Case summary: The Erin Patterson mushroom poisonings
Erin Patterson, a 50-year-old woman from Leongatha, Victoria, was convicted in July 2025 of the murder of her former parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, both aged 70, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66. She was also found guilty of the attempted murder of Reverend Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband, following a fatal lunch in July 2023 in which she served a beef Wellington dish laced with death cap mushrooms (Amanita phalloides), one of the most lethal fungi known.
