The ABC’s podcast Mushroom Case Daily podcast team are on the ground in Morwell, and this week we’re answering your questions.
If you have a question, you can send it to: mushroomcasedaily@abc.net.au.
Q: How did they conclude that it was mushrooms so quickly? – Ash
It took a couple of days for them to do this. This lunch was held on a Saturday and by the following day the four guests were pretty sick and presented to hospital.
Initially the doctors thought it was gastro or some sort of food poisoning, but when they did their testing, they found that there were abnormal liver function tests.
As they started investigating the source of the meal, they become aware that were mushrooms in it, and as testing continued, the doctors said the tests began to resemble mushroom poisoning.
A toxicologist got involved named Dr Mark Douglas and he began to suspect amanita phalloides, which is the scientific term for death cap mushrooms. The following day, the Monday, all of them started to receive specialized treatment. They had a working diagnosis of death cap mushroom poisoning.
Just one death cap mushroom is enough to kill a healthy adult when ingested (ABC News: Penny McLintock)
Meanwhile, there was also testing being done on some leftovers that were found in a bin outside Erin Patterson’s house, and interestingly, they don’t find amanita phalloides in those leftovers.
So there was a discrepancy between what was found in Erin Patterson’s bin and the symptoms suffered by the lunch guests.
Within a couple of days, three of the four guests died. They all suffered from severe liver function problems and organ failure. Ian Wilkinson was the only one who pulled through, but he also had similar symptoms.
When testing was done on the three people who died, they did not discover toxins in the bodies of the two women. However, when they did the autopsy, what they discovered in all three was pretty typical of amanita phalloides poisoning.
We’ve also heard from the prosecution that the dehydrator that was used to prepare the meal was found in the tip a few days after the lunch and that analysis revealed amanita phalloides as well.
One final thing to mention is the defence is not disputing the fact that there were death cap mushrooms in the meal. They don’t dispute the fact that the people fell sick with death cap mushroom poisoning.
The contested element in this case is the intent and whether Erin Patterson intended to poison these people. The defence, obviously, says she did not.