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The jury in Australia’s alleged mushroom killer case was shown Facebook messages and photos on Monday from a true crime group chat in which Erin Patterson appeared to joke about hiding powdered mushrooms in food, including brownies given to her children.
A witness named Daniela Barkley testified that the accused, Ms Patterson, shared the messages and photos after buying a food dehydrator and seemed excited about using it, including sharing a photo of mushrooms drying in the device.
Ms Barkley said that Ms Patterson was “a bit excited that she purchased a food dehydrator”.
“So, fun fact, the dehydrator reduces mushroom mass by 90 per cent,” Ms Patterson is alleged to have said in one message, “do you think Woolies would mind if I brought the dehydrator into their vegetable section and dry things before I buy them?”
The jury was also shown a picture said to be Ms Patterson’s dehydrator with mushrooms on the shelves. “Erin sent it to us,” Ms Barkley said.
The witness was given photos of chopped button mushrooms and said that Ms Patterson had shared them in the group chat.
Ms Patterson, 50, is on trial for allegedly serving a meal laced with deadly mushrooms that killed three of her former in-laws and left a fourth critically ill.
Prosecutors allege that she fabricated a cancer diagnosis to lure her estranged husband’s parents and his uncle and aunt to lunch at her home in July 2023 and poisoned their food. They claim Ms Patterson then disposed of a dehydrator containing traces of the toxic mushrooms at a rubbish site.
Ms Patterson, who is from Victoria, denies the charges of murder and attempted murder brought against her.
She insists the poisoning was a tragic accident.
Ms Barkley also said Ms Patterson had asked for advice about cooking beef Wellington, the dish she later served her elderly relatives.
“I just specifically remember the conversation because I didn’t actually know what a beef Wellington was because I’m mostly vegetarian,” Ms Barkley said.
“So I made a joke about it, ‘No, but if I could, I’d make a tofu Wellington’. And everyone just thought that was awful. So we had a good laugh about that.”
A few days after that online chat, Ms Barkley told the jury, Ms Patterson posted a photo of a cut of meat and asked the group if it was suitable for a beef Wellington. “We all just assumed it was for her and the kids,” the witness said.
The jury also heard that Ms Patterson had told members of the Facebook group on multiple occasions she loved mushrooms.
Ms Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson, on Monday denied ever accusing her of using a dehydrator to poison anyone.
He was questioned by Ms Patterson’s lawyer Colin Mandy.
Two days after the fatal lunch, Mandy suggested, Mr Patterson confronted his ex-wife while he was alone with her in a hospital room, asking her if she used the food dehydrator to poison his parents.
“Let me suggest that just after the conversation about the dehydrator, you said to Erin: ‘Is that what you used to poison them?’” the lawyer said.
“I did not say that to Erin,” he replied.
Mr Patterson had previously told the court that Ms Patterson never asked after her sick guests after they were taken to hospital.
In a phone call following the lunch, he said, his ex-wife described feeling sick but did not ask after her guests – his parents Don and Gail Patterson and his aunt and uncle Heather and Ian Wilkinson – who had fallen seriously ill.
“It intrigued me that she didn't actually ask,” he said, adding that Ms Patterson knew that her guests were ill. “We did not have that conversation, I think, at any time."
Mr Patterson told the jury on Monday that he was puzzled when his former wife invited him to that 29 July 2023 lunch. “I remember feeling puzzled after she invited me to the lunch that although she had communicated it was a serious medical issue that was to be talked about, it was going to be weeks later that the conversation was going to happen,” he explained. “I couldn’t reconcile those two facts.”
Although he was invited, Mr Patterson did not attend the lunch.
Chief prosecutor Nanette Rogers asked Mr Patterson why he had not contacted Ms Patterson after the lunch to find out what the issue was.
The estranged husband said he didn’t feel much urgency.
“I figured that is her news to tell. It’s her timing to tell it.”
A second witness, Christine Hunt, who appeared via a video link, testified about her online friendship with Ms Patterson, which began around six years ago in a Facebook true crime group focused on the Keli Lane case. Later, a smaller offshoot group of 20-30 people formed from the Keli Lane true crime community.
She said Ms Patterson would post about “just the challenges she was facing, the difficulties she had as a single mum”. The witness said Ms Patterson was “highly regarded” in the Facebook group and described her as a “super sleuth”.
She told the court Ms Patterson described Mr Patterson as “controlling” and “coercive” on several occasions. “They are the two words that I really do recall strongly that were used repeatedly,” she said.
The trial continues.
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