Australian mushroom murderer's alleged attempts to kill husband revealed

8/8/2025 17:04

An Australian woman who murdered three of her in-laws with a meal of toxic mushrooms also allegedly tried to murder her husband using poisoned pasta, a chicken curry and a sandwich wrap, evidence showed on Friday after a judge allowed its disclosure.



A jury last month found Erin Patterson lured her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Don Patterson and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, to lunch at her home and poisoned them with servings of Beef Wellington that contained death cap mushrooms.



They also found the 50-year-old guilty of the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, Heather's husband, who survived the 2023 meal at Erin Patterson's home in Leongatha, a town of about 6,000 people some 135 km southeast of Melbourne.



Patterson was initially charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder in 2023, with the four additional counts relating to her estranged husband, Simon Patterson.



Justice Christopher Beale previously ruled the charges should be split into two separate trials, before the prosecution dropped the attempted murder charges relating to Simon Patterson on the eve of the first trial.