The 10 hurdles Erin Patterson needed to jump
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1-Why did Erin Patterson fake a cancer diagnosis?
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2-Why did it take her nearly two years from the fatal lunch to raise the possibility that she accidentally picked death cap mushrooms in the wild?
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3-]Why a woman who shared her love of mushrooms with anyone who would listen could not produce one witness to corroborate her keen interest in foraging the wild ones?
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4-]Why could a person with a remarkable memory not recall the shop, street, or suburb where she bought Asian dehydrated mushrooms, presumably paying cash and leaving no credit card record?
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5-Why there have been no reports of similar poisonings from a commercial source?
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6-Why would she feed leftovers to her children when her lunch guests were critically ill?[
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7-Why would she refuse medical assistance for herself and her two children when told it could be a matter of life and death?
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8-Why did she serve individual beef Wellingtons when the recipe called for a single loaf?
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9-Why did she serve her own lunch on a different coloured plate?
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10-Why did she try to sabotage the police investigation by dumping the dehydrator, losing a phone and resetting another?
I think this is a great list. These are the key issues her defense needed to 'fix' with her testimony.
Mandy said she nailed it, and never faltered in her testimony...
I think she may have bungled number one, The Cancer Lie, in the worst possible way. And it set the tone for the rest of her testimony.
At the start of her explanation, Erin really opened up to the jury, laid herself open to shame and vulnerability. She painfully admitted she was ashamed of her easting disorder and she was desperate to find a way to lose weight.
I think the jury and the public was feeling some sympathy---who can't relate to having their own personal flaws and desperate feelings.
So then she keeps going, and is stretching it a bit further---she says she found her solution to her problem---She had SCHEDULED an upcoming appointment for bariatric surgery.
And then continues further down the road, explaining that she lied about needing treatment for ovarian cancer because she needed childcare and extra help when she has her upcoming surgery.
OK....maybe some people were still with her, feeling sympathetic...at least she was opening up, admitting her vulnerabilities and trying to better herself?
But then, BAM----the prosecution shows that she was LYING again----there was no schedule surgery and there never was---she made that up----that was manipulation and gaslighting by Erin.
Erin tried to pivot, said she meant liposuction, instead, but that was also untrue---sh had no scheduled lipo.
So in the end, the jury was walked down a winding road of BS, compliments of Erin. And her attempts to explain or justify those cancer diagnosis lies fell flat.
I think it was all downhill from there.