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Journalism of Courage
With three of her family members dead and a murder charge looming, Erin Patterson stood in the witness box and told the jury: she loved wild mushrooms and never meant to harm anyone.
The Australian woman at the centre of a chilling food poisoning case told a court in Victoria that she had long enjoyed mushrooms, but began foraging wild varieties during the pandemic because they had “more flavour”. Now, she is accused of using deadly death caps in a home-cooked beef wellington that killed her former in-laws and left another fighting for his life.
“I mainly picked field mushrooms,” Patterson testified, as per BBC. “The first time I tried wild mushrooms, I cut off a small part and cooked it in butter. [It] tasted good and I didn’t get sick.”
Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, while prosecutors say she deliberately included the deadly mushrooms, her defence maintains it was a “terrible accident”.
On the second day of her testimony, Patterson said she began foraging for mushrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic and often did so with her children. “I mainly picked field mushrooms,” she said as quoted by BBC. “The first time I tried wild mushrooms, I cut off a small part and cooked it in butter. [It] tasted good and I didn’t get sick.”
She admitted that death cap mushrooms were in the food served, but said “the vast majority” of mushrooms for the lunch came from a supermarket, and some from an Asian grocery store in Melbourne. She added that she often stored purchased mushrooms in the same container as foraged and dehydrated ones.
Gail and Don Patterson, both 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died after the meal. Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, survived after intensive treatment.
Patterson became emotional as she described her once close relationship with her in-laws. “I was just their daughter-in-law – they just continued to love me.”
She acknowledged tensions with her estranged husband Simon Patterson, particularly over finances from late 2022, and that she had asked her in-laws to mediate.
The court saw Facebook messages where she expressed frustration toward Simon and his parents. “I needed to vent… to get my frustration off my chest,” she said. “It was either that or tell the sheep in my paddock.”
She also testified to a deep mistrust in the health system and described herself as someone with health anxiety who often turned to “Dr Google.” This led her to falsely suspect she had various illnesses, including a brain tumour, MS, and ovarian cancer. Although she admitted she had never been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, she said she mentioned it at the lunch because of a family history.
Patterson is expected to continue giving evidence on Wednesday.
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