The remarkably unremarkable life of Erin Patterson
The world was introduced to Erin Patterson in front of her cherry-red SUV, parked in the driveway off a quiet cul-de-sac in the little Victorian town of Leongatha. Sporting a light grey jumper, loose white pants and her signature sandals, the then 48-year-old pleaded her innocence to the journalists firing questions about a fatal lunch she had hosted a week earlier. That meal killed Patterson's in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, and critically injured Heather's husband, Ian.
Those first images, taken on a dreary Monday in August 2023, were the first insight into a life that has since been dissected by investigators, lawyers, the media and the public for nearly two years. The life of a woman who, until then, lived an unremarkable life. A woman who hates hospitals, adores her children and loves animals. A woman who is both introverted and highly intelligent.
And a woman who was found guilty by a jury of meticulously planning the murder of family members she purported to love.
The ensuing investigation would expose Patterson, first and foremost, as a self-confessed liar, capable of committing and concocting an elaborate story to cover up her crime. Patterson herself acknowledged, during her eight days in the witness box, to destroying evidence and lying to detectives, friends and family. She faked a cancer diagnosis to entice her guests to the fateful lunch, a jury found, and fabricated stories such as buying mushrooms from an Asian grocer and a plan to undergo gastric bypass surgery.
Erin Trudi Scutter was born on September 30, 1974, the youngest daughter of Heather and Eitan Scutter. She grew up in the middle-class Melbourne suburb of Glen Waverley in a family of high achievers. The matriarch of the family lectured at the nearby Monash University, teaching children's literature. Patterson and her sister, Ceinwen, attended the same university. Patterson obtained a degree in business accounting.
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Like her mother, she enjoyed studying and is frequently described by those who know her as a sharp thinker. 'Erin is very intelligent,' Simon, her estranged husband, told a jury. 'I guess some of the things that attracted me to her in the first place was definitely her intelligence. She is quite witty and can be quite funny.'
One of her fellow true crime aficionados described her as a 'super-sleuth', earning a reputation as one of the best and fastest at researching in their online community.
Before she met Simon, Patterson trained and worked as an air traffic controller, a challenging occupation that demands quick thinking and the ability to stay calm under pressure.
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