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Golf's biggest meltdowns

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Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in April 2023.

CNN  — 

Slumped on his club, head buried in his arm, Rory McIlroy looked on the verge of tears.

The then-21-year-old had just watched his ball sink into the waters of Rae’s Creek at Augusta National and with it, his dream of winning The Masters, a dream that had looked so tantalizingly close mere hours earlier.

As a four-time major winner and one of the most decorated names in the sport’s history, few players would turn down the chance to swap places with McIlroy heading into Augusta this week.

Yet on Sunday afternoon of April 10, 2011, not a golfer in the world would have wished to be in the Northern Irishman’s shoes.

Flying

A fresh-faced, mop-headed McIlroy had touched down in Georgia for the first major of the season with a reputation as the leading light of the next generation of stars.

An excellent 2010 had marked his best season since turning pro three years earlier, highlighted by a first PGA Tour win at the Quail Hollow Championship and a crucial contribution to Team Europe’s triumph at the Ryder Cup.

Yet despite a pair of impressive top-three finishes at the Open and PGA Championship respectively, a disappointing missed cut at The Masters – his first at a major – served as ominous foreshadowing.

McIlroy shot 74 and 77 to fall four strokes short of the cut line at seven-over par, a performance that concerned him enough to take a brief sabbatical from competition.

Harry How / Getty Images

But one year on in 2011, any lingering Masters demons looked to have been exorcised as McIlroy flew round the Augusta fairways.

Having opened with a bogey-free seven-under 65 – the first time he had ever shot in the 60s at the major – McIlroy pulled ahead from Spanish first round co-leader Alvaro Quirós with a second round 69.

It sent him into the weekend holding a two-shot cushion over Australia’s Jason Day, with Tiger Woods a further stroke behind and back in the hunt for a 15th major after a surging second round 66.

And yet the 21-year-old leader looked perfectly at ease with having a target on his back. Even after a tentative start to the third round, McIlroy rallied with three birdies across the closing six holes to stretch his lead to four strokes heading into Sunday.

Andrew Redington / Getty Images

The youngster was out on his own ahead of a bunched chasing pack comprising Day, Ángel Cabrera, K.J. Choi and Charl Schwartzel. After 54 holes, McIlroy had shot just three bogeys.

“It’s a great position to be in … I’m finally feeling comfortable on this golf course,” McIlroy told reporters.

“I’m not getting ahead of myself, I know how leads can dwindle away very quickly. I have to go out there, not take anything for granted and go out and play as hard as I’ve played the last three days. If I can do that, hopefully things will go my way.

“We’ll see what happens tomorrow because four shots on this golf course isn’t that much.”

Timothy A. Clary / AFP via Getty Images

Falling

The truth can hurt, and McIlroy was about to prove his assessment of Augusta to be true in the most excruciating way imaginable.

His fourth bogey of the week arrived immediately. Having admitted to expecting some nerves at the first tee, McIlroy sparked a booming opening drive down the fairway, only to miss his putt from five feet.

Three consecutive pars steadied the ship, but Schwartzel had the wind in his sails. A blistering birdie, par, eagle start had seen him draw level at the summit after his third hole.

A subsequent bogey from the South African slowed his charge, as McIlroy clung onto a one-shot lead at the turn from Schwartzel, Cabrera, Choi, and a rampaging Woods, who shot five birdies and an eagle across the front nine to send Augusta into a frenzy.

Despite his dwindling advantage and the raucous Tiger-mania din ahead of him, McIlroy had responded well to another bogey at the 5th hole, draining a brilliant 20-foot putt at the 7th to restore his lead.

The fist pump that followed marked the high-water point of McIlroy’s round, as a sliding start accelerated into full-blown free-fall at the par-four 10th hole.

His tee shot went careening into a tree, ricocheting to settle between the white cabins that separate the main course from the adjacent par-three course. It offered viewers a glimpse at a part of Augusta rarely seen on broadcast, followed by pictures of McIlroy anxiously peering out from behind a tree to track his follow-up shot.

Andrew Redington / Getty Images

Though his initial escape was successful, yet another collision with a tree and a two-putt on the green saw a stunned McIlroy eventually tap in for a triple bogey. Having led the field one hole and seven shots earlier, he arrived at the 11th tee in seventh.

By the time his tee drive at the 13th plopped into the creek, all thoughts of who might be the recipient of the green jacket had long-since switched away from the anguished youngster. It had taken him seven putts to navigate the previous two greens, as a bogey and a double bogey dropped him to five-under – the score he had held after just 11 holes of the tournament.

Mercifully, the last five holes passed without major incident. A missed putt for birdie from five feet at the final hole summed up McIlroy’s day, though he was given a rousing reception as he left the green.

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Related video Sunday at the Masters

Mere minutes earlier, the same crowd had erupted as Schwartzel sunk his fourth consecutive birdie to seal his first major title. After starting the day four shots adrift of McIlroy, the South African finished 10 shots ahead of him, and two ahead of second-placed Australian duo Jason Day and Adam Scott.

McIlroy’s eight-over 80 marked the highest score of the round. Having headlined the leaderboard for most of the week, he finished tied-15th.

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Robyn Beck / AFP via Getty Images

Bounce-back

Tears would flow during a phone call with his parents the following morning, but at his press conference, McIlroy was upbeat.

“I’m very disappointed at the minute, and I’m sure I will be for the next few days, but I’ll get over it,” he said.

“I was leading this golf tournament with nine holes to go, and I just unraveled … It’s a Sunday at a major, what it can do.

“This is my first experience at it, and hopefully the next time I’m in this position I’ll be able to handle it a little better. I didn’t handle it particularly well today obviously, but it was a character-building day … I’ll come out stronger for it.”

Once again, McIlroy would be proven right.

Just eight weeks later in June, McIlroy rampaged to an eight-shot victory at the US Open. Records tumbled in his wake at Congressional, as he shot a tournament record 16-under 268 to become the youngest major winner since Tiger Woods at The Masters in 1997.

Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images

The historic victory kickstarted a golden era for McIlroy. After coasting to another eight-shot win at the PGA Championship in 2012, McIlroy became only the third golfer since 1934 to win three majors by the age of 25 with triumph at the 2014 Open Championship.

Before the year was out, he would add his fourth major title with another PGA Championship win.

And much of it was owed to that fateful afternoon at Augusta. In an interview with the BBC in 2015, McIlroy dubbed it “the most important day” of his career.

“If I had not had the whole unravelling, if I had just made a couple of bogeys coming down the stretch and lost by one, I would not have learned as much.

“Luckily, it did not take me long to get into a position like that again when I was leading a major and I was able to get over the line quite comfortably. It was a huge learning curve for me and I needed it, and thankfully I have been able to move on to bigger and better things.

“Looking back on what happened in 2011, it doesn’t seem as bad when you have four majors on your mantelpiece.”

Tom Pennington / Getty Images

The missing piece

McIlroy’s contentment came with a caveat: it would be “unthinkable” if he did not win The Masters in his career.

Yet as he prepares for his 15th appearance at Augusta National this week, a green jacket remains an elusive missing item from his wardrobe.

Despite seven top-10 finishes in his past 10 Masters outings, the trophy remains the only thing separating McIlroy from joining the ranks of golf immortals to have completed golf’s career grand slam of all four majors in the modern era: Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods.

Mike Mulholland / Getty Images

A runner-up finish to Scottie Scheffler last year marked McIlroy’s best finish at Augusta, yet arguably 2011 remains the closest he has ever been to victory. A slow start in 2022 meant McIlroy had begun Sunday’s deciding round 10 shots adrift of the American, who teed off for his final hole with a five-shot lead despite McIlroy’s brilliant 64 finish.

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Related video Rory McIlroy: I will win the Masters

At 33 years old, time is still on his side. Though 2022 extended his major drought to eight years, it featured arguably his best golf since that golden season in 2014.

And as McIlroy knows better than most, things can change quickly at Augusta National.

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CNN  — 

It is one of China’s most popular shopping apps, selling clothing, groceries and just about everything else under the sun to more than 750 million users a month.

But according to cybersecurity researchers, it can also bypass users’ cell phone security to monitor activities on other apps, check notifications, read private messages and change settings.

And once installed, it’s tough to remove.

While many apps collect vast troves of user data, sometimes without explicit consent, experts say e-commerce giant Pinduoduo has taken violations of privacy and data security to the next level.

In a detailed investigation, CNN spoke to half a dozen cybersecurity teams from Asia, Europe and the United States — as well as multiple former and current Pinduoduo employees — after receiving a tipoff.

Multiple experts identified the presence of malware on the Pinduoduo app that exploited vulnerabilities in Android operating systems. Company insiders said the exploits were utilized to spy on users and competitors, allegedly to boost sales.

“We haven’t seen a mainstream app like this trying to escalate their privileges to gain access to things that they’re not supposed to gain access to,” said Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer at WithSecure, a Finnish cybersecurity firm.

“This is highly unusual, and it is pretty damning for Pinduoduo.”

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This is highly unusual, and it is pretty damning for Pinduoduo.

Mikko Hyppönen, cybersecurity expert

Malware, short for malicious software, refers to any software developed to steal data or interfere with computer systems and mobile devices.

Evidence of sophisticated malware in the Pinduoduo app comes amid intense scrutiny of Chinese-developed apps like TikTok over concerns about data security.

Some American lawmakers are pushing for a national ban on the popular short-video app, whose CEO Shou Chew was grilled by Congress for five hours last week about its relations with the Chinese government.

The revelations are also likely to draw more attention to Pinduoduo’s international sister app, Temu, which is topping US

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Ce am acoperit aici

• O suspectă a fost reținută în legătură cu o explozie care a ucis un important blogger militar rus într-o cafenea din Sankt Petersburg, duminică.
• Finlanda va deveni oficial membră a alianței militare NATO în cadrul unei ceremonii care va avea loc marți la Bruxelles. Finlanda a depus o cerere comună de aderare alături de Suedia, la scurt timp după invazia Rusiei în Ucraina.
• Polonia a livrat Ucrainei „mai multe” avioane de vânătoare MiG-29. Președintele ucrainean Volodimir Zelenski este așteptat să viziteze Polonia miercuri.
• Reporterul Wall Street Journal, reținut la Moscova sub acuzația de „spionaj”, a depus apel împotriva arestării sale, potrivit știrilor de stat rusești. SUA au cerut „eliberarea imediată” a jurnalistului.
• Pe teren, estul Ucrainei continuă să se confrunte cu atacuri rusești neîncetate, bombardamentele ucigând cel puțin șase persoane în orașul Kostiantynivka.

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01:06 – Sursă: CNN Politics of the Day 19 videoclipuri 01:06 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 01:19 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 01:17 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 00:56 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 02:49 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN De Samantha Lindell, CNN ” data-timestamp-html=” EDT, marți, 4 aprilie 2023 ” data-check-event-based-preview=”” data-is-vertical-video-embed=”false” data-network-id=”” data-publish-date=”2025-07-04T21:00:54.448Z” data-video-section=”sport” data-canonical-url=”https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/03/sport/video/mexican-boxer-detained-ice-sports-digvid” data-branding-key=”” data-video-slug=”mexican-boxer-detained-ice-sports-digvid” data-first-publish-slug=”mexican-boxer-detained-ice-sports-digvid” data-video-tags=”” data-breakpoints='{“video-resource–media-extra-large”: 660}’ data-display-video-cover=”true” data-details=””> 01:45 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 00:58 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 02:05 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 01:10 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 00:42 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 05:16 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 00:51 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 01:42 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 00:46 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN ” data-timestamp-html=” EDT, marți, 4 aprilie, 2023 „data-check-event-based-preview=”” data-is-vertical-video-embed=”false” data-network-id=”” data-publish-date=”2025-06-27T14:37:16.024Z” data-video-section=”us” data-canonical-url=”https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/27/us/video/scotus-birthright-trump-digvid” data-branding-key=”” data-video-slug=”scotus-birthright-trump-digvid” data-first-publish-slug=”scotus-birthright-trump-digvid” data-video-tags=”” data-breakpoints='{“video-resource–media-extra-large”: 660}’ data-display-video-cover=”true” data-details=””> 02:24 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 00:43 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 02:14 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 03:18 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN 07:37 Se redă acum – Sursă: CNN Vezi mai multe videoclipuri CNN

Fostul președinte Donald Trump a fost acuzat de 34 de infracțiuni într-un rechizitoriu publicat marți.

Citiți rechizitoriul și declarația faptelor aici.

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Ce am acoperit aici

• Fostul președinte Donald Trump a sosit luni în New York, cu o zi înainte de momentul în care se așteaptă să se predea forțelor de ordine și să se confrunte cu peste 30 de acuzații penale într-un tribunal din Manhattan, în urma rechizitoriului istoric al marelui juriu de săptămâna trecută.
• Agențiile de știri nu vor avea voie să difuzeze punerea sub acuzare de marți, a decis un judecător luni seară.
• Echipa juridică a lui Trump a declarat că fostul președinte se va preda de bunăvoie și va încerca să conteste „fiecare problemă potențială” odată ce rechizitoriul va fi dezvăluit.
• Trump, care a promis că își va continua candidatura din 2024, este primul președinte actual sau fost din istoria SUA care s-a confruntat cu acuzații penale. Biroul procurorului districtual a investigat presupusul rol al lui Trump într-o schemă de plată a banilor pentru tăcere care a implicat-o pe vedeta de filme pentru adulți Stormy Daniels, care datează din alegerile prezidențiale din 2016.

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Poliția a declarat că cel puțin 11 persoane au fost ucise – un medic a declarat pentru BBC că protestatarii duși la spital au murit din cauza rănilor împușcate.

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Did US government cuts contribute to the Texas tragedy?

7 hours agoShareSaveBen Chu, Jake Horton, Kayla Epstein & Marco SilvaBBC VerifyShareSaveBBC

In the aftermath of the fatal Texas floods, some Democrats have warned about the "consequences" of the Trump administration's cuts to the federal government workforce, including meteorologists, with Senator Chris Murphy saying that: "Accurate weather forecasting helps avoid fatal disasters."

The suggestion is that the cuts may have impeded the ability of the National Weather Service (NWS) – the government agency which provides weather forecasts in the US – to adequately predict the floods and raise the alarm.

But the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday: "These offices [of the NWS] were well staffed… so any claims to the contrary are completely false."

BBC Verify has examined the impact of cuts under President Trump in this area and while there has been a reduction in the workforce at the NWS, experts who we spoke to said the staffing on hand for the Texas floods appears to have been adequate.

What are the cuts?

The Trump administration has proposed a 25% cut to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) current annual budget of s efficiency drive since January.

The Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), previously run by Elon Musk, offered voluntary redundancies, known as buyouts, as well as early retirements to federal government workers. It also ended the contracts of most of those who were on probation.

As a result, about 200 people at the NWS took voluntary redundancy and 300 opted for early retirement, according to Tom Fahy, the director of the NWS union. A further 100 people were ultimately fired from the service, he said.

In total, the NWS lost 600 of its 4,200 staff, says Mr Fahy, causing several offices across the country to operate without the necessary staffing.

In April, the Associated Press news agency said it had seen data compiled by NWS employees showing half of its offices had a vacancy rate of 20% – double the rate a decade earlier.

Despite this, climate experts told BBC Verify that the NWS forecasts and flood warnings last week in Texas were as adequate as could be expected.

"The forecasts and warnings all played out in a normal manner. The challenge with this event was that it is very difficult to forecast this type of extreme, localised rainfall," says Avantika Gori, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University in Texas.

And Andy Hazelton, a climate scientist who modelled hurricane paths for the NOAA until he was fired during the layoffs in February, says: "I don't think the staffing issues contributed directly to this event. They got the watches and the warnings out."

What about the impact on offices in Texas?

However, some experts have suggested that staffing cuts may have impeded the ability of local NWS offices in Texas to effectively co-ordinate with local emergency services.

"There is a real question as to whether the communication of weather information occurred in a way that was sub-optimal," says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at University of California Los Angeles.

"The impact might have been partially averted if some of the people at the weather service responsible for making those communications were still employed – which they were not in some of these local offices," he adds.

The San Angelo and San Antonio offices, which cover the areas affected by the flooding, reportedly had some existing vacancies.

For example, the San Antonio office's website lists several positions as being vacant, including two meteorologists.

Getty ImagesRescue efforts are ongoing along the Guadalupe River in central Texas

The NSW union director told BBC Verify that the San Angelo office was missing a senior hydrologist, a scientist who specialises in flooding events.

The San Antonio office also lacked a "warning coordinating meteorologist", who coordinates communications between local forecasting offices and emergency management services in communities, Mr Fahy said.

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However, he noted that both offices had temporarily upped their staffing in anticipation of a dangerous weather event, which is typical in these circumstances.

"The NWS weather forecast offices in Austin/San Antonio and San Angelo, Texas had additional forecasters on duty during the catastrophic flooding event," NWS spokeswoman Erica Grow Cei said in a statement to BBC Verify. "All forecasts and warnings were issued in a timely manner," she added.

NWS meteorologist Jason Runyen, who covers the San Antonio area, also said in a statement that where the office would typically have two forecasters on duty during clear weather, they had "up to five on staff".

When asked on Sunday if government cuts had left key vacancies unfilled at the NWS, President Trump told reporters: "No, they didn't."

Were weather balloon launches reduced?

In a video shared thousands of times on social media, US meteorologist John Morales said: "There has been a 20% reduction in weather balloon releases, launches… What we're starting to see is that the quality of the forecasts is becoming degraded."

Some social media users have been pointing to Mr Morales' words as evidence that budget cuts have limited forecasters' ability to anticipate extreme weather events like the floods in Kerr County, Texas.

Weather balloons are an important tool used by meteorologists to collect weather data – from temperatures, to humidity, pressure, or wind speed – from the upper atmosphere.

In the US, NWS stations would typically launch them twice a day.

In a series of public statements released since February, the NWS confirmed that it either suspended or reduced weather balloon launches in at least 11 locations across the country, which it attributed to a lack of staffing at the local weather forecast offices.

However, there is no evidence to suggest that any of those changes directly affected weather balloon launches in the areas impacted by the floods in Texas.

Publicly available data shows that, in the lead-up to the floods, weather balloon launches were carried out as planned at Del Rio, the launch station nearest to the flood epicentre, collecting data that informed weather forecasts which experts say were as adequate as they could be.

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'Everyone knows somebody affected': The small towns in shock after mushroom murders

6 hours agoShareSaveKaty Watsonin Morwell, AustraliaShareSaveWatch: Australia’s mushroom murder case… in under two minutes

The winters in Victoria's Gippsland region are known for being chilly. Frost is a frequent visitor overnight, and the days are often overcast.

But in the small town of Korumburra – a part of Australia surrounded by low, rolling hills – it's not just the weather that's gloomy; the mood here is plainly subdued.

Korumburra is where all of Erin Patterson's victims made their home. Don and Gail Patterson, her in-laws, had lived there since 1984. They brought up their four children in the town of 5,000. Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson lived nearby – her husband Ian was the pastor at the local Baptist church.

The four were invited to Erin's house on 29 July 2023 for a family lunch that only Ian would survive, after a liver transplant and weeks in an induced coma.

And on Monday a jury rejected Erin's claim she accidentally served her guests toxic mushrooms, finding her guilty of three counts of murder and one of attempted murder.

Her 10-week trial caused a massive stir globally, but here in Korumburra they don't want to talk about it. They just want to return to their lives after what has been a difficult two years.

"It's not an easy thing to go through a grieving process… and it's particularly not easy when there's been so much attention," cattle farmer and councillor for the shire Nathan Hersey told the BBC.

"There's an opportunity now for a lot of people to be able to have some closure."

ReutersThe small town of Korumburra was home to all Patterson's victims

The locals are fiercely loyal – he's one of the few people who is willing to explain what this ordeal has meant for the many in the region.

"It's the sort of place that you can be embraced in very quickly and made to feel you are part of it," he explains.

And those who died clearly helped build that environment.

Pretty much everyone of a certain generation in town was taught by former school teacher Don Patterson: "You'll hear a lot of people talk very fondly of Don, about the impact he had on them.

"He was a great teacher and a really engaging person as well."

Australian woman guilty of murdering relatives with toxic mushroom meal

And Mr Hersey says he has heard many, many tales of Heather and Gail's generosity and kindness.

Pinned to the Korumburra Baptist Church noticeboard is a short statement paying tribute to the trio, who were "very special people who loved God and loved to bless others".

"We all greatly miss Heather, Don and Gail whether we were friends for a short time or over 20 years," it read.

It's not just Korumburra that's been changed by the tragedy though.

The family were well-known in the community

This part of rural Victoria is dotted with small towns and hamlets, which may at first appear quite isolated.

The reality is they are held together by close ties – ties which this case has rattled.

In nearby Outtrim, the residents of Neilson Street – an unassuming gravel road host to a handful of houses – have been left reeling by the prosecution claim their gardens may have produced the murder weapon.

It was one of two locations where death cap mushrooms were sighted and posted on iNaturalist, a citizen science website. Pointing to cell phone tracking data, the prosecution alleged that Erin Patterson went to both to forage for the lethal fungi.

"Everyone knows somebody who has been affected by this case," Ian Thoms tells the BBC from his small farm on Nielson Street.

Mushroom murders and cancer lie: Nine weeks of evidence that gripped a courtroom

He rattles off his list. His son is a police detective. His wife works with the daughter of the only survivor Ian. His neighbour is good friends with "Funky Tom", the renowned mushroom expert called upon by the prosecution – who coincidentally was also the person who had posted the sighting of the fungi here.

Down the road another 15 minutes is Leongatha, where Erin Patterson's home sits among other sprawling properties on an unpaved lane.

She bought a plot of land here with a generous inheritance from her mother and built the house assuming she would live here forever.

It has been sitting empty for about 18 months, a sign on the gate telling trespassers to keep out. A neighbour's sheep intermittently drop by to mow the grass.

Getty Images

This week, the livestock was gone, and a black tarpaulin had been erected around the carport and the entrance to her house.

There's a sense of intrigue among some of the neighbours, but there's also a lot of weariness. Every day there are gawkers driving down the lane to see the place where the tragic meal happened. One neighbour even reckons she saw a tour bus trundle past the house.

"When you live in a local town you know names – it's been interesting to follow," says Emma Buckland, who stops to talk to us in the main street.

"It's bizarre," says her mother Gabrielle Stefani. "Nothing like that has [ever] happened so it's almost hard to believe."

The conversation turns to mushroom foraging.

"We grew up on the farm. Even on the front lawn there's always mushrooms and you know which ones you can and can't eat," says Ms Buckland. "That's something you've grown up knowing."

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The town that's felt the impact of the case the most in recent months, though, is Morwell; the administrative capital of the City of Latrobe and where the trial has been heard.

Watch: CCTV and audio shown to court in mushroom trial

"We've seen Morwell, which is usually a pretty sleepy town, come to life," says local journalist Liam Durkin, sitting on a wall in front of Latrobe Valley courthouse.

He edits the weekly Latrobe Valley Express newspaper, whose offices are just around the corner.

"I never thought I'd be listening to fungi experts and the like for weeks on end but here we are," he says.

"I don't think there's ever been anything like this, and they may well never be in Morwell ever again."

While not remote by Australian standards, Morwell is still a two-hour drive from the country's second largest city, Melbourne. It feels far removed from the Victorian capital – and often forgotten.

Just a few months before that fateful lunch served up by Erin Patterson in July 2023, Morwell's paper mill – Australia's last manufacturer of white paper and the provider of many local jobs – shut down. Before that, many more people lost their jobs when a nearby power station closed down.

Older people here have struggled to find work; others have left to find more lucrative options in states like Queensland.

So locals say being thrust in the spotlight now is a bit bizarre.

Laura Heller says her town is used to crime – just not like this

In Jay Dees coffee shop, opposite the police station and the court, Laura Heller explains that she normally makes about 150 coffees a day. Recently it's almost double that.

"There's been a lot of mixed feelings about [the trial]," she says.

There's been a massive uptick for many businesses, but this case has also revived long-held division in the community when it comes to the police and justice systems, she explains.

"This town is affected by crime a lot, but it's a very different type of crime," Ms Heller says, mentioning drugs and youth offending as examples.

"Half the community don't really have much faith in the police force and our magistrates."

Back in Korumburra, what has been shaken is their faith in humanity. It feels like many people around the globe have lost sight of the fact that this headline-making, meme-generating crime left three people dead.

"Lives in our local community have changed forever," Mr Hersey says.

"But I would say for a lot of people, it's just become almost like pop culture."

Though the past two years has at times brought out the worst in the community, it's also shone a light on the best, he says.

"We want to be known as a community that has been strong and has supported one another… rather than a place that is known for what we now know was murder."

Additional reporting by Tiffanie Turnbull

Watch: Three things you need to know about the mushroom murder trial

Jury retires in mushroom murder trial in Australia

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