An Australian woman has been convicted after a deadly 2023 meal.
Erin Patterson was found guilty on three counts of murder July 7 for the deaths of her estranged husband Simon Patterson’s family, including his mother Gail Patterson, father Don Patterson, and aunt Heather Wilkinson as well as one count of attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian Wilkerson, per court transcripts obtained by CNN.
Patterson, 50, had invited her in-laws—as well as her estranged husband who declined—to lunch in July 2023, per Reuters, at her Leongatha home where she served a beef wellington dish that included death cap mushrooms, a toxic fungi that can cause liver and kidney damage and, in extreme cases if left untreated, death, per British Columbia’s center of disease control.
After a 10-week trial and a week of deliberation, the jury in Patterson’s case found her guilty, though she had pleaded not guilty to all charges, maintaining that the deaths were an accident, per Reuters. She will be sentenced at a later date, and faces up to a maximum life sentence.
Following the verdict, Patterson’s lawyer Colin Mandy and Jessica O’Donnell, a spokesperson for Patterson’s estranged husband, did not comment as they exited the courtroom.
E! News has reached out to Mandy for comment but has not yet heard back.
Amid the case, the prosecution argued that Patterson—who shares two children with her estranged husband—had lured her family members to lunch by faking a cancer diagnosis and then subsequently poisoned their food while serving herself an untainted portion.
Patterson—who was the sole person to testify in her defense and spent eight days on the stand—claimed she had in fact ingested food with the death cap mushrooms.
The 50-year-old testified that she had not become as sick as others at the lunch because, due to her battle with an eating disorder, she had binged a cake her mother-in-law brought to the function and then made herself sick. Patterson also claimed she lied about the cancer diagnosis because she was embarrassed to admit she was actually pursuing weight loss surgery and wanted her in-law’s advice on how to go about telling her children.
After the verdict, Victoria Police detective Dean Thomas thanked investigators in the case.
“I think it’s very important that we remember that three people have died,” Thomas, who noted that the Patterson family requested privacy, told reporters outside the courtroom, per Reuters, “and we’ve had a person that nearly died and was seriously injured.”
