Australia police charge woman with murder over mushroom lunch

[sl8]

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australia-police-arrest-woman-over-mushroom-lunch-that-killed-three-2023-11-01/

Australia police charge woman with murder over mushroom lunch

Reuters
November 2, 2023 6:14 AM EDT Updated 2 hours ago

SYDNEY, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Australian police said on Thursday they had charged a 49-year-old woman with the murder of three elderly people, with local media reporting the three died after they ate poisonous mushrooms at a lunch hosted by the woman.

Victoria state police also charged the woman with five counts of attempted murder - two related to the meal on July 29 this year and three related to separate incidents in 2021 and 2022 when they said a 48-year-old man became ill following meals.

Police had earlier searched the woman's house with the help of technology detector dogs trained to sniff out tiny electronic devices such as USBs and SIM cards, which are easy to hide.

The woman, who was not named by police, was remanded in custody and will appear in court on Friday.

[...]

[Farmer-Rick]

1. I wonder if it was an accident

People die every year from picking poisonous look-a-like mushrooms. They think they know what they are doing when foraging for wild mushrooms but they really don't. Every safe to eat wild mushroom has a poisonous look-a-like in the continental US. I bet in Australia they have even more poisonous mushrooms. I would never eat wild mushrooms picked by someone else. Those poor folks may have not had a choice.

The only way to be 100% sure that the mushroom you just picked isn't poisonous, is to look at the spores under a microscope. Or you can plant it yourself from known safe mycelium. That's what I like to do.

[Kali]

2. strange they don't give the name

pretty sure I read details about the case a while back

[sl8]

3. You're right.

It's been a pretty high profile case and other sources haven't been so coy.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/02/erin-patterson-arrested-suspected-mushroom-poisoning-australia-arrest-poisonous-mushrooms-deaths-leongatha-victoria

Erin Patterson charged with murder over suspected mushroom poisoning deaths in Victoria