The woman at the centre of a suspected fatal mushroom poisoning which killed three people has given a new and lengthy account of what happened on the day of the fatal meal.
Erin Patterson allegedly cooked the dish containing the deadly death cap mushrooms on July 29, serving it to four people at a lunch at her home in Leongatha, southeast of Melbourne.
Her former parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson and her sister Heather Wilkinson died from symptoms consistent with death cap mushroom poisoning after the lunch.
Heather’s husband, Ian, is still in hospital.
Ms Patterson, 48, has been questioned by police since the trio’s deaths.
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,” Ms Patterson said in a written statement to police obtained by the ABC.
“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.”
Ms Patterson said she too became ill after eating the beef wellington dish.
She 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 in her new statement.
“I now very much regret not answering some (police) questions following this advice given the nightmare that this process has become.”
More to come.