Search for Erin Patterson’s motive continues after guilty verdicts
What drove Erin Patterson to kill her family members is still unclear but an expert says there were signs of “simmering rage”.
Killer mushroom cook Erin Patterson is “certainly intelligent” but “vastly overrated” her ability to fool police and her peers into getting away with murder.
Patterson, 50, was found guilty on Monday of plotting to kill members of her estranged husband’s family by serving them beef wellington laced with death cap mushrooms in 2023.
Criminologist Dr Xanthe Mallett said the guilty verdicts handed down – three for murder and one for attempted murder – were “momentous” after a trial that could have gone either way.
Dr Mallett, based at CQ University, said that despite the closure of the trial, there remained a question over what motivated Patterson to target her extended family.
“We’ll never know what her motive was unless she chooses to share it. She’s the only person who knows,” she said.
“But certainly the Crown did speak about – and some of the text messages (tendered as evidence) do demonstrate – some tensions within the family.
“And that could have been a driver.”
Speaking on The Trial podcast, the professor said she and renowned criminal psychologist Dr Watson Munro had “picked apart” Patterson’s personality as they observed the case.
“It appears, or what I believe happened is, she has this simmering rage for (ex-husband) Simon and perhaps felt that his family hadn’t supported her.
“And therefore some of that rage is transferred to them, and she felt justified in harming them because of this … and therefore she is protecting herself.”
Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson died after attending a lunch at Patterson’s Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.
Heather’s husband, local pastor Ian Wilkinson, fell critically ill but survived.
At trial, prosecutors argued Patterson had intentionally lured her in-laws to lunch by lying about a cancer scare and baked the deadly mushrooms into their meals.
She denied this and claimed the inclusion of toxic fungi was a tragic accident.
The court heard Patterson, a true crime buff, foraged for mushrooms in areas where death caps were known to grow in regional Victoria.
Dr Mallett told news.com.au that Patterson – now a convicted mass murderer – demonstrated her intelligence while giving her evidence on the stand and under cross-examination from the Crown.
“She was emotional at the right times, but not histrionic. So nothing extreme,” she said.
“And when she didn’t understand the question, she asked for an explanation. And she was very measured and controlled and considered in her responses.
“And I think she’s clearly an intelligent woman. But intelligent women and people still commit crimes.”
She told The Trial, however, that Patterson was “very dumb in other ways”.
“This was obviously premeditated, planned. It was not well-planned, it was not well carried out,” she said.
“Her sense of own ability I think is vastly overrated.
“She thought she could out-think the police, all the experts and the witnesses and everybody else because she is so smart.”
The jury was asked to weigh Patterson’s lone version of events, which exculpated her of the allegations, against the 50-odd witnesses who testified during the 46-day trial.
Prosecutors highlighted Patterson’s “lies upon lies”, including suggestions she made to Don and Gail about potentially having cancer and telling police she did not own a dehydrator.
“I can’t speak for the jury … but I imagine it would have been difficult to believe her, given the litany of lies she told,” Dr Mallett told news.com.au.
“And you know, she said basically everybody else was either lying or wrong.
“And clearly the jury didn’t believe that and found the Crown’s case more compelling.”
Dr Mallett said one of the aspects of the case that had made it such a worldwide phenomenon was its setting in a “beautiful wine cheese region of Australia”.
“And yet it was harbouring a mass murderer,” she said.
“And I think that with Erin Patterson, everything about this case is so normal.
“The location is so idyllic, Erin Patterson presents as so normal – a middle aged mother, cooking a lunch, a very normal activity for her family.
“And then you’ve got that kind of juxtaposed against the tragedy that’s unfolded.
“And I think that is what really shocked people … they couldn’t imagine why somebody would do something so awful and abhorrent to their own family members.
“And I think we still haven’t got to the crux of that, because obviously no motive was presented in court.”
The professor said it was important to remember the family at the centre of the case, which was still “suffering”.
Patterson was remanded in custody ahead of her sentencing after the verdicts were read out on Monday.