Erin Patterson trial: Phone placed in vicinity of Loch, Outtrim after death cap sightings
Giving evidence at Ms Patterson's triple-murder trial on Monday, Digital Forensic Sciences Australia's Dr Matthew Sorrell told the court he sifted through more than four years of her phone records.
Dr Sorrell said he was tasked with finding potential visits to the Loch and Outtrim areas — two townships near Ms Paterson's Leongatha home where the deadly mushroom had been observed.
Earlier in the trial, two witnesses gave evidence they located death cap mushrooms in those towns and posted details including a precise location on citizen science website iNaturalist.
Christine McKenzie said she posted the mushrooms on April 18, 2023, in Loch, while Dr Tom May posted a sighting of death caps in Outtrim on May 21 the same year.
Dr Sorrell told the jury Ms Patterson's phone could have possibly visited Loch between 9.14am and about 10am on April 28.
He said the records indicate movement out of Korrumburra, connecting to Loch and a return to Korrumburra, but there was an 'absence' of records for the middle of that period.
'While there is a potential visit, it doesn't definitely point to being in the Loch township,' he said.
On May 22, Dr Sorrell said the phone records indicate potential visits to both Loch and Outtrim.
He said Ms Patterson's phone connected with the Loch South base station 'every five minutes' from 9.19am until about 10am.
Later the same morning, he said the records indicate support the opinion the phone could be in the northern section of Outtrim' between 11.24am and 11.49am.
Dr Sorrell is expected to face cross-examination from Ms Patterson's defence when the trial resumes on Tuesday.
Ms Patterson is facing trial after pleading not guilty to the murder of three of her husband's relatives and the attempted murder of one more.
Simon Patterson's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson died from death cap mushroom poisoning in the week after eating a beef wellington at Ms Patterson's home on July 29, 2023.
Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, recovered after spending a month and a half in hospital.
Prosecutors allege Ms Patterson deliberately spiked the lunch with 'murderous intent', while her defence argues the case is a 'tragic accident'.
The trial continues.
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ABC News
10-07-2025
- ABC News
Should iNaturalist hide poisonous mushroom locations after the Erin Patterson trial?
On Monday, a jury found Erin Patterson guilty on all counts — three charges of murder and one of attempted murder using death cap mushrooms. The prosecution argued Patterson saw posts about death cap mushrooms (Amanita phalloides) on a niche citizen science website called iNaturalist. In the wake of the trial, fungi experts are debating whether or not to continue allowing exact locations of poisonous mushrooms to be visible on public databases. iNaturalist allows anyone to post photos, exact locations of animals, plants and fungi — including poisonous mushrooms. Once the photo is uploaded, the community helps identify the species. The observations can then be used by foragers, researchers or the general public to track mushroom locations, and avoid or remove those that could be poisonous. Jasmin Packer, a conservation biologist at the University of Adelaide urged people to not stop making observations and uploading them. "We still really want people to post photos of all fungi," she said. "But it's a question whether people … need to be protected from some of the harmful fungi being posted." Dr Packer is the vice president of Fungimap, a large citizen science project that records fungi around Australia using iNaturalist. While only a small number of the 120,000 fungi observations on Fungimap identify death cap mushrooms, Fungimap makes up about a quarter of the iNaturalist observations of death cap mushrooms recorded in Australia. Dr Packer suggested more discussion was needed to come to a consensus within the community of fungi experts on whether extra safeguards should be added for viewing the observations. "We need to have some roundtable discussions around how best to deal with that," she said. "It's an important conversation." Michael Priest, president of Fungimap and a mycologist, said completely hiding the observations from public view was not a solution he was comfortable with. "We did have a brief discussion at our recent AGM on how we should flag these things," Dr Priest said. "I spoke out strongly against hiding records because I believe iNaturalist … is also a very good educational tool." Many iNaturalist observations list the exact location, including longitude and latitude of where the mushrooms are found. This can be extremely useful in certain situations, and allows people — particularly those who forage for mushrooms — to avoid locations where death cap mushrooms might be present. But if this data is being misused, Dr Packer suggests the "obscure" function on iNaturalist could keep the observation public, but conceal the exact location. When locations are obscured, instead of a small dot, a large square is placed over the map, and only a general area is provided. In all other ways, the observation can be viewed as normal. This can be done easily when uploading a record, and is already used when a rare plant or mushroom needs to be protected from visitors. "You'll be able to see the record, but the location will be fuzzy," Dr Packer said. Dr Priest said this was a good solution in the short term, but argued it might have unintended consequences down the track. "It's something that could be considered by people if they were wary about it … at least until things have quietened down again," he said. "But I think at some point in time we would need to know some of those records, because we are interested in tracking how [death cap mushrooms] are spreading throughout the country." While most people that use websites like iNaturalist are enthusiasts, there are also a number of research and government organisations that use the data. Observations that have been designated "research grade" — when multiple people agree on the identification of the species — are added into the Atlas of Living Australia and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. The Atlas of Living Australia is a collaboration between governments, CSIRO and Australia's museums, and is considered "Australia's national biodiversity database". "There are governments in several states that have programs where they actually go out and collect all the sporebodies of [death cap mushrooms]," Dr Packer said. "Over several weeks they're constantly monitoring to see where the [mushrooms] appear, and removing them to keep people safe." For example, in the 2025 season, the ACT Government's City Services removed almost 900 death cap mushrooms from locations across Canberra. Dr Priest noted that because death cap mushrooms were associated with oak trees, it was extremely hard to remove them once they were established in a location. "American oak trees that were planted back in the 1950s and '60s as a sign of the American-Australian relationship … We believe that's one of the reasons that it came into Australia — at least into Canberra." "Because it's associated with trees, unless you actually get rid of the tree, you won't get rid of the mushroom." For Dr Priest, the good that comes from uploading poisonous mushrooms to databases like iNaturalist still vastly outweighs the bad, despite the outcome of the trial. "The Erin Patterson case is such an unusual one, which, of course, is why it garnered so much interest from not just here, but from overseas," he said. "It shows such things are possible whenever you start producing huge public databases or applications like iNaturalist.
Perth Now
07-07-2025
- Perth Now
Key moments from the mushroom cook murder trial
The key moments from Erin Patterson's triple murder trial as a jury finds her guilty of all offences. 1. Erin Patterson gives evidence and admits foraging After weeks of prosecution evidence, she was announced as the defence's only witness in her murder trial. She took to the witness box for eight days, including several under gruelling cross-examination by crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC. She admitted beginning mushroom foraging during Victoria's first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. "They tasted good and I didn't get sick," she told the jury, about preparing and eating wild fungi for the first time. Patterson said she loved her former in-laws and they were her only living family. She also claimed she'd thrown up remnants on the meal after eating it as she suffered from bulimia, and admitted to lying about owning a dehydrator and foraging to police. 2. Sole lunch survivor Ian Wilkinson enters the witness box The only lunch guest to survive eating Patterson's poisoned beef Wellington, Ian was one of the first witnesses called during week two of the trial. Ian, Simon Patterson's uncle and pastor at Korumburra Baptist Church, locked eyes with the woman who tried to kill him as he sat in the witness box and gave emotional evidence about losing his wife Heather. He said Patterson had served himself, his wife Heather, and Don and Gail Patterson on grey dinner plates which were different to her own plate. Ian laughed as he recalled banter at the dinner table over how Don had eaten his portion and half of his wife Gail's. 3. Estranged husband Simon Patterson is called as witness Simon was the first witness called by prosecutors and he discussed their up and down relationship in the years leading up to their permanent separation in 2015. He gave evidence for three days and explained that he did not attend the fatal lunch, although he was invited, because he felt "too uncomfortable". Simon also became emotional as he recalled seeing his father and mother dying in their hospital beds. "Dad was substantially worse than mum, he was really struggling ... He wasn't right inside. He was feeling pain," he said, between tears. 4. Medical experts explain how her lunch guests became ill, but Patterson did not Several doctors, nurses and toxicologists detailed how the four lunch guests' conditions deteriorated over several days after going to hospital with diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach pain and they tried to save their lives. Initially, doctors and victims had assumed they all had gastro, but soon it became clear they had consumed death cap mushrooms. Patterson, on the other hand, took herself to hospital two days after the meal and quickly discharged herself. She returned and then was taken to a Melbourne hospital but was found to not have been poisoned. 5. Computer devices reveal death cap mushroom searches Searches of computers, tablets and mobile phones seized from Patterson's home revealed she had navigated to science website iNaturalist in May 2022 and looked at death cap mushroom sighting post for Moorabbin, in Melbourne. 6. Patterson's angry messages over child support A child support issue between Simon and Erin started to involve his parents, Don and Gail, towards the end of 2022 - about six months before the toxic meal. Messages sent by Patterson to her Facebook friends revealed she called Simon a "deadbeat" and said she wanted nothing to do with her parents-in-law. "This family, I swear to f*****g god," another message said. Prosecutors said this showed how her relationship with the Patterson family had begun deteriorating. 7. Cell phone tower pings after online death cap sightings Patterson's phone had pinged at cell towers in the Gippsland towns of Outtrim and Loch after posts on iNaturalist about death cap mushroom sightings in those areas. Her defence argued this evidence was unreliable, but prosecutors said it showed she had gone to these areas to pick the deadly fungi. 8. Patterson's missing mobile phone Several mobile phones were seized from Patterson's home except one, Phone A, and prosecutors told the jury they had never recovered this phone. Its sim card was swapped during a police search of her Leongatha home on August 5, 2023. Another phone, known during the trial as Phone B, had been factory reset on the day police were at her home and again while sitting in a locker at Victoria Police's homicide HQ.
7NEWS
07-07-2025
- 7NEWS
Erin Patterson found guilty by jury of murdering three people with mushroom lunch in Leongatha
Erin Patterson has been found guilty of murdering three people with a toxic mushroom lunch following a marathon ten-week trial in Victoria. Justice Christopher Beale sent the jury to deliberate last Monday, urging them to resist feelings of bias. After seven days of deliberating, the 12 jurors returned with a unanimous verdict, finding Patterson guilty of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Patterson's former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, died days after attending a lunch at her Leongatha home, in Victoria's Gippsland region, on 29 July 2023. Heather's Baptist pastor husband, Ian, 68, spent months in hospital, but survived. Patterson maintained her innocence throughout the trial, claiming the poisonings were accidental. She will be sentenced at a later date. When the jury were sent to deliberate, Justice Beale advised jurors that prosecutors did not have to specify a motive to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt. But Justice Beale also said jurors could consider the lack of motive in Patterson's favour when assessing whether she had an intention to kill. More than 50 witnesses gave evidence at the Supreme Court hearing in Morwell - including members of the Patterson and Wilkinson families, medical staff, Facebook friends, public health officials, scientists, digital experts, and police - as Patterson's horrific crimes were laid bare. The court heard tension ignited between Patterson, her estranged husband Simon, and his parents over child support issues in late 2022, with the mother-of-two complaining about them in expletive-filled messages to her Facebook friends. Although messages between Patterson, Simon, Don and Gail appeared to show the troubles quickly blew over, just months later she began plotting their murders. In autumn 2023, she foraged for death cap mushrooms - the most toxic fungus in the world - before purchasing a food dehydrator to dry them out so she could later use them to kill. Telephone data shown to the court suggests Patterson travelled to Loch and Outtrim in April and May, just days after death cap mushrooms sightings were reported on citizen website iNaturalist - a webpage that computer analysis showed she had used from as early as May 2022. Just hours after her phone pinged in Loch on April 28 2023, Patterson went to a local store and bought a $229 Sunbeam food dehydrator, sending photos of her drying out mushrooms to friends. A few weeks later, in June 2023, she began planting the seed for her heinous scheme by sending Gail and Don messages claiming she had medical appointments booked for a suspicious lump on her elbow. With her trap laid, she invited Simon, Gail, Don, Heather, and Ian over to lunch, with her estranged husband recalling to the court how she told him she had medical issues she wanted to discuss in the absence of the kids. While Simon pulled out the day before, his parents, aunt, and uncle still went to Patterson's Leongatha home, where she served up individual beef wellingtons laced with amatoxins to her guests on matching plates, while she ate from a different coloured dish. After they finished their meal, Patterson told her in-laws she had ovarian cancer, leading the group- who had unknowingly just been poisoned at her hands - to pray for her and her health. Over the next few hours and days, her guests' health rapidly deteriorated as they began to experience excruciating symptoms as their organs began to shut down, including vomiting blood, nausea, stomach pain, and diarrhoea. Meanwhile, Patterson swiftly moved to try and cover her tracks - feigning symptoms, dumping the food dehydrator, lying to police and public health authorities, and tampering with her phone. In court, Patterson claimed she, too, was a victim and was sick with nausea and diarrhoea after inadvertently picking deadly mushrooms and adding them to the beef wellingtons. She said she did not begin to suspect her foraged mushrooms had made their way into the meal until after she and everyone became sick. Patterson claimed she then 'panicked' and began destroying evidence and lying to authorities out of fear she would be blamed for the poisonings and would lose custody of her kids. But jury panel - of seven men and five women - did not believe her. In finding Patterson guilty, the jury ruled the prosecution had succeeded in proving the four elements of the charges of murder and attempted murder 'beyond a reasonable doubt'. For murder, the elements include: the accused caused the death of the deceased by serving them a poisoned meal; that the alleged conduct was conscious, voluntary and deliberate; that at the time she intended to kill or cause really serious injury to them and that she did so without lawful justification or excuse. The elements of attempted murder include: that the accused consciously, voluntarily and deliberately served Ian Wilkinson a poisoned meal; that her acts were more than merely preparatory; that she intended to kill him; and that her alleged conduct had no lawful justification or excuse. The verdict brings to an end the almost two-month long trial, which captured international headlines as dozens of journalists descended on the small mining community of Morwell, a town of around 14,300 people a 50 minute drive northeast of Leongatha. The trial also drew massive crowds as members of the public swarmed to the area from near and far, sometimes waiting outside in the cold for hours, to bag a spot inside the court room. After giving his testimony, Ian Wilkinson sat in the public gallery every day listening to the proceedings, often accompanied by other members of the Patterson and Wilkinson families. The woman who murdered his wife and almost took his life sat just metres away, at the back of the room, in the dock. As Patterson awaits her fate, she will be remanded in at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, a maximum security prison for women in Melbourne's western suburbs. The facility has housed some of Australia's most infamous female offenders, including teen killer Caroline Reed Robertson, gangland widow Roberta Williams and German drug smuggler Andrea Mohr. Other high-profile inmates Patterson will be bunking with include pedophile rapist Malka Leifer, black widow Robyn Lindholm, Melbourne crime queen Judy Moran, and serial con artist Samantha Azzopardi. While Justice Beale will have to weigh several factors when deciding Patterson's sentence, the nature of the crimes could see her jailed for the rest of her life. In Victoria, the maximum penalty for murder is life imprisonment while attempted murder carries a sentence of up to 25 years behind bars.
