Erin Patterson, visiting lawyers one month after the deadly mushroom meal, was a member of a true-crime chat group.
Erin Patterson, visiting lawyers one month after the deadly mushroom meal, was a member of a true-crime chat group.
Erin Patterson is on trial for allegedly poisoning her estranged husband’s family with death cap mushrooms.
She pleaded not guilty, claiming the poisoning was unintentional and a tragic accident.
Three members of the family died and one survived, after the July 2023 lunch.
Alleged triple-murderer Erin Patterson shared her love for mushrooms and complained about her husband and his family in a true-crime chat group, her trial has been told.
The 50-year-old mother is facing trial in the Latrobe Valley, in regional Victoria, Australia, after pleading not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
Prosecutors allege she deliberately poisoned four members of her estranged husband’s family with death cap mushrooms at a lunch on July 29, 2023.
Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died after the meal, while Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson survived.
This week, three women who got to know Patterson through a true-crime Facebook group that sprang up after a 2019 documentary on convicted murderer Keli Lane to discuss the case gave the jury an insight into the accused killer’s online world.
Ian Wilkinson, who survived a deadly mushroom lunch cooked by Erin Patterson.
Non-profit manager Christine Hunt, stay-at-home mum Daniela Barkley and semi-retired social worker Jenny Hay were called to give evidence at Patterson’s trial.
Each said they had never met the accused woman in person but developed a supportive friendship.
“We were quite open with one another,” the jury was told.
The true-crime group spun off to a small private social space around the start of the Covid pandemic where each woman would share details about their lives and offer support to one another.
It was in this chat, the women said, that over the following three years Patterson vented about the difficulties of being a single mother after separating from her husband, Simon Patterson.
They told the jury the initial Keli Lane page splintered over time from about 2000 members into smaller groups centred around discussing current affairs, crime and politics.
“I think we’d just become closer friends and just wanted to have a group that was just ours,” Hay said.
“It was just day-to-day life, our families, friends, work, current events, whatever was going on in our lives, and we were quite open with one another.”
Hunt told the jury the small group of women “did lean into each other’s lives and we were a support for each other”.
She said Patterson would share details about her children, her relationship with Simon and living in Leongatha.
Barkley told the jury she thought Patterson was a “wonderful mother” and devoted to her son and daughter, but sometimes shared about “how sad she felt”.
Particularly, Barkley noted, Patterson vented that it was difficult to get along with her husband and felt that he favoured their daughter over the son.
Alleged mushroom poisoner was a ‘super-sleuth’, says friend
Barkley told the jury towards the beginning of their friendship, Patterson was a prolific poster in the true-crime group.
More texts from Erin Patterson about her childhood have been revealed during the trial.
“She was quite active at the beginning, perhaps in the first couple of years, but in the last year or so, she barely posted in there,” she said.
Hunt said the accused woman had made a name for herself as a “super-sleuth”, able to dig up details about true crime cases they discussed.
“She was a really good researcher,” she said.
“So she, in the group, in the earlier times, when we would, you know, really be focused on true crime, she was well known to be able to research and get information quickly from the internet.
Hunt told the jury Patterson was “well known” for her ability to find new information on cases they were discussing in the news.
Estranged husband was ‘controlling’ and ‘coercive’, Patterson claimed
Barkley and Hunt were questioned on what information Patterson had shared in their group about her relationship with Simon Patterson.
Hunt told the court her online friend had shared concerns about her separated husband being controlling.
“I understood they’d sort of grown apart, they were going in different directions,” she said.
“I understood that she was self-sufficient, although she had some concerns about him paying his share, I guess, is how you’d put it and that he was very controlling.
“She’d used the word ‘coercive’ at times and also that his family were very demanding.”
Don Patterson and Gail Patterson, Erin Patterson's former parents-in-law, died after a suspected mushroom poisoning. Photo / Supplied
Hunt said Patterson appeared to dislike Simon and his family’s “demands” that their children attend faith-based education.
Barkley told the jury she formed the view that Simon “wasn’t a very nice person”.
“He wanted to be involved in the kids’ lives, so she was quite happy with him wanting to be regularly involved, but I think it had more to do with just his cleanliness and things like that she wasn’t happy with,” she said.
“She didn’t want the kids to sleep over there at night because she wasn’t happy with the way he lived.”
Friends claim Patterson found strong religious background ‘challenging’
Hunt told the jury Patterson had shared she was an atheist and had issues with her husband’s “very strong” Baptist background and faith.
“She found that challenging and in particular the decisions around things like divorce, separation, how the kids should be educated and brought up,” she said.
She was pressed on this by Patterson’s barrister, Colin Mandy, SC, who suggested that while his client was an atheist in the past, at the time of the conversation she held Christian beliefs.
Hunt responded saying she believed Patterson was “two-sided on that”.
“I think that was – you know, she went to church is the impression I got, because of the family situation,” she said.
“But she was saying to us publicly in that group that she didn’t necessarily believe in God.”
Similarly, Barkley told the jury she felt like Patterson believed Simon “put the church before her and his family”.
Alleged poisoner was ‘excited’ about mushrooms, jury told
Two of Patterson’s friends were quizzed on what they knew about her interest in mushrooms.
Barkley told the jury she “always knew” Patterson loved mushrooms, while Hunt said she “seemed to really like mushrooms”.
The jury was shown a series of photographs shared by Patterson to the Facebook group of her drying mushrooms in a dehydrator.
Two messages from Patterson to the group were also tendered to the trial as evidence.
“I’ve been hiding powdered mushrooms in everything. Mixed it into chocolate brownies yesterday, the kids had no idea,” one message reads.
Another said: “So fun fact the dehydrator reduces mushroom mass by 90%. Do you think Woolies would mind if I put the dehydrator into their vegetable section and dry things before I buy them.”
Hay told the jury she remembered Patterson telling the group that she had purchased a dehydrator around the time of February or March 2023.
“I remember her talking about blitzing it to make powder to put in things so that the kids would eat it... She seemed to use them a lot.”
Barkley said she believed the photos were shared “a couple of months before the lunch” or “sometime in 2023”.
“Erin sent it to us. She was excited about dehydrating mushrooms,” she said.
Patterson asked for advice on beef Wellington: friends
A few weeks before the lunch with her in-laws where she served a beef Wellington dish containing death cap mushrooms, her friends told the court she asked for advice.
Three members of the family died after Erin Patterson served them a beef Wellington that contained death cap mushroom.
“I remember her saying, ‘How do I make sure that it’s not soggy?’ and I said just make sure you wrap the pastry as close to putting it in the oven as possible and that will help stop it being soggy,” Hay said.
According to Barkley, a couple of days later, Patterson posted to the group from the supermarket questioning whether a particular cut of meat would work.
“Erin was out at the shops and I think that she sent through a photo asking if this one is okay,” she told the jury.
