'Mushroom Killer' Erin Patterson's warped mind from 'Satanic' death wall to cancer deceit

On July 29 2023, mother-of-two Erin Patterson invited her parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, over for lunch, along with her estranged husband's aunt and uncle, Heather and Ian Wilkinson.

Patterson, who has today been found guilty of murder, served up a dish of beef wellington, mashed potatoes and green beans at her home in the town of Leongatha, in Victoria, Australia.

While the four relatives ate their meals on four large, grey dinner plates, Patterson, 50, opted for a smaller, tan-coloured plate. Visibly different enough, the prosecutors would later allege, that the killer didn't risk accidentally ingesting the poisonous mushrooms mixed into the food.

It wasn't long before Don and Gail, both 70, Heather, 66, and Ian fell gravely ill, suffering vomiting and diarrhoea within hours of finishing their Saturday lunch at Patterson's large suburban home.

Mere days later, three out of the four lunch guests died following an agonising ordeal, with Ian only pulling through after undergoing a liver transplant.

It's a case that has shocked people across the world, with the grim details offering a disturbing insight into the warped mind of the notorious 'Mushroom Killer'.

READ MORE: Mushroom poisoner Erin Patterson found guilty of murdering three relatives with meal

Husband's close escape

On the day of the deadly gathering, a fifth guest had been invited, but chose to decline - Patterson's estranged husband, Simon Patterson.

Abc.news.au reports that civil engineer Simon had cancelled just the night before, stating via text that he felt “too uncomfortable”.

Jurors heard how Patterson and Simon had initially remained friends following their 2015 separation, working to maintain an amicable co-parenting relationship, and would regularly attend the same family events. However, news.com.au reports that things took a turn towards the end of 2022, due to financial disputes.

Facebook messages shared under the username Erin ErinErin show Patterson venting her frustration against her in-laws, whom she had reportedly turned to

Expressing frustration over Don and Gail’s apparent reluctance to involve themselves in the marriage breakdown, Patterson wrote: “I’m sick of this s*** 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 f*** em.”

She also commented: “This family, I swear to f***ing god.”

Cancer deceit

Sole survivor Ian later opened up about his memories of sitting down for the fatal family meal, remembering how Patterson had announced that she'd been diagnosed with a "life-threatening" form of cancer, and was struggling to find the words to tell her children.

Ian, a Reverend, recalled: “Erin announced that she had cancer. She said that she was very concerned because she believed it was very serious, life-threatening. She was anxious about telling the kids."

The compassionate group had been so concerned for Patterson that they prayed for her over their food, oblivious to the fact it had been laced with deadly death cap mushrooms, also known as Amanita phalloides.

Speaking in court, Patterson admitted that she had lied about having cancer, as she'd been too “embarrassed” to discuss her weight-loss surgery.

While under questioning from her lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, Patterson confessed: “Not proud of this, but I led them to believe I might be needing some treatment … in regards to [ovarian cancer] in the coming weeks and months. They all showed a lot of compassion about that … Ian said, ‘Why don’t we pray for Erin?’ and so that’s what we did. I did lie to them.”

She added, “I was ashamed of the fact that I didn’t have control over my body or what I ate. I was ashamed of that, I felt embarrassed. I didn’t want to tell anybody, but I shouldn’t have lied to them.”

Hours of agony

In the hours after the meal, Don, Gail, Heather, and Ian began exhibiting severe symptoms, and, sadly, their conditions continued to deteriorate at an alarming pace.

The victims were left in agony, with vomiting and diarrhoea, comparable to symptoms seen during a cholera outbreak, resulting in extreme dehydration, and ultimately, the shutting down of their vital organs.

According to the Daily Mail Australia, as their systems worked to preserve blood supply to their brains and hearts, blood flow to the victims' kidneys would have dramatically reduced, stopping them from working properly and leading to excruciating cramps.

As well as this physical agony, it's feared the victims would have also had to endure "the existential pain of realising that their livers were melting down in an unstoppable manner".

Although doctors would have strived to manage their pain in the hospital, this would have been a cruel way to go, and a terrible death for loved ones to witness.

Speaking through tears before the jury, Simon recalled seeing his parents hooked up to IV drips at Korumburra Hospital. He remembered: “Dad was substantially worse than Mum. He was really struggling. He was lying on his side, he was hunched quite noticeably. His voice was strained in a way that was … he wasn’t right inside. He was feeling pain.”

Tragically, sisters Gail and Heather passed away from liver failure on Friday, August 4, 2023, while Don died the following day. Ian spent seven weeks in hospital but ultimately survived the horror ordeal.

Now, a leading US expert on amatoxin poisoning has claimed the group were doomed from the start, on account of Australia’s reportedly outdated use of the milk thistle-based drug silibinin,

This medicine works by flushing poison out through a person's kidneys - a measure which the expert argues would have been "almost useless" in this case.

Speaking with the Mail Online, the medic, who went only by the name Dr L, remarked that Australian doctors, unfamiliar with such rare instances, had to rely on “past wisdom” around silibinin, which would have been no help once severe dehydration resulted in organs shutting down.

Dr L commented: 'They went from sick to catastrophic in a short space of time. The very rapid progression from ingestion to death is characteristic of cases where early low urine output acute kidney injury has occurred, and intravenous volume replacement has been inadequately aggressive.

'Or it has been interrupted, or there has been a restricted maintenance of IV hydration following admission to hospital. I don't know what occurred, and what the physicians, who must have desperately tried to save these people's lives, must have gone through. I have no knowledge of the management details, and I haven't seen medical records."

'Satanic' death wall

In August 2023, a decorator claimed that Patterson had an eerie "death wall" in her home,covered withSatanic graffiti. In an interview with Daily Mail Australia, the tradesman alleged that he'd been hired to remove graffiti, which includes images of grave stones, decapitated heads, and daggers, as well as creepy lines of text scrawled in red and black ink.

These dark messages supposedly read, "You are dead by the sword" and "You will die within a year". Describing the "disturbing" scribbles as "Satanic", the anonymous worker told the publication: "They were done by their (the Pattersons') daughter. It is pretty disturbing for mum to let the kids draw on their dining room wall."

Lies over mushrooms

After tests were conducted on lunch leftovers recovered from Patterson's bin, it became clear that at least some of the food contained the toxin from death cap mushrooms, which are found growing beneath oak trees throughout the south Melbourne region.

The question remained as to whether they had deliberately been put there, and whether Patterson had intended for her in-laws to die.

Patterson pleaded not guilty, but did accept that death cap mushrooms had been baked into the individual Beef Wellingtons. She argued that the three deaths were a result of a tragic accident and that she hadn't meant to harm anyone. However, her web of lies quickly unravelled under scrutiny.

As initially claimed by Patterson, she had purchased dehydrated mushrooms from an Asian supermarket in Melbourne; however, she couldn't remember precisely where she had bought them from.

At first, Patterson denied she had foraged for wild mushrooms or that she had her own food dehydrator to dry these out. But she later confessed both to foraging for mushrooms and to owning a dehydrator.

Children's loyalty

The Mail Online has previously revealed that Patterson's two children have continued to visit her behind bars while she awaited trial, unable to accept that their mother was capable of ruthlessly slaying their grandparents and great aunt.
During trial breaks, Patterson could be heard enquiring about her children, even asking one woman to make sure her now 16-year-old son had "extra hugs".

The jury also saw video testimony from Patterson's children, who cannot be named for legal reasons. The pre-recorded police footage, filmed August 16, 2023, shows the children recalling eating beef Wellington leftovers the day after the now notorious lunch.

The Guardian reports that Patterson's daughter praised her mother as a “very good cook”., while her son stated that the eye-fillet beef used in the dish was “some of the best meat I’ve ever had”. The teenager went on to state that the relationship between his parents was “very negative”, telling officers that his father “does a lot of things to try and hurt” his mother.

Both children asserted that they did not know their mother to forage for mushrooms, while Patterson's son remembered her photographing a mushroom during a walk in Korumburra Botanic Gardens back in 2020. He added that he believed she'd taken a picture because she “thought they looked nice”.

Patterson will be sentenced at a later date.

Do you have a story to share? Email me at julia.banim@reachplc.com

READ MORE: Nine key questions could decide beef Wellington 'poisoner' Erin Patterson's fate