Erin Patterson has finally been found guilty of killing three people with death cap mushrooms.
According to CNN, Patterson was found guilty of three counts of murder and an attempted murder of the only survivor of her deathly meal after a ten-week, much-discussed trial in Morwell.
How did Erin Patterson kill her in-laws?
The 50-year-old Australian woman in 2023 invited her parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, and her husband, Ian Wilkinson, for lunch and served them death cap mushrooms baked in Beef Wellington.
After a few days, her former parents-in-law, along with Heather, died, while Ian luckily survived after two months of intensive treatment in the hospital.
Patterson pleaded not guilty after being charged in November 2023, while her defense lawyers called the deaths a “terrible accident.”
Defence barrister Colin Mandy SC told the jury, “Erin Patterson had a motive to keep these people in her world so that they could keep supporting her and her children. And there's absolutely no doubt that Don and Gail had a great relationship with [their grandchildren]."
“Absolutely no doubt that Erin was devoted to her children. Why would she take wonderful, active, loving grandparents away from her own children?" he added.
Meanwhile, the prosecutors insisted that she deliberately picked the mushrooms and added them to the lunch, which she did not eat.
The Supreme Court jury on Monday, July 7, 2025, accepted the prosecution’s argument and issued a guilty verdict.
Petterson stood composed and still as the jury read the verdict and did not express any emotions.
