Australian woman accused of murdering poisonous mushrooms gives her deadly lunch
An Australian woman was shocked by the public when she was accused of murdering her three elderly relatives of her estranged husband killed her deadly lunch with poisonous mushrooms.
Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with the murder of mother-in-law Gail Patterson in July 2023, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, as well as attempted murder by Heather husband Ian Wilkinson.
Prosecutors accused her of intentionally serving the Beef Wellington Death Cap Mushroom in Wellington, in Beef Wellington, Leongatha, a town about 135 kilometers from Melbourne and has about 6,000 people.
She denied the charges and said in her defense that the death was a “terrible accident.” If convicted, she faces life imprisonment.
The defendant, the first witness to her own defense, began evidence Monday afternoon, crying repeatedly as she told the court Wednesday that she might have accidentally incorporated mushrooms into the food she provided.
“Now, I think there are people in it who are foraging,” she said.
The court also heard Wednesday that Erin Patterson invented medical problems, partly because of sympathy from relatives of her estranged husband, who said she felt she was growing up.
“I don't want them to care about me stopping, so I keep going. I shouldn't have done that,” she told the court.
“Are you lying to them?” Mandy asked.
“I did lie to them,” the defendant replied in tears.
Prosecutors accused Patterson of inventing medical problems to attract victims to her home, a claim she denied.
Prosecutors filed the case Monday after witness evidence, including evidence from relatives and medical, forensics and mushroom experts.
The trial began on April 29, with intense interest in Australian and international media, with podcasts, journalists and documentary makers landing in the town of Morwell, about 155 kilometers east of Melbourne, where the trial was held.
The state broadcaster ABC’s daily podcast on litigation proceedings is currently the most popular broadcasting program in the country, and many Australian newspapers have been running live blogs on this case.
The trial, which was scheduled to end this month, is still continuing.
