Alleged mushroom murderer Erin Patterson faked cancer to lure victims, prosecutors say

SYDNEY, April 30 – An Australian woman accused of murdering three of her estranged husband’s elderly relatives by poisoning their food, faked a cancer diagnosis to lure the victims to a meal, prosecutors claimed on Wednesday, in a case that has gripped the country.Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with the July 2023 murders of her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, along with the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband.All four fell ill after a lunch of Beef Wellington, mashed potatoes and green beans, the court was told.Prosecutors said the accused knowingly laced the meal with deadly death cap mushrooms at her home in Leongatha, a town of around 6,000 people some 135 kilometers (84 miles) from Melbourne.Erin Patterson denies the charges.Defending Patterson, barrister Colin Mandy told the court the deaths were a “terrible accident,” and that the accused had no intention of killing her lunch guests.“The defense case is that Erin Patterson did not deliberately serve poisoned food to her guests,” he said.In the opening arguments that began on Wednesday, prosecutor Nanette Rogers said the accused had fabricated a cancer diagnosis and hosted the lunch on the pretense of discussing the best way to tell her two children about the illness, in order to ensure they did not attend.“It is the prosecution case that the accused deliberately poisoned (the victims) with murderous intent,” she told the court.“The prosecution will not be suggesting that there was a particular motive to do what she did,” she said.The guests ate individual portions of Beef Wellington off four large grey dinner plates, while the accused ate from a smaller, tan colored plate, the court heard.The guests fell ill later that day and were hospitalized a day after, where three later died.

Ian Wilkinson spent weeks in hospital and survived.The accused went to hospital two days later, where ...