Court hears Erin Patterson told police she loved her in-laws, who were ‘good, decent people’
A jury has heard the words of accused mushroom murderer Erin Patterson to police as she answered questions — telling them she had never foraged for mushrooms and didn’t own a dehydrator. Her own defence has admitted that these were lies.
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A Supreme Court jury has heard from accused mushroom cook killer Erin Patterson for the first time as her record of interview was played in her triple-murder trial.
In her own words, Ms Patterson answered questions from homicide squad detectives, telling them she had “never” foraged for mushrooms and did not own a dehydrator.
But the defence has admitted these were lies, conceding in its opening address that she has foraged for mushrooms and did own a dehydrator, which she later dumped at a local tip.
Ms Patterson is standing trial in Morwell, accused of murdering her estranged husband’s parents Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66.
In her record of interview, Ms Patterson said she loved her in-laws, describing them as “good, decent people that have never done anything wrong by me”.
Don, Gail and Heather died after she served them individual beef wellingtons allegedly laced with lethal death cap mushrooms at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.
When detectives executed a search warrant at the home on August 5 after the sisters had died, the court heard they told Ms Patterson it was in “connection with the death of two people”, prompting her to ask: “Who died?”
Heather’s husband, pastor Ian Wilkinson, 71, was the only guest to survive.
Ms Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, claiming what happened was a “tragedy and a terrible accident”.
THE RECORD OF INTERVIEW
Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall, the lead investigator and final witness for the prosecution, took to the stand on Tuesday as the Crown edges closer to closing its case against Ms Patterson.
He told the court her record of interview was conducted at Wonthaggi Police Station on August 5 at 4.41pm after the search warrant had been executed.
Wearing a light brown sweater, Ms Patterson was interviewed by Constable Eppingstall and his corroborator Detective Senior Constable David Martin-Alcaide.
Seated in the dock of the courtroom, Ms Patterson at times became emotional as she watched herself on a small screen answering the detectives’ questions.
Constable Eppingstall told Ms Patterson she was being interviewed over the deaths of Gail and Heather as police were trying to understand what had happened.
“I’ve never been in a situation like this before and I’ve been very, very helpful with the health department through the week, because I wanted to help that side of things as much as possible, because I do want to know what happened,” she replied.
Constable Eppingstall said police were concerned about the source of the mushrooms and asked Ms Patterson if she had foraged for them in the past.
“Never,” she replied.
He also asked about a Sunbeam dehydrator, telling Ms Patterson they found an instruction manual for the device in her kitchen drawer.
“Do you know anything about a dehydrator in your house?” he asked.
“No,” she replied.
“Do you own a dehydrator?” he asked.
“No,” she replied.
“I’ve got manuals of lots of stuff I’ve collected over the years … I just keep them all.”
At the start of the trial, the defence said it was its case that Ms Patterson “panicked because she was overwhelmed by the fact that these four people had become so ill because of the food that she’d served to them”.
Defence barrister Colin Mandy SC admitted she lied about foraging for mushrooms, but said his client “denies that she ever deliberately sought out death cap mushrooms”.
When asked in the record of interview about her relationship with the Pattersons and why she invited them to lunch, Ms Patterson said it was because she had no other family.
“I want to maintain those relationships in spite of what’s happening with Simon, I love them a lot,” she continued.
She said Don and Gail had “always been good to me”.
“They always said to me that they would support me with love and emotional support even though Simon and I were separated,” she added.
She said it was important to her that the Pattersons remained grandparents to her children, adding that she thought her estranged husband “hated” that she had a relationship with them after their separation.
Constable Eppingstall also asked Ms Patterson why she first presented to Leongatha Hospital two days after the lunch and left five minutes later.
“When you’ve got animals at home and children who have multiple after school activities, you can’t just be told to drop everything and you’re off to Melbourne overnight,” she said.
“So I had to go home and feed the animals and pack my daughter’s ballet bag.”
THE SEARCH WARRANT
Earlier, Detective Sergeant Luke Farrell told the court he attended Ms Patterson’s house on August 5 with Constable Eppingstall to execute the search warrant.
The court heard her two children and the family dog were present for the search, which stretched from about 11.40am to 3.40pm.
Photos taken during the search were beamed into the courtroom, providing the jury its first look inside the house where the accused hosted the lunch.
The court heard detectives found a manual for a dehydrator inside a kitchen drawer, while a best-selling RecipeTin Eats cookbook was spotted on the kitchen bench.
Sergeant Farrell said a “piece of tissue” had been used as a bookmark and the cookbook had been “spattered” with food remnants.
Constable Eppingstall told the court Ms Patterson told him during the search she used the cookbook to make the beef wellington meal.
The six-page recipe was shown to the jury, including a photo of a latticed beef wellington log.
The court heard detectives also located a Cooler Master computer, a Samsung phone and a Samsung tablet in one of the children’s bedrooms.
Sergeant Farrell confirmed a video was taken during the search and captured plates as detectives opened kitchen drawers and the dishwasher.
In one screenshot from the video, four small plates “with a red top and dark bottom” could be seen, as well as a larger plate of the same description.
Sergeant Farrell agreed that he was aware at the time of the search that the “issue of plates” was of interest to police, but he conceded photos were not taken of all the plates in the house and none were seized.
The court heard Sergeant Farrell asked Ms Patterson for her phone at the end of the search.
“I asked for it and she gave it to me,” he said.
THE HEALTH INVESTIGATION
Senior public health adviser Sally Ann Atkinson returned to the witness box on Tuesday and said the Department of Health investigation concluded that it was “highly unlikely” the commercial food chain had been contaminated with death cap mushrooms.
“The risk to public health was deemed very low,” she said, adding that no food was recalled.
She told the court only one Asian grocer stocked dried mushrooms “similar” to the description provided by Ms Patterson, but she said this product was notably larger.
“Nothing (was found) that matched the description she gave at all,” she said.
She confirmed the Department of Health deemed it an “isolated event”.
The trial continues.
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