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After eight weeks, countless witnesses, and more twists than a eTV thriller, the Erin Patterson trial has finally reached closing arguments, leaving Australia on edge and Netflix executives probably halfway through casting.
Back in July 2023, Erin Patterson invited her former in-laws over for a family lunch at her home in the quiet Victorian town of Leongatha. She served up a beef wellington laced with death cap mushrooms (Amanita phalloides), and shortly after the meal, four of her guests became violently ill.
Three of them, Don and Gail Patterson (her former in-laws) and Heather Wilkinson, died within days. The fourth, Ian Wilkinson, survived after spending weeks in hospital.
Erin also got sick, but not too sick to check herself out of the hospital and rush home to dispense with a mushroom-dryer, which is, of course, a bit sketchy.
Multiple dead dinner guests tend to raise suspicion, and not long after, she was charged with three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, unleashing a marathon trial that has seen lies and surprises popping up like mushrooms.
Naturally, she’s pleading not guilty, saying it was all a horrible mistake – she claims she used store-bought and dried mushrooms, and somehow the toxic ones got mixed in. But the prosecution isn’t buying it and says Erin knew exactly what she was doing.
They’ve pointed to suspicious online searches, erased evidence, and even her phone being tracked to areas where death caps grow. Then there is the fact that she used a different colour plate than the rest of her victims/guests at dinner. Explaining away her sketchy behaviour, Patterson told the jury she had a “stupid knee-jerk reaction to just dig deeper and keep lying.”
“I was just scared,” she said.
Defence lawyer Colin Mandy SC insisted Patterson “accidentally” added foraged mushrooms to the meal, along with ones she bought from an Asian grocer in Melbourne. “What happened was a tragedy and a terrible accident,” he said.
The Defence reckons there’s just too much uncertainty to convict, and although Erin may have panicked and lied, panic isn’t murder. They say she never meant to harm anyone and that the evidence, while weird, doesn’t prove intent.
The Prosecution, on the other hand, is not taking a bite of their Wellington and insists it was cold and calculated murder. They’ve asked the jury to focus on all the things that don’t add up, like the deleted data, the suspicious mushroom research, and the missing dehydrator to come to the only logical conclusion: Erin planned to off the in-laws.
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After weeks of testimony, the jury will now have to decide if Erin Patterson is a grieving host who made a deadly mistake or a woman who planned an (almost) perfect murder.
While we’re waiting for the Netflix doccie, you can tuck into this Guardian podcast for an in-depth look at the case, or turn to social media for the internet’s darker opinions.
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[Source: CNN]
