Australia MUSHROOM POISONING: How A Family Meal Ended With THREE Dead

'Australia Mushroom Poisoning: How A Family Meal Ended With Three Dead' Australian police are trying to figure out how three people died and a fourth became critically ill after eating wild mushrooms at a family lunch. Homicide detectives have been investigating the case. Police have interviewed the woman, Erin Patterson, who they say cooked the meal at her home on July 29 but didn't become ill herself. She was released without any charges, but remains a key suspect. On Monday, a new detailed statement about what happened before and after the suspected poisoning was revealed: “I am now wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones,” Erin said in a written statement to police, obtained by ABC News. “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 judgment.” In the new statement, Erin said she also had become ill after eating the beef wellington dish, which she had later given to police as evidence. The mother-of-two also said the fungi used in the dish were a mixture of button mushrooms bought at a supermarket chain and dried ones from an Asian grocery store in Melbourne months prior. “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,” she said. “I now very much regret not answering some (police) questions following this advice given the nightmare that this process has become.” The woman had told media outside her home in the town of Leongatha, in Victoria state, that she didn’t know what had happened. The woman declined to answer questions about what meals were served to which guests or the origin of the mushrooms. Victoria Police Det. Inspector Dean Thomas said it wasn't clear what type of mushrooms the guests had eaten, but their symptoms were consistent with those from a death cap, a particularly deadly variety. He said it would take some time to determine what happened and police were keeping an open mind. “It could be very innocent but, again, we just don’t know,” Thomas said. The woman had been hosting her in-laws, Gail and Don Patterson, both aged 70. Both died at area hospitals. Also at the lunch were Gail Patterson's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, who died, and husband Ian Wilkinson, 68, a Baptist pastor who remained hospitalized this week in critical condition. #Mushroompoisoning #news #australia #erinpatterson Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/ODNsubs TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ondemandnews Twitter: https://twitter.com/ODN Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ODN/ If you wish to purchase any of our clips for commercial use, please visit: http://www.itnproductions.co.uk/news/