Woman Murdered Ex-Husband's Family With Mushroom Lunch: Police

An Australian woman who cooked a mushroom-infused meal suspected of poisoning and later killing three of her former in-laws has been charged with their murders.

Erin Patterson, a 49-year-old resident of Victoria, served a beef Wellington to her ex-husband's parents, her ex-husband's aunt and the aunt's husband in late July this year, after which all four became critically ill.

Gail and Don Patterson, her 70-year-old ex-parents-in-law, and Heather Wilkinson, Gail's 66-year-old sister, died in hospital in early August. Heather Wilkinson's husband, Ian Wilkinson, 69, survived and spent two months in hospital recovering.

Erin Patterson has now been charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder, and was arrested on Thursday morning.

After the deaths, Patterson told police that she had made the beef Wellington using button mushrooms from the supermarket, as well as dried mushrooms bought at a local Asian grocery store. The mushrooms used in the beef Wellington were dehydrated using a dehydrator, which police found at a local rubbish tip after the deaths. Patterson claimed that she had thrown away the machine in a panic after being accused of the deaths.

Patterson herself became ill after eating the meal but recovered. She has always maintained that she was devastated by the deaths and had done nothing wrong.

"I am now devastated to think that these mushrooms may have contributed to the illness suffered by my loved ones. I really want to repeat that I had absolutely no reason to hurt these people whom I loved," Patterson said in a statement at the time, according to local news ABC Australia.

Victoria Police have since revealed that the three dead were confirmed as poison mushroom fatalities, and showed symptoms of having eaten death cap mushrooms.

"The death cap is more toxic [than fly agaric mushrooms] and as [the] deaths of three people in Victoria, Australia, recently showed, often fatal," Gregory Moore, a senior research associate in ecosystem and forest sciences, at the University of Melbourne, told Newsweek.

Death cap mushrooms are extremely toxic, and are responsible for the majority of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide. Only around 1.1 ounces of the fungus is needed to kill a person, as its toxins rapidly attack the liver and kidneys, leading to death if treatment isn't obtained quickly.

"The death cap contains amatoxins. They contain these chemicals to attract and kill insects that provide them nutrition," Moore previously told Newsweek.

The remaining attempted murder charges refer to three separate incidents in Victoria between 2021 and 2022, where it is alleged that a 48-year-old man became ill after consuming meals cooked by Patterson.

Patterson's house was searched by police and sniffer dogs after she was taken in by police.

Patterson will appear in La Trobe Valley Magistrates' Court in Morwell on Friday morning.

"Over the last three months, this investigation has been subjected to incredibly intense levels of public scrutiny and curiosity. I cannot think of another investigation that has generated this level of media and public interest, not only here in Victoria but also nationally and internationally," Victoria Police Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said in a statement.

"I think it is particularly important that we keep in mind that at the heart of this, three people have lost their lives. These are three people who by all accounts were much beloved in their communities and are greatly missed by their loved ones."

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