By M10News World Desk | Monday, 7, July 2025
An Australian woman has been found guilty of murdering three of her estranged husband’s family members and attempting to kill a fourth, after lacing a home-cooked beef wellington with highly toxic mushrooms.
Erin Patterson, 50, was convicted by a jury following a high-profile trial in Victoria, where she was accused of serving a fatal lunch to her former parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, both aged 70, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, on 29 July 2023. Reverend Ian Wilkinson, 68, Heather’s husband, was also hospitalised but survived.
The court heard that Patterson served the food on four large grey dinner plates for her guests, while she ate from a smaller, tan-coloured plate.
Prosecutors argued this deliberate distinction suggested premeditation and an intent to avoid consuming the poisoned food herself.
Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson died on 4 August 2023, with Don Patterson passing away the following day. Reverend Wilkinson was the only survivor, after being placed in a medically induced coma and undergoing a liver transplant.
Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson — with whom she shares two children — was also invited to the lunch and initially agreed to attend before cancelling.
He was not harmed and did not consume any of the food. Prosecutors later dropped charges that alleged she had also attempted to murder him.
During the trial, the court heard that Patterson lied about having cancer after the incident, claiming she had prepared the lunch as a way to seek advice from her former relatives on how to break the news to her children.
Prosecutors argued this was a fabrication intended to justify her children’s absence from the meal and to manipulate the victims.
The defence did not dispute that Patterson had lied about her illness but maintained that she did not knowingly poison the meal. They argued that the presence of the mushrooms was unintentional.
One of the most emotional moments of the trial came with testimony about a fabricated cancer diagnosis and its timing, which prosecutors said further pointed to a calculated effort to deceive.
The case gripped the nation and drew international media attention, with podcasters, journalists, and documentary crews descending on the regional town of Morwell, approximately two hours from Melbourne, where the trial took place.
Patterson, a mother-of-two, now awaits sentencing following her conviction on three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. She faces the possibility of life imprisonment under Victoria’s criminal code.
The deaths shocked the Leongatha community and reignited national debate in Australia about the dangers of foraged mushrooms, especially the deadly death cap variety, which can easily be mistaken for edible species.
Editing by M10News World Desk | Contact: info@m10news.com
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