A woman who cooked a mushroom meal which is suspected of killing three people has said she was “devastated” by their deaths and revealed she also ended up in hospital after eating the food.
Erin Patterson, 48, made beef Wellington for her former parents-in-law Gail and Don Patterson, Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian, at a lunch she hosted at her home in Leongatha, Victoria, Australia.
The meal was reportedly arranged in a bid for reconciliation with Ms Patterson’s ex-husband, but he pulled out of the event at the last minute.
Within days of the meal, on July 29, three of her guests – Mr and Mrs Patterson and Ms Wilkinson - had died from suspected mushroom poisoning while Mr Wilkinson remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital.
In a newly-released statement, Ms Patterson told Victoria Police she had bought button mushrooms for the meal from a supermarket, and dried mushrooms from an Asian grocery store in Melbourne months earlier.
“I am now wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones”, she 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.”
When she was first interviewed by police, Ms Patterson did not reply to questions but has now said she regretted that decision and blamed it on the “nightmare” she was in.
She has admitted lying to police about when she dumped a food dehydrator at a near-by tip, and said she got rid of the appliance in a “panic” when she was accused at the hospital by her ex-husband Simon Patterson of poisoning his parents.
Ms Patterson also gave police a detailed account of the meal, saying she allowed guests to choose their own plate of beef Wellington before taking a serving herself.
She said she also suffered stomach pains and diarrhoea in the aftermath, was put on a saline drip in hospital, and given a “liver protective drug”.
It has earlier been reported that Ms Patterson’s two children were present at the meal but received different food. However it has now emerged they were at the cinema at the time.
They ate leftovers the following day, Ms Patterson said, but the mushrooms had been removed because her children do not like them.
Scraps of the meal have been handed over to hospital toxicologists for examination, as experts attempt to determine the cause of the poisonings.
In her statement, Ms Patterson paid tribute to her former in-laws, saying: “I had been close with Simon’s parents for a long period of time.
“Our relationship had continued in a fairly amicable way after I finished the relation-ship with their son Simon.
“Our relationship was affected to some degree by seeing them less after my marriage breakdown with Simon however I have never felt differently towards his parents.
“I had a deep love and respect for Simon’s parents and had encouraged my children to spend time with their grandparents as I believed they were exceptional role models.”
