Latest news with #mushroom
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Mushroom murderer Erin Patterson cops another major blow
The property at the centre of a deadly mushroom lunch has been restrained by the court after Erin Patterson was found guilty of triple murder. Victorian Supreme Court Justice Michelle Quigley granted the confiscation application over Patterson's Leongatha property on July 23 following a closed court hearing. A suppression over the restraining order was lifted at 5pm on Wednesday. Patterson was on July 7 found guilty of murdering her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66. She was also found guilty of the attempted murder of Heather's husband Ian Wilkinson. The jury found she deliberately served the four people beef Wellingtons laced with death cap mushrooms at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023. Patterson, 50, pleaded not guilty, claiming during her 11-week trial in Morwell that she did not intentionally poison her lunch guests. But 12 jurors returned the four guilty verdicts on July 7 after seven days of deliberations. On July 16, the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions made an application in the Supreme Court for the Leongatha property to be restrained under the confiscation act. The order was granted following a closed court hearing before Justice Quigley on July 23. A spokeswoman from the Office of Public Prosecutions confirmed the confiscation application was to prevent the property being sold or otherwise dealt with. 'This is to ensure that if any family members of Ms Patterson's victims apply for compensation or restitution, the property is available to satisfy any orders that are made by the court,' the OPP statement said. Patterson's lawyers have been approached for comment, while her ex-husband Simon declined a request. Patterson, who is facing the possibility of life behind bars, will return to court for a pre-sentence hearing later in 2025. After her sentence is handed down, she will have 28 days to file an appeal.
ABC News
20-07-2025
- ABC News
Mushroom lunch survivor Ian Wilkinson returns to church after Patterson guilty verdict
Mushroom lunch survivor and pastor Ian Wilkinson has made his return to the Korumburra Baptist Church for the first time since Erin Patterson was convicted of murdering his wife. A Supreme Court jury found Patterson guilty of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder after serving beef wellington dishes laced with death cap mushrooms at her Leongatha home in July 2023. In his sermon on Sunday, Mr Wilkinson gave everyone a warm welcome, including those visiting from interstate and watching online, and was applauded by the congregation. "Somebody's come all the way from Brisbane to be with us today," Mr Wilkinson said. "And we have some other visitors too. "I should introduce myself… my name is Ian; I used to lead services here. The light-hearted moment was met with laughter from the congregation, before it was straight back to business for Mr Wilkinson, who began the service by reading psalms and announcing upcoming events in Korumburra. Later in the service, a church member delivered a prayer. "We pray especially for the Wilkinson and Patterson families," she said. Mr Wilkinson did not break his silence on the outcome of the Erin Patterson trial. After eating the beef wellington at Erin Patterson's house, Mr Wilkinson spent a number of weeks recovering in hospital. Patterson was found guilty of murdering her parent-in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of her husband Mr Wilkinson by a jury earlier this month. Patterson, 50, had pleaded not guilty to the charges, telling the court the poisonous mushrooms were accidentally included in the meals she served to four relatives in 2023. Patterson, who was expected lodge an appeal of the guilty verdict, will be sentenced at a later date. The trial lasted more than two months, and the jurors heard from more than 50 witnesses.
The Verge
19-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Verge
A mushroom casket marks a first for ‘green burials' in the US
'I'm probably the only architect who created a final home,' Bob Hendrikx tells The Verge. Tombs and catacombs aside, Hendrikx might be the only one to make a final home using mushrooms. Hendrikx is the founder and CEO of Loop Biotech, a company that makes caskets out of mycelium, the fibrous root structure of mushrooms. This June, the first burial in North America to use one of Loop Biotech's caskets took place in Maine. 'He always said he wanted to be buried naked in the woods.' The mushroom casket gives people one more option to leave the living with a gentler impact, part of a growing array of what are supposed to be more sustainable alternatives to traditional burials. Mycelium has also had a moment in recent years, with other eco-conscious designers making biodegradable packaging, leather, and bricks from the material. Hendrikx started out trying to make a 'living home' from mycelium, a material that can be used to make self-healing structures if the fibers continue to grow. While he was studying architecture at Delft University of Technology, he says someone asked him what would happen if their grandma happened to die in that home. 'It would be great, because there's going to be so much positivity for Earth,' he recalls answering and then thinking — 'Oh my God, this should be a casket.' The mushroom casket became his graduation project, and Hendrikx started Loop Biotech in the Netherlands in 2021. The casket, which Loop Biotech calls a 'Living Cocoon' and sells for around $4,000, is made entirely of mycelium and can be grown in seven days. It can then biodegrade completely in about 45 days, according to the company. The body inside, however, takes longer. In a typical casket, it could be decades before a body fully decomposes. But since fungi can help break down dead organic matter, that time shortens to two to three years in a Living Cocoon, Hendrikx says. 'I personally hate the idea of a body just lying there in the ground,' says Marsya Ancker, whose father, Mark Ancker, was laid to rest in a Living Cocoon in Maine in June. 'I don't want to lie in the ground, but I'm happy to become part of the soil and feed the plants.' She heard about Loop Biotech in a TED Talk years ago and decided to call up the company the day after she got the call that her dad had passed. 'He would have gotten a kick out of it, out of the fact that he was the first [to be buried in a Living Cocoon],' Marsya adds. Her family's not one to miss an opportunity. Marsya described an iconic photo of her dad sitting on a green Volkswagen bus on the way to Woodstock, looking out over a traffic jam with binoculars, soon after Marsya was born and came home from the hospital. 'Don't be ridiculous,' there's no sense in wasting both their tickets, Marsya says her mom told her dad. 'He always said he wanted to be buried naked in the woods,' Marsya says. 'As a younger person, that horrified me. I'm like, 'But how will I remember you?' … This way he gets to be buried naked in the woods.' And she'll have something there to remember him by; the family planted a memorial garden with some of Mark's favorite perennials on the land where he was buried. Loop Biotech says its mushroom casket will help enrich the soil below. Marsya also finds the chemicals used in embalming 'gross.' A desire to minimize waste and pollution is another reason some people are turning away from standard caskets or cremation. Conventional burials in the US use around 4.3 million gallons of embalming fluid, 20 million board feet of hardwood, and 1.6 million tons of reinforced concrete each year, according to the Green Burial Council. The first Living Cocoon burial in the US (which follows thousands more using Loop Biotech's mushroom casket in Europe), shows 'there's excitement and energy around green burial,' says Sam Bar, who is part of the board of directors of the Green Burial Council. A 'green' burial doesn't have to incorporate mushrooms, of course. The goal is primarily to encourage decomposition and use natural materials in a sustainable way, Bar says. That can also be accomplished using other materials that break down more easily, like woven sea grass or bamboo. 'Green is a spectrum,' Bar says. Ever the architect, Hendrikx has also kept comfortable design in mind with his Living Cocoon. Aside from the potential environmental benefits, the mushroom casket is also soft to the touch and rounded, he points out to The Verge. 'So instead of having, like, a hard, pointy casket, you now have something that you can actually hug,' Hendrikx says. 'Which is really nice for the grieving process.'
News.com.au
15-07-2025
- News.com.au
‘Openly admitted': Former inmate reveals Erin Patterson's prison threat to estranged husband
Erin Patterson has been talking during the 19 months since her arrest in November 2023. The mushroom cook killer, who poisoned three of her in-laws with a beef wellington dish laced with death cap mushrooms, is by all accounts quite chatty behind bars. One former inmate who shared a unit with Patterson at Melbourne's maximum security women's prison says the 50-year-old wants to be the 'centre of attention'. 'She's intelligent but ... she is entitled, arrogant, demanding and rude,' the former inmate told this week. Locked up with Patterson for more than a year, the ex-prisoner kept meticulous diary notes. One in particular stands out. Dated the 27th of July, 2024, the note makes mention of Patterson's estranged husband Simon and how she really feels about him. 'Erin hates her ex-husband and openly admitted — she has made comments about no matter how long she gets (in prison), she will kill him,' the former inmate said. During Patterson's marathon trial, before a jury found her guilty of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, text messages between the former couple were tendered into evidence. Erin Patterson's online messages were also tendered into evidence, including one where she wrote that Simon's mum should be 'horrified' that 'her son is such a deadbeat'. The pair had separated in 2015 but spent much of the following years maintaining an amicable relationship. Continuing to co-parent their two children, the couple remained friends and attended family events together. They even took family holidays. But, the jury was told, their relationship began to sour in the latter half of 2022. According to the former Dame Phyllis Frost Centre inmate who spoke to Patterson was truly resentful during her time in prison. on Monday shared details from inside the Murray Unit at the female prison on Melbourne's outskirts. Those details included an alleged poisoning incident that saw Patterson moved from the unit. A subsequent search of her cell recovered two bottles of mayonnaise and a chemistry book full of notations on natural remedies, the former inmate said. 'This is something I wrote in my notes,' the former inmate told 'I was talking with (another inmate) and asked if I could borrow her mayonnaise.'She just laughed and joked about me 'poisoning it like Erin Patterson did'. 'I was like 'What the f***?' and she told me the story about how prison officers found mayonnaise in Erin's room that was allegedly used to poison (one of the inmates). 'She went to medical and was vomiting everywhere. She was saying that the mushroom lady's cell was searched and they found chemistry books with pages tagged.' The former inmate kept a diary note dated the 29th of July, 2024. In it she writes that prison guards found 'two bottles of mayonnaise in Erin's clothes basket' when they searched her room. A justice department spokeswoman said: 'There is no evidence to support that there has been any contaminated food or suspected poisonings at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.' But the former inmate who spoke to said the incident '100 per cent happened'. During her time with Patterson, the former inmate said the 50-year-old was 'hated'. 'She will need to be monitored by staff constantly. Nobody gives a shit about what she's done. They hate her because she's entitled, arrogant, demanding and rude. 'With Erin, she is constantly seeking special treatments, asking for things out of the ordinary that other prisoners wouldn't get. 'She is super intelligent, likes to make people feel like they're dumb. She is very manipulative. She gets fixated on things and doesn't see the mistakes that she makes. She mimics and makes fun of people, looks down at people.' The former inmate compared Patterson to Malka Leifer, the sex predator and former headmistress of the ultra-Orthodox Addas Israel school in Melbourne who is in a cell near Patterson's. exclusively revealed earlier this year that Leifer was being given perks in prison that no other inmate was getting. 'Some things I can't even explain to you. If she wants something, she gets it. She wanted an airfyer and had members of the Jewish community to write authorities about it. She gets whatever she wants.' The former inmate said Leifer has the ability to bake challah — a braided bread that the Jewish community eats for Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, which is observed every Saturday. Patterson will be sentenced after the court reconvenes next month. In the meantime, she will take up a job behind bars. 'Likely textiles,' the former inmate said, noting that Patterson has been spending her time knitting gifts for her two children on the outside.
News.com.au
14-07-2025
- News.com.au
Inmate reveals shocking Erin Patterson claim inside Dame Phyllis Frost Centre
Erin Patterson's cell was number 29 inside the Murray unit at Melbourne's maximum security women's prison. Next to the mushroom cook killer at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre on the city's northern fringe was headmistress rapist Malka Leifer in cell 28. Samantha Azzopardi, the career conwoman and child kidnapper, was in cell 32 and notorious catfish stalker Lydia Abdulmalek was in cell 30. It was a who's who of some of Victoria's most notorious female criminals but Patterson was among the most hated, according to an inmate who recently left the unit and spoke with on condition of anonymity. The inmate, who kept detailed diary notes about every incident and every personality behind bars, said Patterson was blamed for making a fellow prisoner so sick she was 'vomiting everywhere' and had to be seen by the medical team. Patterson — who a jury this month found guilty of murdering three of her in-laws with a beef wellington laced with death cap mushrooms — had to be moved to another unit after the incident, the former inmate claims. 'This is something I wrote in my notes,' the former inmate told 'I was talking with (another inmate) and asked if I could borrow her mayonnaise. 'She just laughed and joked about me 'poisoning it like Erin Patterson did'. 'I was like 'What the f***?' and she told me the story about how prison officers found mayonnaise in Erin's room that was allegedly used to poison (one of the inmates). 'She went to medical and was vomiting everywhere. She was saying that the mushroom lady's cell was searched and they found chemistry books with pages tagged including sections on natural remedies. 'This was all part of the investigation into the poisoning (of the inmate).' But the former inmate who spoke with has a theory about the alleged poisoning behind bars. She believes Patterson wasn't responsible. 'Erin Patterson was moved to the Gordon unit while the investigation for poisoning took place. The former inmate kept a diary note dated the 29th of July, 2024. In it she writes that prison guards found 'two bottles of mayonnaise in Erin's clothes basket' when they searched her room. A justice department spokeswoman said: 'There is no evidence to support that there has been any contaminated food or suspected poisonings at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.' But the former inmate who spoke to said the incident '100 per cent happened'. Mushroom chef 'entitled, rude' behind bars The former inmate gave some insight into where Patterson fits in the pecking order at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre. She said she is right down the bottom. 'She has not climbed — she is hated and will need to be monitored by staff constantly,' the former inmate said. 'Nobody gives a shit about what she's done. They hate her because she's entitled, arrogant, demanding and rude. 'The thing with Erin that I noticed when I lived with her is that she is super intelligent, likes to make people feel like they're dumb. She is very manipulative. 'She gets fixated on things and doesn't see the mistakes that she makes. She mimics and makes fun of people, looks down at people. 'She is exactly like Malka Leifer. Hopefully they get a cell next to each other, that would be great to watch.' exclusively revealed earlier this year that Leifer was being given perks in prison that no other inmate was getting. The 58-year-old, who was in charge of the ultra-orthodox Addas Israel School in Elsternwick when she sexually abused students in her care, was jailed for 15 years in 2023. A former inmate said: 'Malka has a microwave in her room, cooking equipment in her room, gets special orders every Thursday. 'Some things I can't even explain to you. If she wants something, she gets it. She wanted an airfyer and had members of the Jewish community to write authorities about it. She gets whatever she wants.' The former inmate said Leifer has the ability to bake challah — a braided bread that the Jewish community eats for Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, which is observed every Saturday. She said Patterson is very similar to Leifer. 'She is crazy smart,' the former inmate said. The mother-of-two is said to spend time behind bars 'knitting for her kids'. Simon Patterson, her ex-husband, did not attend the lunch that killed his family members. During the mushroom cook killer's trial, the jury heard Patterson and her husband had separated in 2015 but spent much of the following years maintaining an amicable relationship. Continuing to co-parent their two children, the couple remained friends and attended family events together and took family holidays. But, the jury was told, their relationship began to sour in the latter half of 2022. The court is likely to reconvene in the next month to begin the process of sentencing Patterson for the three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
