Images of the toxic beef Wellington and the table where Erin Patterson served her deadly lunch have been released by the Supreme Court of Victoria.
The pictures were shared alongside a treasure trove of video and photo exhibits that were tendered to the court throughout Patterson’s epic 10-week trial.
The evidence included CCTV footage of the moment Patterson discharged herself from hospital, against medical advice, after claiming to have eaten the poisonous meal she served her lunch guests.
The court also released photos of the dehydrator that Patterson, 50, used to dry out the deadly mushrooms before she used them to kill her in-laws.
Patterson had pleaded not guilty to the murders of Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson. On Monday she was found guilty of triple murder, and of attempting to murder a fourth guest, Pastor Ian Wilkinson, who survived.
Her husband’s parents and aunt died after consuming death cap mushrooms served in beef Wellingtons during lunch at her home in Leongatha, some 80 miles southeast of Melbourne, on July 29, 2023. A jury concluded she poisoned her guests on purpose.
The images shown to the jury had been withheld from the media until a verdict was reached.
The first pictures of the deadly poisoned beef Wellingtons made by Erin Patterson
Murder scene: The lunch table where Erin Patterson served her guests poisoned beef Wellingtons laced with death cap mushrooms
One video shows Patterson calmly walk into a BP service station where she was seen entering the toilet for just nine seconds.
Patterson had driven her son to his flying lesson in Tyabb the day after the meal, stopping at the petrol station in Caldermeade along the way.
Dressed in white pants, while claiming to be suffering from ‘explosive diarrhoea’, Patterson was seen wandering about the service station, stopping to buy treats, a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich, and a sweet chilli chicken wrap.
Other footage showed Patterson leaving the Leongatha hospital on July 31, 2023 after complaining of nausea and diarrhoea.
She discharged herself against medical advice about five minutes after arriving at hospital at 8.05am.
So concerned was a doctor about her welfare that he was forced to phone the police to try and get her to return.
Police arrived at her home shortly after Patterson returned to the hospital about 10am.
Told by Patterson where to find the leftovers, the officers drove the deadly meal back to the hospital, where it was inspected by Dr Veronica Foote, before being transferred for further examination by Monash Health emergency registrar Laura Muldoon.
Erin Patterson discharges herself from hospital after the deadly lunch
The dehydrator used by Patterson to dry the death caps she used to murder her guests
Patterson’s phone, kept in a pink phone case, was never found by police
The court was also shown CCTV vision of Patterson at the tip, where she was seen driving a red 4WD and dumping a large black device into an e-waste bin.
That device was later found to be the dehydrator she had used to dry the death caps she had harvested earlier.
The jury was shown images of sliced mushrooms laying on a metal tray taken from the dehydrator.
The images were taken by Patterson and extracted from her devices.
Royal Botanic Gardens of Victoria mycologist Tom May told the jury he could not ‘exclude the possibility these are death cap mushrooms’.
On August 5, 2023, police executed a search warrant on Patterson’s Leongatha home, seizing various electronic devices and photographing the scene of the crime.
Patterson’s defence had tried to suggest police had missed her phone during that search, which they claimed could be seen in one image in a black case.
However, an image taken from Patterson’s visit to hospital showed she kept the phone in a pink case.
Patterson dumps the dehydrator at the local tip after the lunch
Erin Patterson enters the BP where she went to the toilet for nine seconds and bought food
Her dehydrator was found by police at the local tip (pictured)
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The phone was never located by police and likely dumped by Patterson in the days after the raid.
The jury was also shown the cook book Patterson claimed to have based her vile beef Wellingtons on.
She had lifted the recipe from a Recipetin Eats Dinner cookbook, but drastically changed the way the Wellingtons were made in order to execute her wicked plan.
Instead of serving one complete log of Wellington, Patterson changed the recipe to make individual pasties, serving her ‘safe’ Wellington on a different coloured plate to insure she wasn’t accidentally poisoned too.
Much was made of that plate during the trial, with Patterson’s defence suggested Ian Wilkinson had made a mistake about the size and colour of his host’s plate.
But it was an observation made by her other lunch guests, who lived long enough to tell the tale before they died slow and agonising deaths.
Patterson herself had also taken to the witness box in a last ditch effort to save her skin.
Erin Patterson had lifted the recipe from a Recipetin Eats Dinner cookbook, but drastically changed the way the Wellingtons were made in order to execute her wicked plan
An expert thought these mushrooms were death caps. They had been captured by Patterson
The rotten beef Wellington leftovers
But her lies brought her undone time and time again.
Ultimately, the jury decided it could not believe a word Patterson said and going off the evidence at hand had no doubt at all she had killed her guests in the coldest of ways.
She will face a preliminary plea hearing at a date to be fixed before sentence where she is expected to receive a life sentence.
Family members of the victims declined to speak after the verdict, asking for privacy in a statement issued through police.
A lone friend of Patterson appeared overcome with emotion as she left the courthouse through a jostling media pack.
‘I’m saddened. But it is what it is,’ she told reporters.
Headlines around the world have followed every twist of what many now simply call the ‘mushroom murders’.
On July 29, 2023, Patterson set the table for an intimate family meal at her tree-shaded country property.
Heather Wilkinson (left) was first to die and her husband Ian (right) the only survivor. A death cap mushroom expert says the current Australian medical approach to amatoxin poisoning doesn’t sufficiently prepare doctors for its swift and dramatic effects
Simon Patterson would not concede he immediately suggested to Erin Patterson that she had used a dehydrator to poison his parents
Images taken on May 12 by photographer Martin Keep could not be published earlier in the trial due to legal concerns
The photos show Patterson recoiling at the flash of a camera from inside a prison van
Her lunch guests that afternoon were Don and Gail Patterson, the elderly parents of her long-estranged husband Simon.
Places were also set for Simon’s maternal aunt Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian, a well-known pastor at the local Baptist church.
Husband Simon was urged to come but he declined because he felt “uncomfortable”.
In the background, Patterson’s relationship with Simon was starting to turn sour.
The pair – still legally married – had been fighting over Simon’s child support contributions.
Monday’s verdict, finding her guilty of murdering her three in-laws, produced an audible gasp from those within the packed courtroom, which included members of the Patterson clan.
Patterson will now be taken back down to the Morwell Police Station cells where she had been kept throughout the trial.
Once caged, she can expect to be kept in an isolation cell for her own protection for the foreseeable future due to her high profile and the frailty of her elderly victims.
It can now be revealed Patterson’s two children had continued to see their mother behind bars while she awaited trial, unwilling to accept she could murder their grandparents and aunt.
