A piece on the BBC website. Extracts:
The Australian woman who cooked a beef Wellington using mushrooms which killed three relatives and left one critical has told police it was an accident. Erin Patterson, who is not facing charges, has provided a statement of events to police, local media report. The police believe the victims had eaten death cap mushrooms, which are lethal if ingested.
In her statement, Ms Patterson said she had used some dried mushrooms but did not know they were poisonous.
“I am now devastated to think that these mushrooms may have contributed to the illness suffered by my loved ones,” [J4MB translation: … these mushrooms killed my relatives] said the 48-year old.
“I really want to repeat that I had absolutely no reason to hurt these people, whom I loved.”…Speaking to reporters outside her home in the immediate aftermath of the incident, Ms Patterson had stated her innocence – but declined to answer questions about what meals were served to which guests, or where the mushrooms had come from. “I now very much regret not answering some questions following [my lawyer’s] advice, given the nightmare that this process has become,” she said, in her statement to police.
In her statement she also admitted lying to authorities about a food dehydrator seized by police from a local tip during investigations last week.
She said she had been questioned by her estranged husband as to whether she had poisoned his parents, and so panicked and disposed of the dehydrator as she was worried she might lose custody of their children.
A reminder, she’s not facing charges!!!
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