The mushroom poisoning in Vic.... I am gripped - Part 2

[ImustLearn2Cook]

Hi everyone, Aussie Mumsnetter here. As some have requested a new thread be started by an Aussie I decided to do it.

I am still gripped by this case and like many, I am awaiting updates of new information.

Will a matching donor for a liver for Ian be found soon? I hope he makes a full recovery.

Will he be able to shed new light on the lunch they all shared?

And of course is she guilty of deliberately poisoning them or was it an innocent mistake?

Maybe she felt left out as she wasn't invited to the 70th birthday.
I see the defence went for saying the cancer was misinterpreted.

Point taken! I have an Uncle barrister who would've walked over hot coals to represent her. Allegedly.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-02/erin-patterson-mushroom-murder-trial-husband-simon-evidence/105242818

I'm suss that she took herself to be checked out by doctors just to 'check the box' that she was sick too. When she wasnt. And refused to let her kids be examined because she'd scraped the mushrooms off and they only ate the beef.

If you genuinely thought you might possibly have given your lunch guests, let alone your kids something poisonous you'd be freaking out over their health! Not signing yourself out AMA (against medical advice).

Eeeek she is surely screwed

Back on this thread again! Yes this is exactly what I thought when I read this. She refused to be admitted despite them warning her it could be a serious risk to her life, and you would want your kids to be thoroughly checked and treated if there was any chance they had consumed any of it whatsoever! Straight away it comes across as a box ticking exercise.

Her defence seem to be arguing her lies were due to panic and that we could all tell porkies in extreme situations when we're panicking.

Yes, or she could be guilty as all hell. Hmm.

her poor estranged husband, his brother and their children.
just awful for them

Indeed. I believe the kids are with their Dad & extended family. Still, just awful for them

If she had previously been poisoning Simon and he was still the intended victim it would have looked pretty suss if only he died. Perhaps she wanted him dead so much - to avoid shared custody and giving him half her wealth - that she needed to kill others and make it look like a terrible mistake. Killing his parents also had the added benefit of her kids inheriting so their futures would be even more secured.

But anyone watching true crime shows knows that phones show where you have been, cctv records everything and laptops and iPads give police all your internet searches, forum uses etc. Some people believe they are smarter than they really are and can’t see how stupid their plan is.

Some people are just wicked. Even if they can cook and have a faith.

i wonder if we will ever get to know the messages she sent to his parents,

I expect they will form part of the police evidence along with her internet searches from her devices, phone location tracking, cctv from the dump etc

I wonder if Heather (or any of the other guests) mentioned the plates to anyone else before she died. Because Simon saying that really seems like him dropping her in it.

This is not my own line but "There's not mushroom for doubt".

If you all came to my place for a meal you might all have different plates? I dont really have proper sets.

You wouldn't all have identical plates whilst I had a different one. And I'd be serving up whilst chatting and asking people what they wanted or saying 'help yourself to the beans' etc. But this means nothing really. People entertain differently, have read many a mumsnet thread on that!

I can imagine, IF I had mismatched crockery, but only four matching nicer plates, and IF I was serving individual items (like the individual beef wellingtons) I might hand out the servings of food on the nice plates to the guests.

I'm with you on the 'everyone entertains differently' though. I don't think I've ever done individual servings of things, and I generally serve all the food in the middle of the table and let people serve themselves, or set it up buffet-style, depending on the seating arrangements. It's not a great style of entertaining for poisoning selected victims, though.

well surely Heather told Simon, she asked if
Erin didnt have matching crockery, that is how we know isnt it?

I think if you'd spent the night puking your guts up, with diarrhea, and in terrible pain, after a lunch at someone's house, and have called an ambulance, and know the other couple who attended have already gone off in an ambulance, and then you hear the hostess is not particularly unwell, you would start to put together what you'd eaten, and what you'd noticed - like the fact she served her BW on an orange plate and the rest of the lunch party's were grey.

Ian Wilkinson, the sole survivor, should be able to corroborate Simon's testimony of what his aunt said about the plates.

My point is, will anyone corroborate that evidence.

Her husband, Ian, who was in the house when she said it and the car when she said it again, and who was at the meal also, and who survived.

Ian has so far not been quoted in the media and the police haven’t released any statements regarding what he has said. Unlike Simon, nothing of his evidence has been quoted or foreshadowed by the police.

The predictable outcome is that his evidence aligns exactly with Simon’s, but nothing should be taken as given.

There was a bit on the podcast where the prosecution had asked Simon if he had ever seen evidence of Erin’s air traffic control and other qualifications.
Apparently he said he had but the I guess implication is that she might have lied about these too?
can they call the kids as witnesses or are they too young?

I actually cried reading about Don, and the fact that Erin got on really well with him (I'm very hormonal). Why the fuck would she do this, it's such an awful way to die

The kids are apparently doing a prerecorded video interview. They'd be around 13 and 16 now.

Well, he is the bombshell surviving witness. I'm not surprised he has been kept under wraps.