Australian woman Erin Patterson was found guilty Monday of murdering three of her estranged husband’s relatives by deliberately serving them poisonous mushrooms for lunch.
— Australian woman Erin Patterson was found guilty Monday of murdering three of her estranged husband’s relatives by deliberately serving them poisonous mushrooms for lunch.
The jury in the Supreme Court trial in Victoria state returned a verdict after six days of deliberations, following a nine-week trial that gripped Australia. Patterson faces life in prison and will be sentenced later, but a date for the hearing hasn’t yet been scheduled.
Patterson, who sat in the dock between two prison officers, showed no emotion but blinked rapidly as the verdicts were read.
Three of Patterson’s four lunch guests — her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson — died in the hospital after the 2023 meal at her home in Leongatha, at which she served individual beef Wellington pastries containing death cap mushrooms.
She was also found guilty of attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband, who survived the meal.
