2 months ago
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It was the story that captivated Australia and the world.
Erin Patterson, an awkward stay-at-home mother of two from Leongatha, had murdered her in-laws and two other extended family members by serving them an elaborate beef Wellington meal laced with highly poisonous death cap mushrooms in July 2023.
Erin Patterson in the back of the prison van on May 12, 2025.Credit: AFP
News outlets, online influencers, commentators and internet sleuths went into overdrive, dissecting every aspect of Patterson’s life.
How could someone so unremarkable carry out such a callous, calculated and evil act? Was the lunch a mediation attempt to discuss the custody arrangements of her children? Was a wall covered in morbid drawings at her former home an early indication of Patterson’s evil tendencies? Were there any clues of what might have sent Patterson down a murderous path in her academic mother’s writings?
Two weeks into the trial, on a jury-free day when most journalists and photographers were taking a well-earned break, photographer Martin Keep ventured into the bitter Morwell cold with a custom-built rig held above his head.
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Planning to simply test out his invention for the first time, Keep managed to catch Patterson in the back of a police van.
Chosen by The Age as one of the defining images of the year, the photo captures Patterson’s visceral shock. It shows a woman who was seen by many as controlling and obstructive being caught entirely off guard.
Over 10 weeks, the jury heard evidence that the mum-of-two’s relationship with her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, and her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, had become strained, in part over child support payments.
She had vented to online friends about it, saying she wanted nothing to do with them and that she was “sick of this shit”. “This family, I swear to f---ing God,” Patterson told them.
The prosecution successfully argued that Patterson used a website for flora, fauna and fungi observations to find where death cap mushrooms were growing in Gippsland before picking, dehydrating, blitzing and adding the highly toxic mushrooms into individual beef Wellingtons she served to her guests on different coloured plates.
Don Patterson, Gail Patterson, Heather Wilkinson and Ian Wilkinson were poisoned.
Present at the lunch were her in-laws, as well as Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, and her husband, Ian Wilkinson – the only guest to survive.
After Don, Gail and Heather fell gravely ill, Patterson engaged in a campaign to attempt to cover up her crimes by dumping the dehydrator, leading health authorities astray, and factory-resetting her electronic devices a number of times.
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On July 7, 2025, a jury of seven men and five women returned guilty verdicts in the Supreme Court at Morwell for the murders of Don and Gail Patterson, and Heather Wilkinson. They also found Patterson guilty of the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson.
Patterson was later sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 33 years in September, becoming one of Victoria’s longest-serving female inmates.
She has since lodged an appeal of her guilty verdicts. The Director of Public Prosecutions has separately appealed Patterson’s sentence arguing it was “manifestly inadequate”.
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