On Wednesday, Australian police were trying to find out what caused three people to die and a fourth to become seriously ill after apparently eating wild mushrooms at a family lunch.
Detectives investigate the murder. Police questioned the woman, who they said cooked the meal at home on July 29 but was not sick herself. Police released her without charge but said she was still a suspect.
The woman told the media outside her home in the town of Leongatha, Victoria, that she had no idea what had happened. "I didn't do anything," she told Network Nine on Monday. "I love them and I'm devastated that they're gone."
The woman declined to answer questions about which guests the meal was served to or where the mushrooms came from.
"Continuous symptoms"
Det. Victoria Police. Inspector Dean Thomas said it was not clear what kind of mushroom the guests ate, but their symptoms resembled death cap mushrooms, a particularly dangerous fungus.
He said it will take some time to find out what happened and that the police are keeping an open mind. "That could be very innocent, but then again, we don't know," Thomas said.
The woman adopted her husbands, Gail and Don Patterson, both in their 70s. Both died in an area hospital. Also at lunch were Gail Patterson's older sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, who passed away, and her husband Ian Wilkinson, 68, a Baptist minister who remained hospitalized this week in critical condition.
Thomas said the woman who cooked the meal had been estranged from her husband, but police were told their relationship was amicable. Police said her children were also at home during lunch but did not eat the same meal.
Detectives searched the woman's home on Saturday and took several items. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that police are also conducting a forensic examination of a food dehydrator they found in a nearby landfill to see if it is linked to the case.
