Australian woman weighed fatal dose of mushrooms ahead of deadly lunch, prosecutors allege

Erin Patterson is charged with the murder of three of her ex-partner's relatives and the attempted murder of a fourth.

An Australian woman accused of murdering three of her estranged husband's relatives weighed poisonous mushrooms before serving a fatal lunch, prosecutors alleged on Thursday. In a murder trial that started almost six weeks ago, the prosecution claims that 50-year-old mother-of-two Erin Patterson deliberately fed her visitors Beef Wellington that contained toxic fungi. The meal took place at her home in the rural town of Leongatha in the state of Victoria in July 2023. Don and Gail Patterson, her ex-partner's parents, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, all died from mushroom poisoning. Wilkinson's husband, Ian, survived after undergoing a liver transplant. The defendant, who took to the witness stand on Monday, denied knowingly feeding her guests death cap mushrooms, arguing that the three deaths were a tragic accident. On her fourth day as a witness, Patterson said photos of mushrooms on scales that were found on her phone were likely taken at her home. "I suggest you were weighing these death cap mushrooms so that you could calculate the weight required to calculate the administration of a fatal dose for one person," prosecutor Nanette Rogers said in court. Patterson, who denied the suggestion, told the court earlier this week that she thought she was adding dried mushrooms bought from an Asian supermarket to the meal. "Now I think that there was a possibility that there were foraged ones in there as well," she said, explaining that she had deviated from her chosen recipe to improve the dish's "bland" flavour. The mother-of-two has admitted to repeatedly lying to police about foraging mushrooms and having a food dehydrator. Patterson confessed that she threw out her food dehydrator after the fatal lunch, saying she had done so "in the context of thinking that maybe mushrooms that I'd foraged or the meal I'd prepared was responsible for making people sick."The machine was later recovered — with her fingerprints on — from a local rubbish dump. "It was this stupid knee-jerk reaction to dig deeper and keep lying," she told the court. "I was just scared, but I shouldn't have done it."If convicted, she faces life in prison for murder and 25 years for attempted murder.