Trial to begin for woman accused of killing 3 with poisonous mushroom lunch

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A woman hosted a lunch for her in-laws at her home in Leongatha, a town of less than 6,000 people in regional Australia. Afterward, four of the guests grew ill with similar symptoms and three died. Police allege it was murder and that the weapon was the meal, which they believe had been intentionally laced with poisonous death cap mushrooms.

The trial is scheduled to begin with jury empanelment Tuesday in Morwell, about 95 miles east of Melbourne.

The woman at the center of the case, Erin Patterson, has pleaded not guilty. She told local media in August 2023, the month after the lunch, that she was devastated by the deaths of “some of the best people I’ve ever met.”

Patterson had separated from her husband, police said, and the guests were her former mother- and father-in law and former aunt- and uncle-in-law. “My children have lost their grandmother,” she said in the filmed statement to local media, adding, “I just can’t fathom what has happened.”

Two children may have also been at the lunch but probably ate a different meal, according to police.

This wasn’t the first time someone had become mysteriously ill after eating a meal cooked by Patterson, police allege.

She was charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. One of the latter charges relates to the lunch guest, the uncle-in-law, who ate the meal and survived. Other charges relate to what police say were times that Patterson poisoned her husband, who allegedly became ill after eating meals on three occasions between 2021 and 2022. She also denies those accusations.

The trial is expected to be closely followed, with the public broadcaster in Australia launching a podcast with daily updates. Dean Thomas, a detective inspector in Victoria, the state where the lunch occurred, said in November 2023 that the public curiosity about the case nationally and internationally had been “incredibly intense” and called for sensitivity.