented are linked to death cap mushrooms.
‘We’ve seized a number of exhibits in relation to the matter, a lot of the items we have seized will be forensically tested in the hope that they can shed some light on what’s occurred,’ he said.
Mr Thomas earlier told local radio that officers were working to determine if any ‘nefarious activity’ had occurred.
