A MYSTERY fifth person went to hospital after three people died following a poisonous mushroom lunch, it has been revealed.
Erin Patterson, 48, invited Gail and Don Patterson, her former in-laws, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian to her home in Leongatha, Australia, last week.
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After eating the meal – which allegedly included poisonous mushrooms – the guests became violently ill and Gail, 70, Heather, 66, and Don, 70, later died.
Ian, a pastor, remains in hospital in a critical condition, awaiting a liver transplant.
All four guests rushed to Leongatha Hospital after experiencing ‘gastro-like symptoms’ the day after the lunch before their conditions drastically worsened.
However, now its been revealed that a “fifth adult” also attended the hospital.
A spokesperson said: “A fifth person was discharged, after a short presentation at the Leongatha Hospital.”
It comes after homicide detectives confirmed Erin is a suspect in the mystery case as the mum-of-two cooked the meal at her home – but did not get sick.
Investigators are still unsure whether Erin also ate the meal – but cops confirmed a different lunch was served to her two children.
Dean Thomas, Victoria Police Detective Inspector for the Homicide Squad, has confirmed that the investigations into the deaths are not necessarily being treated as suspicious.
He did say, however, that they are “unexplained”.
Within hours of quizzing her, detectives painstakingly searched a nearby rubbish tip and also swooped at a junkyard in the neighbouring town of Koonwarra, where they retrieved a food dehydrator believed to have been used to prepare the meal.
Cops are now trying to trace CCTV which would show cars driving in and out of the site.
A police source told The Age that cops are conducting forensic tests on the dehydrator in the hope it could hold key clues to finding out what happened.
According to a pal, Erin held the lunch in a bid to try and reconcile with her estranged ex-husband Simon Patterson.
A source close to Simon claimed Erin was desperate to get back with him – and suggested the lunch was an “intervention” from his family.
The friend said his family were concerned and described the get-together as a “mediation”.
Simon was supposed to join the lunch – but reportedly pulled out at the last minute.
The pal told Daily Mail Australia: “She wanted to get back with Simon and the family didn’t want Simon to get back with her.
“This wasn’t just a lunch, it was an intervention with the pastor as mediator. That’s why this lunch happened.
“Simon was supposed to go there for lunch but he pulled out in the last minute otherwise he would be in that death bed too.
“The people who died, Gail, Don and the Wilkinsons, were talking to them because they’re heavily ingrained with the church and they wanted to make sure she was right to resume a relationship with Simon.
“She was basically petitioning to get back with him and the family didn’t think that was a good move.”
It comes after Simon revealed he almost died from a mystery gut illness last year.
And he reportedly “suspected” Erin had tried to poison him through an “ingested toxin”.
A family friend told the Herald Sun: “Simon suspected he had been poisoned by Erin.
“There were times he had felt… a bit off and it often coincided when he spent time with her.”
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