On Wednesday, Australian police officials investigated how three people died and a fourth fell seriously ill after allegedly eating wild mushrooms during a family supper.
Police have spoken with the woman who, according to them, made the supper at her house on July 29 but didn’t get sick. She was freed by police without being charged, but they claim she is still a suspect.
The woman talked to media where is she admitted of doing nothing. She said, “I loved them, and I’m devastated that they’re gone.”
When asked about which guests received which lunches or where the mushrooms came from, the woman declined to comment.
Det. Inspector Dean Thomas of the Victoria Police said that although it was unclear what kind of mushrooms the visitors had consumed, their symptoms were in line with those of a death cap, a particularly dangerous form.
Police, he added, were keeping an open mind and it would take some time to figure out what transpired.
Gail and Don Patterson, her in-laws who are both in their 70s, had been staying at her house. Both passed away in local hospitals. Heather Wilkinson, 66, a sister of Gail Patterson who passed away, and her husband Ian Wilkinson, 68, a Baptist minister who remained in the hospital this week in critical condition, were also present at the meal.
Although the police had been informed that the couple’s separation was amicable, Thomas claimed that the woman who prepared the dinner was divorced. While her kids were home for lunch, they apparently didn’t have the same meal, according to the police.
On Saturday, detectives conducted a home search for the woman and removed various items. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, police were also testing a food dehydrator they had discovered at a nearby landfill to see whether it was connected to the crime.
