The trial of an Australian woman accused of serving her ex-husband’s family poisonous mushrooms began this week, nearly a year after the suspect pleaded not guilty to her charges.
Erin Patterson, 50, was charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. She was originally charged with two counts of attempted murder, though the charge was dropped earlier this week.
Patterson appeared in the Victoria state Supreme Court on Wednesday, where prosecutor Nanette Rogers told jurors the accused had served a meal of beef Wellington, mashed potatoes and green beans at her home in the rural town of Leongartha on July 29, 2023.
Her guests included her in-laws, Gail and Don Patterson, both 70; Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66; and Wilkinson’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, 68.
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The next day, all four of the guests were hospitalized with poisoning from death cap mushrooms — or amanita phalloides — which were added to the beef and pastry dish. Simon Patterson, Erin’s husband, was not in attendance despite being invited.
Ian Wilkinson spent seven weeks in the hospital following the lunch.
The other three victims died in a hospital just days after consuming the meal at Patterson’s home.
On Tuesday, the prosecution told jurors that three charges alleging Patterson attempted to murder her husband were dropped. The two had been separated since 2015.
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Patterson invited her husband and his relatives to lunch two weeks before the poisoning, as she was attending a church service at Korumburra Baptist Church. Ian Wilkinson was the pastor at the church, and initially, Simon had accepted the invitation.
“She said the purpose of the lunch was to discuss some medical issues that she had and to get advice about how to break it to the kids,” Rogers told the jury. “The accused said that it was important that the children were not present for the lunch.”
What was surprising to the Wilkinsons, Rogers noted, was that they had never been invited to Patterson’s five-bedroom home.
The morning after the meeting at Patterson’s home, the prosecution alleged, Heather Wilkinson told Simon Patterson she was puzzled that Erin was eating from a different plate than the guests.
“I noticed that Erin put her food on a different plate to us,” Heather Wilkinson said, according to the prosecution. “Her plate had colors on it. I wondered why that was. I’ve puzzled about it since lunch.”
Simon told his aunt it was possible his wife may have run out of plates.
The prosecution also told jurors Patterson made up an ovarian cancer diagnosis to explain why her children were not at lunch.
“After the lunch, the accused announced that she had cancer and asked for advice on whether to tell the children or keep it from them,” Rogers said. “They had a discussion about it being best to be honest with the children. They prayed as a group for the accused’s health and wisdom in relation to telling the children.”
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Still, Patterson’s lawyer, Colin Mandy, told jurors his client never had cancer. He also said guests were poisoned by mushrooms Patterson served, though the poisoning was a “terrible accident.”
Rogers advised the jury that she would not be providing a motive for the poisonings, saying, “You do not have to be satisfied what the motive was, or even that there was a motive.”
Erin Patterson eventually went to the hospital complaining about diarrhea and nausea two days after serving beef Wellington. But at that point, her guests had been diagnosed with suffering from death cap poisoning.
She later told authorities she cooked with a mixture of mushrooms she purchased from a supermarket and dried mushrooms from an Asian food store, denying that she had foraged for wild mushrooms.
But Mandy said his client lied about not foraging for wild mushrooms.
“She did forage for mushrooms,” Mandy told the jury. “Just so that we make that clear. She denies that she ever deliberately sought out death cap mushrooms.”
The trial was adjourned until Thursday and is expected to continue for six weeks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.