Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #13 *Arrest*

[Detechtive]

Justice isn't cheap..! The cost alone in this trial would be mouth-watering

Silk, junior, and two instructors could earn six figures after a couple of weeks of the trial alone, and it’s been six weeks.

Erin has put one investment property on the market

The pretrial hearings went for 4.5 weeks, also. Plus all of the interim preparation. At least a million, IMO

However I was told recently that she was funded by legal aid recently. I don’t know how to check if this is true, so IMO only.

As for the motive not being about money, I think it’s very difficult when we are talking about power and control as a motive to separate money out from that, because money is a tool of power and control.

From my calculations (IMO only) there’s around 2.5 million reasons forming motive for this alleged murder. I don’t think it’s easy to dismiss such a windfall, IMO, especially because the profile of a poisoner includes a financial motive in the majority of poisonings.

 

[Lisa4]

Can anyone help with 2 questions.

1. What treatments did EP receive that were specifically for deathcap ingestion ?

2. Are there any other cases where a person has survived dc ingestion without urgent and drastic medical intervention?

 

[Detechtive]

Can anyone help with 2 questions.

1. What treatments did EP receive that were specifically for deathcap ingestion ?

2. Are there any other cases where a person has survived dc ingestion without urgent and drastic medical intervention?

She received fluids and “a liver protecting drug”.

There are other cases where some of the consumers of deathcaps survived where others died, however, the normal statistics for deathcap poisoning point to a 30% chance of death for consuming 7gms of death cap mushrooms for an average weight of 70kgs per consumer.

Because 75% of the people who consumed death caps died (we know Erin didn’t because she had no medical evidence of death cap poisoning) and the other one was in ICU and had a liver transplant and months of treatment in order to survive, we can confidently deduce that the death cap toxicity in this case was far above the 7gms. This means that the people who ate Dearh caps like Gail and Heather who only ate 50% of their meal, had to consume at least 30gms of death cap mushrooms each to achieve such statistically deathly outcomes.

This means that the full Beef Wellington’s must have had around 50-60gms of death caps in each, which is equivalent to 1.5-2 mature death caps per person.

 

[Ellery84]

The Trial: All about Erin

Podcast Episode · The Mushroom Cook · 07/06/2025 · Crime X+ Only · 18m

podcasts.apple.com

Erin describes herself as a fundamentalist atheist in the first 3 minutes of this podcast episode.

Fundamentalist atheism marks a turning point in the history of the atheist movement because it seeks to go beyond actively rejecting belief in God. Fundamentalist atheism seeks to eradicate religion and anoint atheism as the only respectable position on the question of religion for three reasons.

I think maybe the motivations for the alleged murders could have been to eradicate religion and religious pillars of the local community, and that’s why she invited Ian and Heather (as well as Don, Gail and Simon) as they were pastors.

But it didn’t work, and Ian survived and is like a walking miracle now, which sad but in some ways is a very effective way for him to share the gospel.

So if you do believe in God and the Devil or good and evil, good still triumphed in this situation with the survival of Ian who lived to tell the story of what happened.
IMO

 

[BreakingNews]

Hi, I'm a time-traveller from Tuesday night, reporting on the cross-examination today. When asked by Dr Nanette Rogers whether her name was Erin, EP responded by saying 'Disagree.'

So a lie detector would definitely not be accurate on her.

 

[Jake18]

Can anyone help with 2 questions.

1. What treatments did EP receive that were specifically for deathcap ingestion ?

2. Are there any other cases where a person has survived dc ingestion without urgent and drastic medical intervention?

I can answer the first.

Erin only received N-acetylcysteine which is precautionary for liver damage - also used with paracetamol overdose - but she didn’t receive medication specific for deathcap ingestion.

There was a delay in giving the other guests the more specific treatment - silibinin - because the chances of deathcap poisoning was thought to be low, to start with.

 

[Detechtive]

I can answer the first.

Erin only received N-acetylcysteine which is precautionary for liver damage - also used with paracetamol overdose - but she didn’t receive medication specific for deathcap ingestion.

There was a delay in giving the other guests the more specific treatment - silibinin - because the chances of deathcap poisoning was thought to be low, to start with.

But Erin also never received Silibinin. The death cap antidote, yet miraculously survived with zero evidence or affects of DC poisoning. In other words, she did not consume Death Caps.

 

[Jake18]

But Erin also never received Silibinin. The death cap antidote, yet miraculously survived with zero evidence or affects of DC poisoning. In other words, she did not consume Death Caps.

She absolutely didn’t.

The presentation is vomiting and diarrhoea followed by seeming improvement then liver death, with worsening liver function.

Some people still survive this and likely early treatment with NAC and, more importantly Silibinin help, but the liver damage is inevitable.

Erin had normal liver function tests. As did her children.

 

[Detechtive]

She absolutely didn’t.

The presentation is vomiting and diarrhoea followed by seeming improvement then liver death, with worsening liver function.

Some people still survive this and likely early treatment with NAC and, more importantly Silibinin help, but the liver damage is inevitable.

Erin had normal liver function tests. As did her children.

I wish that was made more clear by the prosecution argument.

 

[Jake18]

I wish that was made more clear by the prosecution argument.

It was discussed though, when Erin’s blood results were summarised. Maybe it’ll get tidied up a bit in closing

 

[Scooby-Doo]

The big mistake was leaving a digital trail. Google, Bing searches and entering intto a poisonous mushroom forum are damning.

Stupidity. She thought that clearing her search history would erase this evidence,
unaware that police can salvage almost anything using computer forensics

It's hard to comprehend that she admitted as well to wondering if the police would be silly enough to leave her confiscated phone connected to the internet so she did a factory reset just to see what would happen, and it did reset.

Innocent people wouldn't even consider it, why would you even attempt that? It's tampering with evidence.

 

[Scooby-Doo]

Ms Patterson's relationship with in-laws probed in trial​

The events after the guests left the dining table have been raked over in hours of court evidence and detailed in briefs running into tens of thousands of pages.

On Friday, lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC questioned the "love" Ms Patterson has maintained she held for her in-laws:

Rogers: You agree that you told police in your record of interview that you loved Don and Gail?

Patterson: Correct.

Rogers: Surely if you had loved them .. You would have immediately notified the medical authorities that there was a possibility that the foraged mushrooms had ended up in the meal.

Patterson: Well I didn't. I had been told that … people were getting treatment for possible death cap mushroom poisoning. So that was already happening.

The prosecution noted that these questions related to Ms Patterson's mindset on the Tuesday after the lunch, days before anyone had died.

But, Dr Rogers told the court, Erin didn't tell "a single person" that foraged mushrooms may have been in the meal.

"Correct," Ms Patterson replied.

Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC has been cross-examining Erin Patterson this week. (AAP: James Ross)

Further, Dr Rogers put to Ms Patterson that she had "two faces" when it came to her relationship with her in-laws. A public face of loving them, and a private face shared with her Facebook friends, where she shared anger and mocked her relatives' religious views.

Ms Patterson denied it, telling the court she had "a good relationship with Don and Gail" and sobbed as she recounted how she had invited Heather Wilkinson to the lunch to thank her for the kindness she had shown her over the years.

The trial's not over yet​

This week in court the prosecution also alleged that in the lead-up to the lunch, Ms Patterson had seen iNaturalist listings of death cap mushrooms at nearby Loch and Outtrim, and knowingly foraged the poisonous fungi.




They alleged that photos taken from devices seized at her home showed she had been weighing dehydrated death cap mushrooms in the lead-up to the lunch, to determine what the lethal dosage would be for her guests.

Simon Patterson declined to attend the lunch at his estranged wife's home. (AAP: James Ross)

The prosecution said that her elaborate cancer lie was carefully constructed to create a pretence for a lunch without her children, and that had her estranged husband Simon attended the lunch, she would have knowingly fed him a sixth beef Wellington laced with death cap mushrooms.

And they alleged her decision to dump the dehydrator and lie to police about it was done because she knew admitting to the dehydrator would have revealed her murderous plot.

Ms Patterson denies it all. And the trial's not over yet.

The trial, which is taking place at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts in Morwell, has some way to go yet. (AAP: James Ross)




This week, Justice Christopher Beale told jurors the hearings could stretch towards the end of June, before they would be asked to deliberate and return a verdict.

How long the jury will need to weigh the mountain of evidence and arrive at a verdict is impossible to know.

"None of you can tell me how long you will be in deliberations … how long is a piece of string?" Justice Beale said.

 

[Jake18]

This week, Justice Christopher Beale told jurors the hearings could stretch towards the end of June, before they would be asked to deliberate and return a verdict.

End of June??!!

 

[Detechtive]

Are you maybe thinking of this?

Now a coincidental detail published in an edition of The Burra Flyer under Ms Patterson’s editorship has come to light.

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”.

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

A mushroom growing workshop was advertised in The Burra Flyer. Picture: The Burra Flyer


Ms Patterson edited The Burra Flyer newsletter from 2018 to 2020 after taking it over from Gail and Don.

During her time editing the newsletter, the mum-of-two often included photos taken by her now estranged ex Simon, with multiple pictures showing their two children enjoying various activities around the local area.

Simon’s photographs were also a common feature in the newsletter when it was run by his parents, with the June-August 2016 issue standing out from the others.

The front page photo showed a group of poisonous red toadstools on a nature strip, which was taken by Simon.

These vibrantly coloured fungi, also called Amanita muscaria, are known to pop up across southern Australia and thrive in wet conditions.

Amanita muscaria belong to the same genus as death cap mushroom and are toxic to both humans and animals.

https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/news/coincidental-detail-in-local-newsletter-edited-by-erin-patterson-years-before-mushroom-deaths/news-story/0c6467f0054f2ab3faa442d8dd28bd3d

Oh so they’re the red and white mushrooms she claimed to know were toxic in her testimony on Thursday? If I recall correctly, she said she got that info from the Inaturalist website?

 

[SouthAussie]

This week, Justice Christopher Beale told jurors the hearings could stretch towards the end of June, before they would be asked to deliberate and return a verdict.

End of June??!!

On Thursday, it was reported that ... Justice Christopher Beale told the jury that it was expected the trial would continue for at least two more weeks, with Patterson’s evidence possibly stretching into next week.

Two more weeks would mean the trial finishing around 20th June - the end of the 3rd week of June. I guess that could be called "towards the end of June".

imo

Death caps and cancer claims: how Erin Patterson responded to first day of mushroom trial cross-examination

Triple murder accused also tells court she had a ‘stupid kneejerk reaction to just dig deeper, and keep lying’ to police after lunch guests died

www.theguardian.com

 

[Lisa4]

Are there any other cases where a person has survived dc ingestion without urgent and drastic medical intervention?

I was attempting to explore this one from the perspective of an undecided juror. I would really want to know of any other examples if I was there, and trying to believe in her innocence.

The only detailed survivors cases I can find were treated urgently and drastically, and even so, many required liver transplants.

It would be interesting to know what detail came up in court around this, but I strongly suspect it's all been suppressed to the general public.

Can jurors ask for additional information?

 

[Spectrix]

This means that the people who ate Dearh caps like Gail and Heather who only ate 50% of their meal, had to consume at least 30gms of death cap mushrooms each to achieve such statistically deathly outcomes.

This means that the full Beef Wellington’s must have had around 50-60gms of death caps in each, which is equivalent to 1.5-2 mature death caps per person.

Spot on @Detechtive. We also had the photograph that Erin took of the freshly picked Deathcaps sitting on the scale. There were over 500 grams there which ought to have been enough to poison ten guests.

Of course we don't know how much of that Erin used in the tainted Wellingtons, but as you say, it's likely to have been at least 50-60 grams per serve given the death rate and that Gail died from a half serve.

Erin certainly wasn't short on Deathcaps, and it's clear that her own lunch serving contained none.

 

[Old Soul]

True. The financial changes definitely irked her.

But - I think the main thing that triggered Erin was Simon actually stating “separated” after years of a dysfunctional relationship with multiple separations, reunifications. He was done with it all and she didn’t like that.

Moreover, not only was Simon pulling away, his parents were supporting him by having him over for dinner every night and not getting involved in their squabbles. They were moving forward without her and she hated that she couldn’t control them, IMO.

I think Dr Nanette Rogers referring to Simon as Erin’s ex-husband was purposeful, Erin hated that Simon has moved on

I think you have hit the nail on the head Jake 18,
how dare Simon write “separated” on his tax return!

IMO Erin enjoyed the power of stringing Simon along, leaving him while their first baby was young and renting a house while he lived in a caravan, reconciling again and all living with his parents for a short time, leaving him, almost reconciling on a family holiday together and most recently giving him some reason to hope that they may one day live together again as a family as the Leongatha home was being designed and built.

I imagine it was very validating to Erin’s ego to reject someone, maybe even treat them cruelly and still have them want her back.

It sounds as though Simon really put up with so much hot and cold from Erin. Even on the stand I think she is enjoying the opportunity to gaslight him.
Someone in an earlier thread suggested that this type of manipulation often causes “trauma bonding” and I think this, along with his Christian beliefs about marriage goes some way to explaining why Simon had trouble extricating himself from their toxic dynamic.

When Simon wrote “separated” on his tax return, I believe Erin’s reaction: making it look as though her anger toward Simon was about finances, school fees, supporting the kids etc, was what she wanted the world to see.

Her deepest fears of rejection, abandonment and loss of control were feelings that were too vulnerable to reveal so she reacted with anger and a simmering plan to punish Simon and all those who supported him.

Obviously this is nothing more than my own speculation and opinion.

​

“What to expect (and do) when you leave or reject a covert narcissist”​

(A few parallels with Erin Patterson’s behaviour in this piece)

What to expect (and do) when you leave or reject a covert narcissist

The day has finally come. You’re tired of your covert narcissist partner’s abusive behavior. You’re exhausted by the constant lying, the cheating, the gaslighting, the silent treatment. You’re…

sylvialongmire.medium.com

 

[kangaroo_Matlock]

JMO but it wasn't about the money per se - EP being wealthy, it was about what the money itself but what it represented.

The loans to SP's family members maybe represented long term connection and enmeshment.
The joint status of tax filings maybe represented that she and SP were 'together' even though they weren't.
Funds coming from SP to EP maybe represented an ongoing commitment to her and the children.

I think it's coming clear through all this that EP is an intellectually / academically highly intelligent and capable person but emotionally she's an unchecked badly behaved toddler when she feels slighted. She also clearly lacks emotional regulation and good social skills for intimacy. Her lies are stupid and nonsensical, her actions are rageful and unchecked vengeance. I don't think she even realises there's such a thing as the truth. She's got it all going on. A lot of that would be in compliance with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I wonder if the prosecution will order psychiatric evaluation? So many cases we see here on WS the perpetrators are blatantly extreme narcissists to the point where'd they'd likely be diagnosed.

JMO MOO

I was unsure about raising her psychology. But it seems appropriate to, OK. I agree. Your comment is astute and similar to what I think. I also see a sense of childish entitlement. For instance when she was asked if she would have given Simon the same BW, she just said - I would have given them to him too! Not what a normal person would have said: maybe asking if he wanted some. Nope. She is entitled to feed him BW. She reminds me of that student we all knew at school who thought "the teacher likes me so they will give me a good grade even if I don't work."

Frankly I have found her answers repulsive in their consistent lack of humanity and empathy. She makes everything so functionalist. That part where she says the guests are getting sicker in hospital. No concern for them. To her it's said in the same way you would say "I bought a potato for 5 dollars". Having watched videos of formal interviews with diagnosed psychopaths, her functionalism of everything and everyone, including when people are dying, reminds me so much of psychopaths. I know this is getting into rather subjective reaction and no, I do not have any qualifications to assess people, but she is repulsive to me. Every so often her voice "cracks" to convey emotion, supposedly. There is a channel on YT called The Behaviour Panel where they look at her body language from way back near her home.

God, her equivocating. Mother of Christ, even if she has been coached to answer that way by counsel. She does "three could have maybe sort of bangers" equivocating sentences. She's clever for sure. Her equivocations are clever, often hypothetical. Did she miss her calling in politics? She's certainly intelligent. But as I often say to people who have a reductionist, materialist idea of intelligence [e.g IQ tests] real intelligence is more than that and her emotional/empathetic inadequacy is where her intelligence falls off a cliff. At least in my opinion and in my reactions to her.

 

[lazymaiden07]

I was unsure about raising her psychology. But it seems appropriate to, OK. I agree. Your comment is astute and similar to what I think. I also see a sense of childish entitlement. For instance when she was asked if she would have given Simon the same BW, she just said - I would have given them to him too! Not what a normal person would have said: maybe asking if he wanted some. Nope. She is entitled to feed him BW. She reminds me of that student we all knew at school who thought "the teacher likes me so they will give me a good grade even if I don't work."

Frankly I have found her answers repulsive in their consistent lack of humanity and empathy. She makes everything so functionalist. That part where she says the guests are getting sicker in hospital. No concern for them. To her it's said in the same way you would say "I bought a potato for 5 dollars". Having watched videos of formal interviews with diagnosed psychopaths, her functionalism of everything and everyone, including when people are dying, reminds me so much of psychopaths. I know this is getting into rather subjective reaction and no, I do not have any qualifications to assess people, but she is repulsive to me. Every so often her voice "cracks" to convey emotion, supposedly. There is a channel on YT called The Behaviour Panel where they look at her body language from way back near her home.

God, her equivocating. Mother of Christ, even if she has been coached to answer that way by counsel. She does "three could have maybe sort of bangers" equivocating sentences. She's clever for sure. Her equivocations are clever, often hypothetical. Did she miss her calling in politics? She's certainly intelligent. But as I often say to people who have a reductionist, materialist idea of intelligence [e.g IQ tests] real intelligence is more than that and her emotional/empathetic inadequacy is where her intelligence falls off a cliff. At least in my opinion and in my reactions to her.

Her response to Dr Rogers when questioned about why she didn't sound the alarm sooner, why she didn't mention to anyone that there was a chance of DC poisoning: "Well I didn't," Ms Patterson responded. "I had been told that … people were getting treatment for possible death cap mushroom poisoning. So that was already happening." Absolutely despicable. IMO, there is a complete detachment from the dying/deceased, and as you said, her actions were devoid of all empathy. People she claimed to love were suffering, dying, and she was patting herself on the back with how cooperative she was being with the health department.


I watched those behavioural videos on YT also... How much you can actually deduce from them, I'm not sure, but they sure are interesting.