Fifty-year-old Australian mother of two found guilty in the deaths of estranged husbands parents and others

Fifty-year-old Australian mother of two, Erin Patterson,  was found guilty last month in the deaths of her ex-partner’s parents and aunt, as well the attempted murder of his aunt’s husband.

The case, which has come to be known as the mushroom murders, unfolded in 2023, after Erin’s in-laws fell ill and died following a dinner invite to the suspects home. 

Erin Trudi Patterson worked in Melbourne as an air traffic controller for Airservices Australia in the early-mid 2000s, before moving on to work for the RSPCA Australia.

It was through her position at the RSPCA that she met her future husband, Simon Patterson, who worked as an engineer for the Monash City Council.

The pair met in 2004 and would go on to get married in 2007.

In 2006, Erin's grandmother passed away, and Erin became the recipient of a staggering $2million dollars, a large sum that would be paid to her over the course of several years.

For a while, life was good and the pair relocated to Western Australia. But It was after the birth of their first child, a son, that the couple started experiencing problems.

A rift began to form between the husband and wife, and around the same time, Erin became closer to her in-laws, Gail and Don Patterson. They moved again, this time to Koonwarra, Victoria, so they could  be closer to them.

The couple split multiple times, usually for short stints, but in 2015, they were separated for longer.

By this time, they shared two children together, and remained on friendly terms. Erin had used part of her inheritance to loan money to her husband’s siblings so they could buy their own homes.

Erin lost both her parents Between 2011 and 2019, and she and her sister received a large inheritance as well as a property.

Initially, Erin and Simon were on good terms and would take vacations as a family. All was well until 2022, when Simon wrote that he was single on a tax return. This changed the pair’s finances, with Simon no longer paying his children’s school and medical fees, and the children becoming ineligible for child support payments.

Although Simon insisted it was a mistake, Erin was furious and the pair were no longer on good terms as a result. He would later tell the court that he received angry messages from her concerning child support payments.

In the fall of 2021 and the fall of 2022, Simon began experiencing pain in his stomach along with other gastrointestinal issues. He fell ill on one occasion after eating a pasta and mushroom dish prepared by Erin.

Erin had also prepared other meals for him over the years, which made him sick.

His symptoms were similar to that of someone who had been poisoned, and were so critical that he needed a surgery, and during one hospital stay had to have a large portion of his bowel removed.

He and Erin were no longer close, and her relationship with her in-laws also suffered. She stopped showing up for events for the most part, and grew more distant from the Patterson side of the family. She allegedly spoke about the rift on social media.

On 29 July 2023, Erin Patterson hosted a dinner at her home in Leongatha, Victoria, Australia. She said she suspected that she had cancer. This was later revealed to be untrue in court.

Simon had declined the invitation to lunch, which Erin was upset about.

Their children were out at the cinema that day, so it was just Gail and Don Patterson as well as Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, and her husband Ian Wilkinson.

On the menu that night was beef wellington, served as individual portions. Ian Wilkinson would later say that Erin ate her meal from a different coloured plate.

It would be the last meal three of the four guests would ever eat.

Erin is believed to have spiked the dishes with Amanita phalloides, commonly known as death cap mushrooms.

The effects of ingesting death cap mushrooms usually begin to take effect within several to twenty-four hours.  Symptoms include abdominal pains, vomiting and diarrhoea, which often go away within a day or two, but cause serious damage to the liver, once the damage is done, it cannot be reversed.

The skin begins to yellow, and a person may suffer seizures and even coma. Death usually follows a couple of weeks later.

 

It took four days for Erin's dinner guests to be hospitalized with infectious diarrhoea.

Erin herself claimed she had abdominal pain and diarrhoea but resisted being admitted to the nearby Leongatha Hospital. She had briefly gone there to report having “gastro” but quickly left after being questioned about a recent bout of death cap poisonings.

Her ex-partner, Simon, said that she had a habit of refusing to get treatment over the years for various illnesses.

When the doctor asked where she obtained the mushrooms, she replied "Woolworths." She would later change the story and tell police that she purchased the mushrooms from an Asian supermarket in another suburb.

 

Media outlets report that Erin also refused to have her children checked out after they had reportedly eaten some leftovers from the meal.

The doctor was concerned enough to call police and have both Erin and her children examined for death cap poisoning. It was concluded that they were fine, and all results were normal, but an investigation was launched into the poisoning.

Later in court, the Patterson’s children would say that Erin said she had diarrhoea the day after the meal, but did not seem to use the bathroom.

Five days after eating the death cap beef wellingtons, Gail Patterson, and her sister Heather Wilkinson, died.

The following day, Don Patterson, who had gotten a liver transplant in an attempt to save his life, also died.

Ian Wilkinson was the sole survivor, and recovered after several weeks in hospital.

Erin was at held a maximum security prison for women in late 2023, and pleaded not guilty in May 2024.

The trial started almost a year later in April 2025.

Evidence at trial showed that Erin had owned a dehydrator, this was proved through social media posts she had made about dehydrating mushrooms. She had also been known to visit places where death caps are known to grow in the spring of 2023.

It was also revealed that she had disposed of the evidence after the dinner that killed three, and that partial leftovers had been recovered and tested to show death cap mushroom toxins were present.

By July 7, Erin Patterson was found guilty on three counts of murder, as well as one count of attempted murder for the crimes.

 

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