She’s Accused Of Killing Three People With A Beef Wellington Laced With Death Cap Mushrooms
A 50-year-old Australian woman is standing trial on charges of poisoning several of her former in-laws with a home-cooked lunch containing death cap mushrooms. Three people died, and the fourth was left seriously injured.
In July 2023, Erin Patterson served a beef Wellington dish to her guests for lunch at her home in Leongatha, a town that is located about 85 miles from Melbourne.
According to prosecutors, Patterson was separated from her husband, Simon Patterson. She invited his parents, aunt, and uncle over for lunch for the purpose of discussing medical issues she was having.
Simon declined the invitation, saying he was too uncomfortable to attend but was willing to talk about her health over the phone.
After he turned her down, she sent him a text message expressing her disappointment and hoping he would change his mind. His family was also surprised by the invite because they had not yet been to Patterson’s new house.
Simon testified that it was out of character for her to invite people over. Usually, family gatherings would take place at other relatives’ houses.
The day after the meal, all four guests were hospitalized with gastrointestinal symptoms. Three of them died within the next week from “altered liver function and multiple organ failure due to Amanita mushroom poisoning,” per NPR.
Patterson is being accused of putting death cap mushrooms, the most poisonous in the world, in the beef Wellington dish.
Prosecutors are also accusing her of lying about a cancer diagnosis, which was her reason for hosting the lunch.
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She intentionally poisoned her guests and refrained from eating the same dish as them. Later, she faked similar symptoms to cover up her crime.
She has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. She has denied deliberately poisoning her guests.
Her legal team even stated that she ate some of the meal herself and did get sick, although not as severely as the others.
Patterson also admitted lying to the police about owning a food dehydrator and foraging for mushrooms, but she never picked any death cap mushrooms on purpose.
Her lawyer said she had lied because she panicked after the lunch due to the shame of knowing that people had gotten ill from food she had cooked.
Death cap mushrooms are highly toxic, and half a cap or less is enough to kill someone. Six to 24 hours after consumption, symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps show up. It can be fatal within 48 hours. The mushrooms are found in North America, Europe, and Australia.
Immediately after the incident, Patterson told doctors and investigators that she had used two kinds of mushrooms.
One was fresh from the grocery store, and the other was dried from a Chinese grocer in the area. The Department of Health checked all Asian grocery stores in the surrounding area and was unable to identify the mushrooms that Patterson described.
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