Erin Patterson trial: What alleged killer told detectives following death cap poisoning deaths

Sitting in a police interview room a day after two in-laws had died from death cap mushroom poisoning, Erin Patterson claimed she did not own a dehydrator.

Just under 21 minutes of footage from the August 5, 2023, interview was played for the jury in her triple-murder trial after prosecutors called their final witness of the case.

Detective leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall, a homicide squad detective who led the investigation into the fatal lunch, took to the witness box on Tuesday afternoon.

Constable Eppingstall, who has sat behind prosecutors for the duration of the five week trial, formally charged Ms Patterson on November 2, 2023, the jury was told.

Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder relating to a deadly beef wellington lunch she hosted with members of her husband Simon Patterson’s family on July 29 the same year.

Gail Patterson and her sister Heather Wilkinson both died on August 4, while Gail’s husband Don Patterson died the following day.

Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, fell critically ill but recovered after spending more than a month and a half in hospital.

Prosecutors allege Ms Patterson deliberately spiked the lunch with death cap mushrooms, while her defence argues it was a tragic accident and she did not intentionally poison anyone.

In the interview, held at Wonthaggi Police Station in the afternoon of August 5, Constable Eppingstall tells Ms Patterson police are trying to understand what has made the quartet so ill and, conversely, why she wasn’t that sick.

Seated across from the two detectives and wearing a brown jumper, Ms Patterson softly indicates she understands.

“I’m sure you understand too that I’ve never been in a situation like this before and I have been very, very helpful with the health department during the week because I wanted to help,” she says.

“I do want to know what happened, so I’ve given them as much information as they’ve asked for.”

Later in the interview, Constable Eppingstall tells Ms Patterson police have “got concerns” about the source of the mushrooms used in the lunch.

He asks if she had ever foraged for mushrooms, with Ms Patterson responding; “never ever”.

Constable Eppingstall questions if she ever “dehydrates things” and receives a shake of the head in response.

Later still, he asks if Ms Patterson owned a dehydrator.

“No,” she responds.

The officer then tells Ms Patterson they located a manual for a Sunbeam dehydrator in her kitchen when they searched the property earlier the same day.

“I’ve got manuals of lots of stuff I collected over the years … I just keep them all,” she said.

The detective continues the line of questioning with; “when did you ever own a dehydrator?”.

Ms Patterson’s reply is not audible, but she then begins to talk about owning a Thermomix.

“When I first got the Thermomix I got really excited about making everything from scratch,” she said.

Earlier in the trial, the jury saw footage of Ms Patterson disposing of a black Sunbeam dehydrator at the Koonwarra transfer station and landfill on August 2.

In his opening address to the jury, her barrister, Colin Mandy SC, told jurors Ms Patterson accepted she lied about owning a dehydrator or ever foraging for mushrooms.

“The defence case is that she panicked because she was overwhelmed by the fact that these four people had become so ill because of the food that she’d served to them,” he said.

“Might someone panic in a situation like that? Is it possible that people might do and say things that are not well thought out and might, in the end, make them look bad?”

Constable Eppingstall will return to the witness box when the hearing resumes at 10.30am on Wednesday.

The trial continues.