Family Meal Turns Fatal: Woman Faces Trial Over Mushroom Deaths

AFP | Sydney

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An Australian woman stands accused of using death cap mushrooms to poison a family lunch, but she insists the tragedy was no deliberate act.

Erin Patterson, 50, is on trial in Morwell, Victoria, charged with murdering her estranged husband’s parents, Don and Gail, and his aunt, Heather Wilkinson, after a July 2023 beef Wellington lunch. A fourth guest—Heather’s husband, Ian—survived following an extended hospital stay.

Prosecutors allege Patterson spiked individual servings of the pastry-wrapped beef with toxic death cap mushrooms. They point to phone records placing her in Loch and later Outtrim—sites where foragers reported sightings of the lethal fungus—and to her purchase of a food dehydrator shortly afterward. According to the Crown, she used the machine to grind the mushrooms into a fine powder, concealing them in the meal. Patterson admits buying the dehydrator but denies using it to process death caps or even deliberately seeking them.

At Wednesday’s hearing, she dismissed suggestions that she blitzed the mushrooms into powder, calling the claim false. She maintains that if any poisonous fungi found their way into her cooking, it was entirely accidental.

Questions also surround Patterson’s account of disposing of leftovers. She told friends she scraped off pastry and mushroom bits to serve the next day to her children, who are picky eaters. Prosecutors argue this story was concocted to distance herself from knowingly serving a contaminated dish. Patterson counters that she had no reason to suspect the meal had hospitalised—and ultimately killed—her guests.

The trial, which has captivated audiences worldwide, is expected to run for another fortnight. As the court weighs phone logs, forensic evidence and conflicting testimonies, the core question remains: was this a calculated act of poisoning or a horrifying accident?