AFP/Martin Keep.
Convicted “Mushroom Murderer” Erin Patterson returns to court this week for her pre-sentence hearing. While everyone now knows the shocking details of what happened to her in-laws Gail and Don Patterson, and Heather Wilkinson, their grieving loved ones are also deemed victims of Patterson’s heinous crimes. And this pre-sentence hearing gives them the opportunity to tell the court how their lives have been affected by the events of 29 July 2023, through victim impact statements.
When asked how many people would be presenting these statements, it’s significant that prosecutor Jane Warren replied, “All I can say is, ‘A lot.’”
The killer faces the possibility of a life sentence for each count of murder. Which would see her live the rest of her life behind bars for poisoning her victims with death cap mushroom-laced beef Wellington and the attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian.
“She thinks she’s some sort of super-criminal that could outmanoeuvre the police and get away with it,” criminologist Xanthe Mallet tells Woman’s Day.
Poisonous relationship
Evidence that Simon Patterson had fallen seriously ill after consuming food made by his ex-wife was ruled inadmissible during the murder trial. As was the shocking revelation that he had fallen seriously ill on four separate occasions between November 2021 and September 2022 after eating meals. Such as a penne Bolognese and a vegetable wrap, prepared by Patterson.
After a 2022 camping trip with his ex, where he ate chicken korma, which Simon hadn’t seen Patterson prepare, he became so unwell that he ended up in hospital. Where he was placed in an induced coma for 16 days and had three emergency operations on his small intestine.
After telling his doctor Christopher Ford in late 2022 that his former spouse might be trying to poison him, he began keeping a record of his meals.
At the pre-trial hearing, Simon said, “When I made the spreadsheet and looked at what I’d come up with. My thought was, ‘This could appear to someone else lookingnat this that Erin was the cause.’ But I didn’t even really seriously entertain the possibility.”
In February 2023, Simon shared his suspicions with family, replacing his ex with dad Don and his brother Matthew as his medical powers of attorney.
A dark past
A former colleague who worked with Patterson – then going by her maiden name Scutter. As an air traffic controller in the early 2000s recalls that she was “quite aggressive in the way she spoke to people” and that people were “wary” of her changeable moods.
Another called her “a little bit strange”.
One recalls how the murderer was known as “Scutter the Nutter” and “Crazy Erin” by her co-workers. They allege that on one occasion, she prank-called into Air Australia Services pretending to be a colleague. She imitated them and said she was too sick to work, so she could pick up more lucrative shifts.
“I think that she is clever,” says a former colleague.
“She’s crafty, but she’s not as clever as she thinks.”
Mother’s death
The convicted killer’s dysfunctional relationship with her own mother is now being put under the microscope. A member of a true-crime Facebook group who was interviewed by investigators says police in the state of Victoria feared that there were more victims. Including Patterson’s mother Dr Heather Scutter, who passed away in January 2019, although there is no evidence to suggest that was the case.
Heather was a Monash University lecturer and a renowned academic. In text messages to friends shortly after her mum’s death in January 2019. Patterson shared her thoughts on her “cold robot” mother and “doormat” dad Eitan, who died in 2011.
A neighbour remembers Heather as “a lovely woman, as was her husband” and that she received treatment for cancer. She says Patterson stayed with her mum before Christmas 2018, a month
or so before Heather’s death.
Patterson, meanwhile, wrote in messages that her mother died from alcoholism.
Shock diagnosis
Patterson testified that she lied about having ovarian cancer to Don, Gail, Heather and Ian to obtain their sympathy at the lunch that would lead to their deaths just days later.
“They made me feel loved and cared for in the way that they were asking about my health,” Patterson told the court.
“I didn’t want that to stop, so I kept it going.”
Prison doctors have reportedly investigated whether Patterson has Munchausen syndrome. Where a person pretends to be unwell to gain attention from friends and family.
In the past, Patterson also claimed to a friend that she had been diagnosed as being autistic.
In a text message, she wrote, “I have Asperger’s – they don’t call it that any more, but that’s what it was called when I was diagnosed. So I often run into misunderstandings and miscommunication in real life, and then I go on about it a bit too long and over-analyse the effects.”
In September 2004, Patterson lost her driver’s licence after crashing her unregistered car while three times over the legal limit, then leaving the scene.
Digital trail
While Patterson claimed to have never foraged for death cap mushrooms, data from her electronic devices proved otherwise. During an investigation into her digital footprint, detectives found that Patterson had researched how to poison someone with red kidney beans and where death cap mushrooms had been spotted locally. As well as googling the words “poison” and “hemlock”.
Mobile-phone tracking also showed Patterson visited areas where she knew death cap mushrooms grew in the months leading up to the deadly lunch.
Oddly, Patterson also lied online about owning a cat.
“My cat chewed on this mushroom right now – he’s having a vomit,” Patterson shared on social media.
While the evidence of an imaginary cat was not shown to the jury, her defence lawyer Colin Mandy tried to reintroduce it to support Patterson’s claims that she had a long-held interest in foraging.
Courtroom revelations
When Patterson appeared for her pre-trial hearing, Melbourne-based artist Anita Lester was tasked with creating a courtroom sketch that captured the Mushroom Murderer – and she had just 15 minutes.
“That day was interesting as it was the first time where I wasn’t convinced she’d go to jail based on the things she was saying,” remembers Anita, who believes Patterson is “smart” and “secretive”.
However, Anita found Patterson’s physical appearance to be unthreatening, despite her being on trial for murder.
“She looked like a little girl to me,” Anita tells Woman’s Day.
Anita – who has been working as a court artist for two years – says coming face to face with criminals on trial can be strange.
“They can be the most evil person in the world, but it’s like seeing the adult version of a kid in the naughty corner,” she tells. “I see these horrible people being vulnerable.”
Damning video evidence
One of the most shocking aspects of this devastating crime is how the killer is so lacking in shame or regret, criminologist Xanthe Mallet tells Woman’s Day.
“She hasn’t shown any remorse or guilt at any stage,” Xanthe notes.
“Obviously she had these murderous proclivities, which nobody knew about – even those closest to her had no idea how dangerous she was.”
After Patterson was found guilty, the Supreme Court released video evidence that shows how the determined poisoner attempted to cover her tracks – but failed.
Definition of evil
One clip shows how, on the afternoon of 30 July 2023, the day after the fatal lunch. Patterson stopped at a petrol station and lingered over snacks to buy.
Despite reportedly suffering from diarrhoea from the poisoned meal at the time, Patterson – wearing white trousers – visited the service station bathroom for just nine seconds, before taking many minutes to decide what sandwiches and lollies to purchase.
The following day, on the morning of 31 July, Patterson presented at Leongatha Hospital. Claiming to have symptoms of food poisoning, but she refused a full examination by medical staff. She left the hospital minutes later.
Dr Chris Webster called the police to request they bring her back, concerned she may have been poisoned by fatal mushrooms. Patterson eventually returned to hospital and was transferred to Monash Medical Centre.
But as Don, Gail and Heather’s health worsened, the killer was discharged the following afternoon with no abnormal symptoms. Chris would later call Patterson “the definition of evil”.
The evidence
That day, police retrieved leftovers from the lunch at Patterson’s Leongatha home. Dr Veronica Foote is seen in the released footage, photographing it. Those photos were then sent to Dr Laura Muldoon at Monash Hospital, who assessed Patterson there. They were later examined by a mycologist at Melbourne’s Royal Botanical Gardens. Along with samples of the leftovers that were confirmed to contain the highly poisonous death cap mushrooms.
The most obvious misstep in Patterson’s ill-thought-out plan was when she was caught on CCTV at the Koonawarra Transfer Station dumping a food dehydrator four days after the deadly lunch. Testing later revealed traces of death cap mushrooms in the appliance.
“For somebody to be able to sit there and know that they’ve cooked something that is going to cause that level of harm, and likely death, takes a really cold individual,” says Xanthe.
“Actually, she’s not as intelligent as she thinks she is and so she didn’t plan the exit very well because I think she was just too focused on the crime.”
