No-one has disputed that death cap mushrooms were in the beef wellington that killed three people and left another in a coma for week after a fateful lunch on a July Saturday in 2023.
But the key question in the Australian murder trial of Erin Patterson was how those deadly mushrooms got there.
The mother-of-two has been charged with murdering her estranged husband’s parents Don and Gail Patterson, as well as Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, and charged with the attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian.
The trial is due to conclude next week, with the jury expected to retire to consider its verdict. Over two months the court has heard in great detail about what happened but questions about why still linger.
In her own words, Patterson was a big fan of mushrooms.
“They taste good and are very healthy,” she told the regional Victorian court. “I’d buy all the different types that Woolies would sell.”
She got so into mushrooms that she began foraging for wild ones during Covid lockdowns, Patterson said, but admitted that identifying safe varieties was sometimes difficult. She testified that she couldn’t remember, but it was possible she had searched online for death cap mushrooms.
All the while, the accused agreed during her two weeks on the witness stand that her relationship with her estranged husband Simon Patterson had become strained.
The Pattersons had separated several times after the birth of their son in 2009, and separated in 2015 but maintained a friendly relationship, as both told the court. Mr Patterson told the court that the issue seemed to begin when he had listed himself as separated on a tax return.
“She wasn’t happy with that,” he said, explaining that the change would affect their family tax benefit, and they mutually agreed she would pursue child support payments.
In the months before the fatal lunch she had tried to involve her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, in their dispute over school fees. She acknowledged in court that was unfair.
“They were doing nothing but trying to support us,” she said. “I was asking them to agree with me that I was right and Simon was wrong, and that wasn’t fair.”
She revealed that, in private messages to friends, she had vented frustration by calling the Patterson family a “lost cause” and saying, “so f*** ‘em.”
Growing visibly emotional in court, she told the jury she “needed to vent”.
