Erin Patterson mushroom trial: Accused triple murderer’s Woolworths receipt shown in court
A mother accused of murdering three relatives and attempting to kill a fourth at a family lunch by serving up beef wellington with poisonous death cap mushrooms is standing a Supreme Court trial at Latrobe Valley Law Court.
Erin Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to murdering her former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, after the trio died days after attending a July 2023 lunch at her Leongatha home.
She has also pleaded not guilty to attempting to murder Heather’s Baptist pastor husband, Ian, 68, who spent months in hospital, but survived.
Her trial continues.
Court wraps up for the day.
Follow along tomorrow for more updates.
Key Events
Court wraps up for the day
Court has finished for the day.
Follow along tomorrow for more updates.
Patterson and Simon discussed her ongoing health issues in early 2022
The court has been shown messages between Patterson and Simon in January 2022.
In the messages, which were over the Signal app, SImon asked Patterson how her back was feeling and she said it was getting better, but she was still struggling with several other health issues, including troubles with her heart.
She told him a specialist indicated she had right-sided heart failure and she was having issues breathing and sleeping.
She said she had been conducting research into medical procedures and discussed the benefits of accessing those services via the public or private health system.
Patterson’s family history of cancer
The court has been shown a medical record indicating Patterson’s family health history.
It read as follows:
Complete family history
As of 11 August 2023
- Father - pancreatic cancer
- Paternal aunty - ovarian cancer in her 40s
- Maternal aunty - ovarian cancer in her 40s
- Mum and other maternal aunty breast cancer in their 50s
- Daughter benign ovarian mass at 6 months
‘She was concerned about ovarian cancer’: Patterson’s long list of ailments shown to court
Under cross-examination, Eppingstall was asked if he was aware about Patterson ever making health appointments regarding ovarian cancer.
He said he was aware of a cervical screening in March 2023, but not ovarian cancer.
The court was then shown doctors notes and referrals about Patterson in late 2021, when she expressed she was suffering concerning symptoms.
18/12/2021
Phone consult
Thank you for seeing Erin who is a mother of two beautiful children and lives with her husband.
Over the past few months, Erin has experienced a series of non-specific symptoms including extreme fatigue, lathery, headache, sore and dry eyes, nausea and poor appetite, indigestion, altered bowel habits, overactive bladder with urinary incontinence, irregular period, generalised non-pitting edema, weight gait, pins and needles in her hands and feet, clumsiness.
She is not on any medications. I knew Erin before as we went to the same church..
Her weight is 116kg: BP 118/84.
21/10/2021
Phone consult
MRI booked
Erin worries about ovary cancer, has been googling her symptoms, thinks her symptoms may suggestive of ovary cancer
11/11/2021
Worsening swelling in feet
Would like to have symptomatic relief….
Erin and (sic) both suspect she has MS - ticks all the checkboxes for MS: Weight gain, dizziness, visual disturbance, tremor, tingling and numbness, urinary incontinence, GI upset, anxiety/depression, restless leg syndrome..
The court was then shown a sheet indicating a radiology referral was made on 21 October 2021.
Mandy put it to Eppingstall that the records indicate that Patterson was concerned about ovarian cancer.
Eppingstall agreed that was what was indicated by the records.
Detective starts cross-examination
Homicide Squad detective leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall has begun cross-examination.
Defence barrister Colin Mandy SC put it to Eppingstall that Patterson had no criminal history and that she had assisted police in their investigation by directing them to the leftovers.
He agreed.
Patterson’s pub food order after death cap mushroom internet searches
Eppingstall said after receiving the digital analysis report, he went to Korumburra Middle Pub to ask if they had records from 28 May 2022.
He said they found a home delivery receipt for Patterson for Shellcot Road, which was her home address at thar time.
The court was then shown a receipt of Patterson’s order.
Invoice
Erin
Phone number: 04XX XXX 783
Pick up
Saturday May 28 2022
7:25pm
Family pack
2x Chicken parmigiana
Kids burger
Kids fish
Coke no sugar 1.25L
Sub total $75
Total: $82
Court shown mushroom webpages identified in analysis of Patterson’s computer
The prosecution has been shown screenshots of webpages that were detected in analysis of Patterson’s digital devices.
The court previously heard that digital forensics expert Shamen Fox-Henry identified URLs visited on Patterson’s device in May 2022, which included searches on the iNaturalist website and for information about Korumburra Middle Pub.
The court heard Detective Eppingstall copied the URLs identified in the digital recovery reports then pasted them into a browser to see what came up.
The court was shown a screen grab of an observations heat map on iNaturalist which indicated, using red dots, where death cap mushrooms had been spotted across the globe.
Next, the jury was presented with a heat map of the Greater Melbourne area, which marked where death caps had been sighted.
The third image showed a posting on the iNaturalist page of death cap mushrooms in the Melbourne area.
The other screen shots included a Google search for the Korumburra Middle Pub and another page on the iNaturalist website, which was thanking visitors for their support and seeking donations.
Patterson and Simon called each other several times in days after the lunch, court hears
The court has been shown Patterson’s phone records from 30 July and 31 July 2023.
The records indicate that Simon called Patterson twice on 30 July, 2023, and the pair spoke for around six minutes on both occasions.
Patterson also spoke to her son’s flying instructor twice on that same day.
The following day, Patterson had three phone conversations with Simon, each lasting several minutes.
He called her on two of the occasions and she called him once.
That same day, 31 July 2023, she also received a phone call from her son and Leongatha Hospital, the latter of which Eppingstall said appeared to be a voicemail call.
Patterson’s sim cards swapped in phones while officers were at her house, court hears
The court has been shown phone data records which indicate Patterson’s sim card was taken out of the phone while police officers were at her house.
The court heard yesterday that police conducted a search of Patterson’s Leongatha home on 5 August 2023.
Eppingstall told the court yesterday Patterson was given several minutes to use her phone privately in a room, while officers waited outside, before she had to hand it over.
In court on Wednesday, Eppingstall told the court enquiries revealed Patterson’s sim card ending in 783 was connected to the Samsung a23 in February 2023.
The sim ending in 783 was her primary number and the Samsung was bought in December 2022, the court has previously heard.
The court was shown phone data records from the 5 August 2023, which indicated her sim card ending in 783 was changed from the Samsung into a Nokia smart phone at 1.45pm - the same time police were at her house.
The court was then shown call data records from 5 August 2023 to 10 August 2023 which indicated the phone number ending in 783 engaged in “activity consistent with someone using their phone”, such as making calls and sending messages.
Patterson bought a new phone in late 2022, court hears
The court has been shown messages Patterson sent in a Facebook group chat in December 2022, indicating she had purchased a new phone while holidaying in New Zealand.
From: Erin Erin Erin
17 December 2022
My phone screen is broken and it wouldn’t respond to any commands or anything. Everything is on my phone, all my passwords are in my password vault and I was trying to log into it on my laptop and it was sending an authorisation email to my emails which I couldn’t access because I didn’t have my password which was inside my password vault
From: Erin Erin Erin
17 December 2022
Anyway I’ve been googling everything and trying to get into my phone and emails and just couldn’t but then someone suggested I could do a hard reboot of my phone and restart it in safe mode and it might fix the frozen screen issue and it worked.. For now. But the screen is broken and might freeze again at any second so now that I am in I am copying everything I need from it lol
From: Jenny Hay
17 December 2022
Oh, how stressful Erin. Maybe you can get the screen fixed in NZ?
From: Erin Erin Erin
19 December 2022
I had to buy a new phone today because I couldn’t get the new one fixed. Idk why but setting up a new phone is extremely stressful for me
From: Erin Erin Erin
19 December 2022
I got a Samsung Galaxy a23. The cheapest I could get while not being an absolute piece of s*** phone.
Eppingstall told the court the phone Patterson handed over to him on 5 August 2023 was a Samsung Galaxy a23.
“The 835 phone number is the phone number Patterson gave me during the interview,” he said.
“We did phone checks and came to realise it (that sim card) had only been connected on 11 July and it had been used in a tablet device up until August 2023 until it was put into the handset device.
The court was then shown data records which indicate the Samsung Galaxy a23’s unique handset number was connected to a new sim card on 3 August 2023.
Eppingstall told the court he conducted further inquiries and discovered there was a second phone number, ending in 783, which was registered to Patterson.
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