Mushroom cook asks 'who died?' as police search home
Mushroom cook Erin Patterson asked police "who died?" when they arrived to search her home one week after serving up a poisonous meal to her estranged husband's family.
The 50-year-old is nearing the end of her triple-murder trial in regional Victoria, over the July 2023 toxic beef Wellington lunch she prepared which led to the deaths of three people, and near death of another.
Video from a police search seven days after the meal was shown to the jury on Tuesday as a detective gave evidence.
Detective Sergeant Luke Farrell said he arrived at Patterson's home in Leongatha, two hours' drive southeast of Melbourne, about 11.30am on August 5.
The jury was shown photos of dark-coloured, red-coloured and a multi-coloured plate in drawers and a dishwasher at the home, as well as Nagi Maehashi's RecipeTin Eats cookbook titled Dinner next to the stove.
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Farrell said he opened the cookbook and found a beef Wellington recipe on a page that was "spattered" with cooking liquids.
Photos of digital scales, a Sunbeam dehydrator manual, computer hard drives and tablets found in the home were also shown to the jury.
Most recipes for the dish found online contain mushrooms. (Source: istock.com)
He said the search concluded about 3.45pm that day but before leaving he sat down with Patterson and asked for her phone.
A video of that interaction was played to the jury, where Farrell sits opposite Patterson at her dining table.
"Thanks for your patience today, with the house search," he says to Patterson.
He said there was only one outstanding item, her mobile phone, and asked to "have a look".
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Patterson replied "of course", handed her phone over and he then asked if a pin code was required.
She replied it was either a four-digit code or a six-digit code, but could not remember "which one", and then leaned over the table to assist him with the phone.
Under cross-examination by defence barrister Colin Mandy SC, the detective confirmed Patterson's two children and dog were home during the search.
She "expressed surprise" at being told Heather Wilkinson had died when police arrived, he said.
The detective was read transcript of a video from that day, which stated Patterson was told the search warrant was "in connection to the deaths of two people over the last couple of days".
"Her response is 'who died?'" Mandy asked Farrell, to which he agreed.
Earlier today, a public health adviser was cross-examined by defence over alleged changes to the information Patterson had given her during a search of Asian stores for deadly mushrooms.
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Patterson had told Victorian Department of Health senior adviser Sally Ann Atkinson she'd purchased dried mushrooms from a store in Oakleigh, Clayton or Mount Waverley in April 2023 for a pasta dish.
Death cap mushrooms (file image). (Source: istock.com)
Atkinson claimed Patterson had changed her story, initially stating she had used some of the mushrooms in that dish, and later said she decided not to use them.
"At that time it sounded like she'd given me two conflicting pieces of information," she said today.
Atkinson said she was involved in public health efforts to track down mushrooms from July 31 to August 4, and said Patterson informed her on August 3 to also look at Asian stores in Glen Waverley.
After the investigation, which formally concluded on August 11, a report was compiled titled "The Patterson Family Outbreak", the jury was told.
Atkinson confirmed the health department found the poisoning was an "isolated incident" and the risk to public health was "very low" with no recalls of products warranted.
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It was "highly unlikely" the commercial supply chain of mushrooms had been contaminated with amatoxin, also known as death cap mushrooms, she said.
Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder, over Don and Gail Patterson and Wilkinson's deaths, and one of attempted murder.
The trial before Justice Christopher Beale continues.
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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.
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
More denials from mushroom murder-accused
Disagree. Disagree. Disagree. Those were Erin Patterson's responses to the prosecution's final three questions in her murder trial. Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC rounded out her marathon cross-examination on Thursday with three suggestions: that Patterson deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms in 2023, deliberately included them in the beef Wellington she served her former in-laws and did so intending to kill them. Patterson has pleaded not guilty to the murders of her estranged husband Simon's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, 70, his aunt Heather Wilkinson, 66, and the attempted murder of Heather's husband Ian. She denies deliberately poisoning her lunch guests on July 29, 2023 when she served them meals that included death cap mushrooms. Patterson was accused of more lies on her eighth and final day in the witness box at the Supreme Court in Morwell in regional Victoria. The 50-year-old was asked about her evidence that she dehydrated dried mushrooms she had bought from an Asian grocer before adding them to the beef Wellingtons. She agreed she never said this to anyone at the time and didn't mention putting the fungi into the dehydrator when she earlier admitted adding them to the lunch. "I suggest this is another lie you made up on the spot," Dr Rogers said, accusing Patterson of hedging her bets to try to make it sound like there were multiple possible sources for the death cap mushrooms. "Incorrect," the accused killer responded. The prosecutor also suggested Patterson lied about taking diarrhoea treatment following the lunch after the 50-year-old earlier claimed one reason she went to hospital was because she thought they would have something stronger. Patterson agreed she did not tell medical staff at the hospital she had taken the medication, maintaining no one asked. "If you were looking for something stronger, you would've told medical staff you had already taken Imodium and it didn't work," Dr Rogers said. "I don't agree," Patterson responded. She was also questioned about her evidence that she had to stop by the side of a road and go to the toilet in the bushes while driving her son to a flying lesson, something the boy denied during his testimony. "I suggest he did not recall you stopping by the bushes on the side of the road because it did not happen ... I suggest this is another lie you told the jury about how you managed the trip to Tyabb," Dr Rogers said. "Disagree," Patterson said. The mother-of-two said she had served her children reheated beef Wellington with the mushroom and pastry scraped off while she had a bowl of cereal the night after the deadly lunch. But Dr Rogers referred to her children's evidence, in which they suggested their mother had the same meal of leftovers the night after the fatal lunch. One of Patterson's children said she "ate the same as us", but Patterson told the court they were incorrect and denied eating the leftover food. She also denied that she "deliberately concealed" one of her phones, referred to at the trial as phone A, from police when they searched her house. Patterson said she switched from phone A to another, referred to as phone B, because the former was "not cutting it anymore". But the prosecution pointed to records that showed regular use from a SIM card in phone A until days after the mushroom lunch. Patterson said she conducted a factory reset of phone B because she wanted to use it and that was the phone she gave police. "I suggest to you that there was nothing wrong with phone A and this is another lie," Dr Rogers said. "Disagree," Patterson responded. Under defence barrister Colin Mandy SC's re-examination, Patterson became emotional as she talked about her daughter's ballet lessons and son's flying lesson. With all evidence in the trial concluded, Justice Christopher Beale told jurors about discussions they could expect before dismissing them for the day.
1News
a day ago
- 1News
'Wild goose chase': Patterson accused of inventing Asian grocer
Prosecutors have accused Erin Patterson of fabricating a key detail in her defence, telling the Supreme Court of Victoria she lied about buying mushrooms from an Asian grocery store in a bid to cover up the alleged poisoning of her in-laws. The Crown argues Patterson deliberately misled health authorities, doctors and police by claiming she purchased dried mushrooms from a shop in Melbourne's southeast, despite being unable to name the store or its location. "You lied about the source of the death cap mushrooms because you knew you were guilty of deliberately poisoning your four [relatives]," Crown Prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers SC said in court. "Incorrect," Patterson replied. Rogers told the court that Patterson had claimed to public health official Sally Ann Atkinson that she bought the mushrooms from a store somewhere in Oakleigh or Glen Waverley – areas she would be familiar with, having worked for the Monash Council. Yet, Patterson has never identified the store. ADVERTISEMENT "The Asian grocer story was a deliberate lie," Rogers alleged. Patterson insisted she wasn't sure where the mushrooms came from, but was trying to help. "I clarified... I think I made it clear at all times that I really wasn't sure, but I was trying to be helpful," she said. Woman accused of killing three people with poisonous mushrooms in beef Wellington testifies in her defence. (Source: 1News) She also told the court the mushrooms "smelled funny" when she first bought them, so she transferred them to a Tupperware container and later ran them through a food dehydrator – a detail Rogers suggested was "invented" to make the story sound more plausible. "You described the packaging in this way because you wanted it to sound like they were not commercially [provided] mushrooms," Rogers said. "That's incorrect," Patterson replied. ADVERTISEMENT In a tense back-and-forth, Patterson said she couldn't remember some of the details, including whether she herself accessed the iNaturalist website where sightings of death cap mushrooms had been logged in the months before the fatal lunch. "Well, somebody did," she said, "and that somebody could've been me." She also rejected allegations that she told doctors inconsistent things about where the mushrooms came from. When Rogers suggested she had changed her story about the mushrooms' weight and packaging to different officials, Patterson maintained: "It would have been me trying to clarify, not change." The prosecution argued the story mattered because it prompted a full-scale investigation by health officials – one they say was needlessly complicated by Patterson's misleading and inconsistent accounts. Patterson's defence lawyer Colin Mandy SC told the jury in opening remarks that these were not calculated lies, but rather actions made in panic and fear, as Patterson worried about being blamed. 'You went to Loch to collect death caps' Death cap mushrooms (file image). (Source: Prosecutors pointed to mobile phone data showing Patterson travelled to the town of Loch where death cap mushrooms had previously been spotted just hours before buying a food dehydrator. ADVERTISEMENT Dr Rogers alleged: "You went to Loch to collect death cap mushrooms. Within two hours, you bought a dehydrator." Patterson replied: "The only part of that that is true is that I bought a dehydrator." The court also heard further phone tower data allegedly placed Patterson in the Outtrim area on May 22, near a site where a well-known fungi expert had flagged death cap mushrooms on iNaturalist just one day earlier. Patterson said she didn't go there deliberately: "I didn't go to Outtrim, to Neilson St, and I don't remember going to Outtrim as a destination." Asked whether she may have passed through, she said: "That is possible, because you can pass through Outtrim on the way to Wonthaggi or Phillip Island." Rogers also suggested Patterson had "blitzed" dehydrated death cap mushrooms into powder and used it in the beef Wellingtons, comparing the method to how she'd previously hidden powdered mushrooms in her children's meals. Patterson rejected that claim, responding simply: "Disagree." ADVERTISEMENT Feeding leftovers to her children Most recipes for the dish found online contain mushrooms. (Source: Patterson admitted serving her children leftovers from the same lunch, telling the court: "It was the same lunch, yes." But she insisted the mushrooms had been removed. When asked why she proceeded with the meal after learning her in-laws were unwell, she said: "I didn't know or suspect that." When prosecutors suggested she hesitated to take her children to hospital for assessment after the lunch, Patterson admitted she asked doctors if it was "really necessary" because they had no symptoms. Rogers said it was not credible that, "if you thought, genuinely, that your children had eaten a potentially fatal poison... you'd be worried or stressed about pulling them out of school." Patterson replied: "The issue was mushrooms and they had not eaten the mushrooms." When asked if she loved her children, she responded: "I still love them." Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, maintaining the fatal July 2023 lunch was a tragic accident. The cross-examination of Erin Patterson in her triple murder trial continues.
