Accused killer cook admits foraging for mushrooms, lying about dehydrator

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Accused triple killer Erin Patterson has admitted foraging for mushrooms, lying about having cancer, getting rid of a food dehydrator in panic and not telling police the truth after her elderly lunch guests fell critically ill.

A Supreme Court jury heard claims that Patterson served beef Wellington on different coloured plates to her own, deliberately poisoning her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, local pastor Ian Wilkinson and his wife, Heather.

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, told the jury Patterson had lured the couples to her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023, on the “pretence” she had been diagnosed with cancer and needed advice about how to tell her children.

A court artist’s sketch of alleged killer mushroom cook Erin Patterson, whose murder trial has begun in Morwell, regional Victoria, this week.Credit: Paul Tyquin

However, defence lawyer Colin Mandy, SC, said the death cap mushroom poisoning – which killed the Pattersons and Heather Wilkinson and left Ian Wilkinson in intensive care – was nothing more than “a tragedy and a terrible accident”.

During the summary Patterson sat in the dock with tears in her eyes, looking up at the ceiling. Present in court to hear the opening addresses on Wednesday were members of the deceased’s families seated on one side of the small courtroom, some of whom took notes throughout. On the other side of the room sat one of Patterson’s close female friends, behind members of her defence team.

“She admits that she did forage for mushrooms, just so that we make that clear, she denies that she ever deliberately sought out death cap mushrooms,” Mandy said.

“The defence case is that she 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. Three people had died because of the food that Erin Patterson served that day.

“The defence case is that she didn’t intend to cause anyone any harm on that day.”

The court heard in the lead-up to July 29, 2023, Patterson attended church, where she invited her in-laws and estranged husband, Simon Patterson, for lunch.

She told some of them she had developed cancer and needed help in working out how to tell her two children. Simon later cancelled and did not attend the lunch.

But the court heard Erin Patterson never had cancer, which Mandy does not dispute. The prosecution alleged this pretext was used to lure the guests to the lunch and explain why Patterson’s children would not be present.

When they arrived, Rogers said Gail and Don Patterson and the Wilkinsons toured Erin Patterson’s property before gathering in the dining room. There, guests recalled Patterson allegedly serving her portion of the meal on a tan or orange plate before they sat down to eat off their grey plates, saying grace before digging in.

“I noticed Erin had put her food on a different plate to us. Her plate had colour on it, I wondered why that was,” Heather Wilkinson told family before she died, according to Rogers.

Hours after the lunch, all four guests fell ill. Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson later died at the Austin Hospital, while Ian Wilkinson survived after a lengthy stay in hospital.

Homicide Detective Acting Sergeant Stephen Eppingstall and prosecutor Nanette Rogers arrive at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court in Morwell, Victoria, on Wednesday.Credit: Jason South

Patterson also attended hospital, complaining of not feeling well, but left because she told staff she was not prepared to stay. She was later found not to be suffering from any significant illness, Rogers said.

The court also heard that in the months leading up to the fatal lunch, in March, April and May 2023, Patterson had begun posting messages in a Facebook chat group about dehydrating mushrooms including sharing in the chat that she had bought a food dehydrator. She posted photos about it in the chat, including a photograph of the dehydrator on her kitchen bench.

Erin Patterson’s legal team arrive at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court in Morwell on Wednesday. From left: Colin Mandy, Sophie Stafford, Ophelia Hollway and Bill Doogue. Credit: Jason South

“The accused explained in the chat that she’d been dehydrating mushrooms, blitzing them into powder, and hiding powdered mushrooms in everything,” Rogers said.

The jury heard this included using powdered mushrooms in chocolate brownies without her children knowing.

This dehydrator, Rogers said, was bought in Leongatha on April 28, 2023, 2½ hours before the data from Patterson’s mobile phone suggested she was in the Loch area, where a person had posted online they’d seen death cap mushrooms growing under a tree.

Police later found a dehydrator in the local tip, Koonwarra Transfer Station, that Rogers said contained fingerprints that matched those on Erin Patterson’s left hand. An analysis of vegetable matter taken from the dehydrator – discovered at the tip – found signs of death cap mushrooms, Rogers said.

Rogers said after the deaths, a police investigation uncovered Patterson had reset her mobile phone to factory settings three times, including once while police were raiding her home on August 5, 2023.

Police also seized other electronic devices then and during a second search on November 3 the same year, but one of her phones was never found.

“You will hear about what was located on those devices during the course of this trial,” Rogers said.

In his opening address to the jury, Mandy maintained Patterson did not feign her illness in the aftermath of the lunch, maintaining Patterson was unwell because she had also eaten some of the meal.

He said the jury needed to consider the media and medical scrutiny in the days following the lunch and how that could have affected her behaviour.

“Might someone panic in a situation like that?” Mandy asked the jury. “Is it possible that people might do and say things that are not well thought-out and might, in the end, make them look bad?

“Is it possible that a person might lie when they find out that people are seriously ill because of the food that they’ve served up?

“Those are important issues in this case, and you’ll need to use your common experience and your common sense, your experience of human nature and human beings and how they behave, and your common sense to analyse those issues and in doing so, you must be careful not to jump to conclusions.

“She’s innocent, innocent until proven guilty.”

The trial continues.

Read more on the Erin Patterson trial:

• Who are the key players?
• Everything you need to know about the Erin Patterson trial
• Why attempted murder charges have been dropped