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Australian police have taken a woman into custody for questioning as part of their months-long investigation into the mysterious deaths of three people in a suspected mushroom poisoning case.
Erin Patterson invited two couples to lunch at her rural home in Victoria state on a Saturday in late July. A week later, three of the four guests were dead and the other was seriously ill. Authorities suspect they ate death cap mushrooms, or Amanita phalloides, one of the deadliest mushrooms known to humans.
On Thursday, homicide investigators arrested 49-year-old Patterson shortly after 8 a.m. local time at her home in Leongatha, an idyllic country town about 70 miles southeast of Melbourne. They also began searching the property, including using sniffer dogs.
Patterson has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing. In Australia, suspects can be taken into custody for questioning before charges are laid. “The investigation is ongoing,” Victoria Police said in a statement on Thursday.
The July luncheon guests — the host’s in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70; and a local pastor, Ian Wilkinson, 69; and his wife Heather Wilkinson, 66, were served Beef Wellington, a traditional pastry-based dish with mushrooms. That night they all became seriously ill with what appeared to be food poisoning. Ian Wilkinson spent almost two months in hospital. The other three died.
She invited four people to lunch. A week later three were dead.
The case attracted international attention and sparked safety warnings about the dangers of foraging for wild mushrooms.
Death cap mushrooms look similar to other non-poisonous mushroom species. This makes them easy to confuse for people looking for them in the wild. Even half a capsule can cause liver damage. A possible antidote is available in Europe but awaits approval in the United States and elsewhere.
New details about mushroom deaths in Australia are fueling speculation
In a report provided to police and the Australian Broadcasting Corp. submitted in August, Patterson said she used two types of mushrooms for the beef Wellington dish: button mushrooms from a supermarket chain and dried mushrooms from an Asian grocery store. She also said her estranged husband – who was supposed to come to lunch but canceled – had accused her of killing his parents. Patterson wrote that she, too, was taken to the hospital with stomach pain and diarrhea after eating and was placed on saline fluid. Her two children also ate the leftovers the next day – minus the mushrooms, which she scraped off because they didn’t like them, she wrote.
In Australia, commercial mushroom sales fell after the fall, although growers said it was impossible for the deadly varieties to reach stores.
Adam Taylor contributed to this report.