THE Korumburra tradesman who took a photo of a so-called “death wall” at a house in Shellcot Road, Korumburra last year, thought it pretty weird at the time, but found it scarier still in light of the death of three people, linked to the former owner of the house, Erin Patterson, a year later.
Speaking to the Sentinel-Times this week, he said it was the most unusual thing he’d seen in two decades of house painting.
“Look, I thought it was pretty strange at the time, with those references to death and the tombstones and that sort of thing. Not what you’d expect to see in a family home.
“As you do, when you see something interesting, I took a photo, but that was it.
“I was called in by a local real estate agent to paint the house before it went up for sale.
“I had to put six coats of paint on it to cover up the Texta. It went that deep.
“I suppose, if you scratched it off, you’d be able to see it. It’s still there under the paint.
“As a parent myself, I thought who would let a kid draw on a wall like that, but you never know what goes on behind closed doors.
“I didn’t think anything more of it until what happened last week.”
The tradie spoke to homicide detectives this week, after references to “macabre” drawings on a wall in Korumburra appeared in The Australian newspaper over the weekend, and also in the Sentinel-Times on Tuesday.
The photo was then published online by news.com.au, which holds a copyright on the image, on Tuesday afternoon and featured on TV news services on Wednesday night.
“After what happened, I flipped through the phone and saw the picture again. A bit scary, especially the tombstones with RIP Grandma and RIP Me. Yeah, pretty weird.”
It has since been confirmed locally that Ms Patterson lived in the Shellcot Road house where the macabre drawings were photographed, before it was sold in August last year for $545,000.
By then, Ms Patterson had moved to Leongatha with her family.
It was in that Leongatha home, on Saturday, July 29 this year, that Erin Patterson had four family members over for lunch, as revealed this week in a new statement by Ms Patterson, featuring a meal of homemade beef Wellington, a dish which calls for up to 400gm of mushrooms.
In an effort to clear up any confusion about where the mushrooms were sourced, Ms Patterson said in a new statement this week that she used two types of mushrooms in the dish, button mushrooms purchased locally at a major supermarket, and a bag of dried mushrooms bought from an Asian grocer in the Mount Waverley area.
It has since been claimed by a friend of the family, that the Pattersons foraged for mushrooms every year, and were familiar with various types of wild mushrooms.
However, as Homicide Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said, at a media conference on Monday, August 7, it is only presumed, until toxicology reports are returned, that the mushrooms caused the illness in four of the guests and ultimately the death of three.
Ms Patterson also presented at hospital on Sunday, July 30, as did the other four, although according to a statement on August 7 by Gippsland Southern Health Service, which manages the Leongatha and Korumburra hospitals, on Monday, August 7, the fifth person (Erin Patterson) “was discharged after a short presentation at Leongatha”.
It has since been revealed by Ms Patterson herself that she re-presented at Leongatha on Monday, July 31, complaining of “bad stomach pains and diarrhoea” and was transferred to Monash Medical Centre.
Although, despite saying the other four victims of the poisoned lunch “were transferred to Melbourne hospitals after initial treatment at GSHS”, the hospital did not report that the fifth patient had been transferred in its August 7 statement, only confirming that after Ms Patterson revealed details in her new statement.
She also noted in her new statement that she also ate the meal, with her guests, on the day.
Ms Patterson said she served the meal and allowed the guests to choose their own plates before taking the last plate and eating a serve of the beef wellington herself.
Ms Patterson has not been charged with any wrongdoing and after being interviewed by police on Saturday, August 5 was released pending further inquiries.
She has since claimed she didn’t knowingly feed poisoned mushrooms to her guests.
“I didn’t do anything, I loved them,” she said to media camped outside her Leongatha home last week.
“It’s a tragedy what’s happened.
“I’m devastated what’s happened by the loss of Don… Gail was like the mum that I didn’t have because my mum passed away four years ago, and Gail’s never been anything but good and kind to me.
“And Ian and Heather were some of the best people I’ve met. They didn’t do anything wrong to me. I’m so devastated what’s happened and the loss to the community, and to the families and to my own children who have lost their grandmother.”
A case that police have already described as “complex” and “unusual” haa already taken several twists and turns while police wait for the toxicology reports, the latest being the publication of so-called death wall photos.
