Australian mushroom cook is convicted of triple murder after serving a
fatal beef Wellington lunch
[July 07, 2025]
By CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY and ROD McGUIRK
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian woman Erin Patterson was found
guilty Monday of murdering three of her estranged husband’s relatives by
deliberately serving them poisonous mushrooms for lunch.
The jury in the Supreme Court trial in Victoria state returned a verdict
after six days of deliberations, following a nine-week trial that
gripped Australia. Patterson faces life in prison and will be sentenced
later, but a date for the hearing hasn't yet been scheduled.
Patterson, who sat in the dock between two prison officers, showed no
emotion but blinked rapidly as the verdicts were read.
Three of Patterson’s four lunch guests — her parents-in-law Don and Gail
Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson — died in the hospital
after the 2023 meal at her home in Leongatha, at which she served
individual beef Wellington pastries containing death cap mushrooms.
She was also found guilty of attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson,
Heather’s husband, who survived the meal.
The jury concluded she poisoned her guests on purpose
It wasn’t disputed that Patterson served the mushrooms or that the
pastries killed her guests. The jury was required to decide whether she
knew the lunch contained death caps, and if she intended for them to
die.
The guilty verdicts, which were required to be unanimous, indicated that
jurors rejected Patterson’s defense that the presence of the poisonous
fungi in the meal was a terrible accident, caused by the mistaken
inclusion of foraged mushrooms that she didn’t know were death caps.
Prosecutors didn’t offer a motive for the killings, but during the trial
highlighted strained relations between Patterson and her estranged
husband and frustration that she had felt about his parents in the past.
The case turned on the question of whether Patterson meticulously
planned a triple murder or accidentally killed three people she loved,
including her children’s only surviving grandparents. Her lawyers said
she had no reason to do so — she had recently moved to a beautiful new
home, was financially comfortable, had sole custody of her children and
was due to begin studying for a degree in nursing and midwifery.
But prosecutors suggested Patterson had two faces — the woman who
publicly appeared to have a good relationship with her parents-in-law,
while her private feelings about them were kept hidden. Her relationship
with her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, who was invited to the
fatal lunch but didn’t go, deteriorated in the year before the deaths,
the prosecution said.
Every moment of the fatal lunch was examined
The simplest facts of what happened that day and immediately afterward
were hardly disputed. But Patterson’s motivations for what she did and
why were pored over in detail during the lengthy trial, at which more
than 50 witnesses were called.
The individual beef Wellington pastries Patterson served her guests were
one point of friction because the recipe she used contained directions
for a single, family-sized portion. Prosecutors said that she reverted
to individual servings, so she could lace the other diners’ portions,
but not her own, with the fatal fungi — but Patterson said that she was
unable to find the correct ingredients to make the recipe as directed.
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Erin Patterson is photographed in Melbourne, on April 15, 2025.
(James Ross/AAP Image via AP)
Nearly every other detail of the fateful day was scrutinized at length,
including why Patterson sent her children out to a film before her
guests arrived, why she added additional dried mushrooms to the recipe
from her pantry, why she didn’t become ill when the other diners did,
and why she disposed of a food dehydrator after the deaths and told
investigators that she didn’t own one.
Patterson acknowledged some lies during her evidence — including that
she’d never foraged mushrooms or owned a dehydrator. But she said that
those claims were made in panic as she realized her meal had killed
people.
She said she didn’t become as ill as the other diners since she vomited
after the meal because of an eating disorder. She denied that she told
her guests she had cancer as a ruse to explain why she invited them to
her home that day.
The case gripped Australia
The bizarre and tragic case has lingered in the minds of Australians and
has provoked fervor among the public and media. During the trial, five
separate podcasts analyzed each day of the proceedings and several news
outlets ran live blogs giving moment-by-moment accounts of more than two
months of evidence.
At least one television drama and a documentary about the case are
slated for production. Prominent Australian crime writers were seen in
court throughout the trial.
As it emerged half an hour before the verdict that the court was
reconvening, about 40 members of the public queued outside the
courthouse in the rural town of Morwell in the hope of watching the
outcome in person. News outlets reported that family members of the
victims were not among those present.
Before the verdict, newspapers published photos of black privacy screens
erected at the entrance to Erin Patterson’s home. Dozens of reporters
from throughout Australia and from news outlets abroad crowded around
friends of Patterson's as they left the courthouse Monday.
“I'm saddened, but it is what it is,” said one friend, Ali Rose Prior,
who wore sunglasses and fought back tears. Asked what she thought
Patterson felt as the verdicts were read, Prior said, “I don't know.”
Prior, who attended every day of the trial, confirmed Patterson had told
her: “See you soon.” Prior said she would visit her friend in prison.
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Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.
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