A woman has been charged with the murder of three people who died from suspected mushroom poisoning at a family meal she hosted and cooked, Australian police said in a statement Thursday.
The charges follow her arrest Wednesday after a monthslong investigation into the July deaths, which happened after a family lunch in the small town of Leongatha.
Police did not name the 49-year-old woman who was arrested, but Australian media widely identified her as Erin Patterson, the chef and host of the lunch.
On Thursday, the woman was charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder. Two of those attempted murder charges relate to the meal in July, while three are related to previous incidents involving a same alleged victim, police said.
"The further three attempted murder charges relate to three separate incidents in Victoria between 2021-2022," police said in a statement.
Police allege that the same unnamed 48-year-old man from Korumburra, a town near to Leongatha, became ill following meals on each of these occasions.
The suspect remains in police custody and is due to appear in court on Friday.
The story of the alleged mushroom poisoning became international news after four people were hospitalized on July 30 after the meal in Leongatha, about 85 miles southeast of Melbourne. Three of the guests — Gail Patterson, 70; her husband, Don Patterson, 70; and her sister Heather Wilkinson, 66 — died at a Melbourne hospital in the days after the lunch event.
A fourth guest, Heather Wilkinson's husband, Ian Wilkinson, 69, was in the hospital for weeks. Victoria police said he was released Sept. 23.
Patterson and her two children were at the meal, and none of them became sick.
The Associated Press has reported that the police believe the kids were served a different meal from the rest of the party.
Patterson was released without charges pending further inquiries in August. Police said at the time that they searched her home and took items for testing.
“I didn’t do anything,” Patterson told reporters at the time. She added that the victims were “some of the best people I’ve ever met” and described her mother-in-law as “the mom I didn’t have.”
She said then that she was "devastated" by the deaths.
But she refused to answer questions about the mushrooms she served for lunch or their origin, or about which guests received which meals.
At the time of the incident, police said all four guests showed signs consistent with poisoning by death cap mushrooms — a particularly deadly variety — which the Victoria health department said are "extremely poisonous" to humans and animals.
Homicide Squad Detective Inspector Dean Thomas told a news conference Thursday morning: “Today’s arrest is just the next step in what has been a complex and thorough investigation by Homicide Squad detectives.”
He also said that detectives working the case have dealt with unprecedented levels of public interest in its workings and outcome.
“This investigation has been subject to incredibly intense levels of public scrutiny and curiosity,” he said.
“I cannot think of another investigation what has generated this level of media and public interest — not only here in Victoria but also nationally and internationally.”
People should be mindful of sharing speculation and misinformation he added.
“At the heart of these matters are the recent deaths of three people and the families of loved ones who are coming to terms with this,” he said.
