1
00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:05,360
Speaker 1: On July thirty one, twenty twenty three, mushroom expert Camille

2
00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:10,160
Speaker 1: Truong was searching for answers. There'd been a poisoning at

3
00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:13,320
Speaker 1: a lunch in a small country town, and she had

4
00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:21,480
Speaker 1: been asked to examine a sample of leftover food. She'd

5
00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:25,759
Speaker 1: left work when a request came in to test the meal. Luckily,

6
00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:28,720
Speaker 1: doctor Chruong had a home set up and the sample

7
00:00:28,840 --> 00:00:32,199
Speaker 1: was sent over to her. She cleaned a bench and

8
00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:33,480
Speaker 1: pulled out her equipment.

9
00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:38,479
Speaker 2: I have a small microscope setting in my house, so

10
00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:41,400
Speaker 2: I went there. I always clean up the bench and

11
00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:44,320
Speaker 2: then I use gloves. I use a small tray and

12
00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:48,560
Speaker 2: tweezes that are also sterilized with alcohol wipes. I opened

13
00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:51,160
Speaker 2: the package, saw it was a food item which contained

14
00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:55,040
Speaker 2: mushrooms inside. So with tweezers, I carefully picked out the

15
00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:57,480
Speaker 2: little pieces of mushroom on the tray, and then I

16
00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:00,440
Speaker 2: studied them under the microscope.

17
00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:03,360
Speaker 1: After she examined the food, she put them in her

18
00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:10,480
Speaker 1: fridge and she tested them again on August two. What

19
00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:14,480
Speaker 1: she found, along with her other investigations into death caps,

20
00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:17,680
Speaker 1: she told to the court today in the trial of

21
00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:22,039
Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson. I'm brook Greebert Craig and this is the

22
00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:26,880
Speaker 1: Mushroom Cook. We've just finished day eleven and once again

23
00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:31,240
Speaker 1: I'm joined by my colleague, court reporter Laura PLASSELLA Hey Brook,

24
00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:31,959
Speaker 1: how are you going?

25
00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:32,360
Speaker 2: Yeah?

26
00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:34,440
Speaker 3: Not bad getting through now, Laura.

27
00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:37,399
Speaker 1: We've had some luck finding voice actors that sound like

28
00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:40,840
Speaker 1: the witnesses on the stand, but unfortunately not this time.

29
00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:44,840
Speaker 3: No, unfortunately not. As our listeners heard at the top

30
00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:48,560
Speaker 3: of the episode, we heard from a second mushroom expert

31
00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:52,400
Speaker 3: today and she speaks with a French accent. But alas,

32
00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:55,120
Speaker 3: we don't have any French speakers in our office, so

33
00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:55,840
Speaker 3: we had to make.

34
00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:59,440
Speaker 1: Do that's right. So doctor Treong was the OnCore my

35
00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:04,880
Speaker 1: college at Victorian Poisons Information Center on July thirty one.

36
00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:08,440
Speaker 1: She was sent the leftovers of that beef Wellington dish

37
00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:11,640
Speaker 1: that was fished out of Aaron's bin by a local

38
00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:12,560
Speaker 1: police officer.

39
00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:16,799
Speaker 3: We heard last week some details around this operation. One

40
00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:19,440
Speaker 3: of the local cops spoke to Erin over the phone

41
00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:23,119
Speaker 3: and got the access code to her front gate. Erin

42
00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:26,359
Speaker 3: directed him to one of her outside bins and said

43
00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:29,160
Speaker 3: that would be the place he would most likely find

44
00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:33,359
Speaker 3: leftovers of the beef Wellington and after donning some gloves

45
00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:35,919
Speaker 3: and having a search through the bin, he found a

46
00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:38,239
Speaker 3: Woolworth's bag that contained the leftovers.

47
00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:41,720
Speaker 1: But today the jury was told more about where the

48
00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:45,160
Speaker 1: leftovers of that meal ended up after it was taken

49
00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:48,799
Speaker 1: in an ambulance with Aaron to Monash Medical Center.

50
00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:52,640
Speaker 3: Yes, these leftovers have gone on quite the journey. So

51
00:02:52,919 --> 00:02:57,120
Speaker 3: from the bin at Erin's lean Gatha home, like you said, Brook,

52
00:02:57,160 --> 00:03:02,120
Speaker 3: they've been taken to lean Gatha Hospital from their transported

53
00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:06,480
Speaker 3: in an ambulance with Erin to Monash Medical Center in Melbourne,

54
00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:10,400
Speaker 3: and then from Monash Medical Center they've been ferried in

55
00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:13,800
Speaker 3: an urgent taxi to the city to the office of

56
00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:15,639
Speaker 3: the Royal Botanic Gardens.

57
00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:16,880
Speaker 1: And then what happened with them.

58
00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:20,639
Speaker 3: So doctor Truong works for the Royal Botanic Gardens and

59
00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:23,440
Speaker 3: she's a mycologist, just like doctor Tom May who we

60
00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:27,840
Speaker 3: heard from yesterday, and she received a phone call from

61
00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,920
Speaker 3: doctor Laura Muldoon who worked at Monash Medical Center about

62
00:03:31,919 --> 00:03:36,800
Speaker 3: these leftovers. Doctor Muldoon had sent doctor Truong a photo

63
00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:39,760
Speaker 3: and asked her whether or not from that photo she

64
00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:42,600
Speaker 3: could identify whether there were death caps in that meal.

65
00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:47,280
Speaker 3: Considering four people had fallen seriously ill after consuming the

66
00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:50,760
Speaker 3: beef Wellington lunch. But doctor Truong said that there was

67
00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:53,520
Speaker 3: not enough information from that photo for her to be

68
00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:56,920
Speaker 3: able to draw any conclusions, and the court heard more

69
00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:00,480
Speaker 3: today about her thought process after she spoke with doctor Mildoon.

70
00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:03,960
Speaker 3: These are her words, it's not her voice. I did

71
00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,400
Speaker 3: indicate to her that if the mushroom were coming from

72
00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:09,960
Speaker 3: a shop or a supermarket, it was extremely unlikely and

73
00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:14,240
Speaker 3: probably impossible to be death cap mushrooms because those mushrooms

74
00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:17,000
Speaker 3: only grow in the wild, whereas the mushrooms that you

75
00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:20,400
Speaker 3: buy in the supermarket are cultivated, are grown in culture,

76
00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:24,640
Speaker 3: and death cap mushrooms cannot be grown in cultures. She

77
00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:25,560
Speaker 3: went on to say.

78
00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:29,279
Speaker 2: I also told her that there were absolutely no sighting

79
00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:32,400
Speaker 2: of death cap mushrooms in Victoria during the last months,

80
00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:35,440
Speaker 2: So based on the information that I received, it was

81
00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:38,480
Speaker 2: highly unlikely to be a case of death cap poisoning.

82
00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:42,760
Speaker 1: So, Laura, you said, doctor Truan couldn't make any conclusions.

83
00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:44,520
Speaker 1: What was her next steps?

84
00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:49,760
Speaker 3: So I mentioned earlier that the leftovers were ferried to

85
00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:53,400
Speaker 3: her office at the Royal Botanic Gardens, but she hadn't

86
00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:56,359
Speaker 3: heard from staff at Monash Medical Center for a while,

87
00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:59,400
Speaker 3: so she actually went home. The leftovers arrived at her

88
00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:02,159
Speaker 3: office and she wasn't there, so she then had to

89
00:05:02,279 --> 00:05:04,960
Speaker 3: arrange for them to be brought to her home. But

90
00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:09,280
Speaker 3: rest assured. Doctor Trung had a microscope at home, as

91
00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:11,400
Speaker 3: our listeners would have heard at the top of the episode,

92
00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:13,560
Speaker 3: so she was well equipped to be able to take

93
00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:16,320
Speaker 3: a look at these leftovers from the comfort of her house.

94
00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:18,000
Speaker 1: And what did she find?

95
00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:22,200
Speaker 3: So after she used some tweezers to extract some pieces

96
00:05:22,279 --> 00:05:25,320
Speaker 3: of the mushroom, she popped them under her microscope and

97
00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:28,159
Speaker 3: took a look. She was asked today and caught by

98
00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:31,520
Speaker 3: Crown Prosecutor Nnette Rodgers, whether or not she found any

99
00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:35,440
Speaker 3: pieces of death cat mushrooms, and she said she didn't. Now,

100
00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:37,800
Speaker 3: this may be a good time to remind our listeners

101
00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:42,919
Speaker 3: that the prosecution allege erin served individual Beef Wellington's that

102
00:05:43,080 --> 00:05:46,839
Speaker 3: day at that lunch. Beyond that, the prosecution also alleged

103
00:05:46,839 --> 00:05:50,599
Speaker 3: that her serve of that Beef Wellington that individual serve

104
00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:54,279
Speaker 3: did not contain death cat mushrooms. But again to also

105
00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:57,080
Speaker 3: remind our listeners, the defense claimed that what happened at

106
00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:00,159
Speaker 3: that lunch was a tragedy and a terrible accident, and

107
00:06:00,279 --> 00:06:02,440
Speaker 3: Erin has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

108
00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:06,400
Speaker 1: That's right, Laura. So doctor Truon did find another type

109
00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:09,600
Speaker 1: of mushroom in those leftovers that she was examining.

110
00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:12,720
Speaker 3: What were they, so, she told the court. After examining

111
00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:16,159
Speaker 3: these mushrooms on July thirty one at her home, she

112
00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:18,720
Speaker 3: put them in her own fridge at her house, and

113
00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:20,960
Speaker 3: it was two days later that she took them out

114
00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:23,919
Speaker 3: and brought them back to her office to examine them further.

115
00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:26,680
Speaker 3: She told the court today, upon examining them for the

116
00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:31,039
Speaker 3: second time, she identified them as field mushrooms, and she

117
00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:33,200
Speaker 3: went on to say that these are mushrooms that are

118
00:06:33,279 --> 00:06:35,839
Speaker 3: very typically found at your everyday supermarket.

119
00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:39,120
Speaker 1: The leftovers were then collected by the Department of Health

120
00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:43,120
Speaker 1: on August two, So before the jury heard from doctor Truong,

121
00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:47,400
Speaker 1: my collogist Tom May returned to the stand and continued

122
00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:51,680
Speaker 1: his evidence from yesterday. Laura, can you remind the listeners

123
00:06:51,839 --> 00:06:53,400
Speaker 1: who doctor May is.

124
00:06:53,920 --> 00:06:58,080
Speaker 3: So, he is an internationally recognized fungi specialist, and he's

125
00:06:58,120 --> 00:07:01,360
Speaker 3: actually colleagues with doctor Truong. They both work at Royal

126
00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:05,480
Speaker 3: Botanic Gardens, where doctor May has worked for over thirty years.

127
00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:09,440
Speaker 3: His cross examination continued today and he was brought to

128
00:07:09,480 --> 00:07:13,960
Speaker 3: another fatal case of death cap mushroom poisoning. The court

129
00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:18,000
Speaker 3: heard last year there was a Victorian woman who picked

130
00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:21,280
Speaker 3: some mushrooms from her front yard that she cooked in

131
00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:23,440
Speaker 3: a meal that she served to her and her son.

132
00:07:24,320 --> 00:07:27,040
Speaker 3: The jury heard that she first picked mushrooms from her

133
00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:30,360
Speaker 3: yard in April twenty twenty four and she cooked them

134
00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:33,280
Speaker 3: and everything was fine. Her and her son didn't fall ill.

135
00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:36,360
Speaker 3: But then a month later she noticed that mushrooms were

136
00:07:36,360 --> 00:07:39,160
Speaker 3: growing in the same location in her yard, so she

137
00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:42,600
Speaker 3: picked them again and cooked them again, but this time

138
00:07:42,840 --> 00:07:46,000
Speaker 3: they both got very ill following the meal. They were

139
00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:49,200
Speaker 3: both taken to hospital, but unfortunately the woman died.

140
00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:52,200
Speaker 1: And doctor May told the jury that he was familiar

141
00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:55,000
Speaker 1: with this particular case. Why is that, Laura?

142
00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:58,000
Speaker 3: The court heard that this was the subject of a

143
00:07:58,040 --> 00:08:02,640
Speaker 3: cronial finding. The coroner recommended there to be more public

144
00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:07,040
Speaker 3: health messaging about the dangers of consuming wild mushrooms.

145
00:08:07,040 --> 00:08:09,880
Speaker 1: And in particular, he was contacted by the Department of

146
00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:14,320
Speaker 1: Health to help with these public health messages, and doctor

147
00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:18,160
Speaker 1: May was also asked about the smell of death cap mushrooms.

148
00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:21,800
Speaker 3: He told the court that he's actually dried deathcap mushrooms

149
00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:25,760
Speaker 3: before and he was asked by the prosecution what they

150
00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:28,760
Speaker 3: smell like, and he said very unpleasant in his opinion.

151
00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:33,360
Speaker 1: Okay, Now moving on to more medical evidence, the jury

152
00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:37,040
Speaker 1: heard from an intensive care specialist. His name was Professor

153
00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:43,240
Speaker 1: Andrew Burston. He actually examined Aaron's medical records. What did

154
00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:43,720
Speaker 1: he find.

155
00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:46,640
Speaker 3: The first thing he was questioned about today was whether

156
00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:50,240
Speaker 3: or not Erin had ever been diagnosed with cancer. And

157
00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:53,880
Speaker 3: to remind our listeners, it's the prosecution case that Arin

158
00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:56,760
Speaker 3: invited her lunch guests over to her house on the

159
00:08:56,800 --> 00:08:59,960
Speaker 3: pretense that she had cancer as a way to expl

160
00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:03,360
Speaker 3: blained to them why the children were not in attendance. However,

161
00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:06,160
Speaker 3: the defense have suggested that Eron never told the lunch

162
00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:09,080
Speaker 3: guests she had cancer, but rather that she had a

163
00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:13,520
Speaker 3: suspected diagnosis. So Professor Burston was asked today about this

164
00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:17,640
Speaker 3: and he said that after reviewing Erin's medical records, he

165
00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:20,720
Speaker 3: found no evidence that she had been diagnosed with cancer.

166
00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:25,359
Speaker 3: The court specifically heard that Erin had completed a cervical

167
00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:29,240
Speaker 3: screening test in March twenty twenty three, and the results

168
00:09:29,240 --> 00:09:32,200
Speaker 3: of that had come back normal. Professor Burston told the

169
00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:35,520
Speaker 3: court that these tests are only required every five years,

170
00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:38,120
Speaker 3: and she would most likely have been told that.

171
00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:43,439
Speaker 1: Through Aaron's medical records. Professor Burston also found no evidence

172
00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:47,880
Speaker 1: of toxic mushroom poisoning after she was admitted to hospital

173
00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:52,000
Speaker 1: following the lunch. We touched upon that in yesterday's episode,

174
00:09:52,760 --> 00:09:56,080
Speaker 1: Now Laura, we saw the return of the dehydrator being

175
00:09:56,120 --> 00:09:56,960
Speaker 1: mentioned in court.

176
00:09:57,880 --> 00:10:00,480
Speaker 3: Yes, the dehydrator has been missing an action, but it

177
00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:03,840
Speaker 3: made a return today and that was through the evidence

178
00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:07,400
Speaker 3: of Darren Canty. He is an operations manager at the

179
00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:12,000
Speaker 3: Dasma Group and this organization run the Kunwara transfer Station

180
00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:15,440
Speaker 3: and landfill, so essentially one of the local tips in

181
00:10:15,480 --> 00:10:19,080
Speaker 3: the area. Now our listeners might remember the tip from

182
00:10:19,440 --> 00:10:24,400
Speaker 3: the opening addresses. Defense barrister Colin Mandy said that Aaron

183
00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:28,640
Speaker 3: admitted she lied to police about dumping the dehydrator at

184
00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:32,240
Speaker 3: the tip. Mister Canty told the court that he got

185
00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:35,360
Speaker 3: a call from police on August four, who were making

186
00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:38,559
Speaker 3: inquiries about a person who had gone to their tip

187
00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:42,480
Speaker 3: to drop something off on August two, so two days earlier.

188
00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:46,840
Speaker 3: He said he reviewed the CCTV footage from that day.

189
00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:49,960
Speaker 3: This footage was shown to the jury and in it

190
00:10:50,040 --> 00:10:52,840
Speaker 3: you can see a red fooel drive pull up to

191
00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:55,320
Speaker 3: the tip. A woman who was dressed in a gray

192
00:10:55,320 --> 00:10:58,559
Speaker 3: sweater and cream pants is seen getting out of the car,

193
00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:02,160
Speaker 3: going to a boot and taking out an item. She

194
00:11:02,240 --> 00:11:05,199
Speaker 3: then walks into a shed at the tip and about

195
00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:09,320
Speaker 3: twenty seconds later re emerges without that item. She then

196
00:11:09,400 --> 00:11:12,000
Speaker 3: gets back into her car and the footage stops.

197
00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:15,839
Speaker 1: Mister Canty then got his colleague to go through the

198
00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:20,040
Speaker 1: tip and find this item that was dropped off. The

199
00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:24,560
Speaker 1: colleague then found a dehydrator and he told his boss.

200
00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:27,680
Speaker 3: The jury was then shown a photo of the dehydrator.

201
00:11:27,960 --> 00:11:32,120
Speaker 3: It was lying on its side, and mister Canty then

202
00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:35,120
Speaker 3: said he rang the police to tell them what he

203
00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:37,760
Speaker 3: had found, and before long they had come to the

204
00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:38,679
Speaker 3: site to pick it up.

205
00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:42,400
Speaker 1: That's right, so the police actually sees that dehydrator on

206
00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:43,240
Speaker 1: August four.

207
00:11:43,679 --> 00:11:45,240
Speaker 3: But I'm sure this won't be the last we hear

208
00:11:45,240 --> 00:11:46,199
Speaker 3: about the dehydrator.

209
00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:49,480
Speaker 1: So that's all the evidence from today and tomorrow we're

210
00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:53,040
Speaker 1: expected to hear more from expert witnesses. So we'll be

211
00:11:53,080 --> 00:11:56,200
Speaker 1: back then with another episode, and in the meantime, go

212
00:11:56,280 --> 00:11:59,360
Speaker 1: to the mushroomcook dot com dot au for more