It had to be a lunch repairman, with the aim of restoring serenity to Erin in relations with her ex-husband Simon Patterson, a high school math and science teacher. But he never showed up at that table. The meal, however, was consumed by the other four diners – all relatives of the ex – and now three of them are dead while one is dying. The mystery that took place in the Australian town of Leongatha, in southern Gippsland, 6,000 inhabitants about 90 miles southeast of Melbourne, is keeping the entire country in suspense. Also because now, the woman suspected by the police has disappeared, perhaps to escape the media clamor that has persisted for the past two weeks. It all started when Erin Patterson invited her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson and her sister Heather to lunch with her husband Ian Wilkinson. Absent, however, the direct interested Simon, who decided at the last minute to give up, thus saving his life.
Vespa orientalis, huge nest in a house in Rome. ‘Cases will quadruple in coming months’
According to Daily Mail Australia sources, the meeting was an attempt by active members of the local church to help mend ties between the ex-spouses. Despite Simon’s absence, lunch went as planned and to his relatives the hostess served beef Wellington cooked with a variety of mushrooms which later turned out to be highly toxic – death caps or Amanita phalloides – and which , according to the police, it grows right in the local forest. However, neither Erin nor her two teenage children ate this dish. For them, the menu was different. Seven days later, the 70-year-old in-laws died after a few days spent in the hospital and, subsequently, the same fate also befell 66-year-old Heather. The only survivor at the moment is Ian, 68, a well-known reverend in the community, who however is struggling between life and death. And his only hope is a liver transplant, according to the Times.
THE SUSPECTS
“Everyone here talks about it because the only person who didn’t feel bad was the person who cooked these mushrooms,” a young man who works in a supermarket tells the British newspaper. And the person concerned has not yet managed to provide sufficiently plausible explanations for the police, who are focusing their investigations on her. On Thursday, the woman showed herself to journalists stationed in front of her house. In tears, she said she was innocent: «I didn’t do anything, I loved them. I just can’t understand what happened », she said before disappearing without trace. While her guilt has yet to be proven, investigators are suspicious for a variety of reasons. One of these is related to the woman’s statements, that she refused to tell the police how she got hold of the mushrooms. At first, she said she bought them at a local supermarket, which proved unlikely when it emerged that no one in Leongatha has ever gotten sick. In addition, investigators recovered the food dryer they suspect was used to prepare the mushrooms from the Leongatha landfill. And to find out who threw it the day after lunch they are viewing the CCTV footage of the landfill. Meanwhile, the community wonders about the family relationships of the Pattersons, who are well known in the community also thanks to Ian’s role as pastor in the local church. According to some inhabitants, the meeting should have served to find new agreements to allow Simon to see his children, then still entrusted to his mother.
THE PREVIOUS
The yellow thickens further going back in time: according to local newspapers, in June last year, Erin’s ex told Facebook that he was in a pharmacological coma for 16 days during which he suffered three emergency operations, mainly in the small intestine. “My family was asked to come and say goodbye twice because I wasn’t expected to live,” she commented. Had he been poisoned? A question that, for now, he has refused to answer.
Read the full article
on The Messenger