Three key questions surround magic mushroom poisoning at Soul Barn health ... trends now
A prominent criminologist has said there are three major lines of inquiry open to the police after a woman died from suspected mushroom poisoning at a health retreat.
Rachael Dixon, 53, attended the Soul Barn Creative Wellbeing Centre in Clunes, near Ballarat, Victoria, on Saturday night and became violently ill after she is believed to have crushed up mushrooms and consumed them in a drink.
University of Newcastle criminologist Xanthe Mallett spoke on Channel 7's Sunrise on Wednesday morning about the key questions facing investigators, including that the mushrooms may be the type known as magic mushrooms.
Professor Mallett said there are only three options the police will look at.
'Was this an awful accident - so misadventure - was this a case of suicide, or was it something else, something more intentful,' she said.
Rachael Dixon (pictured) attended the Soul Barn Creative Wellbeing Centre in Clunes, near Ballarat, on Saturday night and became violently ill after she is believed to have crushed up mushrooms and consumed them in a drink
She was attending an event at Soul Barn, an alternative health centre in Clunes (pictured), which featured 'wild foraged plants'
'I think we can probably rule out suicide quite early on in that piece, but the police will obviously look at that as a potential. It has to be done.'
The academic added: 'We're really looking at misadventure or intent ... the police looking both of those till they have evidence to take them down one of those paths.'
Sunrise's Matt 'Shirvo' Shirvington pointed out that magic mushrooms are illegal to use in Australia and asked where the responsibility could lie in a situation like this.
'That really depends on who possibly scavenged for those mushrooms,' Prof Mallett said.
'They will be probably growing at this time of year. It is autumn.
'So it really depends on who picked them and who knew what was in those drinks.
'The police are really going to have to unravel all that before they can look at culpability.'
The professor was also asked about comparisons to the Erin Patterson case, where a woman was charged with three counts of murder and five
