GUILTY Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 *Arrest* #18

[Porky1]

Free tips within my council area. But EP had weekly bin collections, so why would you go to the tip to drop a small amount of cardboard and a garbage bag, I wonder?

From a cardboard perspective, much easier to dispose than cut it up to dispose in paper bins, if she had one. Some councils have a blue bin for paper products where others use the yellow recycling bin for paper prioducts, bottles, etc. It’s a pain when you purchase any large appliances.

 

[303gmf]

From a cardboard perspective, much easier to dispose than cut it up to dispose in paper bins, if she had one. Some councils have a blue bin for paper products where others use the yellow recycling bin for paper prioducts, bottles, etc. It’s a pain when you purchase any large appliances.

The box the dehydrator came in?

 

[Lisa4]

Reply from thread #17' GUILTY - Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 *Arrest* #17

@Megnut

Dark irony. How to tell the children...

RSBM BBM

Indeed. So many agonisingly difficult things they have had to tell the children - and all so heartbreakingly true.

Angry. Empty. Sorrowful. Disbelieving. Outraged. Appalled. Pitying.

Compassion.

 

[infodumptruck]

As she is an Accountant, she would have been across every aspect of her finances, and how to minimise tax. In addition to ensuring that her benefits were claimed. Simons tax status would have 3 dependents until he changed to single, this also affects Medicare and Private Health insurance. I suspect their financial status was complex.

Is there any actual evidence of her being a qualified accountant? Given it's a 3 year (full term) university degree & we only have her word to go by.

I know Simon indicated that she is, but for all we know she could have done a tafe book keeping course & passed it off as either an accounting qualification or 'working as an accountant', which he may not have questioned.

Looking at the FTB & CSA information given in the trial, she did zero research & bluffed her victims - Then was outraged when the outcome was not in her favour. Account for yourself, Erin!

 

[Lisa4]

Judging by her immaculate honesty* record, ATO should probably be taking a long hard look into her years of tax claims.

*sarcasm font - thanks for the idea to whoever suggested it yesterday

 

[musicaljoke]

Another interesting tidbit about the service station stop. Someone just posted on reddit that they are a frequent visitor to the service station. Apparently the door Erin went through for her “9 second stop” is actually a door leading to the *hallway* to the toilets. So to get to the actual toilet, she would have had to walk down that hallway and through another door.

Yes, I can see that there is more traffic at the door than just those who are using a toilet.

Well, what does that do to my theory that she dropped something in the washroom trash can? She barely has time to open a second door, turn around and make her exit.

 

[Baby baby Jane]

brought over from previous thread:

owlmama​

Member​

JoinedJun 17, 2025

Why on earth was this evidence not included in the trial?

For those that can't access the link, there is CCTV footage of her at the tip around 3.30pm on the day of the lunch. She dumps a bunch of flattened cardboard into the cardboard bin, then carries a non flattened box over. And apparently also dumps a garbage bag. It's not exactly clear what she disposed of, but the suggestion is that it is the plates etc from the lunch. Whatever it was, she certainly wasn't at home binging on leftover cake.

Odd that she did have some leftover she put in her own rubbish. She had the chance to discard all, and at 3:30 after lunch, she did not know she would be asked for any remains …
Hmmmm

 

[MrJ]

@musicaljoke:

Yes, I can see that there is more traffic at the door than just those who are using a toilet.

Well, what does that do to my theory that she dropped something in the washroom trash can? She barely has time to open a second door, turn around and make her exit.

Then what happened to her bag being lighter afterwards? I'm confused on that point

 

[Baby baby Jane]

Yes, I can see that there is more traffic at the door than just those who are using a toilet.

Well, what does that do to my theory that she dropped something in the washroom trash can? She barely has time to open a second door, turn around and make her exit.

Or she walked in, saw people waiting for toilet or “out of order” and instead of toilet … she bought sandwiches. The 9 seconds toilet event had no significance until she needed support for diarrhea story.

The whole tissues in the story was a farce … just EP “evidence” of diarrhea in the bush.

 

[katydid23]

From a cardboard perspective, much easier to dispose than cut it up to dispose in paper bins, if she had one. Some councils have a blue bin for paper products where others use the yellow recycling bin for paper prioducts, bottles, etc. It’s a pain when you purchase any large appliances.

That's true. But it's the timing that is very suspicious.

This trip to the tip was just 30 minutes after her special luncheon. Her son thought she was in her room playing with Legos at that time, according to his testimony. AND according to her testimony she was eating cake, bringing it back up, and then playing w/Legos.

She never told anyone, even in police interviews about her timeline, and while testifying under oath, about that emergency visit to the dump, immediately after the lunch. What was the urgency to get rid of that cardboard?

 

[Deleted member 363451]

Another interesting tidbit about the service station stop. Someone just posted on reddit that they are a frequent visitor to the service station. Apparently the door Erin went through for her “9 second stop” is actually a door leading to the *hallway* to the toilets. So to get to the actual toilet, she would have had to walk down that hallway and through another door.

I wonder what she was doing?

 

[Jake18]

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/cold-snarky-cynical-a-liar-how-erin-patterson-revealed-herself/news-story/db4f12397b233c149f5a4a43dad9764a

Behind a paywall, sorry.

Essentially just talking about how badly she did on the stand.

How she tried to introduce a few light-hearted moments, such as how she had to lift her son’s headphones off one ear to talk to him and how terrible her house plans were but the jury neither responded, nor chuckled and remained stony-faced.

In response, when Eppinstall mentioned some tests hadn’t been completed (I think the context was further DNA analysis of a 3rd mush room type in the duxelles) because his boss didn’t like him spending too much money, the jury reportedly chuckled.

Similarly, I feel it was a mistake Erin taking a verbal swipe at Dr Webster with his “inside voice” being loud as he will be recognised as a pillar of the local community.

 

[Scooby-Doo]

The disposal of the food dehydrator shortly after the fatal lunch is considered a significant piece of evidence by some, potentially suggesting a guilty mind.

But how stupid she is

If she had buried the dehydrator in the bush, it wouldn't have been found

Just like her missing phone, A

But she takes it to the tip and even pays to dispose of it..!!

Just like Erin, looking unshelved and not clean, but so did the dehydrator

It still had her fingerprints, and the pores of the death cap mushroom residue were left inside.

Bingo..!! The police couldn't believe their luck..!

A case built on 'deception​

While the defence claimed the Crown relied on circumstantial evidence, Nanette Rogers told jurors it was Patterson’s pattern of deception that revealed her intent.

Prosecutors highlighted four key lies:

• Claiming to have cancer to lure her in-laws to the lunch
• Changing stories about the mushroom source, citing multiple grocers and suburbs
• Denying she owned a food dehydrator, later found to contain death cap DNA
• Providing police with a secondary phone and the wrong mobile number

The jury was ultimately convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that these were not accidents, but deliberate attempts to cover up a planned poisoning.

Police found the Sunbeam food dehydrator at the tip days after the lunch. (Source: Supreme Court of Victoria)

 

[MrJ]

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/cold-snarky-cynical-a-liar-how-erin-patterson-revealed-herself/news-story/db4f12397b233c149f5a4a43dad9764a

Behind a paywall, sorry.

Essentially just talking about how badly she did on the stand.

How she tried to introduce a few light-hearted moments, such as how she had to lift her son’s headphones off one ear to talk to him and how terrible her house plans were but the jury neither responded, nor chuckled and remained stony-faced.

In response, when Eppinstall mentioned some tests hadn’t been completed (I think the context was further DNA analysis of a 3rd mush room type in the duxelles) because his boss didn’t like him spending too much money, the jury reportedly chuckled.

Similarly, I feel it was a mistake Erin taking a verbal swipe at Dr Webster with his “inside voice” being loud as he will be recognised as a pillar of the local community.

Here's the archived version! https://archive.is/YeHZ8

 

[musicaljoke]

I wonder what she was doing?

Nothing. There wasn't time to do anything other than open the door, look for the second door, turn around and leave. She couldn't even have broken her stride. The time from when the first door closed behind her until she reappears is just three seconds. You can watch the time in the video.

 

[Porky1]

Jurors hotel booking bungle caused mushroom murder trial havoc

In the final days of their deliberations in Erin Patterson’s high-profile murder trial, jurors, police, prosecutors and media found themselves at the same hotel.

I read that this morning. The optics aren’t great.

I wonder what defence will do with this information, they haven’t commented yet.

 

[brisbanemum]

Nothing. There wasn't time to do anything other than open the door, look for the second door, turn around and leave. She couldn't even have broken her stride. The time from when the first door closed behind her until she reappears is just three seconds. You can watch the time in the video.

She certainly wasn’t going to the toilet, washing her hands, or disposing of a poo bag unless there was a bin right behind the door. That much is clear.

 

[katydid23]

Nothing. There wasn't time to do anything other than open the door, look for the second door, turn around and leave. She couldn't even have broken her stride. The time from when the first door closed behind her until she reappears is just three seconds. You can watch the time in the video.

Maybe she went in and then saw someone was standing, waiting for the restroom, so she turned around and walked out?

 

[Scooby-Doo]

The most damning evidence against Erin Patterson can be revealed at last - as we expose CCTV video of what she did just 30 MINUTES after her deadly lunch​

Shortly after Erin Patterson's lunch guests finished their deadly beef Wellingtons and left, never-before-seen CCTV footage reveals her chilling next move.

In evidence that was never seen or heard by the jury at her triple-murder trial, Patterson drove straight to a local tip where she is believed to have dumped the four guests' plates, just 30 minutes after they had left her home on the afternoon of July 29, 2023.

Footage exclusively obtained by Daily Mail Australia shows Patterson dropping off what appeared to be a load of cardboard and a garbage bag at Koonwarra Transfer Station and Landfill at 3.30pm that afternoon. She then drove away in her red MG.


The killer then backed her car up to a dumping point and carried flattened cardboard boxes to a recycling bin.

Patterson was also seen carrying another, non-flattened cardboard box carefully to the bin where she struggled to squeeze it inside.

However, she managed to carefully place the box into the bin without squashing it.

Patterson also dumped some other rubbish from behind the boot of the car.

It was almost impossible to tell from the footage what rubbish was dumped.

Patterson then crushed and discarded some other boxes, including packaging for a food dehydrator, and drove away.

It was the same tip where, days later, she would dump the dehydrator she used to dry the death cap mushrooms she put in the beef Wellingtons to murder her victims.

Patterson, 50, pleaded not guilty to the murders of Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson.

Only Pastor Ian Wilkinson survived the lunch, in what Crown prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers, SC, suggested was a big mistake on Patterson's behalf.

The jury heard the lunch finished sometime between 2.30pm and 3pm, as Mr Wilkinson needed to attend a meeting with church staff.

Police sources suspected that Patterson dumped more than just cardboard at the tip after the lunch, but the contents were never found.

A few days later, Patterson returned to the tip to dump the dehydrator

She could be seen removing it from the rear of the car

And she was seen struggling to take it inside to be recycled with other e-waste

The dehydrator was found in an e-waste bin at the tip, and CCTV footage from the facility captured Patterson's vehicle arriving on August 2, 2023, four days after the lunch.

This was evidence seen by the jury during the epic 10-week trial.

It is now widely believed that Patterson hid the plates she used to serve herself and her doomed guests in the cardboard that she dumped at the tip on the day of the lunch.

The remains of what was left of her guests' deadly leftovers were also likely dumped at the tip at the same time, so the theory goes.

In opening the trial, Dr Rogers told the jury that Patterson had invited her guests over to ask them how she ought to tell her children she had ovarian cancer.

Prosecutors said that Patterson served beef Wellington and ate from a different plate to the others, distinguishing her meal from those she had poisoned.

There were four large grey dinner plates on the table, while Patterson ate from a smaller, tan-orange dish, according to Mr Wilkinson.

The issue of the plates became a pivotal part of Patterson's defence because when police executed a search warrant at her Leongatha property on August 5, the plates that Mr Wilkinson described couldn't be found.

Homicide Squad Detective Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall (pictured) was seen at the tip in the days after the fatal lunch in 2023

The Koonwarra Transfer Station and Landfill depot (pictured) where police sources suspected Patterson dumped the plates she used to serve the deadly beef Wellingtons

The dynamic duo: Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall and Prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers leave court

Patterson's barrister Colin Mandy SC is pictured right
Instead, they located a number of black and white plates, and no orange plate Mr Wilkinson had observed Patterson eat her Wellington off.

In his closing arguments to the jury, Patterson's high-profile barrister Colin Mandy, SC, accused the pastor of being flat-out wrong about the plates.

'It has to be the case that Ian Wilkinson is wrong about what he said. It makes no sense logically that you would use that method to deliver up an unpoisoned parcel, but otherwise, on all of the evidence, he's wrong; honestly mistaken,' Mr Mandy said.

He also said Mr Wilkinson was wrong about the colour of Patterson's other plates, which he had described as being grey.

'Erin and Simon were far more familiar with the crockery in the house than Ian was, and so we submit to you that you would have to find, on a proper and analytical examination of that evidence, that he wasn't right about those plates. Honestly mistaken,' Mr Mandy said.


The scene of the crime: Erin Patterson's home in Leongatha where the lunch took place

A photographer zooms in on a note Patterson's supporters had pinned outside her home in anticipation of her walking free

Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall (pictured) has become something of a legend in Morwell
But during the final days of the trial, Dr Rogers ran the jury step-by-step through how she claimed Patterson committed the murder.

'The prosecution says that the accused deliberately served herself on a different plate to the others in order to identify which of the meals was not poisoned and which she would then serve to herself,' she said.

'The only reason she would do that is because she knew that there were poisonous mushrooms in the other meals because she'd put them there, and to ensure that she could identify the sole non-poisonous meal.'

The jury ultimately backed Dr Rogers' version of events. On Monday afternoon, Patterson was found guilty of murder and attempted murder and will face a pre-sentence hearing at a later date.

Damning video exposes what Erin Patterson did 30 minutes after lunch

Half an hour after Erin Patterson 's guests finished their beef Wellingtons and left her house, she embarked on a trip that can only be revealed now.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[katydid23]

It does vary between councils.

My Mum is in regional NSW in a large town and they have a number of free tip tickets, but no council curb side clean-ups. In the city, our council has four curb side pickups per year for larger items and we rarely use the tip now.

When the tip was less than 10kms away, we used it regularly.

We won’t know whether EP’s tip visit on the afternoon of the lunch was of significance, or not. It might have been part of her regular routine or she may have disposed of items linked to the lunch.

If it was part of her regular routine, why didn't she tell LE about out in her interviews? I'm sure they requested a detailed timeline of that fateful day.

And why did her son and his friend think she was at home playing with Legos at that time?