Teenage tradie tragically dies in a freak accident in his loungeroom while celebrating a major milestone
Sonny John Orlando Blundell was found unresponsive by his housemate on June 25, in their Southport Beach apartment, after suffering with a headache and vomiting following the backflip in his loungeroom.
The tradie was taken to Queensland Hospital and put into a coma. He suffered several strokes before having brain surgery, but died on June 30.
Mr Blundell was tragically celebrating moving into a new apartment with his friend Mitchell Bullard when the accident took place.
His sister Izabella Cromack-Hay revealed he was starting a new life with his girlfriend after moving from the Central Coast in NSW.
'He was celebrating moving into the Meriton on Southport beach with his best friend Mitchell Bullard when he did a backflip and hit his head,' she told The Daily Telegraph.
The tradie had also recently been offered a concreting job on the new light rail.
'Sonny had an extraordinary lifestyle, he lived his short 18 years of life to the fullest of his ability,' his sister said.
He 'touched everyone's soul so deeply, he was the kindest, loving and nurturing man you could have met'.
Ms Cromack-Hay said her brother lived his life to the fullest and the young tradie was a big Bulldogs fan.
He had been extremely proud to have accomplished his dream of moving to Queensland a month ago.
His sister revealed how Sonny was incredibly close with his mum, Madeline Blundell.
Paying tribute to her son, Ms Blundell wrote on Facebook: 'My beautiful baby grew his bigger wings today and passed and is in heaven.
'Sonny died peacefully and is in a beautiful place. My heart is broken and my best friend in the world is gone. I love you my boy.'
Mr Blundell's sister has set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral costs and to bring him back home to NSW.
She described how the family is in 'disbelief and major pain' following the tradie's death.
'We need to bring Sonny home as his sisters are waiting for him,' she wrote.
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As the trial entered its final stages, Patterson's legal team worked hard to convince the jury Patterson could have accidentally picked the death cap mushrooms. Dr Tom May, a fungi specialist, gave jurors an extensive lesson on death cap mushrooms. Patterson's hopes lifted when Dr May gave evidence that although death caps were 'typically greenish or yellowish', they 'may be whitish or brownish with or without white patches'. The expert was taken by Patterson's defence through a series of photos of dodgy- looking mushrooms and asked to identify them. He hit the bullseye every time: they were all death caps, with none of the images looking remotely palatable to humans. Dr May had posted images on a citizen science website called iNaturalist of death caps he had found in Outtrim - a short drive from Patterson's home - in April that year. It was a location that just happened to be visited by Patterson leading up to the deadly lunch. Phone data later obtained by police alleged Patterson's phone was 'pinged' in areas identified on that website as having death cap mushrooms there. The jury further heard Patterson took steps to hide evidence, swapping out the SIM card on her usual phone while detectives were carrying out a search of her home. That phone has never been recovered. While left alone, she also managed to factory reset her new phone, handing the wiped device over to a detective and factory resetting it again remotely while it was in police possession. But Patterson was unable to erase the contents of her home computer, which contained what the jury concluded was damning evidence that what she did was premeditated. During the trial, Victoria Police forensic data analyst Shamen Fox-Henry revealed Patterson made a visit to the iNaturalist website on May 28, 2022. The title of one of the visited pages included the words, 'Deathcap from Melbourne VIC, Australia on May 18, 2022'. Mr Fox-Henry had also found a series of messages sent by Patterson that suggested she had very personal issues with Simon's parents. In the messages, Patterson described her in-laws as a 'lost cause' and exclaimed 'f*** them'. 'I mean clearly the fact that Simon refuses to talk about personal issues in part stems from the behavior of his parents and how they operate,' she wrote around December 6, 2022. 'According to them, they've never asked him what's going on with us, why I keep kicking him out, why his son hates him, etc. It's too awkward or uncomfortable or something. So that's his learned behavior. Just don't talk about this s***.' Patterson claimed her father-in-law's solution to her relationship problems with his son was to 'pray'. 'Don rang me last night to say that he thought there was a solution to all this. If Simon and I get together and try to talk and pray together,' she wrote. 'And then he also said, Simon had indicated there was a solution to the financial issues if I withdraw this child support claim?!' Patterson claimed she told her in-laws she wanted them to be accountable for the decisions their son made concerning their grandchildren. 'I would hope they care about their grandchildren enough to care about what Simon is doing,' she wrote. 'Don said they tried to talk to him, but he refused to talk about it, so they're staying out of it, but want us to pray together. 'I'm sick of this s***. I want nothing to do with them. I thought his parents would want him to do the right thing, but it seems their concern about not wanting to feel uncomfortable, and not wanting to get involved in their son's personal matters, are overriding that. So f*** them.' When reporters finally caught up with Patterson in the days after the lunch, she broke down in tears and proclaimed she had done nothing wrong. 'I didn't do anything,' she said, wiping away tears. 'I loved them and I'm devastated that they're gone.' Patterson said all four guests were wonderful people and had always treated her with kindness. 'Gail was like the mom I didn't have because my mom passed away four years ago and Gail had never been anything but good and kind to me,' she continued. 'Ian and Heather were some of the best people I'd ever met. They never did anything wrong to me. 'I'm so devastated about what's happened and the loss to the community and to the families and to my own children. They've lost their grandmother,' she told reporters on August 8 that year. 'What happened is devastating and I'm grieving too and you guys don't have any respect for that.' As the trial came to its conclusion, Mr Mandy was faced with the decision to risk putting his client in the witness box in a last-ditch attempt to save her skin. His decision to put her up would come back to haunt him. Finally out of the prison dock, Patterson faced off with the jury to try and explain away her lies. She sobbed and cried in scenes similar to those seen outside her house years earlier. She will be sentenced at a date to be fixed.
