Mushroom poisoning in Leongatha, Victoria: The eerie detail on cook Erin Patterson’s hands

EXCLUSIVE

A bizarre detail on mushroom chef Erin Patterson’s hands that no one had spotted before now shows two wounds to the middle finger of her right hand.

Two healing cuts are seen on the 48-year-old’s hand in separate filmed interviews in the driveway of her home on Monday August 7, nine days after hosting the fatal Beef Wellington lunch inside the house from Leongatha in southern Gippsland to Victoria.

In the two separate interviews – dressed in a dark red hoodie and chinos, then a gray sweater and cream trousers – Ms Patterson waves her hands as she wipes away tears.

She also raises her hands in front of her face and tells reporters that she is devastated by the death of her husband’s family members and protests, “I didn’t do anything.”

“I loved them and I’m devastated that they’re gone,” Ms Patterson said in tears, shielding her face with her right hand, the cuts or abrasions of which are clearly visible.

The most serious injury is located under the knuckle of his right middle finger.

The second injury is around the nail bed region of the same finger.

The media were camped on Ms Patterson’s doorstep several days after her ex-husband Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, died of suspected death mushroom poisoning. Cap.

During interviews, Erin appears to be right-handed, holding her keys and removing her glasses with the same hand.

She would therefore be more likely to injure her left hand while cooking or serving meat cut with a knife in her right hand.

Beef Wellington is made from a piece of high quality meat, often eye tenderloin, coated in button mushrooms and chopped wild mushrooms,

Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Ms Patterson is responsible for the deaths of her former in-laws, or the poisoning of her husband’s uncle, Rev Ian Wilkinson, who remains in hospital after suffering a collapse liver and may need a transplant.

Ms Patterson initially responded ‘no comment’ to police but later released a statement which was not a formal police interview, in which she mentioned a food moisturizer she had used to prepare beef Wellington.

In the statement, Ms Patterson said she threw the dehydrator at a local landfill in the days after her guests became ill because she was in a panic.

After three of her guests were killed, Victoria Police recovered a food hydrator from among the discarded items and debris at Koonwarra Transfer Station, a local dump 12-minute drive south of Erin’s home Patterson.

Ms Patterson, who is the mother of two school-aged children with Simon Patterson, said her experience with the police had been “terrifying and anxiety-provoking”.

On the same day the cuts on her hand were visible, Victoria Police described her as a ‘suspect’, but investigators say they are keeping an open mind when investigating the deaths.

It’s been more than two weeks since Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said Erin Patterson remained a suspect in the investigation because she served the meal, but added that it could be “very innocent…we don’t just don’t know”.

Police have made no major statement since and Erin Patterson has remained out of sight.

Earlier this week, the family of Don and Gail Patterson held a private funeral for the couple, who were buried together in a still unmarked grave at Korumburra General Cemetery.

Ian Wilkinson, 68, is still critical but in stable condition at Austin Hospital in northeast Melbourne.