Five things we know about alleged mushroom cook ‘secretive’ Erin Patterson

Former friends of Erin Patterson say she led a “secretive” life and was a true crime fan, but what else do we know about the woman now charged with murder?

Erin Patterson may now be a household name in Victoria, but what do we know about her?

We know she was emotional after news of the deaths of three of her alleged lunch guests first broke, as she faced the media and became confused about who had died and who had lived. Here are other things that have been reported about the woman a former friend says was a true crime fan and led a “secretive” life.

Erin Patterson was emotional when facing the media after news of the deaths of her guests first broke. Picture: Brooke Grebert-Craig

1. Mother

Erin Patterson, 48, has two children.

2. Split from husband

Erin was no longer living with her ex-husband and the children’s father, Simon Patterson.

3. Ex newsletter editor

Ms Patterson took over a local newsletter from her now dead former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson in 2018, editing The Burra Flyer newsletter until 2020.

The 2019 September-November edition of the newsletter included details of a local workshop teaching people in the community how to grow their own mushrooms. In the Korumburra workshop people would be taught “how to grow gourmet mushrooms at home using easy to source materials and low-tech methods”, it spruiked.

“The class includes making your own oyster mushroom grow bag to take home, teaching notes and a delicious afternoon tea,” a notice in the newsletter read.

There is no suggestion that the details published in this newsletter are in any way linked to the alleged mushroom lunch poisonings.

4. True crime fan

Friends and acquaintances of Erin Patterson say they have discovered a lot of her life was “very secretive” and have revealed she was a fan of the true crime genre. It came as new photos recently emerged in a Facebook group of a younger Ms Patterson, which appeared to have been taken more than a decade ago.

“We thought we knew her deeply but we are now discovering that a lot of her life was very secretive,” the ex-friend wrote in a Facebook group.

They claimed that Ms Patterson was a true crime fan and “Lego obsessed”.

“A few of us were close friends for a few years in a crime group.”

Erin when she was younger. Picture: Supplied

5. Property owner

It has been reported Ms Patterson currently owns two properties, a townhouse in Mount Waverley and a two-storey home in Leongatha where she allegedly cooked the fatal mushroom meal on July 29. Ms Patterson also once owned an oceanfront property at Eden, in New South Wales.

She inherited the home from her parents, Eitan and Heather Scutter, following their deaths, but sold it in 2019 for $900,000.

Former neighbours of Ms Patterson’s parents told the Herald Sun the couple had retired to the remote seaside getaway and spent their last years there before their deaths.

According to neighbours, Mr Scutter – known to friends as Hugh – lost his battle with cancer in 2011, before Heather succumbed to the same disease eight years later.

The house was described as an “outstanding four-bedroom home” with “uninterrupted water views” of the South Pacific Ocean.

Ms Scutter was a lecturer in children’s literature at Monash University and was often quoted in the Herald Sun in 1999 and 2000.

Originally published as Five things we know about alleged mushroom cook ‘secretive’ Erin Patterson