The woman who added mushrooms believed to be poisonous to a recipe that ended up killing three people has admitted that she lied to the police.
Erin Patterson, from Victoria in Australia, originally told the police that on July 29 she had served a home-cooked beef wellington meal for her former in-laws Gail and Don Patterson, both 70, along with Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, and her husband Ian, 68.
However, a day after the meal, all four guests were rushed to the hospital with what was described as "gastro-like symptoms."
Unfortunately, Gail, Don, and Heather all passed away later that night while Ian remains in critical condition awaiting a liver transplant.
According to a statement released by Patterson, the mushrooms in question were a combination of some button mushrooms bought from a supermarket and some dried mushrooms purchased from an Asian grocery store three months prior to the meal.
In a written statement sent to Victoria Police on Friday - and obtained by ABC News - Patterson revealed that she "wants to clear up the record."
"I am now wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones," she said.
She continued: "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 judgement.
"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 added.
Earlier, the 48-year-old also admitted that she had lied to police following the discovery of a food dehydrator from a local tip.
In her letter to police, Patterson said she wasn’t telling the truth when she told law enforcement she threw the dehydrator out "a long time ago" though that doesn't now seem to be the case.
Patterson told the police that she was "discussing the food dehydrator" with her children at the hospital when her husband said: "Is that what you used to poison them?" That was enough to make Patterson rush home and throw it out.
In her recollection, she also said that she had tremendous respect for her former in-laws, writing: "I had a deep love and respect for Simon’s parents and had encouraged my children to spend time with their grandparents as I believed they were exceptional role models."
After being interviewed by police, Patterson was released without charge, though the authorities have confirmed that she still remains a suspect and any new information regarding the case will be made public as and when it's uncovered.
This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.
