- Was it a carefully planned murder or simply a mistake with tragic results?
Revolver, dagger, rope, lead pipe, wrench, candlestick… There are many implements you can use to commit a murder most foul.
Yet, you won’t find a mushroom in a game of Clue — but perhaps you should.
Erin Patterson is standing trial in Australia for murder charges. She’s accused of killing her in-laws with a deadly lunch.
Patterson allegedly fed her in-laws and her husband’s other relatives poisonous mushrooms hidden in beef Wellington. Out of the five people who ate the meal, three died and one got seriously ill.
According to court reports, Patterson has acknowledged that the food contained the fatal fungi. However, she insists that she didn’t intend to kill anyone and had herself thrown up after the lunch.
The trial is ongoing, and all the details haven’t come out yet. Whether it was truly murder or a tragic accident will be decided later.
A Meal to Die For
The alleged fatal lunch took place in July 2023. Patterson, 50, had invited her husband’s parents, alongside his aunt and uncle, to her home for a meal.
According to the BBC, Patterson admitted to lying to her guests about being diagnosed with cancer. The prosecutors claim this was a ploy to get them to attend the lunch.
Patterson stated in court that she’d had problems deciding what to serve the guests, but eventually settled on beef Wellington, a classic British dish of beef and mushrooms wrapped in pastry. However, later investigations found that some of the mushrooms Patterson used in the dish were death caps.
The death cap is the most poisonous of all known mushrooms. True to its name, its responsible for approximately 90% of all mushroom-related deaths every year. Death cap’s a horrific track record is partially due to its close resemblance to other, perfectly edible mushrooms.
The ones included in Patterson’s beef Wellington were no less lethal. Following the lunch, her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and her husband’s aunt, Heather Wilkinson, died. Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband, got dangerously ill but survived.
Patterson herself has stated that she ate very little at the meal, but binged on dessert cake. She claims she got sick from overeating and threw up later.
According to her testimony, she was surprised when medical staff called her and asked if she could have eaten death caps.
Mushroom Hobbyist
Patterson is an enthusiastic mushroom forager. She told the court that she had started the hobby in March 2020 during the COVID pandemic.
According to her, she had eaten her foraged mushrooms many times and even fed them to her children without issues.
As her hobby progressed, Patterson had become fond of “exotic” mushrooms, reported the Associated Press. She had joined mushroom foraging Facebook groups and even bought a dehydrator to preserve her bounty.
When asked in court whether she accepted that she had fed her in-laws death caps, she replied, “Yes, I do.” However, Patterson claims she never knowingly did so.
According to her, the mushrooms she used in the beef Wellington came from local supermarkets. That said, she admits that she may have stored them in a container that also held some wild mushrooms.
Strange Behavior
The prosecution has called attention to Patterson’s actions after she was informed of her in-laws’ deaths. Patterson is said to have disposed of her mushroom dehydrator following the fatal lunch.
Additionally, she reset her phone and wiped its hard drive. What’s more, she initially told the police that she had never foraged for mushrooms earlier.
Patterson herself claims that she did this all in a desperate panic. She stated that she was worried about being accused of intentionally poisoning her in-laws.
“I had made the meal and served it and people had got sick. I was scared that they would blame me for it,” said Patterson.
Not to put too fine a point to it, but that’s exactly what happened.
Family Disputes
But why would Patterson want to murder her in-laws? Well, they didn’t exactly get along.
At the center of the personal differences is Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson. The two had had an on-and-off relationship for a while before formally separating in 2015.
Patterson had also invited her husband to the 2023 lunch. Perhaps fortunately for him, he was unable or unwilling to attend.
The court was also told that in 2022, Patterson had posted several expletive-strewn complaints about her in-laws on Facebook. When asked about the messages, Patterson grew tearful.
“I wish I’d never said it. I feel very ashamed for saying it and I wish that the family didn’t have to hear that I said it. They didn’t deserve it,” she said.
According to Patterson, the messages were sent after an argument with her husband and his family over the school fees of her children. She stated she was feeling “hurt, frustrated, and a little desperate” at the time.
Patterson’s trial is ongoing.