An Australian woman has been found guilty of murdering three members of her husbands’ family with poisonous mushrooms served inside a lunch she prepared for them.
Erin Patterson, 50, murdered Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson with a lunch she prepared and served them on 29 July 2023. Reverend Ian Wilkinson also ate the meal but survived after recovering in hospital for around six weeks.
Jurors unanimously found Patterson guilty of the murders and Reverend Wilkinson’s attempted murder on 7 July 2025 after seven days of deliberations.
Having pleaded not guilty, Patterson claimed that she hadn’t intentionally poisoned the meal, a beef wellington, with death cap mushrooms and that she hadn’t sought to harm the victims.
With the verdict having been read, Victoria’s Supreme Court has released photos, videos and other evidence shown to the jury over the course of the nine-week trial, including images of the meal’s leftovers taken from Patterson’s bin two days after the fatal lunch.
Police found the meal’s remains after Patterson attended Leongatha Hospital complaining of gastric issues on 31 July 2023.
Patterson had given the police permission to enter her property, with Constable Martinez-Villalobis saying she had been ‘cooperative throughout the exchange’ and had advised him as to where the leftovers could be found.
“It was primarily maybe one-and-a-bit beef wellingtons,” he said of the leftovers.
“I used another one of the bags that were in the bin…because it was seeping a bit from the bottom and I didn’t want to get dirty.”
Pattern had prepared six beef wellington portions, with the sixth having been prepared for her estranged husband Simon Patterson in case he had decided to attend the lunch. Patterson claimed she had given the meat from the sixth to her two children after scraping the mushrooms off.
The court heard that a sample of the beef was found have traces of death cap mushroom toxins.
Death cap mushroom poisoning can lead to liver failure, kidney failure, encephalopathy, and often death. They’re linked with more than 90% of global deaths from mushroom ingestion.
Patterson claimed that the mushrooms had been mistakenly picked as part of her foraging hobby, and said she had withheld information about the hobby for fear of being blamed for her relatives falling ill.
Victoria Police issued a statement following the guilty verdict, saying: “Our thoughts are with the respective families at this time and we acknowledge how difficult these past two years have been for them.
“We will continue to support them in every way possible following this decision.”
Featured Image Credit: MARTIN KEEP / Contributor/Getty ImagesTopics: News
Rachael Davis