Patterson’s parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson died from multiple organ failure linked to mushroom poisoning in the week after the lunch on July 29, 2023.
Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, was the only lunch guest to survive after he, too, became seriously ill.
Prosecutors argued that the only reasonable explanation for the deaths was that Patterson knowingly sought out death cap mushrooms and included them in the beef Wellington, intending to kill her or seriously injure her guests.
Her defence had argued that she accidentally included the deadly mushrooms and later acted poorly out of panic that she would be wrongly blamed.
The keenly watched 10-week trial ended on July 7 when, after seven days of deliberations, the jury unanimously found Patterson guilty of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
Patterson, 50, is yet to be sentenced.
