The jury that convicted Erin Patterson of murder may not have been offered a motive at trial, but the killer’s online mates have their theories.
Daily Mail can now reveal what those closest to the 50-year-old thought made her murder her in-laws with a poisonous beef Wellington lunch.
Patterson had pleaded not guilty to murdering her estranged husband Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson.
They died after consuming death cap mushrooms served in the pastry dish during lunch at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.
Heather’s husband, Pastor Ian Wilkinson, was the only one to survive and gave evidence at Patterson’s trial.
Patterson was found guilty of three counts of murder and one of attempted murder on July 7.
In September 2023, just weeks after police charged Patterson with murder, her online friends flung open the cupboard to reveal her skeletons.
The information was so damning it could not be revealed at the time due to Victoria’s sub judice laws, which exist to allow an accused a fair trial.
A young Erin Patterson after the birth of one of her two children. An online friend described her as ‘meticulous and very smart’
Patterson was also described by her online friend as ‘super super private’
Three of Patterson’s online friends were called to give evidence during her month-long trial at the Supreme Court of Victoria in the Latrobe Valley law courts, in the state’s east.
The women knew Patterson through a true-crime Facebook group that sprang up after a 2019 documentary on convicted baby killer Keli Lane.
‘I’m an ex-friend of EP. Ask me anything,’ a woman posted to a group centred around Patterson shortly after her arrest.
‘I haven’t spoken to EP in a few years. I don’t know much about her current life thus. She has a new posse who are mean girls. I’m wondering why they aren’t defending her in the media.
‘The media reports of her being niave (sic) and comments about her being stupid are not true. She’s meticulous and very smart.
‘I think she probably didn’t anticipate the scrutiny she would face over this ill thought out “accident”.’
The post opened the floodgates to a barrage of questions from members keen for information on the then alleged killer.
The friend described Patterson as having Autism Spectrum Disorder and being at ‘genius level’.
Patterson had been active on chat groups leading up to the deadly lunch
‘Her whole family are extremely smart people. Seeing her hysteria in the media was very shocking. That is not the EP I knew,’ she wrote.
‘From what I know about (Autism Spectrum Disorder) etc, usually the people are overly honest to a point of fault.’
The friend said Patterson never spoke about her in-laws to her online friends.
‘She was super super super *emphasis on super private. I know she had above what I would consider normal resentment for Simon, though,’ she wrote.
‘He didn’t pull out of the marriage. But yes very lucky to not have been at that lunch. She left him after she got the inheritance.’
The friend then offered a chilling ‘theory’ about why her old friend did what she did.
‘In Australia, if you have minors you can’t get a property settlement without a custody agreement,’ she wrote.
‘It’s in my opinion only, that EP wanted to exit swiftly but the religious family of SP might have been holding this process up by not agreeing to a custody agreement, which meant that divorce was delayed, which might have meant in Australian law that the newly acquired asset pool was then considered to be something to split 50/50.
Erin Patterson described Simon (above) as being ‘unclean’ and expressed concern about her children staying at his filthy home
‘That or, the kids might have wanted to live with Dad and grandma and grandpa … Some of our group members work in the criminal justice field and believe if she’s done this on purpose it wasn’t her first rodeo. Most people who poison “practice”.’
Another friend claimed Patterson may have had something to do with the death of her own mother.
‘I knew EP when her mother died. The reported reasons for her death are not what she told us was the reason for the death,’ she wrote.
‘I don’t remember all of the details, but I do recall at the time there was a lot of bad blood after the mother’s death. From what we recall, it was over the will and inheritance. EP did everything to sell the mother’s estate. The sister wasn’t present.
‘I don’t know about the father, but I know he was a very lovely, warm man. Mother died from a coma due to alcoholism from what we were told by EP. The media is reporting it was cancer. Maybe liver cancer. I don’t know.’
One friend claimed Patterson had been ‘true crime obsessed’.
‘True crime and Lego are her #1 obsessions,’ she wrote.
The court heard Patterson eventually splintered from the group into a smaller one.
The jury was given no motive for why Patterson wanted her in-laws dead
‘The group split and she got a bit strange and stalky,’ her former friend told the chat group.
‘A core group of us disconnected with her due to this.
‘The other half of the group started a new group with her, they’re her best friends – they sent the “lone” flower box to her in support but are too gutless to defend her in the media.’
Patterson’s cooking also came under scrutiny, with one friend describing her culinary skills as mediocre.
‘She shared a few cooking photos with us in the group. Pad Thai. Etc. Honestly (not being mean) but it never looked super appetising. If I was to guess, I would say she was a mediocre cook,’ a friend wrote.
‘Beef Wellington is a fancy dish in Australia and not something most average cooks would attempt without some serious culinary skills or for a super special occasion.’
Patterson’s friend said on reflection, she ought to have known something was not quite right with her online friend.
‘We thought we knew her deeply but we are now discovering that a lot of her life was very secretive. Looking back on group chats and messages there’s a bunch of red flags,’ she wrote.
Don and Gail Patterson died a horrible death after eating death cap mushrooms dished up by Patterson
‘I would never have expected Erin to be involved in this, but, when I look back she was always odd, cold and sometimes emotionally hysterical which seemed disproportionate to the event. She’s a hard person to get to know and to properly analyse.
‘Before this came out I would have said I felt I knew her well. Now I’m very confused and so are her other ex friends.’
She described Patterson as suffering from a ‘victim mentality’.
‘When I say hysterical, there were a few minor issues that came up in the group and I found her response to be extreme considering the minutiae of the matter. Very emotional. “I’m devastated” type discourse,’ she wrote.
‘I can see her doing this for control. Money and custody and to get rid of roadblocks.’
Patterson had at times been brutally open in her communications with her online friends.
In one post, she lashed out at her local community while putting together the local newsletter.
Patterson branded contributors to Korumburra newsletter The Burra Flyer ‘illiterate motherf***ers’ during a rant to an old friend.
Ian Wilkinson (right) was the only person to survive the lunch. His wife Heather (left) died
Patterson and her then husband had put together the 48-page booklet of advertorials and promotions of the regional Victorian community for years after taking it over from Simon’s parents – and messages show she did not think highly of some of the contributors.
In another message, Patterson took aim at Simon, attacking the engineer for failing to do enough housework.
The friend disputed reports Patterson had been keen to get back together with her deeply religious husband, claiming she had initiated the split.
‘She’s an atheist as far as I know… she was very unhappy in her marriage and felt like a single parent. At the time I thought it was normal “my husband isn’t pulling his weight” type commentary,’ the friend stated.
‘We didn’t hear much about Simon other than he was never at home. Never helping her. She was very closed about this … she left him. She didn’t want to get back with him.’
During Patterson’s trial, stay-at-home mum Daniela Barkley told the court Patterson was ‘excited’ about buying the dehydrator in the weeks before the fateful lunch.
In one exchange shown to the jury, Patterson revealed she had been hiding mushrooms in the kids’ food.
‘I’ve been hiding powdered mushrooms in everything,’ she wrote.
Patterson lashed out on social media about members of her local community
Simon Patterson also took to social media to discuss his illness in 2022
‘Mixed it into chocolate brownies yesterday. The kids had no idea.’
The jury saw photos of the dehydrator, and mushrooms dehydrated in it, which were sent by Patterson to the group.
About two weeks before the lunch, Ms Barkley claimed Patterson asked the chat group for tips on how to make a beef Wellington.
Ms Barkley – a vegetarian – suggested she bake a ‘tofu Wellington’.
The court heard each member of the five-person chat group provided Patterson with advice on how to make the pastry dish.
Days later, Patterson complained to the group about the cost of beef fillet and asked about alternatives.
The court heard Patterson would also complain about her husband to her online mates – none of whom ever met her in person.
Ms Barkley said Patterson described Simon as being ‘unclean’ and expressed concern about her children staying at his filthy home.
Simon Patterson and his spin doctor Jessica O’Donnell enter court during the trial
‘She wasn’t happy. She didn’t want the kids to stay overnight because she wasn’t happy with how he lived,’ she said.
The court heard she later cleaned Mr Patterson’s home herself.
Ms Barkley said Patterson had expressed other problems with her estranged husband.
‘Just that he wasn’t a very nice person,’ she told the court.
The jury heard Patterson told the group she was an atheist just weeks before the lunch and that she was annoyed at how religious Mr Patterson was.
‘He put the church before her and his family,’ she said.
Another chat group member, Christine Hunt, told the court Patterson accused her husband of being ‘controlling’.
‘He was very controlling. She used the word coercive at times,’ she said. ‘Coercive control was the sense we were given.’
Patterson’s home and the location of the deadly lunch
Patterson talks to the media days after the lunch
Other messages shown to the jury saw Patterson describe her in-laws as a ‘lost cause’ and exclaimed ‘f*** them’.
‘Simon’s dad contacted me this morning to say that he and Gail had tried to talk to Simon about the matters I raised and to get ‘his side’ but he refused to talk about it other than to signal he disagreed with what I said,’ she told her online chums.
‘Beyond that he won’t talk about it. So Don said they can’t adjudicate if they don’t know both sides and Simon won’t give his side. So he said all he can ask is that Simon and I get together to pray for the children.
‘This family I swear to f***ing God.’
Patterson claimed she told her in-laws she wanted them to be accountable for the decisions their son made concerning their grandchildren.
‘I would hope they care about their grandchildren enough to care about what Simon is doing,’ she wrote.
‘Don said they tried to talk to him, but he refused to talk about it, so they’re staying out of it, but want us to pray together.
‘I’m sick of this s***. I want nothing to do with them. I thought his parents would want him to do the right thing, but it seems their concern about not wanting to feel uncomfortable, and not wanting to get involved in their son’s personal matters, are overriding that. So f*** them.’
