She Killed Three People with Poisonous Mushrooms. Did She Mean To?

Summary

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Criminal – She Killed Three People with Poisonous Mushrooms. Did She Mean To?

Host: Phoebe Judge
Guest: Nino Bucci (Justice and Courts reporter, Guardian Australia)
Original Release: July 28, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this gripping episode, Phoebe Judge speaks with journalist Nino Bucci about the headline-dominating Australian case of Erin Patterson, who served a home-cooked lunch of beef Wellington laced with death cap mushrooms to her in-laws—resulting in three deaths and one near-fatality. The episode explores the events of the lunch, the medical and criminal investigation, the trial, and the enduring questions around intent and motive.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Fatal Lunch – Setting the Scene

• [01:48] In July 2023, Erin Patterson invites her estranged husband’s parents and their relatives to her new home in country Victoria for a Saturday lunch. The meal: individually-served beef Wellington with a mushroom mixture layered between steak and pastry.
  • Nino Bucci: “There was, you know, quite importantly in this case, between the beef and the pastry, there was a mushroom mix... put on top of the meat before the whole thing was wrapped up...” [03:27]

Simon Patterson’s Absence

• [02:56] Erin's husband Simon was invited but canceled late the night before. His absence, initially coincidental, gained significance as the investigation unfolded.

The Sudden Illness

• [04:59] That night, all four guests fell violently ill—severe gastrointestinal symptoms. At first, they thought it was just food poisoning.
• [06:11] The symptoms escalated; doctors noticed acute liver failure and realized it was something far more dire: death cap mushroom poisoning.
  • Nino Bucci: “Their liver function and the function of other major organs... suggested this was something far more significant than... a bad piece of steak.” [06:11]
• [07:15] Death cap poisoning: intense initial symptoms, a deceptive period of seeming recovery, then major organ failure.
  • Memorable quote: “What’s actually happening at that point is... the organs have failed to such a point that they’re not even doing that anymore.” [07:15]

Erin Patterson’s Response

• [08:35] Erin herself turned up at the hospital a day later, complaining of similar—but less severe—symptoms. Strangely, she left the hospital after being urged to stay, raising eyebrows among staff.
  • “She actually leaves the hospital, says she’s got stuff to take care of at home and comes back later on...” [08:35]

Tragic Outcome

• [09:54] Three of the four guests died. The sole survivor, Ian Wilkinson, spent months in intensive care and continues to suffer complications years later.

The Police Investigation

• [10:30] Toxicological experts quickly involved. By November 2023, Erin was charged with three counts of murder and one of attempted murder.
• [11:04] Initial police interviews: Erin claimed innocence, said she’d gotten the mushrooms from a supermarket and an Asian grocer, and that she too had fallen ill. Later, inconsistencies appeared, including evidence she disposed of a food dehydrator.

Relationship Dynamics and Motive

• [13:34] Erin’s relationship with her in-laws and estranged husband Simon is dissected. Evidence showed mixed feelings—cordiality at times and disparaging texts at others.
  • Nino Bucci: “It is not easy to say what that relationship was like, not only because of obviously what followed... but also because there was seemingly kind of two sides to Aaron...” [13:46]

The Trial

• [16:43] Central issue: Did Erin mean to poison her guests? She claimed she foraged mushrooms unknowingly; prosecutors argued she sourced death caps deliberately.
  • “It no longer was in dispute that she’d fed death cap mushrooms... what had become... the central issue... is whether she meant to do it.” [16:43]
• Past attempted murder charges regarding Simon were dropped and pursued separately, later abandoned for legal reasons.

Evidence & Testimony

• [21:07] Prosecutors tracked Erin’s locations and public posts about foraging, suggesting she was near spots where death caps were reported.
• [22:27] Erin testified the meal was a special occasion, she improvised ingredients, and she had “no reason at all to have done what she was alleged to have done.”
  • “Very much... her evidence was one of having a great deal of love and respect for the people she was alleged to have killed...” [22:27]

Verdict and Sentencing

• [24:46] After an 11-week trial, Erin was found guilty. She received a minimum 33-year sentence, with a maximum of life.
  • She still maintains her innocence and is appealing the conviction but not the sentence.
  • Nino Bucci: “...in the end, she was given a minimum sentence of 33 years with a maximum of life.” [24:48]

Enduring Mystery

• [26:35] The episode closes with discussion of motive: If the target was Simon, why poison his family when he wasn’t there? Even following the trial, her motive remains unresolved.
  • Nino Bucci: “You’re on a hiding to nothing when you try and get inside the mind of someone who will murder three people.” [26:52]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [01:16] Nino Bucci describing Erin’s attitude after initial deaths:
  “She’s seemingly as baffled as they are about why these three lunch guests have died... and yet she’s fine.”

• [07:15] On the grim progression of death cap poisoning:
  “There’s such a relentless progressive and frightening deterioration... even those symptoms stop. That doesn’t mean you’re getting any better. It in fact means... you’re beyond saving.”

• [24:46] On the verdict:
  “…the jury came down and they found Aaron Patterson guilty of all charges.”

• [26:52] On the question of motive:
  “...you’re on a hiding to nothing when you try and get inside the mind of someone who will murder three people.”

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Important Timestamps

• [01:33] Introduction to Nino Bucci and the case
• [03:27] Details on how the beef Wellington was prepared
• [04:59] Onset of victims’ illness
• [06:11] Doctors suspect mushroom poisoning
• [08:35] Erin’s own symptoms and hospital visit
• [09:54] Outcome for lunch guests
• [10:30] Police investigation and charges
• [16:43] The key legal question: intent
• [19:46] Description of the trial’s atmosphere
• [22:27] Erin’s testimony
• [24:46] Verdict and sentencing
• [26:52] Discussion on motive

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Closing Thoughts

This episode unpacks the chilling details and legal complexities of a real-life poisoning case that left three families shattered and the public riveted. The hosts’ careful recounting, coupled with Nino Bucci’s on-the-ground insights, paints a devastating picture of the deadly consequences of a single meal, and the often impossible search for motive in extraordinary crimes.

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Transcript

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[Nino Bucci]

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[Nino Bucci]

Basically, when you know she speaks to police, she's seemingly as baffled as they are about why these three lunch guests have died and another one's on death's door. And yet she's fine.

[Phoebe Judge]

Today I'm talking with Nino Bucci. He's a justice and courts reporter at Guardian Australia and last year he covered a trial there that made international headlines, a case that involved poisonous mushrooms.

[Nino Bucci]

Back in July 2023, a woman called Erin Patterson hosted her parents in law and also their relatives. So her the auntie and uncle of her husband at her house which was on a piece of land in in country Victoria, which is sort of one of the the southernmost mainland state in Australia. And she invited them around for for Saturday lunch, a lunch of beef Wellington. Aaron said didn't give a reason exactly for the lunch but basically wanted to talk to them about about something and she was in this quite new house. So you know they came around. Most of them hadn't been there before. It was quite an unusual thing for for her to invite them all over and she showed them around a beautiful house, did what people normally do when they have people over for lunch and fussed a little about plating up and then eventually they all sat around her dining room table and had a beef Wellington.

[Phoebe Judge]

You said that her in laws were there but was her husband there?

[Nino Bucci]

No. So her And Simon were estranged at that time. Simon didn't live there. He'd actually been invited to the lunch and cancelled late the night before. So he wasn't there. And you know, his absence was something that as this sort of went on became somewhat more interesting.

[Phoebe Judge]

So you said they were having beef Wellington. This seemed like a kind of a proper Saturday lunch for people who don't know what beef Wellington Wellington and what is beef Wellington.

[Nino Bucci]

Sure. So there's a few different ways around it. And you know, effectively what it is though is a piece of, a piece of beef wrapped in pastry. So this particular version that, that Aaron was making was from a quite a well known Australian chef. Her version is not sort of one big log of beef as is traditional wrapped up in pastry, but Aaron sort of made single bits of beef wrapped up in pastry. And there was, you know, quite importantly in this case between the, the beef and the pastry, there was a, a mushroom mix that was, that was, that was placed in there, sauteed down mushrooms that were sort of, you know, put on top of the meat before the whole thing was wrapped up in little individual parcels. So each of those lunch guests had in front of them effectively a little individually made parcel of beef, mushrooms on top, wrapped in pastry.

[Phoebe Judge]

So they sat down, they had their beef Wellington and what happened next?

[Nino Bucci]

Well, the discussion continued. They were at that point Aaron was sort of raising concerns she had about cancer. You know, they, they then realized that was why she invited them all around there to talk about her cancer diagnosis. But you know, it, it ended the way most of these lunches ended. Everyone was sort of, you know, waxing lyrical about the meal, very glad to have been there, hopped off in their cars and went home.

[Phoebe Judge]

So everyone leaves after lunch, goes on their own way and then what happens?

[Nino Bucci]

So later that night the lunch guests start to fall ill and they fall ill with symptoms that are, that are quite similar to, you know, acute food poisoning or gastroenteritis. There's, you know, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps. They all think basically, you know, they've, they've eaten something bad. And when it becomes clear that it's all people who are at Aaron's place for lunch, they, they assume it's something they've eaten that day, that, that it's, that they've potentially all had a bad piece of meat, for example. But as it kind of went from, you know, the early hours into, you know, dawn, they realized, look, we really need to get ourselves to hospital here because we've, we're, you know, because of how Violently unwell they were. They went there into, you know, the emergency department, they started receiving treatment, but it became pretty clear pretty quickly that things weren't getting any better. And eventually they were sort of rushed off to bigger hospitals in, in Melbourne.

[Phoebe Judge]

How quickly did the doctors figure out that this wasn't just regular food poisoning?

[Nino Bucci]

Yeah, it took a while. There was some stuff about their presentation and about, I guess, their, their, their liver function and the function of other major organs that sort of suggested this was something far more significant than, you know, eating, you know, a bad piece of steak, as they thought early on. And eventually they sort of, you know, through a process of elimination, decided it was probably amanita floides or death cap mushroom poisoning. Now, they weren't necessarily in a position at that hospital to diagnose that really, you know, clearly from that point. So they started speaking to people in Melbourne who were experts on it. And I started sort of treating them as a presumptive case of that fairly early on, even before that was sort of, you know, actually evacuated to, to those bigger hospitals. And it became, you know, obviously once, once that was the presumptive diagnosis, they were really concerned that these people might not survive.

[Phoebe Judge]

What happens to the body when, when you eat death cap mushrooms?

[Nino Bucci]

Yeah, it's, it's quite horrific really. And it's effectively a, you know, it's quite a slow and painful process for which there's, there's very little that can be done done. And something really stuck in my mind that, that was particularly sort of frightening about the people that kind of eat death cap mushrooms is that, you know, you, you go through this process of really intense symptoms of, you know, vomiting, diarrhea, exactly as you would when you've got, you know, a really bad food poisoning. But then there's this kind of period where it eases off and a lot of people who are suffering kind of think, you know, they're kind of getting better. But what's actually happening at that point is that it's this, you know, the organs have failed to such a point that they're not even doing that anymore. You know, there's such a relentless sort of progressive and frightening deterioration of everything that even those symptoms stop. But that doesn't mean you're getting any better. It in fact means you've, you know, almost progressed to the point where you're beyond saving. And I found that quite horrifying.

[Phoebe Judge]

Once the group gets to the hospital and they realize Aaron Patterson, the, the woman who had House they'd been at, she also comes to the Hospital complaining of stomach issues.

[Nino Bucci]

Yeah. So more than a day after the others, Erin also goes to hospital. She's not as unwell, but she's, she's also, you know, half their age and, you know, somewhat healthier. So, you know, yeah, she's, she's, she's sick, but she's not as bad. She, I mean, she walks in, for example, as opposed to having to be, you know, taken there by aun ambulance is a, is a kind of fair indicator of the difference between the two. And she also, somewhat strangely, you know, at this point, they're fairly confident that it is death cat mushroom poisoning. And so, you know, the local hospital, when she comes in, are far more alive to the prospect this could be something really serious than they were when her other lunch guests came in, you know, more than a day earlier. So they basically say, hey, you got to come in here straight away. And she actually leaves. She, she leaves the hospital, says she's got stuff to take care of at home and kind of comes back later on. Which again, you know, was something that people at the hospital found unusual at the time, but also was very different to how the lunch guests were, were reacting to that, to that poisoning, what

[Phoebe Judge]

happened to everyone who got sick.

[Nino Bucci]

So of those four people who became terribly unwell after eating beef Wellington at Aaron Patterson's house, three died. And the only survivor was Ian Wilkinson. He spent months in intensive care. You know, he was in an induced coma for large parts of that and, you know, still sort of to this day, you know, we're almost three years on now, sort of has, has ongoing health complications from that, from that meal.

[Phoebe Judge]

How quickly did the police launch an investigation after, after the deaths?

[Nino Bucci]

By the time the family had been taken to that major hospital in Melbourne, it's called the Austin Hospital, they, they do a lot of, you know, toxicological deaths, poisonings, that sort of thing. By the time the family were there, which was know, within days of the lunch, police were looking at the case and you know, by sort of November, so sort of some four months after, after that lunch, Aaron Patterson was in fact charged with, with those three murders and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson.

[Phoebe Judge]

What did she tell police had happened?

[Nino Bucci]

So this is an interesting one because what Erin Patterson did in her first interview was effectively kind of say, look, I don't know what's happened here. I have never gone foraging. I have no reason to harm these people. I was sick as well. I bought the mushrooms from the supermarket and an Asian grocer beats me what's happened effectively, you know, But I've got no reason for to hurt them. I love them and it could have been me. You know, at a basic level, that's what she's saying. That story would change somewhat as, as the sort of months rolled on. But basically when, you know, she speaks to police, she's seemingly as baffled as they are about why these three lunch guests have died. And another one's, you know, on death's door. And yet she's fine.

[Phoebe Judge]

We'll be right back.

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[Phoebe Judge]

you said Aaron Patterson was estranged from her husband. Did she have a good, I mean, if she's having lunch with her in laws, even if her husband wasn't around, did she have a good relationship with them?

[Nino Bucci]

As you might imagine in a case like this, the question of what Aaron's relationship was like with Simon was somewhat contested. And you know, even pieces of evidence that seemed quite open and shut about that relationship could be interpreted in a number of ways. I guess if you sort of think about, for example, she'd be, there'd be text messages tended about conversations she was having just with him. And that seemed maybe a little heated. And you know, there'd be discussions about money or whatever, but they were, you know, progressing. Then at the exact same time she's having these conversations with him, she's having separate conversations with her friends where she's, you know, speaking in quite a disparaging way about Simon and his family. So it is not easy to say what that relationship was like, not only because of obviously what followed and the context in which we were learning about it being, you know, a triple murder trial, but also because there was seemingly kind of two sides to Aaron and how she engaged with people about that relationship.

[Phoebe Judge]

Once the police initially interviewed Aaron, what happened with their investigation? What else did they learn after interviewing her?

[Nino Bucci]

These interviews, fairly early in investigation, they've kind of been explained to me before by, you know, people in, in homicide squads and things like that is it's effectively a chance to get people to kind of hang themselves in their own rope. So they're hoping that Aaron is going to say enough about what happened at that lunch that they're going to be able to prove her wrong. And she kind of did that. There was enough that she gave away there to sort of indicate that what she was saying wasn't true. Part of that revolved around, you know, material I'd get later on from, from her phone and other devices. Part of that was also around. They were able to establish that she had dumped a food dehydrator at a local, you know, what we call it, a tip in Australia, but basically like a dump. They were basically able to put together these bits and pieces that contradicted very much what she said in that interview. And if you kind of, you know, look at the timeline of that, that interview sort of occurred, you know, that first interview occurred, you know, I think roughly about three months before she was actually charged. So, you know, the police kind of went away and did a little bit more work and kind of were able to find in their mind enough to, to sort of point to the fact that this wasn't some accidental death, but that Aaron Patterson had, had intended to kill these people.

[Phoebe Judge]

When was she arrested?

[Nino Bucci]

She was arrested in charge in November of 2023. So there's a kind of four month period almost between that lunch and when she's, when she's charged with, with the murders. And it became fairly clear early on in that trial that the essential issue was whether she'd meant to put death cap mushrooms in the beef Wellington. So somewhat differently to the story that being presented, you know, up until that point, it no longer was in dispute that she'd fed death cap mushrooms to her lunch guests in those beef Wellingtons. What had become in, you know, the central issue of the trial is whether she meant to do it. And effectively, you know, Aaron was pleading not guilty, saying that, look, I forage these mushrooms. I didn't realize our death caps, I accidentally put them in the beef Wellingtons. That's killed the lunch guests. I got sick too, but for various reasons I didn't get as sick as them. That's basically what the trial come came down to, was that that question of intent.

[Phoebe Judge]

There were charges that were eventually dropped, attempted murder charges against her husband Simon, who hadn't been there.

[Nino Bucci]

That's right. So one of the things that was really fascinating about her arrest and charging back in November is we had no idea about this background or alleged background or history of attempting to poison Simon. And so that really was a bolt from the blue when that came out. So police, as part of their investigation into what happened at the lunch, they spoke to Simon and he spelled out to them these four occasions where he said she'd tried to kill him before. Now there are all occasions where, you know, police alleged it was just those two together. He was eating food that Aaron had prepared for him. Their children weren't there. And it all occurred when they were away from. From home as well. So, you know, Aaron Patterson, when she was charged in November with, with the lunch charges, which in and of itself wasn't a huge surprise given everyone knew she was kind of the only suspect. She was also charged with these, these matters involving Simon that nobody had any idea about. But between her being charged in November and the trial starting the following April, there'd been a lot of legal argument and back and forth about these two sets of charges, what were called, you know, the lunch charges and the Simon charges. Effectively. And right before the trial started, there was a, a ruling that came down and the judge effectively said, these have to be, these trials have to be held separately. You can't have one trial on the Simon charge and the lunch charges. You're gonna have to do them separately. And eventually the, you know, the, the Director of Public Prosecutions here decided that they'd drop the Simon charges. And they proceeded with the lunch charges.

[Phoebe Judge]

What was the trial like?

[Nino Bucci]

Incredible in the sense that we all knew it would be this completely uncontrollable kind of raging storm. And yet it still sort of took us by surprise. I think all the, the many reporters who covered it. There was, you know, evidence. It was obviously really sort of heart wrenching from, from, from Anne Wilkinson, who was at the lunch, but also from Simon Patterson about losing his parents and, and also sort of, I suppose, reflecting on, you know, his relationship with Aaron and the future for his kids and that sort of thing. And then, you know, later on in the trial, the very sort of final witness was Aaron Patterson herself. And, you know, that was quite remarkable. As well, because you sort of go from, from seeing this, this person in a doc every day, but sort of having seen her on, on television for, you know, months before that and in newspaper photographs and all the rest of it and, and then, you know, she sort of comes to life before your very eyes. And it's that. That was quite an experience too.

[Phoebe Judge]

Where did the prosecution say they thought she'd gotten the poison mushrooms?

[Nino Bucci]

So the prosecution said that it was open to the jury to find that she'd got them from one of two locations. And this was a fairly laborious part of the trial because basically what they were doing was measuring up location data to sort of say Aaron Pattis was in this location at this time and then kind of cross referencing that with public posts on a website called Inaturalist, which is basically a citizen science website. You can log posts on there about things you've found in, in the wild, you know, whether it be types of plant like mushroom or animals. And what the prosecution was saying was, look, it's open to you as the jury to find that Aaron Patterson was in a place called Locke and another place called Outram after there were public posts put on Inaturalist identifying those locations as having death cut mushrooms. So they didn't know exactly, but they were saying our case is that she got them from either Outram or locked on either of these occasions in the weeks leading up to the lunch, effectively.

[Phoebe Judge]

What did Erin say when she testified?

[Nino Bucci]

She, you know, effectively sort of said that she hadn't made that recipe before, but she wanted to do something different because it was a special lunch. She couldn't find the exact ingredients to follow the recipe that she'd found. So she sort of ad libbed and instead of, you know, buying one big sirloin, she divided, decided to just buy individual sirloin steaks. She said she was, you know, cooking down the mushrooms as the recipe sort of called for. But then they didn't, you know, taste particularly good. They taste a bit bland. So she threw in some dried mushrooms that she had in the pantry. Very much the, you know, I guess the, the sort of through line of her evidence was one of having a great deal of love and respect for the, for the people she was alleged to have killed, having no reason to want them gone, having had some issues in their relationship with Simon, but that, you know, had no reason at all to have, to have done what she was alleged to have done.

[Phoebe Judge]

What was the end of the trial like? What, what, what happened?

[Nino Bucci]

Trial went on and on and on. It dragged Far longer than anyone thought. It went for 11 weeks in the end. And, you know, Aaron Patterson's evidence was. Was, you know, the most dramatic period of those 11 weeks. And there was. There was a point, you know, in her evidence where I could see a path to her being found not guilty. Again, you know, just to sort of emphasize this is not, you know, criminal trials are not about. A lot of the time, are not about someone's innocence. You know, they're. But they're about whether there's enough evidence for them to be found guilty, you know, beyond reasonable doubt. And there was just enough, I thought at times early on in her evidence to suggest that a jury or, you know, it could be enough for. For a single juror to have some doubt about whether she'd intended to kill people with those, you know, poisonous beef Wellingtons. But eventually the jury came down and they found Aaron Patterson guilty of all charges.

[Phoebe Judge]

And what was her sentence?

[Nino Bucci]

Basically, in Australia, once there's a guilty verdict hand down, you know, the jury get sent out, they're thanked for their work, and there then is. Is what's effectively called a plea hearing for, you know, where the prosecution give their side of the sentence they think Aaron Patterson should get. And Aaron Patterson's, you know, lawyers basically say, well, these are the mitigating sort of circumstances. You know, in Aaron's case, there wasn't a lot of them. You know, she'd taken it to trial. Sort of indicates a lack of remorse, but, you know, that she had never been, you know, found guilty of any. Any other serious sort of criminal offending. You know, this was her first major crime. So, you know, it was all weighed up. And in the end, she was given a minimum sentence of 33 years with a maximum of. Of life. Now it's important to sort of say that Erin Patterson's appealing that conviction. She's not appealing the sentence, but she's appealing that conviction. And, you know, she maintains her innocence and there's going to be an appeal hearing, you know, in her case later this year.

[Phoebe Judge]

Her husband has a book deal.

[Nino Bucci]

Yeah. Simon Patterson has been represented by, you know, a media spokesperson since fairly early on in this. One of the things that we don't know a great deal about that, that Simon certainly can talk to, are those, you know, alleged attempted murders that Aaron committed on him where, you know, police had alleged. And he certainly suspects and continues to suspect that she attempted to kill him on a number of occasions before the lunch. Look, if that's the focus of the book, I'm sure that'll be the focus of even more headlines as well in the coming months.

[Phoebe Judge]

But you know what? The motive, if she was trying to kill him, he wasn't at that lunch. So why would she still serve? If. If she is guilty, why would she go ahead with serving the beef Wellington to his family?

[Nino Bucci]

I've really tossed this around a lot. I suspect that possibly Aaron's thinking was that Simon may come and if, for example, like, he'd taken their kids out that day, if, for example, he'd come back early and happened to his whole family sitting around eating, maybe he was more likely to partake as well. She did have extras. She had extra beef Wellingtons that she could have served to other people who came. Perhaps she wanted to see. Obviously, the previous attempts at Simon, alleged attempts, you know, involving Simon, have been unsuccessful. Maybe it was a dosing test. And it was, let's see how far I can push this. I mean, ultimately, where I kind of land with this is that you're on a hiding to nothing when you try and get inside the mind of someone who will murder three people. And it's a very difficult thing for most of us to do to try and consider their motives, especially when they're being questioned about this particular thing for days on end. And I've sat in the same room while she's doing that, and I'm still no close to understanding why.

[Phoebe Judge]

Well, Nino, thank you.

[Nino Bucci]

Thanks, Phoebe.

[Phoebe Judge]

You can read more of Nino Bucci's reporting for Guardian Australia at the link in our show notes. Aaron Patterson's appeal will be held this August. If you'd like to watch the video of this interview and all our other video interviews, follow [e-mail] criminalpodcast or just click the link in our show notes. I'm Phoebe Judge. Thanks for listening.

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