A woman was arrested in connection with the deaths of three Australians who are assumed to have died because of mushroom poisoning, the Victoria Police Department said in a statement\u2002Wednesday.
The arrest is the latest in a monthslong investigation into the July deaths, which happened after a party in the small town of Leongatha.
Police did not name the 49-year-old woman who was arrested.
Four people were hospitalized July 30 after a family lunch at a home in Leongatha.
Three of the guests \u2014 Gail Patterson, 70; her husband, Don, 70; and her sister Heather Wilkinson, 66 \u2014 died at a Melbourne hospital in the days after the lunch event.
A fourth guest, Heather Wilkinson’s husband, Ian, 69, was in the hospital for weeks. Victoria police said he was released Sept. 23.
The chef and host, Erin Patterson, and her two children were at the meal, and none of them became sick.
The Associated Press has reported that the police believe the kids were served a different meal from the rest of the party.
Patterson was released without charges pending further inquiries in August. Police said at the time that they searched her home and took items for testing.
\u201cI didn\u2019t do anything,\u201d Patterson told reporters at the time. She added that the victims were \u201csome of the best people I\u2019ve ever met\u201d and described her mother-in-law as \u201cthe mom I didn\u2019t have.\u201d
She said then that she was “devastated” by the deaths.
But she refused to answer questions about the mushrooms she served for lunch or their origin or about which guests received which meals.
At the time of the incident, police said all four guests showed signs consistent with poisoning by death cap mushrooms \u2014 a particularly deadly variety \u2014 which the Victoria health department said are “extremely poisonous” to humans and animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n