[ad_1]
Sydney Morning Herald
Victoria Police are awaiting crucial toxicology reports before they can make their next move.
Newsable is brought to you by BNZ.
The mushroom poisoning case taking place over the ditch is proving to be as intriguing as it is tragic. It’s also a “slow burn”.
To bring you up to speed, late last month three people in Melbourne died with symptoms consistent with death cap mushroom poisoning. A fourth person is still fighting for their life in hospital.
All four of those people had shared a lunch at the home of Erin Patterson, a Melbourne woman living in South Gippsland in rural Victoria.
In fact, two of the people who died were her parents-in-law. The case is being treated as a homicide inquiry and Patterson is being treated as a suspect. Patterson strenuously denies any wrongdoing.
“It’s a very slow burn investigation” according to Marta Pasquale Juanola, a crime reporter for The Age.
“If the police were to ever lay charges you’d need to prove intent, which is really complicated in a case like this. You need to prove that Patterson knew what she was doing, and that it wasn’t a terrible accident.
“In addition to that, we’re still waiting on toxicology reports, which could take two to six weeks or even longer.”
1 NEWS
Four people were taken to hospital a day after eating at a home in the Australian state of Victoria – three of them died and the fourth is fighting for life.
Juanola said the police will now be waiting for the toxicology report , so any developments could be weeks away.
For her part, Patterson maintains she bought the mushrooms from legitimate sources.
In a leaked police statement, Patterson said she bought some dehydrated mushrooms from an Asian grocer in Melbourne’s East. And had stored those for about three months.
She also bought some more mushrooms from a supermarket in Gippsland, where she lives, and then she had combined those to make the Beef Wellington.
Juanola points out that if Patterson’s version of events are true, there could be a real possibility that other people have purchased mushrooms from the same source, which may have been contaminated with death cap mushrooms.
“We haven’t heard of any similar cases happening recently that might link back to a bad batch of mushrooms, but it certainly puts everybody on alert.”
Somewhat reassuring. But perhaps worth sticking to New Zealand grown mushrooms for the time being.
Newsable is Stuff’s daily news podcast, wrapping up what’s worth talking about in a short package every weekday morning. You can find new episodes and more detail on our stories here or in our newsletter. Make sure to like and follow us wherever you get your podcasts and across Instagram and TikTok.
[ad_2]