An Australian woman murdered her husband’s parents and aunt by lacing their beef Wellington lunch with toxic mushrooms, a jury found yesterday at the climax of a trial watched around the world.
Keen home cook Erin Patterson hosted an intimate meal in July 2023 that started with good-natured banter and earnest prayer — but ended with three guests dead.
Throughout a trial lasting more than two months, Patterson maintained the beef-and-pastry dish was accidentally poisoned with death cap mushrooms, the world’s most-lethal fungus, but a 12-person jury yesterday found the 50-year-old guilty of triple murder, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Photo: AFP
She was also found guilty of attempting to murder a fourth guest who survived.
“I think it’s very important that we remember that we’ve had three people that have died,” Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said after the verdict. “I ask that we acknowledge those people and not forget them.”
The trial has drawn podcasters, film crews and true crime fans to the rural town of Morwell, a sedate hamlet in the state of Victoria better known for prize-winning roses. Newspapers from New York to New Delhi have followed every twist of what many now simply call the “mushroom murders.”
Family members of the victims declined to speak after the verdict, asking for privacy in a statement issued through the police.
A lone friend of Patterson appeared overcome with emotion as she left the courthouse.
“I’m saddened, but it is what it is,” she told reporters.
On July 29, 2023, Patterson set the table for an intimate family meal at her tree-shaded country property. Her lunch guests that afternoon were Don and Gail Patterson, the parents of her long-estranged husband, Simon.
Places were also set for Simon Patterson’s maternal aunt Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian, a well-known pastor at the local Baptist church. Husband Simon was urged to come, but he declined because he felt “uncomfortable.”
In the background, Erin Patterson’s relationship with Simon Patterson was starting to turn sour. The pair — still legally married — had been fighting over his child support contributions.
Erin Patterson forked out for expensive cuts of beef, which she slathered in a duxelles of minced mushrooms and wrapped in pastry to make individual parcels of beef Wellington. Guests said grace before tucking in — and prayed once more after eating — with Heather Wilkinson later gushing about the “delicious and beautiful” meal.
Death cap mushrooms are easily mistaken for other edible varieties and reportedly possess a sweet taste that belies their potent toxicity.
The guests’ blood was swiftly coursing with deadly amatoxin, a poison produced by the death cap mushrooms known to sprout under the oak trees of Victoria. Don and Gail Patterson, and Heather Wilkinson died of organ failure within a week. Detectives soon found signs that Erin Patterson had dished up the meal with murderous intent.
Erin Patterson told her guests that she had received a cancer diagnosis and needed advice on breaking the news to her children, prosecutors alleged, but medical records showed she received no such diagnosis. The prosecution said this was a lie cooked up to lure the diners to her table. She also lied about owning a food dehydrator which police later found dumped in a garbage tip.
Forensic tests found the appliance contained traces of the fatal fungi.
“I agree that I lied because I was afraid I would be held responsible,” Erin Patterson told the trial.
A computer at her house had browsed a Web site pinpointing death cap mushrooms spotted a short drive from her house a year before the lunch, police said.
Baptist preacher Ian Wilkinson was the only guest to survive, pulling through after weeks in hospital.
Erin Patterson’s lawyers have not yet indicated whether they would appeal.
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