A meticulously planned meal prepared in the home of an alleged killer is at the heart of a triple murder trial that\u2019s nearing its dramatic conclusion in rural Australia. <\/p>\n
For eight weeks, audiences have been glued to daily news reports and podcasts on an unusual case that alleges the world\u2019s most toxic mushroom was used to kill. <\/p>\n
A jury will soon decide if Erin Patterson, a 50-year-old mother of two, deliberately added death cap, or amanita phalloides,<\/em> mushrooms to a Beef Wellington lunch she made for her estranged husband\u2019s parents and his aunt and uncle in July 2023. <\/p>\n Three guests died within days of the meal, while a fourth recovered after spending several weeks in an induced coma. Patterson denies three counts of murder and one of attempted murder. <\/p>\n The prosecution and defense agree death cap mushrooms were in the meal. <\/p>\n The question is, how did they get there? <\/p>\n During eight days of testimony at Latrobe Valley Magistrates\u2019 Court, Patterson acknowledged she repeatedly lied to police, dumped a dehydrator used to dry mushrooms, and reset her phone to delete images of mushrooms and the dehydrator from devices seized by investigators. <\/p>\n But she said she did not intend to kill. <\/p>\n Explaining her lies, Patterson told the jury she had a \u201cstupid knee-jerk reaction to just dig deeper and keep lying.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI was just scared,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Defense lawyer Colin Mandy SC said Patterson accidentally added foraged mushrooms to the meal, along with ones she bought from an Asian grocer in Melbourne. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened was a tragedy and a terrible accident,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n In his closing arguments, Mandy said the prosecution\u2019s case was based on \u201cridiculous\u201d propositions, including that Patterson \u201cwould intend to kill these four people, blowing her entire life up in the process without a motive.\u201d <\/p>\n The prosecution doesn\u2019t need to prove a motive. But it does need to convince the 12-member jury beyond reasonable doubt that Patterson intended to kill the two elderly couples \u2013 including her children\u2019s grandparents \u2013 and that she deliberately picked death cap mushrooms to do it. <\/p>\n On the morning of July 29, 2023, the smell of frying garlic and shallots likely filled Patterson\u2019s kitchen in the small town of Leongatha in rural Victoria. <\/p>\n She was preparing a meal for two older married couples \u2013 Don and Gail Patterson and Heather and Ian Wilkinson. <\/p>\n Don and Gail were the parents of Erin\u2019s estranged husband Simon. Heather and Ian were his aunt and uncle. Gail and Heather were sisters, and Ian the pastor of their local church. <\/p>\n The two couples lived close by in Korumburra, a country town home to fewer than 5,000 people in the scenic hills of southern Victoria. <\/p>\n Erin had asked Simon to come to the lunch, too, but he pulled out the night before, writing in a text that he felt \u201ctoo uncomfortable\u201d to attend. <\/p>\n Their relationship had become increasingly strained over finances and the children\u2019s schooling, and he was living elsewhere, the court heard. <\/p>\n Erin told the jury she was \u201ca bit hurt and a bit stressed\u201d by Simon\u2019s message, but the lunch went ahead the next day as planned. Patterson said she had started feeling left out of family gatherings and wanted to make more of an effort. <\/p>\n She said she chose to cook Beef Wellington because she remembered her mother preparing the meal for special occasions. It was Patterson\u2019s first attempt at the dish, and she wanted to get it right. <\/p>\n To the garlic and shallots, she added store-bought button mushrooms that she had chopped up in a processor, before simmering the mixture on low for 45 minutes, she said. <\/p>\n The paste was used to coat the steaks, which she wrapped in pastry and baked in the oven. <\/p>\n The prosecution alleges she prepared poisoned parcels for her guests and reserved an untainted one for herself. Patterson insists she made just one batch. <\/p>\n In the witness box, Ian Wilkinson, the only surviving lunch guest, told the court he\u2019d been surprised but \u201cvery happy\u201d to accept Patterson\u2019s lunch invitation. <\/p>\n The 71-year-old said his relationship with Erin was \u201cfriendly\u201d and \u201camicable.\u201d He\u2019d been a guest at her wedding in 2007 but considered her more of an acquaintance than a close friend. <\/p>\n During the Covid-19 pandemic, Patterson helped to broadcast his church services on YouTube, and she attended his sermons, on and off, he said. <\/p>\n \u201cShe just seemed like an ordinary person,\u201d he told the jury. <\/p>\n Wilkinson said he didn\u2019t really understand why they\u2019d been invited to lunch, but it became apparent when they\u2019d finished eating the meal of Beef Wellington, beans and mash. <\/p>\n \u201cErin announced that she had cancer,\u201d Wilkinson told the jury. \u201cShe said that she was very concerned because she believed it was very serious, life-threatening.\u201d <\/p>\n Wilkinson said Patterson asked for advice about how to tell her children about, in her words, \u201cthe threat to my life.\u201d <\/p>\n Wilkinson said Don Patterson offered some advice about being honest, but the conversation ended after about 10 minutes when one of the lunch guests noticed the children returning. Wilkinson suggested a quick prayer. <\/p>\n \u201cI prayed a prayer asking God\u2019s blessing on Erin, that she would get the treatment that she needed, that the kids would be okay, that she\u2019d have wisdom in how she told the kids,\u201d he testified. <\/p>\n Patterson had never been diagnosed with cancer, the court heard. <\/p>\n Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC put to Patterson on the stand: \u201cI suggest that you never thought you would have to account for this lie about having cancer because you thought that the lunch guests would die.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not true,\u201d Patterson replied. <\/p>\n Patterson said she didn\u2019t explicitly tell her guests that she had cancer, but acknowledged she allowed them to believe she may have a serious medical issue because she was exploring possible surgery for another problem \u2013 one that she was too embarrassed to reveal. <\/p>\n Patterson said she\u2019d always been self-conscious about her weight. <\/p>\n As a child, her mother weighed her every week to make sure she wasn\u2019t getting too heavy. \u201cI never had a good relationship with food,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Since her 20s, Patterson said she would binge and purge. Around the time of the fatal lunch in July 2023, she said she was doing it two to three times a week, maybe more. <\/p>\n \u201cWho knew about it?\u201d her defense lawyer Mandy asked Patterson. \u201cNobody,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Patterson told the jury she had resolved to do something about her weight \u201conce and for all,\u201d and booked a consultation for potential gastric bypass surgery with a clinic in Melbourne in September. Evidence showed an appointment had been made. <\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want to tell anybody what I was going to have done,\u201d Patterson told the court. \u201cI was really embarrassed about it, so I thought perhaps letting (her in-laws) believe I had some serious issue that needed treatment might mean they\u2019d be able to help me with the logistics around the kids,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Instead, it was her lunch guests who needed serious medical attention. <\/p>\n Hours after the meal Saturday, they started to become ill and went to hospital the next morning with vomiting and diarrhea, the court heard. <\/p>\n By Monday morning, their condition had deteriorated, and doctors arranged for their transfer to Austin Hospital, a larger facility that provides specialist liver care. <\/p>\n Death cap mushrooms contain toxins that stop the production of protein in liver cells and the cells begin to die, leading to possible liver failure and death. <\/p>\n Treatments are available, but none are 100% effective, said Dr Stephen Warrillow, director of Austin Health\u2019s intensive care unit. <\/p>\n \u201cOnce the amanita poison is within the body, unfortunately the body tends to recycle it internally,\u201d said Warrillow, who treated all four lunch guests. <\/p>\n Gail Patterson, 70, and Heather Wilkinson, 66, were considered too weak for a liver transplant and died on August 4 from multiple organ failure, he said. Don Patterson, 70, received a transplant but died on August 5. <\/p>\n Ian Wilkinson was in an induced coma on life support but responded to treatment and was eventually discharged in September. <\/p>\n \u201cWe thought he was going to die,\u201d said Warrillow. \u201cHe was very close.\u201d <\/p>\n Patterson told the court she took up foraging for mushrooms in early 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when she would take long walks with her children in the countryside. <\/p>\n Native to Europe, death cap mushrooms arrived in Australia by accident, expert mycologist Tom May told the court. They grow near oak trees and only appear above ground for a couple of weeks before decaying, he said. <\/p>\n Most sightings in Victoria are in April and May, and some people upload photos of them to the citizen science website iNaturalist, May added. <\/p>\n Christine McKenzie, a retired former poisons information specialist at the Victorian Poisons Information Centre, told the court she spotted death cap mushrooms in Loch \u2013 about 28 kilometers (17 miles) from Patterson\u2019s home \u2013 and uploaded them to iNaturalist on April 18, 2023. <\/p>\n She\u2019d been out walking with her husband, grandson and dog, and said she disposed of the mushrooms to avoid accidental poisoning but conceded that more could grow. <\/p>\n Citing analysis of cellphone tower connections, the prosecution alleges it\u2019s possible Patterson saw McKenzie\u2019s post and went to the same location on April 28 to pick the mushrooms. <\/p>\n Store records show that within two hours of the alleged visit, Patterson bought a dehydrator, which the prosecution said she used to dry the toxic mushrooms. <\/p>\n Patterson concedes she bought the dehydrator, saying there is a \u201cvery small season\u201d of availability for wild mushrooms and she wanted to preserve them, and \u201ca whole range of things.\u201d She denied foraging for mushrooms in Loch. <\/p>\n May, the fungus expert, said that on May 21, 2023, he saw death cap mushrooms growing in Outtrim, about 19 kilometers (11 miles) from Leongatha, and posted the sighting to iNaturalist. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I typed the street name in, but I put a very precise latitude-longitude geocode with the observation,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Prosecutors said analysis of Patterson\u2019s cellphone movements placed her in the Outtrim region on May 22, when they say it\u2019s possible Patterson picked the mushrooms. <\/p>\n The defense said broader analysis of her phone records suggests it\u2019s possible her cellphone picked up different base-station signals within her own home. \u201cThese records are consistent with the accused never leaving the house,\u201d said Mandy. <\/p>\n Patterson denied ever foraging for mushrooms in Outtrim, and said she couldn\u2019t remember ever visiting the iNaturalist website and did not see the reported sightings. <\/p>\n On August 1, three days after the lunch, Patterson was in hospital, having been convinced by doctors to stay after earlier discharging herself against their advice. <\/p>\n They had impressed on her the importance of being treated for death cap mushroom poisoning because symptoms are known to worsen with time. <\/p>\n Her children should be there too, they said, because she said they had eaten some of the leftovers on Sunday night, albeit with the mushrooms and pastry scraped off. <\/p>\n It was in hospital on August 1 that Patterson said she had a conversation with Simon, her estranged husband, that made her start thinking about how toxic mushrooms had come to be in the meal. <\/p>\n Patterson said she told Simon that she had dried mushrooms in a dehydrator, and he replied: \u201cIs that how you poisoned my parents, using that dehydrator?\u201d <\/p>\n Erin Patterson told the jury that Simon\u2019s comment had caused her to do \u201ca lot of thinking about a lot of things.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIt got me thinking about all the times that I\u2019d used (the dehydrator), and how I had dried foraged mushrooms in it weeks earlier, and I was starting to think, what if they\u2019d gone in the container with the Chinese mushrooms? Maybe, maybe that had happened.\u201d <\/p>\n In his evidence, Simon Patterson denied ever suggesting to Erin that she poisoned his parents with the dehydrator. \u201cI did not say that to Erin,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n A sumptuous lunch of Beef Wellington<\/h2>\n
An unexpected invitation<\/h2>\n
The secret Patterson hid for years<\/h2>\n
Foraged mushrooms<\/h2>\n
Patterson\u2019s explanation<\/h2>\n