Death cap mushrooms. Photo: Archenzo/Wikipedia
Police say they will interview the woman who cooked a mushroom lunch suspected of killing three people in Victoria's east after an extensive search of her home is complete.
Detectives arrested 49-year-old Leongatha woman Erin Patterson at her Gippsland home shortly after 8am on Thursday.
Providing an update shortly after 1pm local time, the homicide squad's Inspector Dean Thomas said today's arrest was the "next step in what has been a complex and thorough investigation" and that the investigation was "not over yet."
Police have also searched her home using Australian Federal Police technology detector dogs, which search for items such as USBs and SIM cards.
Gail and Don Patterson, the parents of Erin Patterson's ex-husband, died in hospital on 4 and 5 August. The pair were guests at a lunch hosted by Erin Patterson in late July.
Patterson's sister, Heather Wilkinson, also died after the lunch, and her husband Ian Wilkinson was critically ill but recovered.
Patterson has always maintained she did not intentionally poison her guests. In a written statement to police, Patterson said she bought fungi for the lunch at a supermarket and an Asian grocery store, and was herself hospitalised after eating the lunch.
The mushrooms were used in a beef wellington served at the lunch.
Patterson told reporters after the deaths she was "devastated".
"I didn't do anything, I loved them."
It is understood police found and removed a food dehydrator from a tip near Leongatha as part of their investigation in the days after the fatal lunch.
- This story was first published by ABC.
