Quote · Crime, Conspiracy, Cults and Murder
Ep. 113 | The HORRIFIC Mushroom Murders
Where this was said
The Investigation: Contradictions, Evidence and the Case Against Erin
At 46:00 · chapter starts 40:40
The investigation began formally on August 4, 2023 — the day Gail and Heather died — with Detective Sergeant Luke Farrell leading a search of Erin's Leongatha home the following morning. The contradictions stacked up quickly. Dr Chris Webster at the hospital had asked what mushrooms were in the meal; Erin said she bought them at Woolworths, which doesn't sell death caps. Her own blood work showed no clinical or biochemical signs of amanita poisoning despite her claim of being ill. Nurse Cindy Monroe noted she looked nothing like the other patients — Ian could barely lift his head while Erin sat upright in bed and left after five minutes to feed her dogs. [1] — Kallmekris "Long before the lunch, Erin Patterson had been caught faking work hours as an air traffic controller, convicted of traffic offenses, and ea…" 47:50 CCTV footage from August 2 showed her driving to the Coonwarra tip with a Sunbeam food dehydrator; recovered two days later, it carried her fingerprints and traces of death cap mushroom. [2] — Kallmekris "Four days after the lunch, while her victims were fighting for their lives in Melbourne hospitals, Erin Patterson drove to the local tip an…" 46:40 Friends had already given police screenshots of Facebook photos showing mushrooms on that dehydrator's trays. Forensic searches of her computer found iNaturalist searches for death cap sightings dating back to 2022, and cell tower data placed her phone near known death cap locations months before the lunch. Her phone was factory-reset four times — once while detectives were in the house, once remotely from a police evidence room. [3] — Kallmekris "Erin Patterson's phone was factory-reset four separate times in 2023. Someone triggered a remote wipe while the device was already in a pol…" 50:10 And the cancer she had disclosed to her family? Doctors found no record of any diagnosis, and her name was absent from the Victorian Cancer Registry.
Ian Wilkinson, the sole survivor of the poisoned lunch, spent 54 days in hospital including time in an induced coma and received a liver transplant before being released on September 23, 2023.
Four days after the lunch, while her victims were fighting for their lives in Melbourne hospitals, Erin Patterson drove to the local tip and dumped a food dehydrator. Police recovered it two days later — with her fingerprints and death cap mushroom traces inside.
