Erin Patterson: Mushroom murder trial jury shown accused woman’s police interview a week after fatal lunch
Just hours after she was told her husband’s mother and aunt died following a meal she hosted, Erin Patterson sat down with detectives for a interview. Here’s what she said.
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Alleged poisoner Erin Patterson’s police interview following the deaths of two of her in-laws has been played publicly for the first time at her trial in the regional Victorian town of Morwell.
The mother-of-two has pleaded not guilty to the murder of three of her husband’s relatives and the attempted murder of a fourth.
Prosecutors allege she deliberately laced a beef wellington lunch with death cap mushrooms, while her defence argues Ms Patterson did not intend to poison anyone.
Instead, they argue, the case is a tragic accident.
Her husband Simon Patterson’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt, Heather Wilkinson died from organ failure in the week following the lunch on July 29. 2023.
Heather died on August 4 and 2.50am, Gail died later the same day at 5.55pm and Don died the following day at 11.30pm.
Heather’s husband, long-serving Korumburra Baptist Church pastor Ian Wilkinson, also fell ill but recovered after a long stint in hospital.
This week, in the fifth week of the trial, Ms Patterson’s police interview exactly a week after the lunch was played to the jury set to decide the facts of the case.
Prosecutor Jane Warren told the court it lasts for “just under” 21 minutes.
Earlier in the trial, the jury was told Ms Patterson was not kept in the loop following the mushroom poisoning and was first informed of Heather and Gail’s deaths as police executed a search warrant at her home about 11.40am on August 5.
The interview recording, filmed at the Wonthaggi Police Station later the same afternoon, captures Ms Patterson sat across from two homicide squad detectives; Detective leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall and Detective Senior Constable David Martin-Alcaide.
Wearing a brown jumper, she sat slightly hunched over the table with the camera capturing the right-hand side of her face.
The recording starts with Constable Eppingstall confirming the time as 4.41pm, Ms Patterson’s full name and street address.
“All right. Erin, I intend to interview you today in relation to the death of two people, being Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson,” he says.
“Before continuing I must inform you that you do not have to say or do anything but anything you say or do is being recorded and may be used in evidence in court.”
“Okay,” Ms Patterson responds.
Constable Eppingstall takes Ms Patterson for her rights, including to speak with a lawyer at any time, before she confirms she does not wish to exercise any of those rights.
He tells her both Heather and Gail died a day earlier, while Don had undergone a liver transplant but was “extremely critical” and the prognosis “wasn’t great” for Ian.
“We’re trying to understand what has made them so ill,” Constable Eppingstall says.
“Conversely, we’re trying to understand why you’re not that ill.”
Ms Patterson responds confirming she understands why she is being interviewed, before beginning to explain she’s “never been in a situation like this before”.
“I’ve been very, very helpful with the health department through the week because I wanted to help that side of things… because I do want to know what happened,” she says.
“I’ve given them as much information as they’ve asked for and offered up all the food and all the information about where the food came from.”
Detective Eppingstall then points out for the record that Ms Patterson had been “very helpful” with police at her home earlier that day, pointing out leftovers and the recipe book she used.
He mentions that he did not see a lot of food from Asian or Indian grocers at her home.
“Did you look in my fridge? I’ve got a lot of Asian cooking stuff in my fridge,” she replies.
The detective then follows up by asking if Ms Patterson has “more of that kind of stuff” at her second home in the Melbourne suburb of Mount Waverley.
But she tells him no, she cleaned out the pantry and fridge there because she’s “got to sell that place”.
Ms Patterson tells the officer she’s thinking of selling it to buy a home on Phillip Island where her children are now going to school.
Constable Eppingstall shifts the topic of conversation to the mushrooms used to prepare the beef wellington lunch.
“Obviously, we’ve got concerns in relation to these mushrooms and where they’ve come from,” he says.
The officer asks if Ms Patterson has ever foraged for mushrooms, which she denies, before asking if she had ever preserved foods.
“No,” she replies.
“Have you ever dehydrated food or anything?” he asks.
“No.”
Constable Eppinstall then questions Ms Patterson about why she had her estranged husband’s parents and aunt and uncle over for lunch.
“Because I’ve got no other family, so they’re the only support I’ve got… and I want to maintain those relationships with them in spite of what’s happened with Simon,” she said.
Ms Patterson tells the officers Don and Gail had always been good to her and had promised to continue supporting her after her separation.
“They’re the only grandparents that my children have and I want them to stay in my kids’ life,” she said.
“And I think Simon hated that I still had a relationship with his parents but I love them.”
Questioning moves to Ms Patterson’s visit to the local Leongatha Hospital two days after the lunch on July 31 and Constable Eppingstall asks why she left after 5 minutes.
“I just went there thinking I needed a couple of bags of saline ‘cause I was really dehydrated,” she responds.
“And they said; ‘We want to admit you and send you to Melbourne’.”
Ms Patterson said she “can’t just be told to drop everything” and needed to go home to feed her animals and pack her daughter’s ballet bag.
She tells the officers she later returned where a doctor and apologised for the delay and told her; “we’ve got a couple of critical patients”.
“I said, ‘That’s fine, don’t worry about me, I’m just a gastro case’… And he said, ‘Oh, what’s your name?’ and I said, ‘Erin,’ and he said, ‘Oh, we’ve been expecting you’,” Ms Patterson said.
She said she was informed her lunch guests were ill and she needed to be taken to Melbourne because it was suspected they had death cap mushroom poisoning.
Ms Patterson said she was taken in an ambulance and remained in hospital until the afternoon of August 2.
The topic shifts again to Constable Eppingstall promising to give her a list of everything police had seized from her Leongatha home earlier the same day.
He raises the find of a Sunbeam dehydrator instruction manual in a kitchen draw, asking if she owned a dehydrator.
“No,” she said.
“I’ve got manuals for lots of stuff I’ve collected over the years. I’ve had all sorts of appliances and I just keep them all.
“ I might’ve had one years ago.”
When Constable Eppingstall asks what she would have used a dehydrator for, Ms Patterson starts talking about her Thermomix appliance.
“Like, when I first got the Thermomix I got really excited about, scratch and I did a lot of, you know, like, everything from scratch ingredients,” she says.
“I could’ve had something like that though.”
The officer then continues to list through the items taken from her home, including the Recipetin Eats cookbook, fruit patter, jug of gravy, computers, tablets and phones.
Later he shifts the conversation to the leftovers of the beef Wellington lunch, acknowledging Ms Patterson was helpful when police attended her home on July 31 to obtain it.
“What are those leftovers that you directed them to?” Constable Eppingstall questioned.
“That was the uneaten food from the lunch,” Ms Patterson responded.
“It went straight in the bin. And so when I went to the hospital and they said they were concerned that everyone ate some contaminated food I said, ‘Well, there’s the leftovers in the bin. You can have it’.”
Ms Patterson tells the two detectives she initially said “I’ll go and get it” but was told she needed to stay in hospital and instead gave police permission to enter her property.
“So they did that and a bag of food appeared a bit later.”
Ms Patterson is then asked if she had any questions, responding “no”, before Constable Eppingstall confirms the time is 5.30pm and suspends the interview.
After the video concluded, Justice Christopher Beale informed jurors some irrelevant material had been edited out.
“All right, so ladies and gentlemen, you will notice that it had jumped from time to time. Irrelevant material has been edited out,” he said.
The trial continues.
Originally published as Erin Patterson: Mushroom murder trial jury shown accused woman’s police interview a week after fatal lunch
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