What it's like to live in the town hosting the triple-murder mushroom trial
By
Daniel Miles
and
Bec Symons
, ABC
Claudia Davies has spent nearly 20 years running a small cafe in Morwell.
Photo:
ABC News / Danielle Bonica
On a regular Wednesday morning in late April, it's easy enough to find a park along Morwell's main street.
But this week is no regular week.
The regional Victorian town, just shy of two hours' south-east of Melbourne, has found itself at the centre of an international media spotlight as it plays host to the
triple-murder mushroom trial
.
The otherwise unassuming Gippsland town is awash with journalists, bloggers, podcasters and more - notebooks and microphones at the ready to capture every detail aired in court.
But for those who live in Morwell, it feels less like a case of the circus coming to town, more like an unusual sideshow.
In fact, many didn't even know the trial was on.
"I'll be honest with you, I only realised because I went down to the local council [building] and couldn't get a park," Latrobe City Business Chamber president Peter Ceeney said with a laugh.
Media representatives from Australia and abroad have travelled to Morwell to cover the mushroom trial.
Photo:
ABC News / Danielle Bonica
Morwell is normally home to about 15,000 people, though numbers have edged up slightly this week.
Erin Patterson's trial
has thrown a new spotlight on Morwell, a town better known for coal power, an old paper mill and a few handy sportspeople.
Hotels and motels had their house-full signs ready well in advance, as the few accommodation options in town quickly filled.
Ray Burgess runs the local newsagent.
He wasn't expecting a rush on pens and paper despite the pundits coming to town.
"If I look out the front door to the left, where the legal precinct is, yeah, it's certainly busier down there," he said with a wry laugh.
"There seems to be a bit of a police presence and there's cameras and things … there's definitely some folk around."
Ray Burgess says there has been a flurry of activity in Morwell's legal precinct this week.
Photo:
ABC News / Danielle Bonica
Burgess is a local character and one of the first people you would call for an update via the town's bush telegraph.
But he said things have stayed relatively quiet when it came to the trial.
"There are a few new faces around in the street, but I don't know how long the excitement will last," he said.
At Claudia's Cafe, a small single-front cafe just down the road from the courthouse, business has been less-than-booming.
Like much of the town, Claudia's has been steady - if a little quiet.
Chatting with one hand on the coffee machine, owner Claudia Davies said she was hoping the trial would give her tills and the town at least a temporary boost.
Claudia Davies says her cafe has a loyal client base.
Photo:
ABC News / Danielle Bonica
"I'd imagine we'll get a little busier, we're only about 100 metres from the court," Davies said.
Davies has run Claudia's for 18 years and of late, has been doing it hard, like many hospitality venues.
She said she hoped to put away a little bit of the extra mushroom trial money to go towards her taxes.
"The town's just sleepy, that's the way it is," she said.
Across town, Christina Gu has been prepping for the arrival of the world's media and their lunch breaks.
"My boss will put more staff on and when we're doing the morning preparation, we're going to make more sushi and have more staff in the kitchen," she said.
After living in Morwell for a decade, Gu said she was looking forward to meeting new people and hearing fresh perspectives.
"I want to know their idea of our town, our food, and why they come," she said.
"I'm getting excited for everything."
Some Morwell residents say the mushroom trial's media pack made finding a park on the main street more difficult.
Photo:
ABC News / Danielle Bonica
The consistent factor among the residents was a sense of pride in their little town.
Each hoped for a glimmer of hope to come from the town's moment in the media spotlight.
"Like most country towns, it has its issues but it really is a pretty little town," Burgess said.
Outside the courtroom, life will continue much as usual for Morwell's residents - just with a few more newsy tourists than normal.
Plenty in town remain blissfully unaware the court case is even under way.
The Morwell Tigers will host Wonthaggi Power at their home ground this weekend.
A few extra drinks have been ordered, but that's for a past players' function, not an expected media scrum.
"We haven't got any changes with the trial coming up," Tigers president Michael Stobbart said.
If anything, he said he hoped the attention on Morwell might shine a light on the region's real challenges, like crime.
"I haven't really noticed anything different around town," he added.
Some Morwell residents have said they were surprised to learn the trial was happening this week.
Photo:
ABC News / Danielle Bonica
Not that there's nothing else happening.
The town's rose garden, an international award winner, is still putting on a few blooms even as winter creeps closer.
And for those journalists lingering through the weekend, a stroll through the local gallery might offer some unexpected inspiration.
Two exhibitions are on show with free entry, including a collection celebrating wit and pun.
Safe to say, the headline writers should feel right at home.
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RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
What Erin Patterson told mushroom murder trial during week in witness box
By Joseph Dunstan for ABC Erin Patterson is accused of killing three relatives by serving them beef Wellington containing death cap mushrooms. Photo: ABC News: Anita Lester For eight days, Erin Patterson took a seat in the witness box of a Morwell courtroom in Victoria, Australia. For hours, she told a Supreme Court murder trial jury she had never planned for the three lunch guests who dined at her table two years ago to suffer an agonising death, due to death cap mushroom poisoning. Her evidence was, at times, emotional and deeply personal, and all occurred under the gaze of a public gallery, as well as surviving lunch guest Ian Wilkinson and his family. These are just some of the issues canvassed during Patterson's evidence and cross-examination. A week after the deadly lunch, Patterson told police she had "never" foraged mushrooms, before serving up beef Wellingtons containing the deadly death cap mushroom to her relatives, but in her evidence to the jury, the 50-year-old said she had lied to police. Patterson told the court, back during Victoria's Covid-19 lockdowns, she began to experiment with foraging around the Leongatha-Korumburra area, during walks with her children. She said she had always enjoyed eating mushrooms, because "they taste good and they're very healthy", and later told the court she had eaten a kilo of sliced mushrooms in the days before she hosted her in-laws for lunch. While her children told police they did not recall their mother ever foraging for mushrooms, Patterson maintained she had done so and her children "definitely saw what I was doing". She said she bought a food dehydrator in April 2023, because she enjoyed eating wild mushrooms, but they had a "very small season" of availability. Erin Patterson's relationship to her lunch guests. Photo: ABC News "You can't keep them too long in the fridge, so it was one way of sort of preserving them and having them available later on throughout the year," Patterson told the court. In cross-examination, lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC described Ms Patterson's interest in foraging non-toxic mushrooms as "a story you have made up for this jury". "It is a lie you have come up with to try and explain why you put foraged death cap mushrooms in the meal you served on 29 July," Dr Rogers suggested. "No," Patterson responded. Patterson told the jury she had foraged in several areas between 2020-23, including around her home, the Korumburra Botanic Gardens and a rail trail in the Leongatha area. She said she had never foraged at Loch or Outtrim, where death cap mushrooms were flagged on the iNaturalist website in the months before the lunch. These two locations were places where prosecutors alleged she did in fact forage - with murderous intent. "You drove to Loch from your house at Leongatha to specifically find death cap mushrooms on 28 April," Dr Rogers suggested to the accused. "Disagree," Patterson responded. The prosecutor claimed it was on the way back from picking death cap mushrooms at Loch that Patterson bought her dehydrator, with the intention of preparing the death caps for her lethal meal. While Patterson agreed that she bought the dehydrator on 28 April, she rejected the prosecutor's claim about her purpose, telling the court she used it to dry non-toxic mushrooms and a variety of fruits. Patterson told the jury the main purpose of the lunch was to help strengthen her relationship with parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, as well as aunty-in-law Heather Wilkinson and her husband, Ian. Amid some tension in her relationship with estranged husband Simon, Patterson said she wanted to ensure her children could still enjoy a good relationship with their grandparents, but the children were not present at the lunch. Patterson told the court, when she mentioned the lunch to them, her daughter expressed more interest in seeing a movie with her brother and his friend. In separate police interviews held weeks after the lunch, Patterson's two children recalled their mother telling them the lunch was for adults only. Patterson told the court her children were mistaken. "I mean, I'm sure at one point I probably said to [my daughter], 'We'll talk about boring adult stuff', but I didn't tell her 'You can't be at the lunch, I don't want you to be at the lunch'," Patterson said. Dr Rogers shared an alternative explanation with Patterson. The prosecution alleges Erin Patterson foraged for death cap mushrooms intentionally. Photo: Supplied/iNaturalist "The truth is, I suggest, you wanted them out of the way, because you did not want them anywhere near what you were going to serve to your guests, I assume you'll disagree with that?" "Correct," Patterson said. Patterson was also questioned at length about the messages sent to lunch invitees in the lead-up to the Saturday meal. In them, she lied repeatedly to her mother-in-law about medical investigations into a health issue that did not exist. The court heard from the prosecution that Gail Patterson had noted down the date of one of her daughter-in-law's supposed appointments and had texted her to check how it was all going. Patterson told the court that, during the meal, she led her guests to believe she might need treatment for ovarian cancer, when that was not the case. She said she was to embarrassed to tell them the truth - that she was planning to have gastric-bypass surgery later that year and wanted to know they would be there to support her. Under cross-examination, Patterson later conceded that a clinic where she had told the court she was booked in for a gastric-bypass pre-surgery appointment months after the lunch did not in fact offer gastric-bypass surgery at all, telling the court that she did not know this when she made the appointment in 2023. Defence barrister Colin Mandy SC later highlighted to the jury that the clinic appeared to offer liposuction in 2023 and Patterson told the court that this was also a procedure she had investigated. Dr Rogers put to Patterson that she used a series of lies to lure her guests to a deadly meal, which she had also hoped estranged husband Simon would attend. "I suggest that you never thought you would have to account for this lie about having cancer, because you thought that the lunch guests would die… and your lie would never be found out. Correct or incorrect?" Dr Rogers asked Patterson. "That's not true," Patterson said. The court heard an array of evidence about what precisely went into the individual beef Wellingtons served up to guests at Patterson's Leongatha home that Saturday. Patterson's evidence was that she followed the method outlined in a RecipeTin Eats cookbook, but had to make a major variation, because she could only find individual eye fillets, rather than the larger cut of meat called for to prepare the traditional beef Wellington log. She rejected the prosecution's claim that the real reason was so she could include death cap mushrooms in the Wellingtons of her guests, but not her own. While preparing the mushroom duxelles or paste that coats the meat in the dish, Patterson said a cook-up of store-bought button mushrooms tasted "bland", so she added dried mushrooms from a container. An emotional Patterson told the court that, at the time, she believed the container only held dried mushrooms bought from an Asian grocer in Melbourne's south-east, but she now believed foraged mushrooms may have been in there as well. Patterson told the court, when she opened the grocer-purchased dried mushrooms, they had a "pungent" smell, so she set them aside, but she believed the beef Wellington dish would be the "perfect" use for them. Erin Patterson has completed giving testimony in her murder trial in Morwell. Photo: ABC News The very existence of this packet of dried mushrooms has also been disputed by the prosecution, who argued it was a "deliberate lie" cooked up on the Monday after the lunch. On that Monday, Patterson had attended Leongatha Hospital shortly after 8am and was questioned by doctors on the origins of ingredients in the meal. The doctor who asked her those questions, Chris Webster, previously told the court that, when he asked where the mushrooms in the meal had come from, Patterson simply told him they were from Woolworths. When she spoke to another doctor after a roughly 90-minute absence from the hospital, Dr Rogers put to her that she "added a detail" to her story, telling that doctor some of the mushrooms had come from an Asian grocer. "That's what you spent the one hour and 40 minutes doing while you were away from the hospital - thinking about ways to cover your tracks?" Dr Rogers asked. "You're saying I spent an hour and a half thinking? Is that what you're suggesting?" Patterson said. "I'm sure I did some thinking in that time, but it was not about covering my tracks," The prosecution also challenged Patterson on her claim she fed her children leftover meat from the beef Wellington meal for dinner on the Sunday night. Dr Rogers said, given Patterson had told the court she was a loving mother, the explanation for her initial reluctance to bring her children into hospital was that she knew for sure they had never eaten a bite of the death-cap-contaminated meal. "You told the lie about feeding leftovers from the beef Wellington to your children, I suggest, because it gave you some distance from a deliberate poisoning?" Dr Rogers asked Patterson. "I don't see how it could, but I disagree anyway," Patterson replied. The murder trial heard from several medical witnesses that Patterson did not display the same severity of symptoms of death cap mushroom poisoning as her four lunch guests. Patterson, who told the court she suffered from binge eating and body-image issues from a young age, recounted that, after her guests had left, she ate two-thirds of an orange cake left behind, and then went to the toilet and made herself vomit. She also told the court she had eaten somewhere between a quarter and half of her beef Wellington meal. When asked if she was telling the jury she had vomited up her portion of beef Wellington, Patterson said she could not be sure. "I have no idea what was in the vomit," she said. She said, late on Saturday night and into Sunday, she began to experience regular diarrhoea and even had to stop by the roadside to relieve herself during a car trip with her children. Patterson told the court her son was mistaken when he told police he had seen her drinking coffee in the kitchen on Sunday morning. Instead, she said, it was something like a lemon and ginger tea. In a conversation with her husband on Monday, Patterson - who was in Leongatha Hospital, being treated for suspected death cap mushroom poisoning - suggested she could make the trip to pick up her children and bring them to hospital. The court heard Mr Patterson, whose parents were by this stage seriously unwell, responded: "I'm glad that you feel healthy enough to make that drive to pick up the kids." Dr Rogers suggested to Patterson that she paused before agreeing that Mr Patterson could pick up the children, because she realised that insisting on picking them up would "undermine" her alleged pretence of being unwell. Patterson said she could not recall whether she paused or not, but recalled her husband's "really sarcastic tone" had put her off a bit. It led to one of several testy exchanges between the lead prosecutor and the accused, as Dr Rogers asked Patterson if she was "making this up as you go along". "No," Patterson replied. She later told the prosecutor that it was "incorrect" that she had deliberately tried to make it seem like she was suffering from death cap mushroom poisoning, because she knew it would look suspicious if she was not unwell. When Dr Rogers suggested she had not, in fact, suffered from death cap mushroom poisoning, Patterson said: "I have no idea." After Patterson stepped down from the witness box, Justice Christopher Beale told the jurors in her trial that the end of her testimony marked the "completion of the evidence in this case". In coming days, the jurors will hear from the prosecution and defence, as the two legal teams summarise why the river of evidence that has flowed through Courtroom 4 in the Latrobe Valley law courts should lead them to reach a verdict of guilty or not guilty respectively. After final instructions from the judge, the jurors will then be asked to deliberate on their verdict. - ABC
NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
Erin Patterson murder trial: Mushroom cook grilled in Australian court on sixth beef wellington dish
Patterson disputed a suggestion by Rogers that the sixth was for her husband, Simon, if he changed his mind and attended. 'I didn't make that sixth one for Simon,' she said. 'It's just an extra one. Simon wasn't coming.' Erin Patterson said her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, was not expected at the lunch. Photo / NewsWire Mandy took Patterson to her Woolworths rewards data, which the barrister said showed the purchase of five twin packs of beef eye fillet steaks. 'I had five twin packs, I put two in the freezer, and I had six to make,' Patterson said. 'So I did that.' She said she had enough ingredients to prepare a sixth dish, so she did, thinking she could eat it another day. Simon Patterson's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and aunt, Heather Wilkinson, died after eating a meal at Erin Patterson's home on July 29, 2023, in the country Victorian town of Leongatha. Wilkinson's husband, Ian Wilkinson, survived after spending about a month and a half in hospital. Prosecutors allege Patterson deliberately poisoned the guests with death cap mushrooms, while her defence argues it was a tragic accident. Jury sent home for the day Jurors have been sent home for the day after they were told they'd reached the end of the evidence they would hear. Shortly before 1pm, after Mandy completed his re-examination of Patterson, the jury was told the defence had now closed its case. 'Ladies and gentlemen, that's the completion of the evidence in this case,' Justice Christopher Beale said. Justice Beale told jurors he was now required to have discussions with the two parties in their absence, 'and they could take a while'. He sent the jury home for the day, suggesting they might not be required to attend court on Friday. 'If you can just check your phone this evening, we will let you know if you get a long weekend or to come in tomorrow,' Justice Beale said. Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers and Detective Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall are involved in the ongoing mushroom trial. Photo / Getty Images Defence clarifies Patterson's evidence Mandy took Patterson to evidence she'd given last week that she had a pre-surgery appointment booked at the Enrich Clinic in Melbourne for September 2023. She told the jury she had decided to get gastric bypass surgery, and this was the medical issue she'd mentioned in messages to her husband before the fatal lunch. On Tuesday, Rogers produced evidence that the clinic had never offered gastric bypass surgery. Mandy produced a screenshot of a message on the Enrich Clinic's website saying it would 'no longer' be offering liposuction as of June 2024. Patterson told the court that she had not had an appointment and believed they'd 'offered a full range of weight-loss surgery'. 'I was obviously mistaken,' she said. Prosecution asks three final questions Shortly after 11.30am, Rogers remarked that the jury would be pleased that she had three final questions for Patterson after a week of cross-examination. Rogers suggested that Patterson deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms, deliberately included them in the beef wellington and did so intending to kill her four guests. Patterson responded 'disagree' three times to each of the propositions. 'Your Honour, I have no further questions,' Rogers said. Mandy rose to his feet, telling the court that he had about 30 minutes of re-examination for Patterson before asking for a half-hour break. The jury then took a mid-morning break. Erin Patterson's defence team worked to clarify her evidence about booking in at a clinic. Photo / Getty Images Erin disputes children's account of leftovers In her evidence, Patterson said she scraped off the mushrooms and pastry of the lunch leftovers for her son and daughter and served herself a bowl of cereal because she wasn't feeling well. In her children's evidence, both said Patterson had plated herself up some leftovers too. Her daughter said Patterson 'wasn't very hungry' and her son ate his portion and the remainder of his mother's. Asked if her son and daughter were 'wrong about what you prepared yourself for dinner that night', Patterson agreed. Alleged poisoner grilled on bush poo claim Rogers took Patterson to evidence she gave last week about stopping to defacate on the side of the road, because of diarrhoea, while driving her son to a flying lesson in Tyabb. Earlier in the trial, the jury was told Patterson drove her two children an hour and a half to Tyabb for the lesson on the afternoon of July 30, 2023, but it was cancelled shortly before they arrived and she turned around. Patterson claimed she was suffering nausea and regular diarrhoea that day and stopped 30 minutes into the trip. Rogers took Patterson to her son's evidence, where he said that at no stage did his mother stop to use the toilet. 'I suggest he did not recall it because it did not happen?' Rogers asked. 'Disagree,' Patterson replied. 'This is another lie you told to explain how you managed the trip to Tyabb?' the prosecutor continued. 'Disagree,' Patterson said. Mushroom cook denies 'wild goose chase' claim Facing questions from Rogers on Wednesday, Patterson denied she led health authorities on a 'wild goose chase' as they probed the mushroom poisoning of her four lunch guests. Giving evidence last week, Patterson maintained that she used dried mushrooms in the deadly lunch that she had bought from an Asian grocer in Melbourne's east in about April 2023. She told the court she initially planned to use them in a pasta dish but decided they would be too overpowering and stored them in a Tupperware container in her pantry. She said she now believed she may have added foraged wild mushrooms to that container. Facing questions from Rogers on Wednesday, Patterson was asked if she was worried about them being too strong for the beef wellington. 'No, I didn't think that. I thought it was the perfect dish for them,' she responded. Rogers went on to probe the exchange Patterson had with Department of Health officer Sally Ann Atkinson about the Asian grocer. Atkinson gave evidence that she communicated with Patterson over several days in earlier August amid a public health probe into the poisoning. Text messages and calls between the pair showed Atkinson attempting to narrow down the location of the store. Rogers suggested Patterson was 'very familiar' with the area, owning a home in Mt Waverley and having previously worked for the Monash City Council. Patterson disputed this but did say she was familiar with the adjoining areas of Glen Waverley, Oakleigh and Clayton. Rogers suggested Patterson was 'deliberately vague' about the location of the Asian grocer because it was a lie. 'Incorrect,' Patterson responded. 'I was doing my best to remember when it happened, but I think I was clear at all times that I didn't have a memory of the actual purchase.' The trial, now in its seventh week, continues.
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Erin Patterson finishes giving evidence as mushroom murder trial enters final stages
By Joseph Dunstan and Judd Boaz, ABC Erin Patterson has completed giving testimony in her murder trial in Morwell. Photo: ABC News Accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson has rejected a prosecution claim she carried out factory resets in a bid to deceive police about her mobile phones, as she came to the end of eight days in the witness box in her Supreme Court trial. Patterson has been charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder after three relatives - her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson - died from death cap mushroom poisoning following a lunch at her house on 29 July, 2023. A fourth lunch guest, Heather's husband Ian Wilkinson, became gravely ill after the meal but survived. At the close of the prosecution's cross-examination, Patterson reiterated her innocence of all four charges. In rapid fire, crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC put to Patterson the crux of the charges: that she "deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms" and put them in the dish she served to her lunch guests "intending to kill them". "Agree or disagree?" Dr Rogers asked. "Disagree," Patterson responded. The trial has now concluded hearing evidence and will move to closing arguments from the prosecution and defence, before the judge issues final instructions to the jury ahead of their deliberation. Over the course of the past six weeks of the murder trial, the prosecution has alleged Patterson owned and used two phones with two separate SIM cards - Phone A and Phone B. Phone A was never recovered by police, but under cross-examination on Thursday Patterson rejected prosecutors' assertion that that was because she had hidden the phone from police. Rogers showed the court extensive phone records from a SIM card that was in Phone A up until 5 August, 2023, a week after the lunch. The records indicated the phone was in regular use up until sometime between 12:01pm and 1:45pm, when the SIM card in Phone A lost connection with the network. At that time, police were conducting a search of Patterson's Leongatha home. Rogers put to Patterson that she removed the SIM card from Phone A when she was "afforded privacy to speak with a lawyer while police were at your home". Patterson disagreed and said her calls to a lawyer occurred at 2pm, after the alleged loss of connection. Patterson also rejected a claim from prosecutors that the reason she had conducted three factory resets on Phone B was so she could deceive police and "pass [it] off" as her regular phone. When police executed a search warrant on Patterson's home on 5 August, a week after the deadly lunch, it was Phone B that she gave to police. The prosecution suggested she did so as she knew there was no data on the phone to potentially incriminate her, which Patterson denied. Rogers took Patterson to records of three factory resets made on Phone B. Patterson had previously told the court of the following reasons for factory resetting the phone on these dates in 2023: On Thursday, Rogers suggested to Patterson she had carried out those resets for another reason. "I suggest that you did three factory resets of this phone, Phone B ... to conceal the true contents of Phone B ... so you could then pass off Phone B as your usual mobile phone, without police realising," Rogers said. Patterson agreed she carried out the three resets, but disagreed that she did for the reasons Rogers suggested. Rogers went on to assert that it was "all about hiding the contents of your usual mobile phone, Phone A", which she asserted Patterson had "deliberately concealed" because she knew the data on that device would "incriminate" her. Patterson rejected this assertion too. Throughout several days of cross-examination, Patterson's voice largely remained level as she answered prosecutors' questions. But during re-examination by her barrister, Colin Mandy SC, her voice became choked when asked about the need for her to pack her daughter's bag for a ballet rehearsal on the Monday after the lunch. The prosecution asserted this was in fact never required, but Patterson reaffirmed under re-examination that it was. Patterson's voice again cracked when discussing her son's flying lesson, explaining she did not cancel it following the lunch as he was "really passionate" about flying and "I just didn't want to disappoint him". The defence also asked about contradictions that arose during Patterson's cross-examination, such as her claim she had had an appointment in September 2023 to explore gastric-bypass surgery at a Melbourne clinic that did not in fact offer it. Patterson told the court that in 2023, she had believed the clinic offered gastric-band surgery, but on Thursday said she was "obviously mistaken". She told the court she had also intended to explore liposuction options. Mandy then asked Patterson about the sixth beef Wellington she cooked, which the prosecution has alleged was prepared in case her estranged husband attended the lunch and she could poison him as well. Patterson told the court she simply had an extra steak because of the way the eye fillets she bought were packaged. "I had five twin packs, I put two of the twin packs in the freezer and just decided to use the other six, I had enough ingredients ... so I did that," she said. The trial continues. - ABC
