Mushroom experts speak at trial

Australia Broadcast Center

14-05-2025

Samantha Donovan: To the trial in regional Victoria of accused triple murderer Erin Patterson now where mushroom experts have been giving evidence. Ms Patterson's mother and father-in-law and her husband's aunt died after eating a Beef Wellington lunch. She served them in 2023. Prosecutors allege it contained poisonous death cat mushrooms. Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and to another charge of attempted murder. For the latest, I spoke a little earlier to ABC reporter Sacha Payne, who's in Morwell for the trial. Sacha , the trial has been hearing evidence from mycologists, which I understand are mushroom experts. One has been from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. What has he told the court?
Sacha Payne: Yes, well, we've heard a lot of detail in the last couple of days about mushrooms in particular. There's been a lot of discussion and questions in the trial till now about the health status of Erin Patterson, the relationship she's had with her family and her ex-husband, and also, of course, the health status of the guests at the lunch. But in the last couple of days, we've really drilled down into death cat mushrooms, identifying mushrooms and how difficult it is to actually identify mushrooms just from a photo. Now, yesterday we heard from a globally recognised mushroom expert, Dr Tom May. He told us yesterday that he had seen death cat mushrooms growing when he went on a walk in Outrim, which is in South Gippsland, not far from where Ms Patterson lives. He says that he took photos and he uploaded those photos to a website which is called the iNaturalist website. He was questioned again today in detail about mushrooms on that website. The court was shown dozens of different mushrooms. Some were death cats, some were not. And Dr May was asked about the difficulty in identifying a death cat mushroom just from a photo. And he says he admitted that there is a range of edible mushrooms that share physical similarities like colour with death cat mushrooms. And that there are many native species of mushrooms, including aminata, of which the death cap is one species of aminata.
Samantha Donovan: And there was another mushroom expert giving evidence today. And I understand she talked about the actual Beef Wellington meal that Erin Patterson served to her guests. What was her evidence to the court?
Sacha Payne: Well, yes, Dr Camille Truong, who also works at the Royal Botanic Gardens with Dr May. So she's another mycologist, a mushroom researcher who specialises very specifically in mushrooms. She said she received a call that a package had been dropped off for her at the Royal Botanic Gardens several days after the lunch. And when the guests were in hospital showing signs of mushroom poisoning and when Ms Patterson was also in hospital, she says that she examined the leftovers. The package was sent to her at her home. She says it contained large resealable bags with food inside. And that when she looked at them under a microscope, she looked for what kind of mushrooms were in there. She was asked by the prosecution, did you find any death cat mushroom pieces? And she said, no, she didn't. She says she then took the sample to the Royal Botanic Gardens the next day and again looked at it under a microscope and again was asked, did you find any signs of death cat mushrooms? And she says, no, she didn't. But all she found in the sample that she looked at were field mushrooms that are commonly found at supermarkets.
Samantha Donovan: The ABC's Sacha Payne reporting from Morwell in Gippsland.