Topics: Erin Patterson, Australia, Crime, True Crime, World News
Creepy new pictures that have been released by investigators show the deadly beef wellington that killed three people in rural Australia in 2023.
Erin Patterson was found guilty of murdering three of her relatives and attempting to murder another as the infamous ‘mushroom trial’ came to a close on Monday (7 July).
For those who need a reminder, the 50-year-old Australian mother-of-two was accused of trying to kill her in-laws by serving them a beef wellington in July 2023, in a case that gripped the world for the following two years.
Erin had invited her estranged husband Simon Patterson, her former in-laws Gail and Don Patterson, both 70, as well as Mrs Patterson's sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, and her husband Reverend Ian Wilkinson, 69, to her home for a meal.
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Her former husband cancelled as he felt ‘too uncomfortable,’ given recent tensions between them, but the other four guests attended.
On the day of the lunch, Erin served up a homemade meal of beef wellington pastries, which included dried wild mushrooms, later revealed to be deadly death cap mushrooms.
All four guests fell ill hours later and were admitted to hospital, before being put on life support with advanced multiple organ failure.
On August 4 and 5, Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson all died from mushroom poisoning. Meanwhile, Ian was discharged on 22 September after weeks in an induced coma.
After she was discharged from hospital, Erin tried to cover her tracks and dumped the dehydrator she used to prepare the mushrooms.
The mother claimed that she simply added mushrooms from a container in her pantry - which she later realised may have included both store-bought and foraged types of the vegetable.
She said she had suffered from bulimia for years, and so that’s why she made herself throw up after the meal, meaning she survived.
Erin also denied that she told her guests she had cancer as a ruse to explain why she invited them to her home that day.
As theories and speculation circulated the internet, no one really knew what went down at her dinner table, until now.
After a nine week trial and six days of deliberations from a jury in the Supreme Court trial in the state of Victoria, Erin has been found guilty and now faces life in prison, with her sentencing expected to be delivered at a later date.
After the verdict was delivered, about 100 exhibits which were shown to the jury have been released to the public - including photographs of the murderous meal.
One snap of the half-eaten pastry showed how the mushrooms were finely chopped inside.
Meanwhile, another piece of evidence was a tragic entry from Heather Wilkinson’s diary on 29 July 2023, which read: ‘Erin’s for Lunch’.
Also released was a picture of the dining room where the meal was consumed, as well as CCTV footage of Erin discharging herself from hospital against medical advice.
Photos of Erin dumping a food dehydrator at her local tip days after the lunch and the receipt that showed she bought the appliance were also among the evidence.
