Mushroom Poison Deaths: How did 3 people die after family lunch in Australia?

[DrWilly]

About two Saturdays ago, a group of five people gathered for a family meal in a tiny town in Australia. Shockingly, within a week, three of them passed away, another fought for their life, and the fifth person is being investigated for a potential connection to the use of poisonous wild mushrooms in the meal.

[beachbound]

Are you referring to the Erin Patterson trial?

Pretty damning.

Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial, explained : NPR

[DrWilly]

Sorry, yes I was, dunno what happened to the rest of the post.

Prosecutors accuse Patterson of lying about a cancer diagnosis as a pretense for the lunch, deliberately poisoning her guests, not eating the same dish as them and pretending to suffer similar symptoms afterward as an attempted cover-up.

Guilty af

[Molle]

About two Saturdays ago, a group of five people gathered for a family meal in a tiny town in Australia.

About two years ago..

[DrWilly]

The trial is ongoing.

[armstrong]

The trial is ongoing.

Yes but they didn't eat the mushrooms two saturdays ago.

[Salsa dancer]

There are some slightly curious facts about this case.

One is that she said she got diarrhea but cctv footage of the toilets in a service station showed her being in there about 7 seconds on a longish trip the next day.

It doesn't look good for her.

Latest update :

Australia mushroom trial live: Erin Patterson intended to kill lunch guests and thought cancer lie ‘would die with them’, prosecution says | Victoria | The Guardian

[cyrille]

There are some slightly curious facts about the case.

One is why the op is such a massive balls up.

Anyway, closing arguments are being made.

Surely she'll be going down?

[Salsa dancer]

One is why the op is such a massive balls up.

Yeah, maybe TD forum's Brain Fartz R Us is a bit confused ?


Anyway, there is too much circumstantial evidence going against the mushroom lady, despite her acting all innocent. Her Google searches for Death Caps, her phone data showing she was in the area she had seen them reported in internet searches....etc.

And I'd be surprised if there was a hung jury. This case has captivated the nation.

[39TG]

Don't overlook she's a shiela. It's a lot more difficult to convict a shiela and even if convicted she can play all the "I'm one of life's victims, give me a soft sentence" cards.

[Troy]

^ What are you on?
She will be judged on the evidence presented. Gender, race, creed etc. doesn't enter into it. Sounds like premeditated murder to me, based on what I've heard.

[DrWilly]

Factory Resetting her phone three times before handing it over to the police. Throwing her mushrooms dehydrator away after the deaths. Claiming she bought mushrooms at an Asian grocery store; but cannot remember which grocer. Lying about having cancer. During the meal she served 3 meals on one type of plate and 1 meal to herself on a different coloured plate…

[cyrille]

She also lied about having to stop her car to take a dump behind a bush because of an upset stomach caused by the meal.

Her son was a passenger and had no recollection of that happening.

[DrWilly]

Yup, she visited a hospital to register herself as being sick while everyone else was literally dying in hospital, but then fled when they wanted to test her properly.

[DrWilly]

Prosecutors have told Erin Patterson's triple-murder trial jury the mother of two carried out a "sinister deception" on her in-laws by using a "nourishing meal" as the vehicle for lethal doses of death cap mushrooms.
Ms Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one of attempted murder over a beef Wellington lunch served to four relatives at her regional Victorian home in 2023.
As the trial entered its eighth week on Monday, lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC began delivering her closing address to the jury.
The trial of Erin Patterson, who stands accused of using a poisoned meal to murder three relatives, continues.
Look back at how Monday's hearing unfolded in our live blog.
To stay up to date with this story, subscribe to ABC News.
Cancer lie 'planted' in advance of lunch, prosecution alleges

Dr Rogers told the jury the prosecution alleged Ms Patterson had engaged in four substantial acts of deception while carrying out her crimes.
The prosecutor said the first of these was her fabricated cancer claim to the lunch guests, who the court heard were told she had been diagnosed with cancer — although Ms Patterson told the court she had believed she had only implied she may need ovarian cancer treatment in the future.
"The accused planted the seed of this lie far in advance," Dr Rogers said, referring to evidence that Ms Patterson had told her parents-in-law about tests on her elbow in the lead-up to the lunch.




Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC (left) is summing up her case against Erin Patterson. (ABC News)
The prosecutor told the jury Ms Patterson was "setting up a fiction" that she was facing a cancer diagnosis, which was made more convincing by her having "put in research" on the conditions about which she told her guests she was concerned.
"Why on earth would she tell such a lie?" Dr Rogers rhetorically asked the jury.

"She did not think her lunch guests would live to reveal it. Her lie would die with them,"

Dr Rogers said.
She told the jury that they could discount Ms Patterson's evidence that she had organised the lunch to thank her relatives and show them her garden.
She also told the jury that the absence of Ms Patterson's children from the lunch was "entirely the accused's plan" to ensure "the children would not be harmed by the poison she was about to serve".
Prosecutor outlines claim that death cap mushrooms were 'secreted' in lunch

Dr Rogers said the second and most "critical" deception alleged by the prosecution was that Ms Patterson "secreted" the death cap mushrooms into the individual beef Wellingtons.
"The sinister deception was to use a nourishing meal as the vehicle to deliver the deadly poison," Dr Rogers said.
Dr Rogers said the very design of the meal, in which a large beef Wellington log outlined in a cookbook recipe was substituted for individually parcelled beef Wellingtons, was a "deliberate choice" by Ms Patterson.
"It allowed her to give the appearance of sharing in the same meal while ensuring she did not consume … [a beef Wellington] laced with death cap mushrooms," the prosecutor told the jury.




Erin Patterson is accused of poisoning Ian and Heather Wilkinson, and Don and Gail Patterson. Ian Wilkinson (left) was the only survivor of the Leongatha lunch. (Supplied)
Dr Rogers said while there was "no direct evidence as to where the accused sourced the death cap mushrooms", Ms Patterson was "familiar" with the iNaturalist website and had made previous visits to the site which showed where the toxic fungi were growing.
"The accused did not navigate to other types of mushrooms, she did not meander about the website. She went directly to death cap mushrooms," Dr Rogers said.
Phone data was used to identify to the jury two "potential" visits by Ms Patterson to areas where death cap mushrooms had been identified in Outtrim and Loch.
The prosecutor alleged that after the accused went to Loch to source death cap mushrooms, a photo taken on one of Ms Patterson's devices showed "the very death cap mushrooms she collected ... in the process of being dehydrated".
The jury previously heard evidence of how Ms Patterson would dehydrate mushrooms and blitz them into a powder to "hide" in food for the children, a technique which the prosecutor alleged was used for the fatal lunch.

"At some stage, she blitzed them into a powder, as she admitted doing for other mushrooms, and in that form, hid them [in the beef Wellingtons],"

Dr Rogers said.
Dr Rogers also highlighted evidence given by sole surviving lunch guest Ian Wilkinson, who said the guests had eaten off different-coloured plates to their host.
"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," Dr Rogers alleged.
"The only reason she would do that is because she knew that there were poisonous mushrooms in the other meals, because she put them there, and to ensure that she could identify the sole non-poisonous meal."
Listen to the latest Mushroom Case Daily episodes

Photo shows An illustration of Erin Patterson with her face inside the shape of a mushroom.
The ABC podcast will bring you all the key updates from Erin Patterson's triple-murder trial over a beef Wellington lunch containing death cap mushrooms.
Dr Rogers told the jury it was not credible that Ms Patterson had found herself unable to recall the location of the Asian grocer where she had claimed to buy dried mushrooms used in the meal.
The prosecutor said Ms Patterson had displayed a "remarkable memory" during her time in the witness box, where she had recalled dates, evidence and details with ease.
Dr Rogers noted that Ms Patterson had even corrected her during cross-examination about the day of the week that a particular date in 2023 fell on.
The prosecutor said given the evidence of Ms Patterson's strong recall, "it simply beggars belief" that she had been unable to remember the store's location.
Dr Rogers told the jury they should reject the evidence that mushrooms for the meal were bought at an Asian grocer as "a fiction" that Ms Patterson had repeated "over and over again".
Ms Patterson's apparent sickness the third deception, prosecution says

The prosecution claimed that Ms Patterson feigned post-lunch illness to medical staff and family in a third major act of deception.
"The only reason she would do something like that — pretend to be suffering from the same illness as the others — is of course, because she knew she had not been poisoned, knew she was not going to exhibit symptoms of poisoning [and how suspicious that would look]," Dr Rogers said.

"Her good health, in other words, would give her away."

Dr Rogers detailed evidence given by Ms Patterson of her symptoms following the lunch, which she said was "not consistent" with evidence given by a number of other witnesses throughout the trial.




Erin Patterson gave evidence in her own triple-murder trial in Morwell. (ABC News: Paul Tyquin)
One of those witnesses was her estranged husband Simon Patterson who said Ms Patterson had told him she was experiencing diarrhoea and had started feeling unwell an hour or so after her lunch guests had left.
The four lunch guests had started showing symptoms around midnight. Dr Rogers said the delayed onset of symptoms was what first alerted medical experts to death cap mushroom poisoning and "therefore [Ms Patterson's] symptoms were inconsistent with her lunch guests' poisoning".
The frequency of Ms Patterson's alleged bowel movements following the lunch was also brought into question and the prosecution said Ms Patterson's evidence that she took imodium to treat diarrhoea was also fabricated.
The prosecutor also told the jury it was "highly unlikely" someone suffering nausea, cramping and recurrent diarrhoea would embark on a two-hour car journey from Leongatha to Tyabb on the day after the lunch.
Dr Rogers told the jury Ms Patterson's actions to discharge herself from hospital without receiving life-saving treatment after her initial presentation was "incriminating conduct" and she did so because "she knew" she had not eaten death cap mushrooms.
"She realised that what she had done was going to be uncovered," Dr Rogers said.
"She fled back to her house to try and work out how she was going to manage the situation and how she might explain why she wasn't as sick like the lunch guests.
"Her reluctance to receive medical treatment is inexplicable unless she knew she had not eaten what her lunch guests had eaten."
On Monday afternoon, Dr Rogers began to outline what prosecutors alleged was the fourth deception in Ms Patterson's crimes: the "cover-up".
The prosecutor alleged as part of this, Ms Patterson had lied about feeding leftovers from the lunch to her children and lied about the origins of the mushrooms in the meal.
Dr Rogers said the accused had also dumped the dehydrator used to dry death cap mushrooms and concealed her usual mobile phone from police as part of the alleged deception.
The trial continues

https://www.xxx.xxx.xx/news/2025-06-16/erin-patterson-mushroom-murder-trial-prosecution-closing-address/105422248

[DrWilly]

Erin Patterson's mushroom murder trial jury soon to put the puzzle pieces together

• 
  By Joseph Dunstan
  
• Topic:Courts
  

19h ago19 hours ago





Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one of attempted murder. (ABC News: Paul Tyquin)






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For seven weeks, jigsaw pieces have been shaken out before the jury in Erin Patterson's triple-murder trial.
Dozens of witnesses were called and exhibits ranged from photos allegedly showing death cap mushrooms being dehydrated in the lead-up to the murders, to reams of data extracted from seized electronic devices.
The trial of Erin Patterson, who stands accused of using a poisoned meal to murder three relatives, continues.
Look back at how Thursday's hearing unfolded in our live blog.
To stay up to date with this story, subscribe to ABC News.
In the trial's eighth week, the prosecution and defence used those pieces to assemble and present two contrasting pictures to the jury.
The prosecution told the jury the pieces clicked into place to reveal Ms Patterson as a murderer, who had deliberately killed three relatives and attempted to murder a fourth.
The lunch she had hosted at her regional Victorian home in 2023 was built on a series of deceptions, the prosecution alleged.
The lethal one, lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC said, was Ms Patterson's lacing of the beef Wellington meals she served to her relatives.
"The sinister deception was to use a nourishing meal as the vehicle to deliver a deadly poison," Dr Rogers told the Supreme Court jury.




Erin Patterson hosted the 2023 lunch at her Leongatha home in Victoria's South Gippsland region. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
She invited the jury to consider the pieces of evidence around the "deviations" Ms Patterson made to the original beef Wellington recipe.
While the method in the mother of two's cookbook called for a log of meat, individual eye fillets were used.
Ms Patterson told the court that was because individual eye fillets were the only ones she could find.
The prosecutor suggested that was a lie and the truth was far more calculated.
"That choice to make individual portions allowed her complete control over the ingredients in each individual parcel," Dr Rogers said.
"It is a control … that she exercised with devastating effect.

"It allowed her to give the appearance of sharing in the same meal, whilst ensuring that she did not consume a beef Wellington parcel that she had laced with death cap mushrooms."




Erin Patterson made some changes to the beef Wellington recipe outlined in the cookbook she used. (ABC News, file photo)
Ms Patterson's decision to dump her food dehydrator (later found to contain death cap mushroom residue) at the tip and then lie to police about it was behaviour the prosecution said could be slotted together to form incriminating conduct.
"If there was nothing incriminating about the dehydrator, why hide it?" Dr Rogers rhetorically asked the jury.
"There is only one reasonable explanation: she knew it would incriminate her.

"She knew that she had dehydrated death cap mushrooms in that appliance and that she had done deliberately done so, and she knew that keeping it was going to be far too risky."
A crime 'beyond' comprehension put before jury

The prosecutor told the jury the evidence laid before them did not point to any "particular motive" for the crime, but this was not a requirement of the murder charges.
"The question is not why she did this," she said.
"The question you have to determine is: has the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused did this deliberately?"




Ian Wilkinson (left) survived the lunch but his wife Heather died, along with Don and Gail Patterson. (Supplied)
While not alleging a particular motive, the prosecution placed more pieces of trial evidence before the jury to fill out its puzzle.
Facebook messages with friends showed Ms Patterson's animosity towards her Patterson in-laws and mockery of their deeply held religious beliefs, Dr Rogers said.

"The accused was leading a duplicitous life when it came to the Pattersons,"

Dr Rogers said.
"She presented one side while expressing contrary beliefs to others."




Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC told the jury it could safely find Ms Patterson guilty of the four charges. (AAP: James Ross)
In concluding her address, the prosecutor told the jury the legal bar for proving murder beyond reasonable doubt had been "well and truly met".
When all of the evidence was combined, Dr Rogers suggested the jury would be satisfied the accused had deliberately sought out death caps and served them to her relatives with malicious intent.
"One piece on its own or by itself might tell you not very much at all about what the picture is," she said.
"But as you start putting more and more pieces together and looking at it as a whole, the picture starts to become clear."
She said while jurors may feel the alleged murders were "too horrible, too cold and beyond your comprehension", they needed to remain focused on the evidence.
"Don't let your emotional reaction dictate your verdict, one way or the other," Dr Rogers said.
Defence tells jury to reject 'ridiculous' theories of prosecution

When Ms Patterson's defence barrister Colin Mandy SC rose to his feet, he told the jury the absence of an alleged motive meant the prosecution's jigsaw was incomplete.
"Without a motive, you're left guessing about the most important element of the offence in this trial and that's intention," Mr Mandy said.




Ms Patterson's defence lawyer Colin Mandy SC told the jury the prosecution's case relied on a misreading of the evidence.(AAP: James Ross)
He walked through some of the tense communications between the accused and her estranged husband Simon Patterson several months before the lunch.
But he said the picture they painted was a fairly ordinary one of two separated people managing the joint care of their young children.
"There is nothing unusual about it. In fact, quite the opposite," Mr Mandy said.
"It would be in some cases unusual if there wasn't that kind of spat or disagreement or frustration.

"And whatever we might call those spats and disagreements and frustrations, it doesn't provide any kind of motive to murder someone's parents and their aunt and uncle."

He accused the prosecution of putting before the jury a series of "ridiculous, convoluted propositions" that were not supported by the evidence.
He said Ms Patterson's simpler explanation of a dreadful "accident" was a truthful one that had emerged "unscathed" after days of cross-examination.
"Her account remained coherent and consistent, day after day after day, even when challenged, rapid fire, from multiple angles, repeatedly," he said.




Ms Patterson has told the court she never deliberately sought to harm her lunch guests. (AAP Image: James Ross)
Under that explanation, a Tupperware container in Ms Patterson's Leongatha pantry contained a mix of dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer and ones she had foraged from the Gippsland region.
In that mix, Mr Mandy suggested, were the death cap mushrooms later added to the lunch.
"The prosecution says she had them deliberately, the defence says she had them accidentally," he said.
He told them Ms Patterson's actions after the lunch were the panic of an innocent woman in the aftermath of a ghastly accident.
"Erin got into the witness box and told you, she did those things because she panicked when confronted with the terrible possibility, terrible realisation, that her actions had caused the illnesses of people that she loved," he said.
In closing, Mr Mandy told jurors the prosecution had tried to "force the evidence to fit their theory in a way that does not apply to jigsaw puzzle pieces".
"Stretching interpretations, ignoring alternative explanations because they don't align perfectly with the narrative," he said.
"Missing puzzle pieces in a jigsaw puzzle can make the picture incomplete, but missing evidence is much more significant."
He reminded the jury that if they did not accept all of Ms Patterson's evidence as truthful, they needed to set it to the side and consider whether the evidence actually existed to prove murder and attempted murder beyond reasonable doubt.
Stay up to date with the ABC's Mushroom Case Daily podcast

Photo shows An illustration of Erin Patterson with her face inside the shape of a mushroom.
The ABC's Mushroom Case Daily podcast brings you all the key updates from court involving accused triple murderer Erin Patterson, and an allegedly poisonous mushroom lunch.
After both sides in a trial that has astounded observers around the world had finished their address, the judge indicated the most important part lay ahead.
Justice Christopher Beale will begin delivering his final instructions to the jury on Tuesday, which he said would break down the legal principles at stake in the case.
After that, it will fall to the jury to begin piecing the puzzle together themselves

https://www.xxx.xxx.xx/news/2025-06-21/erin-patterson-mushroom-murder-trial-closing-addresses-to-jury/105440654

[Salsa dancer]

There is a clear chain of actions, but just about all of it can be rationalized somehow, to some degree or other. Except for the fact that she herself did not get sick.