Woman who denies mushroom murders of her in-laws accepts that she served them death caps for lunch

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - An Australian woman accused of murdering three of her estranged husband's relatives with poisonous mushrooms told a court on Tuesday she accepted that the fatal lunch she served contained death caps.

But Erin Patterson said the "vast majority" of the fungi came from local stores. She denies three counts of murder and one of attempted murder over the beef Wellington meal she served to her parents-in-law and her estranged husband's aunt and uncle at her home in July 2023.

Don Patterson, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson were hospitalized and died after the lunch in the rural town of Leongatha in the Australian state of Victoria. Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, was gravely ill but survived.

Patterson's lawyer earlier told the Supreme Court trial that the poisoning was a tragic accident but prosecutors said it was deliberate. If convicted, she faces a sentence of life imprisonment on the murder charges and 25 years in jail for attempted murder.

Long queues formed outside the Latrobe Valley Courthouse on Tuesday after Patterson took the stand late Monday, which was the first time she had spoken publicly since the deaths.

During several hours of evidence on Tuesday, Patterson, 50, told the court she began foraging fungi during the COVID-19 lockdown of March 2020, witnessed only by her children.

"I cut a bit of one of the mushrooms, fried it up with some butter and ate it," she said. "They tasted good and I didn't get sick."

Patterson said she also fed foraged mushrooms to her children, chopped up "very, very small” so they couldn't pick them out of curries, pasta and soups.

She developed a taste for exotic varieties, joined a "mushroom lovers" Facebook group, and bought a dehydrator to preserve her finds, Patterson said. Her lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, asked if she accepted that the beef Wellington pastries she had served to her lunch guests in 2023 contained death caps.

"Yes, I do," said Patterson.

The accused told her lawyer most of the mushrooms she used that day came from local supermarkets. She agreed she might have put them in the same container as dehydrated wild mushrooms she had foraged weeks earlier and others from an Asian food store.

Mandy in April told the court his client had lied when she initially told investigators that she had never foraged before. But he denied that she had deliberately sought out death cap mushrooms and said she disposed of her dehydrator in a panic about the accidental deaths.

Earlier Tuesday, Patterson became tearful when she was asked about expletive-filled messages she had sent about her in-laws in December 2022 in a Facebook group chat that she described as a "safe venting space" for a group of women.

"I wish I'd never said it. I feel very ashamed for saying it and I wish that the family didn't have to hear that I said it," said Patterson. "They didn't deserve it."

Patterson, who said she had tried to have her parents-in-law mediate a dispute with her estranged husband, Simon, about school fees, said she was feeling hurt, frustrated and "a little bit desperate."

The couple formally separated in 2015 after earlier temporary splits, the court has heard. Simon Patterson was invited to the July 2023 lunch but did not attend.

Tuesday's evidence also traversed Patterson's health after prosecutors’ suggestions that her lunch invitation was unusual and that she’d organized it on a false pretense of receiving a cancer diagnosis. The mother of two admitted she never had cancer, but had been worried enough by symptoms to seek tests.

Despite her separation from Simon, Patterson said she had hoped to reunite with her estranged husband and said she had remained close to her in-laws.

"It never changed. I was just their daughter in law," said Patterson, through tears. "They just continued to love me."

The 14-member jury has heard five weeks of prosecution evidence, including what the lunch guests told relatives before they died. Heather Wilkinson said shortly before she died that Patterson ate her individual beef wellington pastry from a different colored plate to the other diners, said prosecutor Nanette Rogers.

Opening her case in April, Rogers said the poisoning was deliberate but that her case would not suggest a motive for the alleged killings. The prosecution says Patterson lied when she told investigators she had eaten the same meal as her guests and fed her children the leftovers.

Patterson is due to continue giving evidence on Wednesday. Her evidence Tuesday did not include her account of the day of the lunch, or cross-examination from prosecutors.