Erin Patterson says it's possible foraged mushrooms were in beef wellington meal, as she testifies for third day in murder trial
Ms Patterson was emotional at times during her third day in the witness box on Wednesday, as her Supreme Court trial continues in the regional Victorian town of Morwell.
She is accused of murdering her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, as well as Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, who each fell fatally ill after eating a beef wellington meal on July 29, 2023.
Ms Patterson also been charged with the attempted murder of Heather's husband and local church pastor Ian Wilkinson, who survived the meal after a lengthy stint in hospital.
Prosecutors allege Ms Patterson's beef wellington lunch was intentionally laced with death cap mushrooms, a claim she has denied.
Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
Under questioning by defence barrister Colin Mandy SC, Ms Patterson walked the jury through how she prepared her beef wellington meal on July 29, 2023.
The court heard the beef wellington recipe, sourced from a RecipeTin Eats cookbook, required mushroom "duxelles" which Ms Patterson started preparing on the morning of the lunch.
Ms Patterson fried up some garlic, chopped shallots and then emptied tubs of mushrooms she purchased from Woolworths into a Thermomix.
She told the court she could not recall exactly how many mushrooms she used, but "it was a lot".
"I cooked that for a very long time," Ms Patterson said, adding any excess water could make the pastry soggy.
Ms Patterson said the duxelle tasted a "little bland", so she decided to incorporate dried mushrooms she purchased from an Asian grocer, which had been stored in the pantry in Tupperware.
"I chopped them up and ... sprinkled them over the duxelles and pushed them in," she said.
Asked what she thought was in the Tupperware container, Ms Patterson said she believed it contained dried mushrooms she bought from the grocer in Melbourne.
"Now I think that there was a possibility there were foraged ones in there as well," Ms Patterson said as her voice cracked.
Ms Patterson denied ever seeing posts on iNaturalist from mycologist Dr Tom May or retired pharmacist Christine McKenzie about death cap mushrooms sightings near Loch and Outtrim.
She also admitted she had "looked up" the poisonous mushrooms online and whether they were in the Gippsland area but discovered that they did not grow there.
'I found out there were some mushrooms growing on my property that were probably toxic to dogs,' she said.
'They're called inocybe.'
In the witness box on Tuesday, Ms Patterson also accepted the beef wellington meal she cooked "must have" contained death cap mushrooms.
Ms Patterson revealed her mother used to cook beef wellington on special occasions.
"I remembered on really important occasions my mum would make a beef wellington as a kid and I thought ... I'll give it a go," she told the court.
Asked if she had ever made the dish before, Ms Patterson said "no".
The court heard Ms Patterson made a few changes to the recipe from the RecipeTin Eats cookbook, which included using filo pastry.
"It called for mustard - I didn't use that," she said.
"It called for a layer of prosciutto, but I didn't do that because Don doesn't eat pork."
Ms Patterson said the crepe "looked a little bit complicated" so she decided to use a filo pastry instead.
Earlier, Ms Patterson denied foraging for mushrooms in Loch and Outtrim in the South Gippsland region, or seeing posts of death cap mushroom sightings on science website iNaturalist.
'Did you ever forage for mushrooms in Loch?' her defence barrister asked.
Ms Patterson replied: "No."
Asked if she ever foraged for mushrooms in Outtrim, Ms Patterson responded 'no'.
The prosecution alleges Ms Patterson faked a cancer diagnosis to invite her guests over for lunch.
Ms Patterson's estranged husband Simon Patterson was invited to the lunch but declined.
The prosecution alleges Ms Patterson 'deliberately poisoned' each of her guests by serving them the mushroom meal, which the defence has denied.
In his opening address in the trial, Ms Patterson's defence barrister Colin Mandy SC told the court the events of July 29 were a 'tragedy and a terrible accident'.
The trial before Justice Christopher Beale continues.
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Marsh and Brough phoned a friend of a friend, Ziggy Vanags, who sat with them in the Brookdale living room and discussed what to do about her betrayal. What made Brough madder than the attack on his ex was that Spice had stolen his tools along with the car, it was revealed in court. 'Together you formed a common intention to find Ms Spice and recover those items, during which it was agreed that Ms Spice would be seriously assaulted,' Justice Amanda Forrester said in her sentencing remarks. On September 22, 2022, Brough set the trap. 'You phoned Ms Spice and left a voicemail saying that you had been able to get some drugs and were heading to see her,' court documents said. Marsh later conceded she knew Nardia Spice had feelings for Brough, setting up Spice to become one of the at least 31 per cent of West Australians who were in 2022 willing to engage in risky behaviour such as exchanging sex for money or drugs. 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Over the next few hours, Brough tied her hands together, wrapped her in a blanket and with the help of Vanags, put her in the boot of the Commodore. Jones woke up, and she alleged she was told to help them hide their crime. The group drove Spice to Perth's scrubby bushland, and dumped her in isolated bush in Whitby, about 10 minutes' drive further south. Prosecutors were unable to say whether she was still alive at the time. Bleach, fire and the weir The attempted cover-up took days. They returned to the scene where Bough used bleach to erase any sign of himself on her body, and moved her again deeper into forest in the southern hills of Jarrahdale. They cleaned the wrench and threw their bag into Mundaring Weir in the northern hills. They torched the stolen car, poured more bleach on bloodstains in the dirt car park and even rehomed Spice's dog. But about 10 days later Spice's former housemate reported her missing. 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He physically and mentally abused Eve Marsh, a young mother herself and desperate to create a stable family after her father was jailed while she was young. Marsh told the court her grandmother used to take her to visit her own father in prison. Now, the same grandmother takes Marsh's own daughter to see her in prison. Jesse Jones also had a life marked by drug abuse and homelessness. She struggled with suicidal ideation for most of her life, and was a prolific cannabis smoker. Despite having transitioned genders she spent more than 800 days in the male-only Hakea Prison while awaiting Thursday's sentencing. Loading 'Everybody in this matter has had, quite frankly, a quite tragic upbringing,' Justice Forrester said in giving Jones a two-year suspended sentence on top of the time already served. She also sentenced Eve Marsh to eight years' jail, with eligibility for parole in six. Earlier this month, Ziggy Vanag was sentenced to seven years' jail, eligible for parole in five. Brough was in March sentenced to life imprisonment. The cycle continues, with one of Spice's six children in jail. The whereabouts of the other five are unknown.
