She Killed Her In-Laws with Poisonous Mushrooms—Then Claimed It Was an Accident (with Nino Bucci) | Forensic Files

Basically when you know, she speaks to police, she's seemingly as baffled as as they are
about why these three lunch guests have died and another one's you know, on death's door and yet she's fine.
>> [music] [music] >> This is Criminal. I'm Phoebe Judge and today I'm joined by Guardian reporter
Nino Bucci. Nino, last year you covered a trial in Australia that made international
headlines. It all started back in July of 2023. Can you tell us what happened then?
>> Yeah, so back in July 2023, a woman called Erin Patterson hosted her parents-in-law
and also their relatives. So her the auntie and and uncle of her husband at her house which was on a on a piece
of land in in country Victoria which is sort of one of the the southernmost mainland state in Australia.
And she invited them round for for Saturday lunch, a lunch of beef Wellington. Erin said didn't give a
reason exactly for the lunch but basically wanted to talk to them about about something
and she was in this quite new house. So you know, they they came round. Most of them hadn't been there before. It was
quite an unusual thing for for her to invite them all over and she showed them around a beautiful
house, did what people normally do when they have people over for lunch and and fussed a little about plating up.
And then eventually they all sat around her dining room table and put had a beef Wellington.
>> You said that her in-laws were there but was her husband there? >> No, so her and Simon were estranged at
that time. Simon didn't live there. He'd actually been invited to the lunch and cancelled late the night before. So, he
wasn't there and you know, his absence was something that as this sort of went on became somewhat
more interesting. >> So, you said they were having beef wellington. This seemed like a kind of a
proper Saturday lunch. For people who don't know what beef wellington is. What is beef wellington?
>> Sure. So, there's a few different ways around it and you know, effectively what
it is though is a is a piece of piece of beef wrapped in pastry. So, this particular version that that Aaron was
making was from a quite a well known as Australian chef. Her version is not sort
of one big log of beef as is traditional wrapped up in pastry but Aaron sort of made single
bits of beef wrapped up in pastry and there was you know, quite importantly in this case between the the beef and the
pastry there was a a mushroom mix that was that was that was placed in there. Sauteed down mushrooms that were sort of
you know, put on top of the meat before the whole thing was wrapped up in little
individual parcels. So, each of those lunch guests had in front of them effectively a little
individually made parcel of beef, mushrooms on top wrapped in pastry. >> So, they sat down, they had their beef
wellington and what happened next? >> Well, the discussion continued. They were at that point Aaron was sort of
raising concerns she had about cancer. You know, they they didn't realize that was why she invited them
all around that to talk about her cancer diagnosis but you know, it it ended the way most of these
lunches ended. Everyone was sort of you know, waxing lyrical about the meal, very glad to have been there, hopped off
in their cars and went home. >> So, everyone leaves after lunch, goes on their own way. Um
and then what happens? >> So late that night the the lunch guests start to fall ill
and I fall ill with symptoms that are that are quite similar to, you know, acute
food poisoning or or gastroenteritis. So there's, you know, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps. Uh
they all think basically, you know, they've they've eaten something bad and when when it becomes clear that it's all
people who were at Erin's place for lunch, they they assume it's something they've eaten that day that that it's
that they've potentially all had a bad piece of meat, for example. But as it kind of went from, you know, the early
hours into, you know, dawn, uh they realized, "Look, we really need to get ourselves to hospital here because
we've we're you know, because of how violently unwell they were." They went there into, you know, the emergency
department. They started receiving treatment, but it became pretty clear pretty quickly that things
weren't getting any better and eventually they were sort of rushed off to to bigger hospitals uh in in
Melbourne. >> How quickly did the doctors figure out that this wasn't just regular food poisoning?
>> Yeah, it took a while. There was some stuff about their presentation and about
I guess their their their liver function and and the function of other major organs that sort of suggested this was
something far more significant than you know, eating, you know, a bad piece of steak as they thought earlier on. And
eventually they sort of, you know, through a process of of elimination decided it was probably
uh Amanita phalloides or or death cap mushroom poisoning. Now, they weren't necessarily in a position at that
hospital at the time to diagnose that really, you know, clearly from that point. So they started speaking to
people in Melbourne who were experts on it and they started sort of treating them as a presumptive case
of that fairly early on even before that was sort of you know actually evacuated
to to those bigger hospitals and it became you know obviously once once that was the presumptive diagnosis
they were really concerned that these people might not survive. >> What happens to the body when when you eat death cap
mushrooms? >> Yeah it's it's quite horrific really and it's effectively a you know
it it's slow and painful process for which there's there's very little that can be done and
something that really stuck in my mind that that was particularly sort of frightening about the people that kind
of eat death cap mushrooms is that you know you you go through this process of really intense
symptoms of you know vomiting diarrhea exactly as you would when you've got you know a
really bad food poisoning but then there's this kind of period where it eases off and a lot of people
who are suffering kind of think you know they're they're kind of getting better but what's actually happening at that
point is that it's this you know the the organs have failed to such a point that they're not even doing that anymore
you know there's such a relentless sort of progressive and frightening deterioration of everything that
even those symptoms stop but that doesn't mean you're getting any better it in fact means you've you know almost
progressed to the point where you you're beyond saving and I I found that quite horrifying.
>> Once the the the the group gets to the hospital and they realize Erin Patterson the the woman who
had house they'd been at she also comes to the hospital complaining of stomach issues.
>> Yeah so more than a day after the others Erin also goes to hospital. She's not as unwell but she's she's also
you know half their age and um you know, somewhat healthier. Uh so, you know, yeah, she's she's she's
sick, but she's not as bad. She I mean, she walked in, for example, as opposed to having to be
you know, taken there by ambulance. Is that is that kind of fair indicator of the difference between the two? And she
also somewhat strangely, you know, at this point they're fairly confident that it is death cap mushroom
poisoning. And so, you know, the local hospital when she comes in a far more alive to the prospect this could be
something really serious than they were when her other lunch guests came in, you know, more than a day earlier. So,
they basically say, "Hey, you got to come in here straight away." And she actually leaves. She She leaves the
hospital, says she's got stuff to to take care of at home, uh and kind of comes back later on,
which again, you know, was something that people at the hospital found unusual at the time, but also was very
different to to how the lunch guests were um were reacting to that to that poisoning.
>> What happened to everyone who got sick? >> So, of those four people who became terribly unwell after eating beef
Wellington at Erin Patterson's house, three died. And the only survivor was was Anne Wilkinson.
He spent months in intensive care, you know, he was in an induced coma for for large parts of that. And you know, still
sort of to this day, you know, we're almost 3 years on now, sort of has has ongoing health complications from that
from that meal. >> How quickly did the police launch an investigation after after
the deaths? >> By the time the family had been taken to that major hospital in in Melbourne,
it's called the Austin Hospital. They They do a lot of uh you know, toxicological
deaths, poisonings, that sort of thing. By the time the family were there, which
was, you know, within days of of the lunch, police were looking at the case. And by sort of November, so
sort of some 4 months after after that lunch, Erin Patterson was in fact charged with with those three murders
and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson. >> What did she tell police had happened?
>> So, this is an interesting one because what Erin Patterson did in her first interview
was effectively kind of say, "Look, I don't know what's happened here. I have never gone foraging.
I have no reason to harm these people. I was sick as well. Uh I bought the mushrooms from the
supermarket and an Asian grocer. Beats me what's happened, effectively, you know? But
I've got no reason for to hurt them. I loved them. And it could have been me, you know?
At a basic level, that's what she's saying. Uh that story would change somewhat as as
the sort of months rolled on, but basically, when, you know, she speaks to police,
she's seemingly as baffled as as they are about why these three lunch guests have
died and another one's you know, on death's door, and yet she's fine. >> You said that she was estranged from her
husband. Did she have a good relationship? I mean, you'd expect yes, if she was still having lunch with her
in-laws, even if her husband wasn't around. >> As you might imagine in a case like
this, the question of what Erin's relationship was like with Simon was somewhat contested.
And you know, even pieces of evidence that seemed quite open and shut about that relationship
could be interpreted in a number of ways. I guess if you sort of think about for example,
she'd be There'd be text messages tended about conversations she was having just
with him. And they'd seem maybe a little heated and you know, there'd be discussions
about money or whatever, but they were, you know, progressing. But then at the exact same time she's having these
conversations with him, she's having separate conversations with her friends where she's
you know, speaking in quite a disparaging way about Simon and his family. So, it is not easy to say what that
relationship was like, not only because of obviously what followed and and the context in
which we're learning about it being, you know, a a triple murder trial, but also
because there was seemingly kind of two sides to to Aaron and how she engaged with people
about that relationship. >> Once the police initially interviewed Aaron, what happened with their investigation?
What else did they learn after interviewing her? >> Those interviews fairly early in the investigation,
they've kind of been explained to me before by, you know, people in in homicide squads and things like that,
is it's effectively a chance to get people to kind of hang themselves with their own rope. So,
they're hoping that Aaron is going to say enough about what help happened at that lunch that they're going to be able
to prove her wrong. And she kind of did that. There was enough that she gave away there
to sort of indicate that what she was saying wasn't true. Part of that revolved around, you know,
material they'd get later on from from her phone, uh and other devices. Part of that was also around they were
able to establish that she had dumped a food dehydrator at a local you know, what we call it a tip in
Australia, but basically like a dump. They were basically able to put together these
bits and pieces that contradicted very much what she said in that interview. And if you kind of, you know, look at
the the timeline of that that interview sort of occurred, you know, that first interview occurred
you know, I think roughly about 3 months before she was actually charged. So, you
know, the police kind of went away and did a little bit more work and kind of were able to find in in their mind
enough to to sort of point to the fact that this wasn't some accidental death, but that Erin
Patterson had had intended to kill those people. >> When was she arrested? >> She was arrested and charged in November
of 2023. So, there's a kind of 4-month period almost between that lunch and when she's when
she's charged with with the murders. And it became fairly clear early on in that
trial that the central issue was whether she'd meant to put death cap mushrooms in the beef Wellingtons. So,
somewhat differently to to the story that had been presented, you know, up until that point, it no longer was in
dispute that she'd fed death cap mushrooms to her lunch guests in those beef Wellingtons.
What had become in you know, the central issue of the trial is whether she'd meant to do it. And
effectively, you know, Erin's pleading not guilty saying that, "Look, I foraged these mushrooms. I
didn't realize they were death caps. I accidentally put them in the beef Wellingtons.
That's killed the lunch guests. I got sick, too, but for various reasons I didn't get as sick as them."
That's basically what the trial come came down to was that that question of intent.
>> There were charges that were eventually dropped. Um attempted murder charges against her
husband Simon, who hadn't been there. >> That's right. So, one of the things that was really
fascinating about her arrest and charging back in November is we had no idea about this
background or alleged background or history of of attempting to poison Simon. And so, that really was a bolt from the
blue when that came out. So, police will as part of their investigation into what
happened at the lunch, they spoke to Simon, and he spelled out to them these four occasions where he said she tried
to kill him before. Now, they were all occasions where you know, police alleged it was just
those two together. He was eating food that Erin had prepared for him. Their children weren't there.
Uh and it all occurred when they were away from from home as well. So, you know, Erin Patterson, when she
was charged in November with with the lunch charges, which in and of itself wasn't a a huge surprise given everyone
knew she was kind of the only suspect. Uh which she was also charged with these these matters involving Simon that
nobody had any idea about. But, between her being charged in November and the trial starting the following
April, there'd been a lot of legal argument back and forth about these two sets of
charges, what were called the the lunch charges and the Simon charges, effectively.
And and right before the trial started, there was a a a ruling that came down, and the judge
effectively said, "These have to be These trials have to be held separately. You can't have one trial on the Simon
charges and the lunch charges. You have to do them separately." And eventually, the you know, the um the director of of
public prosecutions here decided that they'd drop the Simon charges, and they proceeded with the lunch charges.
>> What was the trial like? >> Incredible in the sense that we all knew it would be
this completely uncontrollable kind of raging storm. And yet it still sort of took us by
surprise, I think, all the the many reporters who covered it. There was you know, evidence that was obviously
really sort of heart-wrenching from from from Iain Wilkinson who was at the lunch
ship, but also from Simon Patterson. Um about losing his parents and and also sort of I suppose reflecting on
you know, his relationship with Erin and the future for his kids and that sort of
thing. And then, you know, later on in the trial the very sort of final witness was Erin Patterson
herself. And you know, that was quite remarkable as well because you sort of go from
from seeing this this person in the dock every day, but sort of having seen her on on television for
you know, months before that and and in newspaper photographs and all the rest of it. And and then, you know,
she sort of comes to life before your very eyes and it's that that was quite an experience, too.
>> Where did the prosecution say they thought she'd gotten the poison mushrooms?
>> So, the prosecution said that it was open to the jury to find that she'd got them from one of two locations. And
this was a fairly laborious part of the trial because basically what they were doing was
measuring up location data to sort of say Erin Patterson was in this location at
this time. And then kind of cross-referencing that with public posts on a website called
iNaturalist, which is basically a citizen science website. You can log posts on there about things you've found
in in the wild, you know, whether it be types of plant like mushroom or animals.
And what the prosecution was saying was look, it's open to you as the jury to find
that Erin Patterson was in a place called Lock and another place called Outtrim after there were public posts put on
iNaturalist identifying those locations as having death cap mushrooms. So, they didn't know exactly, but they were
saying our case is that she got them from either Outtrim or Lock >> [snorts] >> on either of these occasions
in the weeks leading up to lunch effectively. >> What did Erin say when she testified?
>> She, you know, effectively sort of said that she hadn't made that recipe before,
but she wanted to do something different cuz it was a special lunch. She couldn't find the exact ingredients
to follow the recipe that she'd found, so she'd sort of ad-libbed and instead of,
you know, buying one big sirloin, she decided decided to just buy individual sirloin steaks.
She said she was, you know, cooking down the mushrooms as the recipe sort of called for, but then they didn't, you
know, taste particularly good. They tasted a bit bland, so she threw in some dried mushrooms that she had in the
pantry. Very much the, you know, I guess the the sort of through line of her evidence was
one of having a great deal of love and respect for the for the people she was alleged
to have killed, having no reason to want them gone, having had some issues in her
relationship with Simon, but that, you know, had no reason at all to have to have done what she was alleged to
have done. >> What was the end of the trial like? What what what happened? >> The trial went on and on and on. it
dragged far longer than anyone thought. It went for 11 weeks in the end and you know, Erin Patterson's evidence was
was you know, the most dramatic period of of those 11 weeks. And there was a there was a point, you
know, in her evidence where I could see a path to her being found not guilty. Again, you know, just to sort of
emphasize this is not you know, criminal trials are not about a lot of the time are not about
someone's innocence. You know, they're but they're about whether there's enough evidence for them to be found
guilty, you know, beyond reasonable doubt and there was just enough, I thought, at at
times early on in her evidence to suggest that a jury or you know, it could be enough
for for a single juror to have some doubt about whether she'd intended to kill people
with those, you know, poisonous beef Wellingtons. But eventually the jury came down and and
they found her and Patterson guilty of all charges. >> And what was her sentence?
>> Basically in Australia, once there's a guilty verdict handed down, you know, the the jury get sent out, they're
they're thanked for their work and there then is is what's effectively called a a plea
hearing for, you know, where the prosecution give their side of of the sentence I
think Erin Patterson should get and Erin Patterson's, you know, lawyers basically
say, well, these are the mitigating sort of circumstances. You know, in Erin's case there
there wasn't a lot of them, you know, she'd she'd taken it to trial, sort of indicates a lack of remorse.
But you know, that she had never been, you know, found guilty of any any other serious sort of criminal offending, you
know, this was her first major crime. So, you know, it was all weighed up and in the end she was given
a a minimum sentence of 33 years with a maximum of of life. Now, it's important to sort of say that Erin Patterson's
appealing that conviction. She's not appealing the sentence, but she's appealing that conviction and, you know,
she maintains her innocence. And there's going to be an appeal hearing, you know, in her case
later this year. >> Her husband has a book deal. >> Yeah, Simon Patterson has been
represented by uh uh you know, a media spokesperson since very early on in this. One of the things
that we don't know a great deal about that that Simon certainly can talk to are those,
you know, alleged attempted murders that Erin committed on him where, you know, police had alleged and and, you know, he
certainly suspects and continues to suspect that she had attempted to kill him on a number of occasions before the
lunch. Look, if if that's the focus of the book, I'm sure that'll be the focus of of even more headlines as
well, um in the coming months. >> But you know what, the motive of if he was if she was trying to kill him, he
wasn't at that lunch. So, why would she still serve if if she is guilty, why would she go
ahead with serving the beef wellington to his family? >> I've really >> [sighs] >> tossed this around a lot. I suspect that
possibly Erin's thinking was that Simon may come and if, for example, like he'd taken their
kids out that day, if, for example, he'd come back early and happened to see his
whole family sitting around eating, maybe he was more likely to partake as well. She did have extras. She had extra
beef wellingtons that she could have served to other people who came. >> [gasps]
>> Perhaps she wanted to see, obviously the previous attempts at Simon alleged attempts, you know,
involving Simon have been unsuccessful. Maybe it was a dosing test and it was let's see how far I can push this.
I mean ultimately where I kind of land with this is that you're on a hiding to nothing when you
try and and get inside the mind of of someone who will murder three people and it's a very
difficult thing for for most of us to do to try and consider their motives, especially when
they've been questioned about this particular thing for for days on end and and, you know, I've sat in
the same room while she's doing that and I'm still no closer to understanding why.
>> Well, Nino, thank you. >> Thanks, Phoebe. >> [music]

In 2023, a woman named Erin Patterson had her husband's family over for a lunch of beef Wellington. A week later, three people were dead. Phoebe Judge interviews Guardian reporter Nino Bucci about what happened next.

Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:40 Erin Patterson's lunch 2:16 What is beef Wellington? 3:52 The lunch guests fall ill 6:04 Death Cap mushroom poisoning 9:20 The police start investigating 15:23 "The Simon Charges" 19:50 Erin Patterson's testimony 23:06 Appeal

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Brief Summary

Erin Patterson was convicted of murder after a lunch led to three deaths from mushroom poisoning in Australia.

Key points

Death Cap Mushrooms. The investigation reveals that the guests were poisoned by toxic mushrooms.
The Fatal Lunch. A seemingly innocent lunch turns deadly when guests fall ill after eating beef Wellington.
Erin's Alibi. Erin Patterson claims she had no reason to harm her guests, but the evidence suggests otherwise.
The Trial's Dramatic Evidence. Erin Patterson's testimony was the most dramatic part of the trial, raising doubts about her guilt.
Guilty Verdict. The jury ultimately found Erin Patterson guilty of all charges after a lengthy trial.
Appeal Hearing Ahead. Erin Patterson is appealing her conviction, maintaining her innocence despite the guilty verdict.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What happens to the body when you eat death cap mushrooms?

Question about the effects of consuming toxic mushrooms.

6:05WatchJul 28, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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