2023 Leongatha mushroom poisoning

Last updated

2023 Leongatha mushroom poisoning
Amanita phalloides 1.JPG
Death cap mushrooms
Location Leongatha, Victoria, Australia
Date29 July 2023 (AEST)
Attack type
Poisoning
Weapons Death cap mushrooms (suspected)
Deaths3
AccusedErin Trudi Patterson

The 2023 Leongatha mushroom poisoning is an ongoing legal case involving three deaths from suspected mushroom poisoning in Leongatha, Victoria, Australia. One woman has been charged with three counts of murder, and five counts of attempted murder. The case will return to court in May 2024. [1] [2]

Contents

The case has sparked significant media interest in Australia and overseas. [3] [4]

Background

Leongatha is a town in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, South Gippsland Shire, located 135 kilometres (84 mi) south-east of Melbourne. At the 2021 census, Leongatha had a population of 5,869. [5]

Lunch and deaths

On 29 July 2023, Erin Trudi Patterson (49) cooked Beef Wellington for a lunch for her former in-laws Don (70) and Gail Patterson (70), Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson (66) and Heather’s husband, Ian (68), at her home in Leongatha. [6] Patterson claims her two children went to the movies at the time of the lunch. [1] It is suspected the meal contained Amanita phalloides death cap mushrooms. [7]

The following day, all four guests were admitted to hospital with suspected gastro. Patterson went to Leongatha Hospital with reported stomach pains and diarrhoea. [8]

On 4 August, five days after the lunch, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson died in hospital and an investigation was launched by Victoria Police. On 5 August, Don Patterson also died in hospital. [1]

Investigation and media reporting

Police confirmed on 14 August that Patterson provided them with a detailed statement, in which she said she had bought dried mushrooms from an Asian supermarket in Mount Waverley (around 118 kilometres (73 mi) away from Leongatha) three months before the lunch. [9]

Patterson also says in the statement that she intentionally disposed of the food dehydrator that police found in a skip bin at the Koonwarra Transfer Station after she says people "began accusing her of intentionally poisoning the meal". [10]

Ian Wilkinson was discharged from hospital on 23 September, having received a liver transplant. A funeral for his wife, Heather, was held on 4 October. [11] [12]

On 2 November 2023, Erin Patterson was charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder. The charges allege Patterson tried to murder her ex-husband, Simon Patterson, on four occasions between 16 November 2021 and 29 July 2023 (the day of the lunch), with claimed incidents also in May and September 2022. [13] [14]

Patterson appeared in Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court in Morwell on 3 November. She was remanded in custody to next face court on 3 May 2024. [15] On 7 May, Patterson pleaded not guilty to the three murder charges and five attempted murder charges. She elected to "fast track" her case, meaning that her case would skip the Magistrate's Court's committal hearing and proceed directly to a Section 198 hearing in the Supreme Court of Victoria, where the evidence against her would be tested for the first time. The prosecution also amended three of the attempted murder charges against Simon Patterson to include the locations they occurred: between 16 and 17 November 2021 in Korumburra, between 25 and 27 May 2022 in Howqua and on 6 September 2022 in Wilsons Promontory. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mushroom poisoning</span> Harmful effects from ingestion of toxic substances present in a mushroom

Mushroom poisoning is poisoning resulting from the ingestion of mushrooms that contain toxic substances. Symptoms can vary from slight gastrointestinal discomfort to death in about 10 days. Mushroom toxins are secondary metabolites produced by the fungus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leongatha</span> Town in Victoria, Australia

Leongatha is a town in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, South Gippsland Shire, Victoria, Australia, located 135 kilometres (84 mi) south-east of Melbourne. At the 2021 census, Leongatha had a population of 5,869.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claremont serial killings</span> 1990s serial murders in Western Australia

The Claremont serial killings is the name given by the media to a case involving the disappearance of an Australian woman, aged 18, and the killings of two others, aged 23 and 27, in 1996–1997. After attending night spots in Claremont, a wealthy western suburb of Perth, Western Australia, all three women disappeared in similar circumstances leading police to suspect that an unidentified serial killer was the offender. The case was described as the state's biggest, longest running, and most expensive investigation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kristen Gilbert</span> American serial murderer and former nurse

Kristen Heather Gilbert is an American serial killer and former nurse who was convicted of four murders and two attempted murders of patients admitted to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Northampton, Massachusetts. She induced cardiac arrest in patients by injecting their intravenous therapy bags with lethal doses of epinephrine, commonly known as adrenaline, which is an untraceable heart stimulant. She would then respond to the coded emergency, often resuscitating the patients herself. Prosecutors said Gilbert was on duty for about half of the 350 deaths that occurred at the hospital from when she started working there in 1989, and that the odds of this merely being a coincidence was 1 in 100 million. However, her only confirmed victims were Stanley Jagodowski, Henry Hudon, Kenneth Cutting, and Edward Skwira.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Dupas</span> Australian serial killer and rapist

Peter Norris Dupas is an Australian convicted serial killer, currently serving three life sentences without parole for murder and primarily for being a serious habitual offender. He has a very significant criminal history involving serious sexual and violent offences, with his violent criminal history spanning more than three decades, and with every release from prison has been known to commit further crimes against women with increasing levels of violence. His criminal signature is to remove the breasts of his female victims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Grills</span> Australian serial killer (c. 1888 – 1960)

Caroline Grills was an Australian serial killer who poisoned her victims. She was predominantly a comfort killer, who murdered well-off members of her extended family to maintain a respectable lifestyle, but her later murders had more unclear motives.

Beverley Gail Allitt is an English serial killer who was convicted of murdering four infants, attempting to murder three others, and causing grievous bodily harm to a further six at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital, Lincolnshire between February and April 1991. She committed the murders as a State Enrolled Nurse on the hospital's children's ward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Swango</span> American serial killer

Michael Joseph Swango is an American serial killer and physician who is estimated to have been involved in as many as 60 fatal poisonings of patients and colleagues, although he admitted to only causing four deaths. He was sentenced in 2000 to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole and is serving his sentence at ADX Florence at his own request.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Pickton</span> Canadian serial killer

Robert William Pickton, also known as the Pig Farmer Killer or the Butcher, is a Canadian serial killer, serial rapist, former pig farmer and possible cannibal who is suspected of being one of the most prolific serial killers in Canadian history. After dropping out of school, Pickton left a butcher's apprenticeship to begin working full-time at his family's pig farm. He is believed to have begun his murders in the early 1990s after inheriting the farm. Arrested in 2002, he was convicted in 2007 of the second-degree murders of six women and was also the subject of a lengthy investigation that yielded evidence of numerous other murders.

Thallium poisoning is poisoning that is due to thallium and its compounds, which are often highly toxic. Contact with skin is dangerous and adequate ventilation should be provided when melting this metal. Many thallium compounds are highly soluble in water and are readily absorbed through the skin. Exposure to them should not exceed 0.1 mg per m2 of skin in an 8 hour time-weighted average.

Crystal Gail Mangum is an American former exotic dancer from Durham, North Carolina, United States, who has been incarcerated for murder since 2013. In 2006, she came to attention in national news reports for having made false allegations of rape against lacrosse players in the Duke lacrosse case. Mangum's work in the sex industry as a black woman while the young men she accused were white generated extensive media interest and academic debate about race, class, gender, and the politicization of the justice system.

Christa Gail Pike is an American convicted murderer, and the youngest woman to be sentenced to death in the United States during the post-Furman period. She was 20 when convicted of the torture murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer, which she committed at age 18.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Needle</span> Australian murderer

Martha Needle was an Australian serial killer known for poisoning her husband, three children, and prospective brother-in-law. She was hanged on 22 October 1894 when she was 31. She was convicted for the murder of Louis Juncken, brother of her fiancé Otto Juncken, on 15 May 1894. Although Needle collected substantial sums of insurance money, her exact motive for murdering her family has not been determined. Several times she stated her innocence, but she was eventually hanged.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 Stepping Hill Hospital poisoning incident</span> 2011 serial murder in the United Kingdom

In 2011, deaths occurred at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. After suspicions were raised concerning the similarities of the deaths, a murder inquiry was launched. Nurse Victorino Chua was found to have poisoned several patients with insulin. He was convicted of murder in 2015 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bihar school meal poisoning incident</span> 2013 fatal pesticide poisoning in India

On 16 July 2013, at least 23 students died, and dozens more fell ill at a primary school in the village of Gandaman in the Saran district of the Indian state of Bihar after eating a Midday Meal contaminated with pesticide. Angered by the deaths and illnesses, villagers took to the streets in many parts of the district in violent protest. Subsequently, the Bihar government took a series of steps to prevent any recurrence of such incidents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Kylie Maybury</span> 1984 child murder in Melbourne, Australia

Kylie Maria Antonia Maybury was an Australian schoolgirl from Preston, an inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Maybury was kidnapped, raped, and murdered on 6 November 1984, the date of the 1984 Melbourne Cup Day; and she was nicknamed in the Melbourne tabloid newspaper The Sun News-Pictorial as the Cup Day Girl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Tiahleigh Palmer</span> Australian murder case

Tiahleigh Alyssa Rose Palmer was a 12-year-old Australian girl who lived in Logan City, Queensland. She was murdered on 30 October 2015. Her remains were found six days later and her foster father, Rick Thorburn, was charged on 20 September 2016 with her murder. Thorburn pleaded guilty to the murder before the Supreme Court of Queensland on 25 May 2018.

On August 20, 2016, a mass killing occurred in Citronelle, Alabama, resulting in the deaths of five people, including a woman who was five months pregnant. They were killed in the early morning in a private residence in a rural area west of the city. It was owned by a brother of Laneta Lester, who had sought refuge there. She and her brother's infant were abducted and taken to Leakesville, Mississippi, by her estranged boyfriend, Derrick Dearman. He released her that day. Lester returned with the infant to Citronelle. She notified police of the killings. Investigators described this mass killing as the worst in Mobile County's history. The house burned down a couple of weeks after the crime.

The Federico murder case was a criminal case which took place in Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States, in which Josh Federico shot his wife, Sarah, killed her boyfriend Lawrence Howell, and attempted to kill her unborn child. Following his arrest, Federico conspired with family members and friends to hire someone to kill his father-in-law and brother-in-law. Five people have been implicated in these crimes.

Anjette Lyles was an American restaurateur and serial killer responsible for the poisoning deaths of four relatives in Macon, Georgia, between 1952 and 1958. Initially sentenced to death upon her conviction, Lyles was eventually diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and instead sent to the Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, where she spent the rest of her life.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Timeline: How the Australia mushroom poisoning saga unfolded". 1 News.
  2. "Erin Patterson charged with murder over mushroom deaths". The Australian.
  3. "Suspected mushroom poisoning: Erin Patterson faces Australian court on murder charges". BBC News.
  4. "How a suspected mushroom poisoning case in a small Aussie town dominated headlines around the world". Nine News.
  5. Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Leongatha". 2021 Census QuickStats. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  6. "Erin Patterson interviewed by police over Leongatha mushroom poisoning deaths". ABC News.
  7. "Australia mushroom deaths: Memorial for couple draws hundreds". BBC News. 31 August 2023.
  8. "Australia mushroom poisoning: How Erin Patterson's deadly lunch saga played out". Stuff.
  9. "Mushroom murders: Australian Erin Patterson charged after lunch killed three". Reuters.
  10. "Mushroom cook says she bought fungi from Asian grocer and her children ate the lunch leftovers". The Age.
  11. "Surviving victim of mushroom poisoning farewells wife at emotional service". Nine News.
  12. "Mushroom poisoning victim released from hospital". The Age.
  13. "Erin Patterson charged with murder over suspected mushroom poisoning deaths". The Guardian .
  14. "Mushroom deaths: Erin Patterson 'made four attempts on ex-husband's life'". The Australian .
  15. "Erin Patterson fronts court after being charged over mushroom lunch that killed three in Leongatha". Seven News .
  16. Bucci, Nino (7 May 2024). "Erin Patterson pleads not guilty to all charges over alleged mushroom murders". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 7 May 2024. Retrieved 8 May 2024.