Featured Image Credit: 9 News
Topics: Australia, Crime, Food and Drink
Mia Williams
The search history of a woman who allegedly poisoned her ex-husband's family with deadly mushrooms has finally been revealed in court.
Australian woman Erin Patterson has been charged with three counts of murder after her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, as well as Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, died in hospital in July 2023.
All three victims were found to have consumed poisonous mushrooms known as 'death caps' after attending Erin's house for a beef wellington lunch.
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Heather’s husband Ian also ate the meal, but he was the only one to survive the deadly dish.
The trial is currently ongoing, and after searching for evidence to pin Erin in connection with the case, cybercrime officer Shamen Fox-Henry has revealed parts of her search history in court that are very concerning.
The officer noted that there were traces of searches made about death cap mushrooms on her mobile phone.
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Despite claiming that she had 'no specific memory' of doing so, Erin admitted that it 'does look like somebody did that, yes'.
She added: "I don’t remember doing it, it’s possible it was me… I didn’t use Internet Explorer or Bing but I accept maybe I did this time, I’m not sure."
The accused noted that she wanted to know if death caps 'grew in South Gippsland', which is eerie given the cause of the victim's deaths.
The dull green fungus is said to cause organ failure within 24 to 48 hours.
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Erin noted that her husband, Simon Patterson, had also been invited to the lunch, but chose not to attend.
While the 50-year-old admitted that having her extended family around for a meal was an 'unusual' thing to do, she 'wanted it to be special'.
She has also been accused of attempting to get rid of the dehydrator which was allegedly used to prepare the mushrooms - that she claims she bought from an Asian supermarket and a Melbourne grocer - in a nearby forest.
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Asked for an explanation for the strange behaviour, she recalled feeling 'really scared' after finding out her guests were in hospital.
Speaking about their relationship, she added: "I had a good relationship with them. I said they always treated me like a daughter, not like a daughter in-law, they treated me like their own daughter."
Erin has branded the incident as a tragic and terrible accident, with her admitting that while she served them the mushrooms, she didn't know they were poisonous.
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She also claimed that she was simply trying to fix a 'bland dinner' through using the mushrooms.
Her lawyers said that she had invited her guests over 'on the pretence that she’d been diagnosed with cancer, and needed advice about how to break it to the children'. This later transpired to not be true.
The trial of Erin Patterson continues.