Mushroom murderer but left a trail of clues

A MOTHER of two who murdered three of her estranged husband's elderly relatives by deliberately serving them a poisoned beef wellington faces life behind bars.

- By Paul Jeeves

Erin Patterson, 50, laced the meal with lethal death cap mushrooms before serving it to her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, who she had invited for lunch at her home in the small Australian town of Leongatha, Victoria.

They were joined by Heather and Ian Wilkinson, the aunt and uncle of her husband Simon, who changed his mind at the last minute about attending the gathering.

In the early hours of the next morning all four became violently sick and were rushed to hospital suffering acute liver damage.

Gail, 70, and her younger sister Heather, 66, died on August 4, 2023, less than a week after the July 29 lunch.

Don, 70, meanwhile, underwent a last-minute liver transplant but died of multiple organ failure the day after the operation. Heather’s husband Ian, 69, a church pastor, was the sole survivor after receiving an organ transplant and spending seven weeks in an induced coma in hospital.

He became a key witness in the almost 10-week “trial of the century” at the Supreme Court of Victoria in Morwell.

Yesterday, after deliberating for six days, the jury found Patterson guilty of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder by unanimous verdict.

Patterson, a former air traffic controller and a true-crime addict, sat ashen-faced but showed no emotion as the verdict was returned.