Erin Patterson firmly states that she did not intend to harm her relatives.
Police are investigating the mysterious deaths of three people who followed Obeda's family and believe a food dehydrator found in a nearby dump could help solve the case.
Homicide detectives in Victoria, Australia, were sifting through trash and workers were questioned on Wednesday as they tried to determine if the woman had «nefarious» intentions when she invited her relatives to dinner.
Four guests at a dinner last week at Erin Patterson's home in Leongat, at two o'clock drive southeast of Melbourne, soon fell ill.
p>Mushroom death
Her relatives, Gail Patterson and Don Patterson, both aged 70, died in the hospital.
Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, also died, and her husband, Rev. Ian Wilkinson, pastor of Corumburra Baptist Church, is in critical condition in hospital in Melbourne awaiting a liver transplant.
The hostess did not get sick, and neither did her two children.
Now, investigators are hoping that a food dehydrator thrown on the edge will provide answers to a “close-knit” community, mourning the loss of «respected» locals.
The symptoms experienced by the older Pattersons and Wilkinsons led doctors to suspect they had been eating pale cap mushrooms.
, commonly known as the pale cap. Photo: Robert Winkler < p> One of the most dangerous types of mushrooms, pale cap can cause liver and kidney failure. Just a teaspoon is enough to kill a grown man.
The police stressed that they were «open-minded» and that the poisoning could have been a «completely innocent» mistake.
«We are working to establish what happened to find out if there is any nefarious activity that happened or was accidental ,» said Dean Thomas, Detective Inspector of the Victorian Police Homicide Unit.
Ms Patterson, 48, said she did not know what happened to her guests and firmly maintained that she did not was going to harm her relatives.
Ms Patterson told reporters she was «devastated» and added: «My own children have lost their grandmother. I can't believe this happened, and I'm sorry they died.»
In the meantime, it turned out that Ms. Patterson's ex-husband, Simon, with whom she remained on friendly terms, had arrived in Last year, he was close to death when he collapsed and needed emergency bowel surgery.
Detectives are aware of the family's medical history, but declined to comment on the circumstances. There was no suggestion that the younger Mr. Patterson's health was suspect.
The Dangers of Gathering
Participants at a Baptist church in the Gippsland area, where Mr. Wilkinson is a «much beloved» pastor, prayed for his recovery while Patterson and the Wilkinson families paid tribute to the «pillars of the faith.»
Nathan Hersey, Mayor of South Gippsland, said: «Many people in our community are grieving the loss of three very important, very loved and very respected people.»
With foraging becoming an increasingly popular activity during the Australian winter, state governments have warned against mistaking poisonous mushrooms for edible mushrooms.
>Victoria has been rocked by a spate of mushroom poisoning in 2020 year when one person died from eating pale toadstools and seven others were hospitalized.
In 2012, a respected Chinese chef and his assistant died in Canberra after eating pale toadstool mushrooms they had harvested in preparation for New Year's Eve dinner.
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