How Erin Patterson was caught in mushroom deaths trial

Erin Patterson was found guilty of plotting to kill members of her estranged husband’s family by serving them beef wellington laced with death cap mushrooms in 2023. Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson died after attending a lunch at Patterson’s Leongatha home on July 29, 2023, while Heather’s husband, local pastor Ian Wilkinson, fell critically ill but survived. At trial prosecutors argued that Patterson had intentionally lured her in‑laws to lunch by lying about a cancer scare and baked the deadly mushrooms into their meals. She denied this, claiming the inclusion of toxic fungi was a tragic accident. The court heard that Patterson, a true‑crime buff, had foraged for mushrooms in areas where death caps were known to grow in regional Victoria. The evidence presented led the jury to vote guilty.