Most of you will know who we are talking about when we refer to the “mushroom murderer” – Erin Patterson, the only woman mass murderer in recent Australian criminal history.
Many will be familiar with the facts of a case that has gripped the world. It started innocuously, at a family gathering on July 23rd, 2023, in the tiny town of Leongatha, in Victoria, Australia. A very normal day, a very normal activity: an apparently normal family sitting down to eat lunch. On the menu was the now infamous beef Wellington. Its even more infamous cook was Erin Patterson.
Four people attended the lunch: Patterson’s in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson; Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson; and Heather’s husband, Ian. Simon Patterson, Erin Patterson’s estranged husband, was invited, but declined to attend as he already had his suspicions that his ex-wife had attempted to poison him on three occasions between November 2021 and September 2022.
Don, Gail and Heather died in hospital within days of the lunch. By some miracle, Ian Wilkinson survived. But he spent weeks in an induced coma, fighting for his life. He woke to find his wife and other members of his close family were dead.
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The beef Wellington contained poisonous death cap mushrooms that Patterson had intentionally foraged, dried and included in the meal to kill her family.
In April 2025, her trial began in Morwell, a town in the beautiful Gippsland region of southeastern Victoria, an area known for farming, mining, and tourism – not somewhere you would associate with a premeditated and brutally violent mass murder.
The narrative that played out in court was reminiscent of Macbeth – involving Erin Patterson’s seeming obsession with betrayal and revenge. Other elements added to the sense of the Shakespearean: multiple deaths in one family; a woman responsible. All of this provided a sharp contrast to the apparent innocuousness of the accused. No wonder it gripped the media and public. But a demeanour I’ve described elsewhere as “vanilla” masked a compulsive liar and remorseless killer.
Patterson was charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. The trial went on for nine weeks, with Patterson maintaining her innocence throughout. As evidence was heard, the case swung back and forth; at different moments, it felt like the Crown or defence had the strongest arguments. But the case shifted decisively against her when Patterson chose to give evidence in her own defence. She showed little emotion and was very self-contained as she was led through the evidence by her barrister. Then the Crown barrister took over. Under cross-examination, Patterson appeared arrogant, superior, as though she wanted to show she was smarter than the barrister questioning her. She betrayed no remorse for her victims, no real emotion. And in that moment, I believe she lost the jury.
Six-and-a-half days after the jury was sequestered to reach a decision, on July 7th, they came back: guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.
In all this tragedy and the relentless media attention, it was easy to forget the victims and their families – at least until we heard directly from the families in their impact statements this week.
Earlier this week, on August 25th, Patterson faced a pre-sentencing hearing in Melbourne, the purpose of which was to provide the judge with the evidence they need to determine the sentence that should be applied. In total, 28 victim impact statements were read out, a litany of heartbreaking loss, pain, and suffering.
Ian Wilkinson told the court that the death of his wife had left him bereft. “It’s a truly horrible thought to live with that somebody could decide to take her life. I only feel half alive without her,” he said, breaking down.
The victims include the Pattersons, the Wilkinsons, and, of course, the two children of Erin and Simon, who had to witness their grandparents’ violent and torturous deaths. They now must live knowing their mother was responsible. “The grim reality is they live in an irreparably broken home with only a solo parent, when almost everyone else knows their mother murdered their grandparents,” Simon Patterson said in a statement read out on his behalf.
No medical evidence was included, so it does not appear that Patterson undertook a psychiatric or psychology evaluation.
Erin Patterson chose not to speak at the hearing. She did not express any guilt or remorse.
Her story still has a bit to run. On September 8th, she will learn of her fate. She will automatically get life imprisonment. The only question is whether she will have a non-parole period, or she may get life without the possibility of parole.
Nor has public interest faded. Reams of books and documentaries are already in production – and given the extraordinary circumstances, the unprecedented level of interest is understandable.
Online, the world of conspiracies exploded. The most disturbing issue that has been raised with me directly is that she must have been driven to it by her estranged husband’s abuse. There is absolutely and categorically no evidence for this. There is only one person who was abusive in their relationship.
Erin Patterson has captured public attention in a way I have not experienced before. I think it’s because she, like the death cap mushrooms she used, does not look capable of killing.
Experts believe, and I do too, that if she were ever to be released, she would continue to pose a danger to others. She has shown no sign that she believes what she did is wrong, no signs of regret.
- Xanthé Mallett is associate professor at CQUniversity Australia and a criminologist and co-director of the Queensland Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research
