Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #8 *Arrest*

[brisbanemum]

IMO it wasn’t just the lie about having cancer. It was also that she wanted advice about how to tell the children. Who in their right mind is telling their children that they “might” have cancer?

 

[Megnut]

IMO it wasn’t just the lie about having cancer. It was also that she wanted advice about how to tell the children. Who in their right mind is telling their children that they “might” have cancer?

When they don't even have cancer.

 

[Salah11]

I still can not fathom how she sat there and watched Don eat his whole pie and then half of his wife’s. We had heard she really liked him and was close to him.

Just how sick and twisted do you have to be to not speak up?

 

[Montrealaise]

So, Simon allegedly suspected Erin of previous poisoning attempts. One landing him in the ICU for weeks in an induced coma

…yet, a surprise (and highly unusual) dinner invitation to the family in the midst of an emotive dispute didn’t raise any alarm bells

It reminds me of some of the poisoning cases I've watched on CNN's Forensic Files - it often takes a victim a very long time to admit that maybe their illness isn't just something that happened, and even longer to acknowledge that maybe someone who is close to them is trying to harm them.

 

[SouthAussie]

I still can not fathom how she sat there and watched Don eat his whole pie and then half of his wife’s. We had heard she really liked him and was close to him.

Just how sick and twisted do you have to be to not speak up?

If Erin did this on purpose (and it is looking like she did) she is exhibiting classic narcissistic personality disorder.

imo


Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by self-absorption, grandiosity, exploitation of others and lack of empathy.

The dark side of empathy in narcissistic personality disorder - PMC

Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by self-absorption, grandiosity, exploitation of others and lack of empathy. People with that disorder may switch from an overt form, mainly with grandiosity, to a covert presentation, with fears, ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[MsMarple]

So much has come out and we’re only hearing the first witness! Wait till the experts take the stand, I bet it’s going to be quite shocking.

IMO we’re seeing a really angry woman who may have been unable to stop herself from eliminating people who interfered in her life. Or slighted her, true or not. Who threatened her financial security. Gah, who the heck knows what set things in motion. I don’t think any of the relatives, including Simon, could have done anything to stop events.

And if this was some sort of accident (which I doubt) Erin halted any possibility of saving these innocent people by purposely misleading medical personnel. How cold can you get?
JMO

 

[tmar]

IMO, she thought everyone would look sick with food poisoning and quietly die at home without medical intervention. Within 2-3 days the mushroom is not traceable.

• Amanitins can be detected in urine, blood, bile, and liver tissue.
• Window of detection:
  • Urine: Detectable up to 72 hours post-ingestion.
  • Blood: Shorter detection window, often gone after 24–48 hours.
  • Tissues (especially liver): May retain toxins for several days.
• However, if no samples are collected quickly or the body is embalmed, or if self-digestion post-death occurs, toxin degradation or diffusion may lead to no detectable traces.

EP may have researched the above, thinking the victims may stay at home, without going to the hospital. Therefore, the toxin not being detected BUT wouldn't autopsies note the distinct organ damage???

 

[katydid23]

Not if she picked them all together. If she didn't know the difference, she could just as easily have a dozen deathcaps as one deathcap plus eleven of an edible kind. Arguably it's only one mistake either way.

At the very least, it would be 'negligent manslaughter' as opposed to innocent accident, imo.

If she foraged enough mushrooms to make 5 wellington pies, I'd think she would tell her guests she was serving them foraged mushrooms. But she kept that a secret, even though it's been said they all foraged as a hobby before. So why didnt she make it known?

If it was an innocent mistake, then when she first heard about people being ill, why didnt she call the hospital immediately and tell them about the foraged mushrooms, just in case ?

Instead of doing that she did the opposite, and tipped the dehydrator and blamed it on Woolworths and Asian markets.

This does not sound like an innocent accident, imo.

 

[Cliff Hardy]

I am not completely up to date with what has been posted in these threads about EP and the mushroom poisoning, so pardon me if this has already been done to death.

I know these days a prosecution doesn't seem to have to convince a jury of motive but it is pretty handy thing if they can. Part of establishing a motive is measuring how much someone could benefit from the alleged crime and one of the standard approaches there is to follow the money trail.

The court has been told EP loaned sizable sums, near interest fee to 3 of Simon's siblings to assist them buying homes. The money had come largely from the $2 million in inheritances Patterson had received following the deaths of her mother and grandmother.

Simon's brother Matt and wife Tanya received about $400,000 to build their house and his brother Nathan and wife Merryn also received hundreds of thousands to buy theirs.

With the deaths of Simon's parents and his siblings then benefitting from their deaths via inheritance, the siblings are suddenly in a financially strong enough position to pay back all the money lent to them by EP. A windfall to EP of somewhere towards $1 million and one she may never otherwise have redeemed.

 

[arrogantcat]

I do wonder though, if she had planned on a different meal like individual shepard's pies with no mushrooms at all (aside from the powdered Death Caps), would the hospital staff have still figured it out?
I feel like once they knew mushrooms were in the dish, it made the notion of poison mushrooms an immediate possibility.

Shepherd’s pie would be ideal. Doesn’t normally contain mushrooms so wouldn’t immediately make the hospital suspect mushrooms and test, but still enough plausible deniability where she could say “oh yeah I threw a few foraged mushrooms in” if they did find them without sounding totally nuts.

As opposed to say, a cake, where they’d be far more suspect if found.

Everything about this crime sounds compulsive and impulsive to me - like she had the idea and just could not wait to act (allegedly).

JMO

 

[Officer Dibble]

I am never buying a food dehydrator from a thrift store.

JMO

I picked one up second hand about 18 months ago - not used it yet.

 

[arrogantcat]

“A defence lawyer representing accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson has told a jury she lied about a cancer diagnosis and foraging mushrooms, but is innocent of murdering three relatives with a poisoned meal.”

Mushroom trial: Erin Patterson admits foraging mushrooms but lawyers say deaths were accident

Erin Patterson admits foraging mushrooms, but did not deliberately seek out death cap mushrooms, jury told.

www.rnz.co.nz

If Ian Wilkinson, the surviving lunch guest, gives evidence I think it is likely he will confirm that the guests were told by EP that she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

I think his testimony will be absolutely damning. Hopefully he is well enough to do so!

 

[Montrealaise]

And if she is found guilty, and I don't see how she can't be, she won't be hosting any meals anyway for a long long time, if ever.

Yes, in the unlikely event she is acquitted, I don't think too many people will be accepting invitations to meals at her home.

 

[mamamama9873]

I do wonder why Ian and his wife were invited to the lunch. With four people then falling ill to ‘food poisoning’ it pointed to EP’s lunch much quicker as this was likely the last time the 4 of them would have eaten together. If it had only been Don and his wife at lunch, they could have questioned the mutual breakfast or dinner the 2 of them likely shared on the same
day as well rather than the symptoms immediately pointing to the lunch?

 

[Bats]

I picked one up second hand about 18 months ago - not used it yet.

I'd give it a rinse before you get started!

 

[katydid23]

She will still have to explain why she basically didn’t get sick and neither did her kids or the dog. That’s one hell of a stretch when the others were at deaths door within a day.

IMO

Yes, the dog. I wish we knew whether she typically gave her Labrador leftovers. She lives in a rural area with a large breed dog. I've had a few wonderful labs over the years---we always gave them meat scrap leftovers with their kibble. Any beef or chicken scraps were welcomed by our Labs.

It makes me doubt the accidental scenario because I think she'd have given her big black Lab some of that leftover beef. Thank Goodness she didn't.

 

[katydid23]

If Erin and Don got along with each other very well, why would she invite him over so she could kill him?

Just throwing questions around

I think she initially got along with her in-laws VERY well and considered them like her new parents.

Then after the marriage fell apart, she began to see that they were taking their son's side---obviously most people would expect that.

But I think she took that really hard. It was like a betrayal and she felt anger and resentment. We can see that with how upset she was about the 70th Birthday miscommunication.

In her mind she probably thought about the hundreds of thousands she gave his family in interest free real estate loans, and the measly 40 bucks a month she receives in child support, and she does all the heavy lifting with the children's care etc. And then her 'new parents' still turn on her?

 

[SouthAussie]

I am not completely up to date with what has been posted in these threads about EP and the mushroom poisoning, so pardon me if this has already been done to death.

I know these days a prosecution doesn't seem to have to convince a jury of motive but it is pretty handy thing if they can. Part of establishing a motive is measuring how much someone could benefit from the alleged crime and one of the standard approaches there is to follow the money trail.

The court has been told EP loaned sizable sums, near interest fee to 3 of Simon's siblings to assist them buying homes. The money had come largely from the $2 million in inheritances Patterson had received following the deaths of her mother and grandmother.

Simon's brother Matt and wife Tanya received about $400,000 to build their house and his brother Nathan and wife Merryn also received hundreds of thousands to buy theirs.

With the deaths of Simon's parents and his siblings then benefitting from their deaths via inheritance, the siblings are suddenly in a financially strong enough position to pay back all the money lent to them by EP. A windfall to EP of somewhere towards $1 million and one she may never otherwise have redeemed.

I am a little confused over the properties.

The defence claim that Erin "lent" the siblings-in-law money for their homes. But what are all these homes that EP & SP have their names on? Are their names on the siblings properties as co-owners or full owners, with the title to transfer completely to the siblings once the loans are repaid?

I hope the prosecution bring on a witness or two to explain this more fully.

EP wants Simon's name off two properties, and added to a different one.

(ETA: I believe the Gibson St house is the newer house that EP built, where the poisonings happened.)



Around the time the Leongatha home was being built in early 2021, Simon told the jury, he asked Erin about her intentions for the property.

“It made me wonder about whether she was using me for my expertise and contacts to build her house, or whether she genuinely thought this was, you know, a move towards living together as a family again,” Simon said.

He said that in the same conversation, Simon asked Erin to add his name to the title of another property she owned, in Nason Street, Korumburra.

“She responded by saying she wanted my name off the Gibson Street title and the Lyons Street title, and she would put just my name on the Nason Street title,” Simon said.

Mushroom cook’s husband Simon gives evidence on marriage struggles, plate colour, cancer claims: Trial day two, as it happened

The first witness for the prosecution, Erin Patterson’s estranged husband Simon Patterson, was called to the stand on day two of the mushroom murder trial. Here’s how the day unfolded.

www.theage.com.au

 

[Montrealaise]

This in particular is fascinating behaviour. It’s giving so-called ‘duper’s delight’: as if she was so proud of her (alleged) actions that she needed to tell someone, somehow.

And he was arguably the *worst* person to tell!

It does seem like she could have got away with it, with only some fairly simple planning.

Ditch the burner phone in advance. Turn off her phone when foraging. Announce she was going vegan a few months in advance and so be ‘unable’ to eat the same meal as her guests. Immediately admit that the mushrooms were foraged and claim she may have picked them in error. Retain the dehydrator and offer it to police right away to show compliance and a desire to help.
Skip all the Facebook posts and the guilty mushroom-chat.

It would still have been deeply suspicious, but pretty impossible to prove her guilt.

It’s always interesting how the decision to kill is just part of a whole chain of really stupid decisions that are made by a murderer.

The dumbest decision was probably lying about where she got the mushrooms - saying she bought them in food stores (extremely unlikely, since food stores get theirs from mushroom farms). She should have anticipated that the police would immediately check to see if anyone else had gotten sick from mushroom poisoning and if so, where they got them. If she had admitted that she had foraged for them and made a terrible mistake - well, it happens, every year some people mistakenly pick poisonous wild mushrooms thinking they were edible. The lie really put the spotlight on her credibility (or lack thereof)

 

[katydid23]

I think that the defence conceded it was a lie in their opening statement.

Post in thread 'Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #7 *Arrest*'

May 1, 2025

Hopefully, EP's medical records have been successfully subpoenaed. And it will be disclosed if she had been lying about her cancer diagnosis and other matters.

Is that still up for consideration? I thought that had been addressed in the opening statements:

Yesterday, Ms Patterson's lawyers conceded her cancer claim was a lie. [bbm]

Erin Patterson 'seemed' to love in-laws, estranged husband tells court

Accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson appeared to have a loving relationship with her in-laws before they died after eating a poisonous beef Wellington she served them in her home, a court hears.

www.abc.net.au

• JBowie

• 
• 

Yes, they did concede that in the OS.

But then during the cross of Simon, they tried to get him to admit that Don may have just said she was being tested for cancer---not that she actually had cancer. So I thought that was interesting.

If they can get the jury to believe she was just expressing fears she MIGHT have cancer, then that's a win for defence team. IMO