Erin Patterson was found guilty Monday on three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder after killing three members of her estranged husband’s family with poisonous mushrooms in July 2023. File Photo by James Ross/EPA
A Supreme Court jury in Australia on Monday found Erin Patterson guilty of killing three relatives by serving them lunch containing poisonous death cap mushrooms.
The 50-year-old woman was found guilty on three counts of murder and the attempted murder of another guest who attended the July 29, 2023 lunch at her home in Leongatha, Victoria.
She had pleaded not guilty in May 2024 and was charged in November 2023.
The 12-member jury in Morwell on Monday found the mother of two guilty of killing Gail and Don Patterson, the 70-year-old parents of her ex-husband, Simon Patterson, and his 66-year-old aunt, Heather Wilkinson.
Heather Wilkinson’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, was a guest at the meal and became critically ill after eating the lunch but survived.
According to authorities, she intended to kill her then-estranged husband, who was not at the lunch.
The guilty verdict followed a nine-week trial in which the prosecution argued that Erin Patterson deliberately picked the mushrooms from locations she learned about online, dehydrated them, turned them into a powder and served it to her guests in beef Wellington.
The prosecution said Erin Patterson concocted “calculated deceptions” in the scheme, including a fake cancer diagnosis used to arrange the lunch, that she secreted away the poisonous mushrooms in the food, then faked the same illness her guests experienced.
During the trial, the defense maintained that the poisoning was accidental, arguing that Erin Patterson had no reason to kill the grandparents of her children.
Her lawyers pointed out to the jury that the prosecution did not put forth a motive for the crime.
Patterson is to be sentenced in court at a later date.
