Crown prosecutor says Erin Patterson sent health authorities on a ‘wild goose chase’
Accused mushroom murderer Erin Patterson told a “deliberate lie” about purchasing mushrooms from a grocery store in Melbourne, a prosecutor has alleged.
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Accused triple murderer Erin Patterson foraged for lethal death cap mushrooms in a Gippsland township and bought a dehydrator the very same day in a bid to “preserve” the toxic fungi, a lead prosecutor has claimed.
From the witness box, Ms Patterson was also accused by Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC on Wednesday of sending health authorities on a “wild goose chase” after telling them she had used dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer in the fateful beef wellington meal.
Instead, Dr Rogers claimed Ms Patterson visited the townships of Loch and Outtrim to pick death caps for the meal, only days after they were sighted by experts and their locations posted to citizen science website iNaturalist.
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.
The prosecution alleges she served them individual beef wellingtons she had deliberately laced with death caps at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.
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 of attempted murder, claiming she may have accidentally added foraged mushrooms into the meal with the dried mushrooms from the Asian grocer.
Dr Rogers attempted to pick apart this claim during further cross-examination, putting to Ms Patterson that she had never purchased the dried mushrooms and her story about the Asian grocer was a “deliberate lie”.
But she denied these claims, adding that although she did not have a “distinct memory of the purchase”, she remembers buying them around April.
She told the court she then dehydrated the dried mushrooms at some stage because they appeared “rubbery” and she wanted to make them crispier.
Ms Patterson disputed that the dried mushrooms, which she had previously described as “pungent”, were too “overpowering” for the beef wellington.
“I thought it was the perfect dish for them,” she said.
She told the jury last week she kept the dried mushrooms in a container, which she realised after the lunch may have also contained foraged mushrooms.
Ms Patterson told police she had been “very helpful” during the Department of Health investigation, but the Crown prosecutor claimed she was instead spinning a story that “kept changing”.
Dr Rogers asked: “In fact, you sent them on a wild goose chase trying to locate this Asian grocer, correct or incorrect?”
She replied: “Incorrect.”
The accused was then taken to the evidence of digital forensics expert Dr Matthew Sorell, who concluded her phone made “possible” visits to Loch on April 28 and May 22, as well as Outtrim on May 22.
She denied travelling to the Loch Reserve on April 28 to find death caps after accessing an iNaturalist post by Christine McKenzie on April 18.
Dr Rogers said: “I suggest that within two hours of finding those death cap mushrooms, you drove to … Leongatha and bought yourself a dehydrator at 12.17pm.”
She replied: “I did buy that that day, yes.”
Dr Rogers asked: “And the purpose of buying the dehydrator was to dehydrate death cap mushrooms, agree or disagree?”
She replied: “Disagree.”
Dr Rogers suggested that on April 30, two days after travelling to Loch, Ms Patterson “practiced” by dehydrating button mushrooms from Woolworths.
The Crown prosecutor claimed Ms Patterson practiced on the button mushrooms to not “waste” the death caps she had found since she wanted to “preserve them”.
The accusations were met with denials.
Ms Patterson then denied travelling to Outtrim on May 22 to find more death caps after accessing another iNaturalist post by Dr Tom May on May 21.
She also disagreed that she lied about having an interest in foraging to explain how wild mushrooms ended up in the meal.
The trial, before Justice Christopher Beale, continues.
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