How This Mother Poisoned Her Family | Forensic Files

Hi, crime junkies. Today, I want to dive into a recent case that was so big it crossed oceans and gripped crime junkies
worldwide. Because we rarely see a loving mother transform into a mass murderer in the blink of an eye, taking
the lives of the very family members she says she loves. Was it premeditated murder with a loose motive? Was it a
complete accident? Or was it something in between? A jury has decided. The headlines sure made up their mind. But
now it is your turn to take in the facts and decide what you think of Aaron Patterson.
In early July 2023, 48-year-old Aaron Patterson pulled her in-laws aside one Sunday after church. Her and her husband
Simon had been separated for some time, but they still maintained a halfway decent relationship for their two kids.
And Aaron made it a point to keep close with Simon's parents. And she was friendly kind of on like an acquaintance
level with his aunt and uncle, too. I mean, they're literally going to the same church still, so they're going to
bump into each other. But I think it's more than just like keeping the peace. She seems to genuinely care about them.
So anyways, on this Sunday, she pulls everyone aside after church and is like, "Hey, I would like to have you guys over
in a couple of weeks for lunch to discuss something important." And she seemed to imply that it was maybe
something related to like some health issues. >> So, being supportive, they all agree
either like then or over the next few weeks. And they agree on a date, July 29th, 2023. It would be Aaron, her
aranged husband, Simon. Simon's parents, Gail and Dawn, and then Simon's aunt and
uncle, Heather and Ian. >> And the aunt and uncle are on mom's side or dad's side.
>> His mom. So, actually Gail and Heather are sisters. >> Okay. >> So, this group is all set for lunch. But
the night before this lunch is set to happen. Simon actually texts Aaron and Bails. He says it's just too
uncomfortable for him to come because tensions had kind of been high recently over things like child support,
finances, and basically he didn't have it in him to pretend like a nice family lunch wouldn't be awkward for him.
>> Even though like everyone else coming is from his side of the family. >> Yeah. He just didn't want to do it. But
he said, "You know what? I'll be happy to talk about your health issues or whatever the implications of that
another time if you want to do it over the phone." Now, that blowoff over text was clearly frustrating to Aaron because
she replied in the text thread, and I actually have her exact reply. I'll have you read it. She said, "That's really
disappointing. I've spent many hours this week preparing for lunch tomorrow, which has been exhausting in light of
the issues I'm facing, and spent a small fortune on beef eye fillet to make beef
Wellingtons because I wanted it to be a special meal as I may not be able to host a lunch like this again for some
time. It's important to me that you're all there tomorrow and that I can have the conversations that I need to have. I
hope you'll change your mind. Your parents and Heather and Ian are coming at 12:30. I hope to see you there.
>> Status red. >> Okay. >> But Simon does not come to the lunch. She really had spent a long time making
individual beef Wellington dish. >> I've done like >> Have you really? >> Yeah. And it is incredibly like time and
work sensit like yeah >> it's a lot of work. >> She put in a lot of work. And so she's
got these individual ones dished out with sides on mismatched plates. All of which is prayed over before they dig in.
And after they finished eating, Aaron got to the reason why they're all there. She said that she had cancer. And really
she wanted their advice on how to tell their kids who were just like elementary and middle school ages at this time.
She's got two of them. And I don't know how everyone reacted in that moment, but
I imagine they were surprised because this would have been a first-time diagnosis for Aaron. And as she's like
telling them about this cancer diagnosis, her son was arriving home. And so, like, not wanting him to hear
what they were all discussing, everyone kind of gathers together and they encourage her, listen, you should just
be upfront with the kids, tell them the truth. And then Ian, having been and who
still was a pastor at the church, he suggests that they all pray together. Pray for Aaron. Pray for the kids. But
their prayers to protect and save her were misdirected because little did everyone at the table know they should
have been praying to God to save them. It didn't happen all at once. Gail, Dawn, Heather, and Ian go to their
respective homes. But sometime over the next 12 hours or so, it hits them all the same. In the
middle of the night, they are each struck with what feels like the effects of food poisoning. I mean, we're talking
diarrhea, vomiting, and it is bad. I think people start calling one another. Like, obviously, you see your partner is
having the same symptoms you are. You want to call the other people there, like, are you sick, too? And Simon
eventually gets called because his parents are going to the hospital by ambulance. And so he ends up driving his
aunt and uncle to a nearby hospital himself. By the 24-hour mark, all four guests who have attended the lunch were
admitted to the hospital and not doing well. Doctors were scrambling to figure out what was going on, but clearly there
was a connection, right? And it didn't take Dick Van Djk to triangulate that the lunch they were all at together is
kind of the nexus of their illness. Which did you like how I put a diagnosis murder reference in there? Like where
are my geriatric crime show fans? >> Well, and I'm sure they realize like one person is suspiciously absent from the
hospital now. >> The chef herself. Yes. But no one is jumping to sinister conclusions. At
least not yet. I think they're more concerned that she hasn't come in. Now, Simon's there at the hospital with his
family, and he's spoken to Aaron on the phone and over text, and she's saying that she's sick, too, but she doesn't
want to come to the hospital because she says she's having regular bouts of diarrhea, and she didn't think she'd be
able to like do the full ride without like having an accident, basically. But she does eventually go to the hospital
to get checked out. Now, she walks in on her own on day two. She is clearly doing
way better than the others, but they still want to admit her, run some tests because they're pretty sure they've
narrowed it down to the mushrooms from the beef Wellington being the problem. Everyone's symptoms or whatever test
they've done have them pretty convinced that they've all eaten a specific type of mushroom called a death cap mushroom,
which as the name suggests is not something to take lightly. And so they start grilling her about where she got
the mushrooms because my god, if these were sold at a store, like a lot of people are about to be in trouble really
quick and they have to get ahead of this. According to the Guardian, she told the hospital staff, quote, "Half
were fresh from Woolworths and the other half were dried mushrooms bought from an
Asian ger in the Melbourne suburb of Oakley or Glenn Waverly." End quote. >> Oh, that's like the worst case scenario.
>> Exactly. And for some reason, this woman doesn't seem nearly as concerned as the
hospital staff do because when the doctor goes away for a bit to check on other patients, Aaron bails.
[Music] When the doctor realizes Aaron left the hospital after not being there long, it
is so concerning to him that he calls the triple0ero emergency line for police. >> Hello. What address do you need at the
police? Um, so this is Dr. Chris Webster calling from Lean Gaffa Hospital. Um, and I have a concern regarding a patient
that uh presented here earlier but has left the building um and is potentially exposed to a uh fatal uh toxin from
mushroom poisoning. Uh, and I've tried several times to uh get hold of her on her mobile phone.
>> What's her name? >> So, the the last name is Patterson. P A T T E R S O N. First name Aaron. E R I
N. >> When did she present at hospital? Um at 8:05 today. >> Yeah. Um mushroom poisoning, you said.
>> Yeah. So there were five people that ate a meal on Saturday and uh two of them
are in intensive care at Dandong Hospital. Uh two have just been transferred from Lean Gaffa Hospital to
Dandong Hospital. Uh and Aaron presented this morning with uh symptoms of poisoning. Um and what happened when she
presented? She just got up and left. Uh no, she the there was time for the nurse
to begin observations and uh I um I was managing the other critically unwell patient. So I had a brief chat to her
about where the mushrooms were obtained. Um and uh after that uh uh while I was attending the other patients, the nurse
uh informed me that she had discharged herself against medical advice. So she left at 10. She was only here for 5
minutes. >> And just to clarify, you said there were four other people who ate the same meal.
Is that correct? >> Yeah. So the the meal uh was consumed by five people uh and uh four of those uh
people are now hospitalized. Is he just worried about her health or is he calling the police like on her?
Like he thinks she's to blame and she's like on the run. >> So he's really careful with his wording
at the time. Like it was very much just like these are the facts. You need to find this woman. But dude was super
clear in the aftermath of things. I mean he was very suspicious of Aaron because
along with her reluctance to stay at the hospital and get checked out, he's like
she didn't even look sick. I mean, he is watching these other four people who are
literally on death's doorstep, and this woman waltzes in looking perfectly fine.
>> Now, luckily, police didn't have to go to her house and drag her back to the hospital. She returned voluntarily. But
when she came back, she told the doctor something really concerning. It wasn't just five people who had eaten the beef
Wellington. She had fed the leftovers to her kids, too. Now, this only sends the
medical professionals into more of a panic. They're like, "Well, you need to go home and get those kids here like
now." But she doesn't want to. She's like, "Oh, no, no, no. They're fine. They're not sick at all. I like scraped
out the mushrooms before I gave them the food." Like, and she's like, "I feel like if I cuz they weren't at home. They
were at school. I feel like if I go scoop them up out of school and bring them to the hospital, they're going to
be really scared." >> Okay, so scare them. Like, how are we even having this conversation?
>> It is literally what the doctor says. Actually, I think the doctor is more brash. He's like, "They can be scared
and alive or dead. Like, what are we doing here with them?" >> Long story short, the kids do come to
the hospital. They get checked out. She gets checked out and they're all completely fine.
>> Like fine like there's nothing in their system. >> Blood tests show no metabolic acidosis.
And that is what they were looking for in the others who are sick like Gail, Don, Heather, and Ian, who all, by the
way, are in progressively worse shape. >> So, what's Aaron's story at this point?
Like, is she trying to say it wasn't the Wellingtons or what? >> No, it was fully the Wellington's. All
right. Like, they actually go and get the leftovers from her trash, test the mushrooms, and they are now 100% sure
those were death cap mushrooms. But your question is a pointed one. What is her story?
>> Yeah. >> Because over the coming week, Gail and Don and Heather each pass away from
altered liver function and multiple organ failure. Only Ian survives after weeks in the ICU and some very close
calls. But the thing is, try as they might, for the life of them, they can't seem to find that Asian food store in
Melbourne where she said she bought dried mushrooms from. And so much of her story just isn't making sense to them.
So, was this murder or was this a tragic accident? And in the wake of this tragedy, it depends on who you ask.
>> Aaron, you ask Aaron. Well, and they do. Even before Dawn had passed away, they
were pulling her in to talk to police. And it was actually in an interview with them that she learned of Gail and
Heather's passing. And she told police she had no idea what was going on, but she has been trying to be as helpful as
possible, providing staff with as much information as possible to get to the bottom of this.
>> You mean like maybe the name of the Asian grocery store that no one can find? Uh, ideally that would be nice,
but no, she doesn't remember. So, police are like, "Listen, let's just start at the beginning. Why did you invite them
all over for this lunch that ended up killing them?" And let me just tell you what she said, like verbatim.
She said, quote, "I loved them a lot. They've always been really good to me, and they always said to me they'd
support me with love and emotional support, even though Simon and I were separated. And I really appreciated that
because both my parents are gone." end quote. >> And to tell them about her cancer.
>> What cancer? She doesn't have cancer. >> I'm sorry. What? >> Yeah. Now, I don't know if they even
knew about the ruse that she used to get everyone over there in that moment because it's a little unclear to me if
Gail, Heather, or Dawn, or even Ian were in a position to tell police about that
before they got like seriously ill. But Ian definitely told them about it after he recovered and no record of cancer. So
let's call that question one lie one. Question two, do you own a dehydrator and have you ever foraged for mushrooms
in the past? Because no way were these death cap mushrooms bought from a store? And she says, "Nope, but you know, you
might find a manual for a dehydrator at my house somewhere. You might. I don't know." Aaron
>> lied too. But she's trying to get ahead of them, I think, because they had or
eventually will search her home and she knew that they were going to be looking at her. Okay. So, like why does she have
a dehydrator? >> Had >> Oh, >> because police end up learning later that while everyone was in the hospital,
she went and disposed of the dehydrator. >> And she did something else really damning to cover her tracks.
[Music] Let me just back up and break down for you the case that the prosecution ends
up making against Aaron because what she did, how she tried to lie about it and then cover her own tracks. The way she
was caught lying on the stand, it is bonkers. And I think it's easier if I just kind of fast forward and tell you
everything they find over the course of their investigation. So, like I said, no
cancer, not then, not ever. They realized that the health ruse had started even before she invited everyone
to lunch. So, for a while, she had been telling people about a lump in her elbow
and that she was maybe going to be going to the hospital, having a biopsy or some
tests or whatever. This was shortly before even the lunch invite. >> Oh. >> So, there was kind of a long game there.
>> She was like planting the seeds. >> Yeah. Except there was no lump in her elbow. There was no biopsy. There were
no scans. Nada. all arused to get people to her house for lunch. I told you she got rid of the dehydrator. Now, it's not
like she could say, "Oh, you know, it was so old. I tossed it whenever ago." Totally unrelated to this. That thing
was purchased on April 28th, 2023. >> Oh, so brand new. >> Yeah. And they find CCTV footage of her
going to a dump to get rid of this thing on August 2nd, 2023. >> Oh, so like when she's in hot water.
Yes. And when it's tested, they find traces of death cap mushrooms. So, we are now 100% sure that she didn't buy
dried mushrooms from anyone. She dried them. >> Which also means then she picked them.
>> Correct. Line number three. She absolutely did forge for mushrooms. And we know this because of digital data
that they collected from her devices >> like tracking. >> Yes. So they did a search of Aaron's
home pretty early on and they collected phones, computers, tablets, everything. According to an article by the
Australian Broadcast Company, it looks like starting in May 2022, so the year before all this, all of a sudden, Aaron
started like taking a keen interest in mushroom foraging based on her search history. So, it's not like they have
proof then that she's like out there picking shrooms, but she started visiting a site called I Naturalist
where quote users share observations from nature to a community map. End quote. Like, ooh, saw this here.
>> Saw this rare or weird thing over here. And by the way, deathcat mushrooms aren't something that is just around
everywhere like in this area of Australia. They're actually like pretty rare, specifically in this area. Now, I
haven't seen anyone report like that she was on the site logging anything. She seems, from what I can tell, just to be
an observer starting at least in May 2022. Now, fast forward nearly a year later. On April 18th, 2023, a retired
pharmacist logs the location of death cap mushrooms in a town called Lock. And then on May 21st, 2023 in a
different town called Altrim, someone else logs the location where they saw death cap mushrooms. Now, literally
within like the first day of when one of those like pops up, Aaron had gone to the site and she spent about an hour on
it. So, it is very likely that she saw it. And then according to the BBC, quote, "Her mobile phone location data
appeared to show her traveling to both areas and purchasing the infamous food dehydrator on her way home from one of
those trips." End quote. But here is the clincher and the thing that I was saying
I think is so damning. They don't even have all of her mobile phone data to work with.
>> What do you mean? So, they end up finding out that this woman had three different phones, two Samsung phones and
a Nokia. Now, they only really talk in detail about the two Samsung phones, which they end up referring to as like
phone A and phone B. Phone A is the one that they know she used for years before
all of this, right? >> Her phone, >> right? This is the phone that they can also see in the CCTV footage when she
goes to the hospital initially. So, they know she's still using it around the time of all of this. But when they end
up searching her home, when they end up collecting her devices, she gives them phone B. What happened to phone A? Who
the heck knows? But they can see that some shady stuff happened with the phones while detectives were in her
house doing the search on August 5th. Phone B had been factory reset and the SIM card in phone A was removed and then
put into a Nokia phone. >> Is she not in the house during the search? >> Oh, no, she is. This is This is what's
so wild. She is there with them and normally if they're like searching your property, right? Like they're obviously
suspicious of her by this point. They like make you stay by them. Well, she told one of the detectives that she
needed some privacy to call her lawyer. So, they let her go into a room by herself for a moment. And this, they
believe, according to the data logs, is when some of this stuff starts happening.
>> I mean, how do you even explain that away? >> I like everything they've got against
her, I think, is going to be hard. >> Yeah. >> And one of the other things that they
have against her are some chat logs with a group that she has on Facebook, like the small group of friends, because
before she killed her family, guess what this woman was a part of online? I truly
cannot even begin to wonder. >> Uh true crime Facebook community. Oh my gosh, please don't be crime junky.
>> It's not It's not I mean again, don't give us a bad name, Aaron, but like it's
uh they don't ever name it as far as I can tell, but I actually had our team check not crime junkie as far as I know.
>> Anyways, she's it's not like she just joined this group. She was part of this
group a while back. And really what ended up happening is kind of like so many of our crime junkies. She ends up
bonding with kind of a group of people who move their chat outside of the group and it it really isn't even about true
crime, right? It's not like they're it's damning and they're talking about ways to kill people or anything like that.
>> Sounds like their own little community. >> Yeah. Their friend group. They're talking about life. They're talking
about what they're making for dinner and their kids and like whatever. You know,
>> loaded loaded conversation here. And what's so interesting is that police can
see in all these communications that to this group, Aaron shares a very different version of her relationship
with her in-laws than the one that she had been telling police, right? Like, oh, I love them. They're there for me.
Like, they're wonderful. >> This is a different story. Because you see, even though things had been
amicable between Simon and Aaron since they separated years before, there was a pretty drastic shift within the last
year. And the prosecution alleges that it was all really set in motion when the couple each filed their taxes in 2022
because on those forms, Simon's accountant listed him as separated, which they were, but that was never how
they had filed all like all the years before. And apparently filing this way had some major like financial
implications for Aaron. She was the one with the money in the relationship after
getting a big inheritance from her grandmother and then her mother when they each passed away. And this check of
a box had like like I said big implications for her. And it turned into this big thing because while they had
kind of like figured out how to live their life and share responsibility or whatever, now Aaron was like, "Okay,
that's out the window. I'm filing for child support. we're going to figure out how to split up the kids like medical
expenses, school stuff, everything. And so things were just like tense, right? And by July where before they would at
least like text, have some chatty banter, like how are you doing, whatever, like all signs of a friendship
were in the past. And even though Simon would later tell the court that from his
perspective, she really did seem to love his parents, she was telling her friends
in this group in her online group a different thing. She had apparently tried to go to them to kind of ask them
to like help mediate between her and Simon. Basically like talk some sense into your son so we can figure this out.
But they didn't want to help. They're like, "We are staying out of it. You guys need to work this out between the
two of you." And so the text that they start pulling in this like group message or whatever over time does not look
favorable for Aaron. And I can even have you read some of them. >> Okay. So these are some of the texts.
>> Yeah. >> This family, I swear to God, nobody bloody listens to me. At least I
know they're a lost cause. So anyway, I sent a group message to all of them last night saying how Simon's
behavior is unconscionable. She I think that's what she's trying to say. It's kind of spelled weird and asking me to
withdraw the child support claim is wrong and disadvantages me and his children and how dare he, etc.
I'm sick of this. I want nothing to do with them. I thought his parents would want him to
do the right thing, but it seems their concern about not wanting to feel uncomfortable and not wanting to get
involved in their son's personal matters are overriding that. So, I don't need anything from any of these
people. His mom was horrified I had claimed child support. Why isn't she horrified her son is such a deadbeat and
that I had no choice but to claim. >> Pointed. >> Yeah. Yeah. And a completely different
vibe than what like she was telling everybody like >> did Simon and his family like were they
feeling any of this animosity or was it still like we are all amicable like you were saying?
>> Again I mean I think things were tense with Simon hence why he didn't want to
go to the lunch and bailed last minute. Thank god. But no, I mean, he had no idea that she felt this way about his
parents. >> That's kind of the the piece that's missing for me. Like, she hates Simon
over the separation and the money stuff. Hates his parents because she thinks they should be stepping in or telling
their son what to do or just didn't raise him, right? Whatever. Like, where did the aunt and uncle come into this?
Like, they seem >> completely separated from this. This is the part that makes no sense to me and
the part that no one can seem to make sense of because they were like acquaintances at best per what Ian said
on the stand. And there's never anything suggesting that she went to them for any
kind of support or like asking them to step in. Like they said this lunch invite felt kind of out of the blue to
them. So she's just so angry she wanted to take out this entire family. >> I Yes. I don't know. And I mean, you
teed this up to be like, "Was this murder question mark, but I feel like the answer is pretty
obvious." And it also feels super premeditated. I mean, she was foraging and drying mushrooms. I know. And like
it even feels like she was trying to lay the groundwork for a defense on some things like long before like it even
happened because like police also found one message in like that same friend group or whatever where she basically
was saying that she had been hiding powdered mushrooms in everything um to like sneak them to her kids cuz they
didn't like them. So she was like making them drying them making them powder mixing them up and like putting them in
brownies or whatever. And according to the Guardian, this friend group also said that she sent pictures of a
dehydrator in her kitchen that was apparently exclusively used for mushrooms. And by the way, they also
find that picture. So, she got ahead of that. But for as planned as this seems with the phones and the like, "Oh, look.
I'm doing something with mushrooms that is totally not nefarious." This whole thing was also really sloppy because
they also find pictures on a tablet of hers where there are mushrooms on a scale that an expert later identifies as
like he believes they're deathcap mushrooms. So from start to finish, this woman left a trail of circumstantial
evidence pointing right at her all the way back to the fact that she was not sick at all.
>> Right. I was thinking about that like did they not like they were all at this
lunch at her house together. Did they not notice that she just wasn't eating? >> No, she was eating lunch. She Cuz like
you said, remember >> they were individual ones? >> Yes. >> She was She made a special non-poison
one for herself. >> Yeah. And Ian, our lone survivor, he says that like looking back, he
remembers that she didn't want help like serving everything up. And while everyone that was there ate off of gray
plates, hers was orange. I know this is like a fool's errand, but I'm trying to like put myself in her shoes to
understand how she would even think that there's a remote possibility that she'd
get away with this. Like, I mean, I guess I assume she's counting on that no one would live to tell the tale, so who
cares if she faked cancer, the weird plate thing? Like take away those two pieces that we know because Ian
survived. There's still like an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence that is piling up against her,
including, by the way, speaking of her not being sick, I forgot to mention this. Remember how she is telling
everyone she has like bad diarrhea? >> Yeah. She couldn't like drive because of it.
>> Which, by the way, I never thought I would say diarrhea so much in a single episode. So, yeah. So, she's like, "This
is why I'm not going to go to the hospital, get checked out, whatever." Well, apparently that first day her son
had some kind of flying lesson that was scheduled and she drove him like 90 minutes away for this thing. And that
whole time she made one stop at a rest stop or gas station or something. There is CCTV footage of her going inside,
going to the bathroom, but for 9 seconds and then leaving. Now, that's not a smoking gun of anything. It's again
circumstantial evidence, but of yet another lie. But like everything in this is circumstantial. And the thing is
Aaron says that she can explain all of it and she tries to because after she is charged with murder, the trial becomes
one of the biggest spectacles in Australia. Like this year while we in the US had Karen Reed round two, they
were all obsessed with Aaron Patterson's trial. So, with the whole world watching, Aaron Patterson takes the
stand for 8 days in her own defense. All right, where to begin? I'm just going to kind of go down the punch list.
>> Okay, >> so she says that she made individual Wellingtons, not one big one, because
when she went to the store, they just didn't have like the big cut that she needed. Now, why not go to the butcher
and get the thing that you need so you don't have to change the whole recipe? And she's like, "I don't know, man. It
was easier this way." Okay, fine. And she says, "Yes, the plates were different, but she didn't have a
complete set of matching plates, which is actually backed up by other people who testified, too." Okay, but you
didn't eat it. Like, how did you not get sick? And here is where we got a brand new confession of sorts for the very
first time. She said that she has had body image issues since she was very young. And for much of her life, she
would binge eat and then purge. And she said on that day, she ate her lunch. She
said she didn't eat the whole Wellington, like a quarter or a half of it or whatever. But then she ate almost
an entire cake that one of the guests brought. And then feeling ill from overeating, she went to the bathroom and
threw up. And that's probably why she didn't get sick. Now, they ask her on the stand like, "Did you bark for the
beef Wellington up?" Like, that's the thing. And she's like, "Yeah, probably, maybe. I don't know. There's no way to
be sure." But she still does maintain that she was mildly sick. Now, when they confront her with the video showing this
long drive she makes, but where she doesn't even go to the bathroom long enough to wash her hands, much less
anything else, she says that she went in there to throw away tissues because she
actually like couldn't hold it earlier. Had to stop on the side of the road or something to relieve herself. And so she
had like tissues and a dog bag or something that she cleaned herself up with and like threw it away. That's why
she was in there so like for such a short time. But her son who is in the car ride with her cannot verify this.
Okay. What about the whole reason for this lunch to begin with? Like let's like what's the explanation for the fake
cancer? You can't really explain that conversation away. >> She tried. So, and this like this is
where like there ends up being this huge Perry Mason gotcha moment in court. I know my like diagnosis murder Perry
Mason. I'm like killing it today. >> Where's murder? She wrote. >> So, in court they're asking her about
this and she's like, "No, I didn't have cancer, but this goes back to her body image issues." She said that she wanted
to have gastric bypass surgery, but she was too embarrassed to tell people that,
but she knew that she was going to need the family's like help and support with the kids posttop. So she made up the
whole cancer story because she's like basically like I'm going to have surgery either way. I was just telling this
other thing. So because I didn't want to tell them what I was really having like
done. So on the stand they're like okay gastric bypass surgery. Cool. Was it booked? Yes. Okay. Where? So she tells
them and she gets caught on the stand lying because that place didn't even offer gastric bypass surgery. What? I
know. I don't like what are you thinking? >> Yeah. Oh my god. Okay, that doesn't
explain anything. That's wild. But there's there's more here. Like disposing of evidence like the phones,
the dehydrator. >> Yeah. Basically, she says at certain points when she realized that people
were suspicious of her or like trying to blame her, she panicked and just did things that are dumb and make her look
guilty. like the whole dehydrator thing. She says she tossed that because her husband was accusing her in the hospital
of killing his parents, which he says is untrue. He's like, I never accused her of that, like early days. And then the
phone stuff, I mean, she has like a number of weird reasons that were all kind of different in the time leading up
to trial, but like all in all, it was it boiled down to basically her like panicking when she knew police were
looking seriously at her. Now, as for where the mushrooms came from, whereas before she always told police she never
foraged mushrooms and she bought those dried mushrooms from an Asian ger, now she admits that she did get into
foraging during lockdown and she's always loved eating mushrooms. And she said her kids had even seen her forage
mushrooms before. By the way, they deny this. And she adds that while she does forage, she definitely didn't go
foraging in that one town where the death caps were spotted after they were posted online. Even though
>> I was say even though she went there right after it was posted, >> her phone location suggests she was in
that area. >> Like knowing what she's accused of, I feel like I shouldn't be shocked that she's
bringing the kids into this so much. But I still kind of am like she's really relying on them a lot for like
>> they saw me here. They can verify that we did this. Like >> dragging them into this feels like very
low in a way that is even shocking for them. >> I know. And like >> I mean really how lucky for them that
they still have their father. But like I can't imagine what this does to a person, especially like a a minor, a
kid, trying to reconcile that your mom would do something like this. And the fact that she would like
toss you out there as a part of a lie, expecting you to >> what? Back her up while you also know
that she planned for your dad to be at that lunch. >> Yeah. >> Like I don't know what their
relationship with their mom was like before all this, but I haven't heard any wild stories. I mean, part of what I
think captivated a nation and a and the world was you don't often see someone who is described as a loving mother turn
into a mass murderer. >> Like, do you then have to go back and rewrite your whole history with someone
like that? >> I say for me it feels like you'd have to like question so many of your
interactions. >> Was it real? Was it always an act? or like just recently >> and like one of the things that came out
in court that I actually found really interesting was around Aaron's faith or lack thereof. So early on in her life
she had been an atheist and she said that she tried convincing Simon who was a Christian to be atheist too. But in
2005 when they were dating he took her to of all places Ian's church. Ian, the only survivor Ian
>> remember he is a pastor, like was still is, but he took her to a service and she
said that she at this service had a spiritual experience and became a Christian herself then and there. But
the prosecution put forward some messages or like actually more like emojis she sent that made it appear that
she mocked the family's religious beliefs to other people. and her friend group reported that she told them she
was still an atheist and she thought Simon's religious background was difficult. But on the stand, she remains
adamant that she is a Christian. >> Aaron, thou shalt not lie. It's in like the top 10.
>> And it was clear to the jury that's what she had done over and over again. Lie,
lie, lie to police, to her family, right there to the jurors. And after 9 weeks of trial and 6 days of deliberation, on
July 7th, 2025, a jury in the Supreme Court of Victoria convicted her of three counts of murder and one count of
attempted murder. So what's going to happen next? She basically is going to have 28 days from
the time of sentencing to appeal her conviction, her sentence, both. And as of this recording, that sentencing
hasn't happened yet. But usually they say they do that within about a month. So like when this episode comes out
right now. >> Right now. Right. So if you follow us on Instagram, CrimeJunkie Podcast, I'll be
posting an update to let you know when that happens, which will put a clock on the appeal.
>> And I would be shocked if she didn't appeal. >> Same. Listen, I am I think I'm still
totally consumed with trying to understand why, especially why for Ian and Heather, this aunt and uncle that
you were barely close with, one of whom was a pastor, your pastor. >> I mean, it's part of the reason why I
found like the whole talk of religion so interesting, even though it wasn't a core part of the trial. like it's not
real evidence, but I wonder if there's something there. Like I I just can't put my finger on it. And in court, by the
way, she said like, "Oh, yes. I said these things, but I was frustrated." And you're like pulling out like the worst
moments. Like right Yeah. You don't want God like God forbid I'm ever on trial. Like I don't want anyone going through
my text messages. But I don't know. Like is that real? like is is this I think we
have to point to them so much or why people do is because like without those nothing makes sense.
>> It like has to you have to have them to like complete painting the the picture,
right? >> Yeah. But I I'm not sure you can make sense of someone who was willing to do
what Aaron did to her kids, to Simon and to her in-laws. And listen, if she was honest about her beliefs, maybe she'll
have a come to Jesus and her family, if no one else, will get whatever answers they need to to move forward. You can
find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkypodcast.com.
>> And you can follow us on Instagram at crimejunkypodcast. >> We'll be back next week with a brand new
episode. [Applause] [Music]

Today, we dissect the unsettling Erin Patterson mushroom poisoning case, where a seemingly innocent Beef Wellington lunch in Leongatha, Australia, turned deadly in July 2023. Erin, a 50-year-old mother of two, was convicted of murdering three relatives—Don and Gail Patterson, and Heather Wilkinson—and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson by lacing their meal with toxic death cap mushrooms. With our own original investigative reporting and exclusive insights from the trial, including Erin’s calculated deceptions and the mysterious absence of her estranged husband Simon, we unravel the shocking twists of this high-profile case that gripped the nation and revealed a shocking tale of betrayal and tragedy.

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Check out these other great crime channels: @bellafiori THE MUSHROOM MURDERS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0bIpqD1vMA @kallmekris This Unsolved Murder Case Is Horrifying... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZfGVb8ffCQ @rottenmangopod Investigators On Karen Read Case Connected To Death of Pregnant Girl That Had Been Abused By 3 Cops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfeZ9Q_fO4E @KendallRae Vanished Without a Trace: The Chilling Disappearance of Kadin Black https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW9cqO8c9oI

Brief Summary

Aaron Patterson invited her in-laws to lunch, served toxic mushrooms, and was later convicted of murder after fabricating a cancer diagnosis.

Key points

The Lunch Invitation. Aaron Patterson invites her in-laws for a special lunch, hinting at important news.
The Illness Strikes. After the lunch, Aaron's in-laws fall severely ill, leading to hospitalizations.
The Doctor's Concern. Aaron leaves the hospital after presenting with symptoms, raising alarms for the doctor.
The Shocking Revelation. Aaron admits to feeding her children leftovers from the lunch, escalating the panic.
The Investigation Unfolds. Investigators uncover a web of lies surrounding Aaron's claims and actions.
The Online Community's Role. Aaron was part of a true crime Facebook group before the tragedy. Was it just a coincidence?

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I hope you'll change your mind. Your parents and Heather and Ian are coming.

Aaron's text to Simon after he bails on the lunch.

3:11WatchAug 7, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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