Australian woman guilty of triple murder with toxic mushrooms

An Australian woman murdered her husband’s parents and aunt by lacing their beef Wellington lunch with toxic mushrooms, a jury found Monday at the climax of a trial watched around the world.

Keen home cook Erin Patterson hosted an intimate meal in July 2023 that started with good-natured banter and earnest prayer — but ended with three guests dead.

Throughout a trial lasting more than two months, Patterson maintained the beef-and-pastry dish was accidentally poisoned with death cap mushrooms, the world’s most-lethal fungus.

But a 12-person jury on Monday found the 50-year-old guilty of triple murder, a crime that carries a maximum of life imprisonment.

She was also found guilty of attempting to murder a fourth guest who survived.

“I think it’s very important that we remember that we’ve had three people that have died,” said Detective Inspector Dean Thomas after the verdict.

“I ask that we acknowledge those people and not forget them.”

The trial has drawn podcasters, film crews and true crime fans to the rural town of Morwell, a sedate hamlet in the state of Victoria better known for prize-winning roses.

Newspapers from New York to New Delhi have followed every twist of what many now simply call the “mushroom murders.”

Family members of the victims declined to speak after the verdict, asking for privacy in a statement issued through police.

A lone friend of Patterson appeared overcome with emotion as she left the courthouse through a jostling media pack.

“I’m saddened. But it is what it is,” she told reporters.

On 29 July 2023, Patterson set the table for an intimate family meal at her tree-shaded country property.

Her lunch guests that afternoon were Don and Gail Patterson, the elderly parents of her long-estranged husband Simon.