Australian woman found guilty in ‘mushroom murder case'

Boston Globe

a day ago

The 'mushroom murder case,' as it is known in Australia, transfixed the country. Scores of people lined up each morning outside the courthouse in Morwell, another small town where the trial was held, for the chance to see the proceedings firsthand.
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For everyone else, the court proceedings filled newspapers and dominated news websites, many of which ran daily live blogs tracking the case's every twist and turn. Four podcasts covered the trial and at least two documentaries are underway.
The case drew comparisons to an Agatha Christie novel or TV murder mystery. But prosecutors told the jury not to expect a classic crime story narrative.
'Motive is not something that has to be proven by the prosecution,' lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers said during opening arguments. 'You do not have to be satisfied what the motive was or even that there was one.'
Instead, the prosecution presented weeks of evidence that it said showed how Patterson carefully planned to poison her relatives and then tried to cover up the crime. Prosecutors said she searched a naturalist website for nearby death cap mushrooms, bought a dehydrator to hide them in food, lured her in-laws to her house under the pretense that she had cancer, and then served them the toxic meal before attempting to cover her tracks.
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'The sinister deception was to use a nourishing meal as the vehicle to deliver the deadly poison,' Rogers said during closing arguments.
Patterson conceded during the trial she had served her guests death cap mushrooms, but said it was unintentional.
Her parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, died about a week after the lunch. Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, also died, while Heather's husband, Ian, survived after spending weeks in the hospital.
Erin Patterson's estranged husband, Simon Patterson, was supposed to attend the ill-fated lunch but backed out.
'Had Simon changed his mind . . . he, too, would have been served the sixth poisoned beef Wellington,' Rogers told the jury.
Early in the trial, Ian Wilkinson testified that Erin Patterson had eaten her meal from a different colored plate to those she gave to her guests. Prosecutors contended Patterson did this to ensure she didn't accidentally consume the poisoned pastry.
Wilkinson also testified Patterson told her guests she was suffering from cancer, an 'elaborate lie' Patterson thought 'would die with them,' Rogers argued.
The jury heard from more than three dozen other witnesses including multiple mycologists, or fungi experts; several hospital employees; and Erin's two children, ages 14 and 9, whose testimony at times contradicted their mother's.
Patterson herself was the last to take the stand.
She testified that she, too, got sick from the bad beef Wellington. But prosecutors questioned her claims — the court heard debates about diarrhea and CCTV analysis of a bathroom break — and hospital workers said Patterson didn't display the same signs of sickness as her guests.
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Prosecutors also quizzed Patterson about her decision to leave the hospital without being treated, even after being told she might have ingested deadly mushrooms.
Patterson left because 'she realized what she had done was going to be uncovered,' Rogers said, adding that the defendant's actions showed she knew she had 'not consumed death cap mushrooms even though her lunch guests had.'
Prosecutors also highlighted Patterson's claim that she'd bought the mushrooms from an Asian grocer, a story they said had shifted several times and delayed efforts to help her relatives.
'For the sake of your very ill family members . . . you'd do everything you could to try and remember the store,' Rogers told the jury, 'but the accused sat on her hands while Don, Gail, Ian, and Heather were all in comas.'
Patterson's disposal of the dehydrator at a local dump days after the lunch was evidence she was trying to cover her tracks, prosecutors claimed.
But Patterson told the court she threw it away out of fear that she would be blamed for what she said was an accident.
Her defense lawyer, Colin Mandy, called the prosecution's case 'flawed' and urged the jury to consider whether there was a reasonable possibility that the deadly mushrooms were put into the meal accidentally.
'We know these actions of Erin Patterson caused the deaths of these three people and the serious illness of another,' he said in his closing argument. But 'they have to prove that's what Erin Patterson meant to do.'
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