Australia mushroom poisoning: how a family lunch ended in tragedy
Note: This episode was originally published in August 2023.
In July 2023, four relatives attended a family lunch at the home of Erin Patterson, a mother of two from Leongatha in Australia. Within days of the lunch, three of the guests were dead, with a fourth left fighting for his life in hospital. A beef wellington that was served for lunch on the day is suspected to have contained poisonous death cap mushrooms. But why were they in there?
A court in Australia must now decipher whether it was simply a tragic accident or if there was something more sinister at play. Patterson's trial opened…
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