Erin Patterson murder trial live: police informant to continue evidence on day 21 of mushroom case

The Guardian

28-05-2025

Update:
Date: 2025-05-28T00:29:07.000Z
Title: Day 20 recap
Content: While we wait for today's proceedings to get under way, here is a recap of what the jury heard on Tuesday:
A Victorian Department of Health official said the investigation into the fateful lunch concluded it was 'highly unlikely' that commercial mushroom supply chains were contaminated with death cap mushroom toxins.
A homicide detective said Erin Patterson 'expressed surprise' when she learned that some of her guests had died while police conducted a search of her property on 5 August 2023.
The prosecution called their final witness in the trial, Det Leading Sen Const Stephen Eppingstall, who led the police investigation into the lethal lunch. During his testimony, the prosecution played jurors a video of Patterson's police interview recorded on 5 August 2023.
In the video, Patterson told police she did not own a dehydrator but owned manuals for lots of things. The court was previously shown photographs of a manual for a Sunbeam dehydrator that police located in a kitchen drawer during the search of Patterson's Leonagtha house on 5 August 2023.
Eppingstall said police tried to track Patterson's vehicle during an 11-minute window on the evening following the lunch when she dropped her son at Subway in Leongatha and picked him up. He said police were unable to find any footage to determine where she had gone during this time.
Update:
Date: 2025-05-28T00:29:07.000Z
Title: Welcome
Content: to day 21 of Erin Patterson's triple murder trial.
We're expecting today's evidence to begin after 10.30am once the jurors enter the court room.
Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in Leongatha, in regional Victoria, on 29 July 2023.
She is accused of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and her estranged husband's aunt, Heather Wilkinson. The attempted murder charge relates to Heather's husband, Ian.
She has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The prosecution alleges Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests with 'murderous intent', but her lawyers say the poisoning was a tragic accident.