Woman accused of triple murder says foraged mushrooms may have been added to meal

[ad_1] Erin Patterson, the girl accused of murdering three friends with a meal laced with loss of life cap mushrooms, advised her trial on Wednesday she could have inadvertently added foraged mushrooms to the lunch as a result of her duxelles tasted “a bit of bland.”

On the third day of proof on Wednesday, Patterson was taken by means of the occasions of July, 2023, when she’s accused of intentionally including deadly loss of life cap mushrooms to a Beef Wellington meal she cooked for 4 friends, together with her parents-in-law, at her home within the small Australian city of Leongatha in rural Victoria.

Patterson has denied three counts of homicide over the loss of life of her in-laws, Don Patterson and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson. She additionally denies making an attempt to kill a fourth lunch visitor, Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, her native pastor.

Taking Patterson again to the times earlier than the lunch, protection lawyer Colin Mandy SC requested the place she’d purchased the elements. Patterson stated all elements got here from Woolworths, a serious Australian grocery store.

Patterson stated she discovered the recipe in a cookbook, which she adopted with “some deviations.” For instance, she stated she couldn’t discover a beef tenderloin log, so she purchased twin packs of particular person steaks. The recipe had known as for mustard, which she didn’t use, nor did she use prosciutto as a result of Don “doesn’t eat pork,” she stated.

On the Saturday morning of the lunch, she stated she fried garlic and shallots and chopped up the store-bought mushrooms in a meals processor. She cooked the sauteed combination, generally known as a duxelles, for maybe 45 minutes so it was dry and didn’t make the pastry soggy, she stated.

Patterson advised the courtroom she tasted the combination, and because it was “a bit of bland,” she added dried mushrooms that she’d beforehand saved in a plastic container within the pantry.

Requested by Mandy what she believed to be within the plastic container within the pantry: “I believed it was simply the mushrooms that I purchased in Melbourne,” Patterson stated. “And now, what do you suppose may need been in that bathtub?” Mandy requested.

“Now I believe that there was a chance that there have been foraged ones in there as properly,” she stated, her voice breaking.

<img alt="Media stand outside the Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court in Morwell, Australia, April 29, 2025. - James Ross/AAP/Reuters" loading="lazy" width="960" height="540" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" class="rounded-lg" style="color:transparent" src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/mX1t8sjm.Rjc6grgjqitiA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/cnn_articles_875/fe96e0644378f475d9d2256b3f056d9c"/> Media stand exterior the Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Courtroom in Morwell, Australia, April 29, 2025. - James Ross/AAP/Reuters

After the meal Patterson advised the courtroom that Ian and Heather Wilkinson ate all of their meal. Don completed what Gail hadn’t eaten. Patterson solely ate a couple of quarter or third of her Beef Wellington, as a result of she was speaking so much and consuming slowly, she stated.

After lunch, they cleaned up and sat all the way down to eat an orange cake that Gail had introduced.

“I had a bit of cake, after which one other piece of cake, after which one other,” Patterson stated. “What number of items of cake did you could have?” Mandy requested. “All of it,” Patterson replied. She stated that amounted to round two-thirds of the unique cake.

“I felt over full, so I went to the bogs and introduced it again up once more,” she stated. Patterson has beforehand advised the courtroom that she had battled bulimia for a lot of her life and was self-conscious about her weight.

Patterson stated she felt nauseous after the lunch, and later that night, took remedy for diarrhea. The following day she skipped Sunday mass as a result of identical signs and nonetheless had diarrhea later that day.

That evening, she stated, she eliminated the pastry and mushrooms from the leftover Beef Wellington and put the meat within the microwave for the youngsters to eat for dinner.

The following day, Monday, she thought she may want fluids so went to the hospital, the place a physician advised her that she could have been uncovered to loss of life cap mushrooms. Patterson stated she was “shocked and confused.” “I didn’t see how loss of life cap mushrooms could possibly be within the meal,” she stated.

Demise cap mushrooms are extraordinarily poisonous. - William West/AFP/Getty Photographs/File

Earlier Wednesday, Patterson advised the courtroom she hadn’t seen web sites that purported to indicate the placement of loss of life cap mushrooms close to her home.

She stated she was conscious of loss of life cap mushrooms and had searched on-line to search out out in the event that they grew within the space. She stated she discovered that they didn’t.

Patterson additionally advised her trial on Wednesday that she foraged for mushrooms on the Korumburra Botanical Gardens in Could 2023, and should have picked some mushrooms close to oak timber. The courtroom has beforehand heard that loss of life cap mushrooms develop close to oak timber.

Patterson stated she would dehydrate any mushrooms she didn’t wish to use instantly and retailer them in plastic containers within the pantry. She stated that round that point she additionally purchased dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer in Melbourne. As a result of they'd a pungent odor, she stated she put them in a plastic container within the pantry.

Mandy requested: “Do you could have a reminiscence of placing wild mushrooms that you just dehydrated in Could or June of 2023 right into a container which already contained different dried mushrooms?”

Patterson replied: “Sure, I did do this.”

Later in proceedings, Patterson recalled a dialog she had together with her husband, Simon, as his mother and father have been gravely in poor health in hospital. She stated she talked about she had dried mushrooms in a dehydrator. “He stated to me, ‘Is that the way you poisoned my mother and father, utilizing that dehydrator?’” she advised her trial.

She stated his remark induced her to do “a whole lot of fascinated by a whole lot of issues.”

“It bought me fascinated by all of the instances that I’d used (the dehydrator), and the way I had dried foraged mushrooms in it weeks earlier, and I used to be beginning to suppose, what in the event that they’d gone within the container with the Chinese language mushrooms? Possibly, possibly that had occurred.”

<img alt="Korumburra pastor Ian Wilkinson and wife Heather Wilkinson were among those poisoned. - The Salvation Army Australia Museum/Facebook" loading="lazy" width="960" height="540" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" class="rounded-lg" style="color:transparent" src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/qP5bRt8UZ.FXww9QhFpX9A--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/cnn_articles_875/afcc88e38c8073c0a323beceb851d5fa"/> Korumburra pastor Ian Wilkinson and spouse Heather Wilkinson have been amongst these poisoned. - The Salvation Military Australia Museum/Fb

Patterson stated she turned “actually scared,” and by the point she returned house from the well being middle, she was “frantic.” She felt “accountable” as a result of she’d made the meal, and served it, and “individuals bought sick,” she stated.

On August 2, Patterson stated she dropped her youngsters in school, then took the dehydrator to the trash dump. She stated little one safety officers have been as a result of go to her home that afternoon, and he or she was “scared” about having a dialog concerning the meal and the dehydrator. “I used to be scared that they might blame me for it…. for making everybody sick,” she stated.

“I used to be scared they’d take away the youngsters,” she added.

Requested whether or not she had come to the belief that loss of life cap mushrooms could have been within the meal, Patterson stated, “No.”

She stated she thought there could be proof of “any foraged mushrooms” within the dehydrator.

Patterson additionally advised the courtroom she was accountable for three manufacturing facility resets of her cellphone. Her son did the primary. She stated she knew there have been pictures of mushrooms and the dehydrator in her Google pictures. “I simply panicked and didn’t need them to see them,” she stated. Requested who she was speaking about, she stated: “The detectives.”