
Australian woman on trial for mushroom murder of in-laws says she was trying to fix a ‘bland' lunch
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Before Erin Patterson's in-laws and their relatives arrived at her home for lunch, she bought pricey ingredients, consulted friends about recipes and sent her children out to a movie.
Then, the Australian woman served them a dish containing poisonous death cap mushrooms — a meal that was fatal for three of her four guests.
Whether that was Patterson's plan is at the heart of a triple murder trial that has gripped Australia for nearly six weeks.
Prosecutors in the Supreme Court case in the state of Victoria say the accused lured her guests to lunch with a lie about having cancer, before deliberately feeding them toxic fungi.
But her lawyers say the tainted beef Wellington she served was a tragic accident caused by a mushroom storage mishap. She denies murdering her estranged husband's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and their relative, Heather Wilkinson.
The mother of two also denies attempting to murder Heather's husband Ian Wilkinson, who survived the meal. In a rare step for a defendant charged with murder, Patterson chose to speak in her own defense at her trial this week.
On Wednesday, she spoke publicly for the first time about the fateful lunch in July 2023 and offered her explanations on how she planned the meal and didn't become sick herself.
Adding more mushrooms to a 'bland' meal
No one disputes that Patterson, 50, served death cap mushrooms to her guests for lunch in the rural town of Leongatha, but she says she did it unknowingly.
Patterson said Wednesday she splurged on expensive ingredients and researched ideas to find 'something special' to serve. She deviated from her chosen recipe to improve the 'bland' flavor, she said.
She believed she was adding dried fungi bought from an Asian supermarket from a container in her pantry, she told the court.
'Now I think that there was a possibility that there were foraged ones in there as well,' she told her lawyer, Colin Mandy. Patterson had foraged wild mushrooms for years, she told the court Tuesday, and had put some in her pantry weeks before the deaths.
The accused says she 'shouldn't have lied' about cancer
Patterson, who formally separated from her husband Simon Patterson in 2015, said she felt 'hurt' when Simon told her the night before the lunch that he 'wasn't comfortable' attending.
She earlier told his relatives that she'd arranged the meal to discuss her health. Patterson admitted this week that she never had cancer — but after a health scare, she told her in-laws she did.
In reality, Patterson said she intended to have weight loss surgery. But she was too embarrassed to tell anybody and planned to pretend to her in-laws that she was undergoing cancer treatment instead, she said.
'I was ashamed of the fact that I didn't have control over my body or what I ate,' a tearful Patterson said Wednesday. 'I didn't want to tell anybody, but I shouldn't have lied to them.'
Patterson says she threw up her mushroom meal
The accused said she believes she was spared the worst effects of the poisoned meal because she self-induced vomiting shortly after her lunch guests left. She had binged on most of a cake and then made herself throw up — a problem she said she had struggled with for decades.
Patterson also said she believes she had eaten enough of the meal to cause her subsequent diarrhea. She then sought hospital treatment but unlike her lunch guests, she quickly recovered.
At the hospital where her guests' health was deteriorating, her estranged husband asked her about the dehydrator she used to dry her foraged mushrooms, she said.
'Is that how you poisoned my parents?' she said Simon Patterson asked her.
Growing afraid she would be blamed for the poisoning and that her children would be taken from her, Patterson said she later disposed of her dehydrator. She told investigators she'd never owned one and hadn't foraged for mushrooms before.
While still at the hospital, she insisted she'd bought all the mushrooms at stores even though she said she knew it was possible that foraged mushrooms had accidentally found their way into the meal.
She was too frightened to tell anyone, Patterson said.
Also later, Patterson said she remotely wiped her cell phone while it sat in an evidence locker to remove pictures of mushrooms she'd foraged.
Prosecutors argued in opening their case in April that she poisoned her husband's family on purpose, although they didn't suggest a motive. She carefully avoided poisoning herself and faked being ill, they said.
The trial continues on Thursday with Patterson's cross-examination by the prosecutors. If convicted, she faces life in prison for murder and 25 years for attempted murder.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Toronto Sun
13 minutes ago
- Toronto Sun
Oklahoma executes a man who was transferred from federal custody by Trump officials
Published Jun 12, 2025 • 2 minute read FILE - This March 4, 2025, photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows John Fitzgerald Hanson. (Oklahoma Department of Corrections via AP,File) AP McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday whose transfer to state custody was expedited by the Trump administration. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, received a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10:11 a.m., prison officials said. Hanson was sentenced to die after he was convicted of carjacking, kidnapping and killing a Tulsa woman in 1999. Hanson, whose name in some federal court records is George John Hanson, had been serving a life sentence in federal prison in Louisiana for several unrelated federal convictions. Federal officials transferred him to Oklahoma custody in March to follow through on President Donald Trump's sweeping executive order to more actively support the death penalty. Hanson's attorneys argued in a last-minute appeal that he did not receive a fair clemency hearing last month, claiming that one of the board members who denied him clemency was biased because he worked for the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office when Hanson was prosecuted. A district court judge this week issued a temporary stay halting the execution, but that was later vacated. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Prosecutors alleged Hanson and accomplice, Victor Miller, kidnapped Mary Bowles from a Tulsa shopping mall. Prosecutors alleged the pair drove Bowles to a gravel pit near Owasso, where Miller shot and killed property owner Jerald Thurman. The two then drove Bowles a short distance away, where Hanson shot and killed Bowles, according to prosecutors. Miller received a no-parole life prison sentence for his role in the crimes. During last month's clemency hearing, Hanson expressed remorse for his involvement in the crimes and apologized to the victims' families. 'I'm not an evil person,' Hanson said via a video link from the prison. 'I was caught in a situation I couldn't control. I can't change the past, but I would if I could.' Hanson's attorneys acknowledged he participated in the kidnapping and carjacking, but said there was no definitive evidence that he shot and killed Bowles. They painted Hanson as a troubled youth with autism and who was controlled and manipulated by the domineering Miller. Both Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond and his predecessor, John O'Connor, had sought Hanson's transfer during President Joe Biden's administration, but the U.S. Bureau of Prisons denied it, saying the transfer was not in the public interest. World Celebrity World Sunshine Girls NHL


Winnipeg Free Press
30 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Mourners pay respects to late US Rep. Charles Rangel as his body lies in state at New York City Hall
NEW YORK (AP) — Mourners are paying their respects to former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel as his body lies in state Thursday at New York City Hall, an honor bestowed to a short list of political figures, including U.S. presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant. The outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat died May 26 at a New York hospital. He was 94. Rangel spent nearly five decades on Capitol Hill and was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. His funeral takes place Friday at St. Patrick's Cathedral in midtown Manhattan. A wake was held Tuesday at a church in Harlem, the upper Manhattan neighborhood where Rangel, nicknamed the 'Lion of Lenox Avenue,' was born and raised. Rangel's body arrived at City Hall on Wednesday, where there was a private evening viewing for his family in the landmark neoclassical building at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in lower Manhattan. On Thursday morning, a small group of mourners quietly came to pay their respects in City Hall as the surrounding streets bustled with tourists and workers. Rangel's closed casket sat in the building's marbled rotunda draped with an American flag. Uniformed police stood at rigid attention on either side of him, backed by the state and nation's flags. Mike Keogh, a 63-year-old lobbyist and former city council staffer, was among those who knew Rangel personally. 'He had the greatest voice in New York politics at the time. It was so rich and so full,' recalled Keogh. 'It just made you feel really warm to be around him and to really hang on every word.' Tina Marie grew up in Harlem and recalled Rangel as a part of the neighborhood's famed Gang of Four— Black Harlemites who rose to the very top of city and state politics in the 1970s through the 1990s. The others were David Dinkins, New York City's first Black mayor; Percy Sutton, who was Manhattan Borough president; and Basil Paterson, a deputy mayor and New York secretary of state. 'I didn't get to make the other three people's funerals so I wanted to come and pay my respects,' said Marie, who now works for the state education department steps from City Hall. 'I didn't agree with all the things they did, but they stood up for people who couldn't stand up for themselves.' Besides Presidents Lincoln and Grant, the others accorded the City Hall honors after death include statesman Henry Clay, newspaper publisher Horace Greeley and Civil War generals Abner Doubleday and Joseph Hooker. The last person to lie in state in City Hall was City Councilman James Davis, who was assassinated by a political opponent in the council's chambers, located the floor above the rotunda, in 2003. Doors opened for the public to pay their respects to Rangel at 9 a.m. Thursday. The viewing will run until 5 p.m. and will be followed by an honor guard ceremony with pallbearers representing the 369th Regiment, an all-Black unit from World War I known as the Harlem Hellfighters. Rangel's funeral at St. Patrick's on Friday will also be public and livestreamed. The Korean War vet defeated legendary Harlem politician Adam Clayton Powell in 1970 to start his congressional career. Rangel went on to become the dean of the New York congressional delegation and the first African American to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee in 2007. He was censured in 2010 by his fellow House members — the most serious punishment short of expulsion — following an ethics scandal. Rangel relinquished his post on the House's main tax-writing committee, but continued to serve until his retirement in 2017, becoming one of the longest-serving members in the chamber's history. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, also a New York Democrat, lauded Rangel as a 'patriot, hero, statesman, leader, trailblazer, change agent and champion for justice' when his death was announced last month.


Toronto Star
39 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Dutch center-left parties unite to challenge the right in a historic merger
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Two center-left Dutch political parties agreed Thursday to a formal merger, just months away from a general election where they will seek to turn the political tide in the Netherlands away from right-wing populism. Members of the Labor Party and Green Left both voted overwhelmingly in favor of the move to form a single new party. The parties have been working together in parliament for years.