An Australian woman, Erin Patterson, who murdered her estranged husband’s parents and aunt by serving them a lethal beef wellington laced with poisonous mushrooms, has been imprisoned for a minimum of 33 years. Patterson, 50, lured her former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson to her home in Leongatha, Victoria, on July 29, 2023 for a luncheon. The meal, which also included mashed potatoes and green beans, was prepared with deadly death cap mushrooms, known as amanita phalloides. Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband and a Reverend, also ate the meal but survived after undergoing a liver transplant and spending months in hospital.
Earlier in 2023, during her trial in Morwell, a town two hours east of Melbourne, Patterson’s lawyer suggested that she fabricated a cancer diagnosis to use as an excuse not to invite her children, arranging a lunch meeting to discuss how to break the news about her ‘illness’. All four guests became violently ill, and Heather Wilkinson and the Patterson couple died. Reverend Wilkinson survived but has spoken of his ordeal, likening how the food made him feel to being “half alive.” Both Don and Gail Patterson were 70 years old at the time of their deaths, while Heather Wilkinson was 66.
Simon Patterson, her estranged husband and father of her two children, did not attend the meal, claiming he had been previously poisoned by Patterson on three occasions. During the victim impact statement, he described the dire situation of his children growing up without a complete family. Patterson maintains her innocence, asserting that the poisoning was accidental.
The guilty verdicts in her trial highlighted the dangerous nature of death cap mushrooms, which contain lethal toxins capable of causing organ failure, particularly in the liver and kidneys. Despite her conviction, the story has captivated Australia, drawing attention from media and documentary makers.
Source: https://news.sky.com/story/death-cap-mushroom-killer-erin-patterson-jailed-for-minimum-of-33-years-13418079
