[imagesource:theage]

The now infamous ‘mushroom lady’ hosted a killer weekend family lunch in her Australian country home, and has just been charged with murdering her ex-husband’s parents and aunt with poisonous mushrooms while attempting to murder a fourth guest.

The fourth guest was her husband, a Baptist pastor, Ian Wilkinson, 68, who was the sole survivor of this deadly feast.

In fact, Erin Patterson has been charged with trying to murder her husband on four separate occasions, court documents reveal. Court documents showed that Erin is accused of attempting to kill her husband Simon on four occasions – between 16 and 17 November 2021, between 25 and 27 May 2022, on 6 September 2022, and at the mushroom lunch in July 2023.

Patterson, 48, was arrested at her home in Leongatha, eastern Victoria, and charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder on Thursday.

Police say the symptoms that the four family members, who did attend this July 29 mushroom lunch, experienced were consistent with poisoning from wild Amanita phalloides, known as death cap mushrooms.

Image: Food Safety

Journalists from national and international outlets gathered at the Latrobe Valley magistrates court in Morwell in Victoria’s south-east this morning, where Erin is supposed to appear in court, reported VICE. It is unclear when Patterson’s case will come before the court.

Erin Patterson had maintained she was innocent in the matter, saying in a written statement to police that she’d bought dried mushrooms for the dish from a supermarket and an Asian grocery store, claiming she too had been hospitalised after the meal.

“Of recent time, we have not had any cases like this,” Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said on 3AW radio. “The deaths are really unexplained and we’re trying to get to the bottom of it to understand what has actually occurred.”

Children were also present but did not eat the meal, Thomas said.

Murder in Victoria carries a potential maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

[source:vice]