It’s been ‘TMI Thursday’ in the trial of Erin ‘Mushroom Lady’ Patterson, as the court heard graphic details of all the poos and wees of a person claiming to have ingested poisonous mushrooms along with the rest of her lunch guests.
Erin Patterson is accused of lacing a beef Wellington meal with poisonous death cap mushrooms to kill three of her estranged husband’s elderly relatives at a lunch at her home in 2023. An attempted murder charge relates to the fourth guest, who survived after months of intensive care in hospital.
Patterson has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
The issue for the prosecution to establish is whether the pattern of evidence so far amounts to more than a tragic chain of circumstances around an enthusiast for foraging wild mushrooms or whether something sinister was afoot.
Earlier in the week, the court heard from a mobile telecommunications who testified that mobile tower data showed Patterson’s phone in locations where fungi websites had posted geolocation data for death cap mushrooms. Under cross-examination from the defence, the expert conceded that, given the locations were all within short drives of Patterson’s home, her phone ‘pinging’ a particular tower did not necessarily mean she had been in that area.
Further technical evidence from Patterson’s computer showed that it had been used to visit a post on the iNaturalist website titled “Deathcap from Melbourne”.
The jury has been shown data pulled from Ms Patterson’s Cool Master computer which indicates the user looked at the “observations” page of the online nature-sharing platform on May 28, 2022.
This was just over a year before the fatal lunch.
Just a month before the lunch, the computer also showed searches related to cancer. In March 2023, Patterson was informed that she had tested negative for cervical cancer. At the lunch in June, Patterson told her guests that she had been diagnosed with cancer and needed advice on how to break the news to her children. This was the reason she gave for the children not being at the lunch.
The court also heard from cybercrime officer Shamen Fox-Henry, who testified that Patterson’s phone was data-wiped four times during 2023 – three of them after the lunch.
The first three resets were performed “locally by user”, senior digital forensic officer Shamen Fox-Henry told the court.
The reset on August 6, 2023, was performed by “wiping the device remotely” through the “Smart Things Find” website, he said.
The court also heard graphic medical evidence relating to Patterson’s claim to have also fallen ill after the lunch. Readers averse to descriptions of bowel movements had best skip a couple of paragraphs.
The jury has been shown a medical log of Erin Patterson’s bowel motions when she was being treated at the Leongatha Hospital.
Nurse Mairim Cespon told the court Ms Patterson presented to hospital on July 31, 2023 – two days after the beef Wellington lunch – complaining of nausea and diarrhea.
“She said she was going to the toilet and then I told her we needed to catch the bowel motion,” Ms Cespon told the court.
The jury was shown a “bowel chart” prepared by Ms Cespon, which showed five bowel movements between 10am and 11.50am on July 31, 2023.
The size of the movements were described as small to medium. The consistency was liquid.
In her notes, Ms Cespon wrote the movements looked like urine and were yellow in colour, but Ms Patterson said it was a bowel motion.
If you thought you’d heard too much, wait till you hear about the ‘witch’s hat’.
Ms Cespon talked about a so-called witch’s hat, which is a device placed inside a toilet that enables samples to be collected, of both liquids and solids […]
CCTV footage shown to the jury revealed she entered the Caldermeade BP about 3.19pm on July 30, 2023, wearing white pants and a grey jumper.
Ms Patterson, who has said she was suffering from diarrhoea at the time, went straight to the bathroom where she remained for nine seconds.
When she emerged, she went to the sandwich cabinet, selected a product and browsed the aisles before exiting the service station about 3.21pm.
Given that Patterson told police she had included mushrooms bought ‘from an Asian grocer in Melbourne’, public health authorities were naturally alarmed that death cap mushrooms might be sold in Melbourne. Patterson was unable to tell police the exact store, only that it was supposedly in Oakleigh. A thorough search of Asian grocers in the area found no death cap mushrooms.
The council worker tasked with investigating Asian grocers suspected of selling Erin Patterson death cap mushrooms says all mushroom products were imported from overseas.
Monash City Council public health worker Troy Schonknecht visited about a dozen stores across south-east Melbourne to investigate mushroom products sold.
According to a report compiled from the visits, all stores “responded that they had not had anyone trying to sell them mushrooms”.
The trial continues.
