Erin Patterson trial: True crime group reveals cook’s claim she was ‘hiding powdered mushrooms in everything’

Alleged triple-killer Erin Patterson was “excited” about her new dehydrator and told friends she had been “hiding powdered mushrooms in everything”, an online friend has claimed. Messages purportedly from Ms Patterson to her online true-crime group have been shown to the jury at her triple murder trial on Monday. “I’ve been hiding powdered mushrooms in everything. Mixed it into chocolate brownies yesterday, the kids had no idea,” one message reads. “So fun fact the dehydrator reduces mushroom mass by 90 per cent. Do you think woolies would mind if I put the dehydrator into their vegetable section and dry things before I buy them.” Three members of a five-person Facebook chat were called to give evidence on Monday afternoon about their online interactions with Ms Patterson. Each told the jury while they’d never met her in person, they regularly communicated about everything in their lives and had supported one another since 2020. The court was told the chat had spun off a Facebook group with about 2000 members dedicated to the Keli Lane criminal case after the ABC aired a documentary. Alleged poisoner loved mushrooms: court Each of the three witnesses, Christine Hunt, Daniela Barkley and Jenny Hay were quizzed by Ms Patterson’s barrister Colin Mandy SC about her contributions to the chat. The trio all confirmed Ms Patterson “loved mushrooms” and was very excited to share she’d purchased a dehydrator and was dehydrating mushrooms in about February or March 2023. “She seemed to really like mushrooms,” Ms Hay said. The trio confirmed Ms Patterson shared her plans to prepare a beef Wellington in July 2023 and she had asked the group for advice. Ms Barkley joked she’d suggested to the group she would eat a “tofu Wellington” instead. Ms Hay told the court she received a call from Ms Patterson on August 6 after learning about the mass poisoning event on the news. She said Ms Patterson had told her she also fell sick and had purchased the mushrooms used in the dish from an “Asian grocer”. Erin Patterson vented about her husband in group Each of the three witnesses told the jury Ms Patterson had vented about issues she was having in her personal life — as each of the group members would. Ms Hunt said Ms Patterson had shared her struggles of being a single mother, her husband being “controlling” and his family being “demanding”. Ms Barkley said the impression she got was that Mr Patterson was “not a very nice person” and had issues with his cleanliness. “He wanted to be involved in the kids lives, so she was quite happy about him wanting to be involved... But I think it just had more to do with his cleanliness,” she said. “She didn’t want the kids to sleep over that night because she wasn’t happy with how he lived.” Ms Barkley also said she believed Ms Patterson felt Mr Patterson “put the church before her and his family”. Each of the witnesses agreed that they viewed Ms Patterson as a devoted mother to her children. ‘Super-sleuth’: Friend’s claim about alleged poisoner Ms Patterson was a “super-sleuth” and well regarded among a true crime group on Facebook, a second online friend has told the jury. Appearing online with short white hair, black framed glasses and a salmon-coloured button-up shirt, Christine Hunt was called to give evidence on Tuesday afternoon. Ms Hunt said she first met Ms Patterson on Facebook through the Keli Lane true-crime group about six years ago. “It was a small enough group that we did sort of get into each others lives and lean on each other,” she said. Ms Hunt said Ms Patterson was well regarded in the group as a “really good researcher”. “She was well known...She was a bit of a super-sleuth,” she said. ‘Always your husband’: Simon Patterson’s vow amid tension After earlier agreeing there was tension and pettiness in their relationship after a dispute in late 2022, Simon was quizzed on a text exchange on December 18, 2022. The jury was told Ms Patterson and their two children were on holiday in New Zealand when Simon received a text from his estranged wife. In the message Ms Patterson said she’d received a call from a neighbour about a fallen tree on her property that her goat had used to jump a fence into their yarn. She asked if he was able to help, with Simon responding; “I’m always your husband no matter how we’re doing” but that he was in Brisbane for work until the day after. “You’re very kind, hope you enjoy your time in Brisbane, I will let you know,” Ms Patterson responded. Despite the exchange, when questioned by Mr Mandy if their tension had “abated” by then, Simon disagreed. “No I wouldn’t agree with that,” he said. ‘Inflammatory’: message Simon didn’t want mum to read During re-examination by Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC, Mr Patterson was questioned on a comment he made on Friday describing his estranged wife sending “extremely aggressive” messages. “The message I had in mind was a few months after this series of messages we’ve been reading this morning,” he said. Without going into detail, Simon said Ms Patterson had a “crack at me” in the family group chat after he’d messaged her privately, describing the message as “inflammatory”. Simon told the jury he’d asked Ms Patterson to get their son to go to bed early because he was “exhausted” when the pair spent time together. “If mum had read that, I don’t know what that would have done to her,” he said. “It was having a crack at me and accusing me of some things in response to what I messaged her about… that’s not the bit I objected to. It was the fact that she’d sent it especially to mum, knowing mum’s condition and what that can do to mum. “That was the reason I’m still upset about that.” Mr Patterson said his mother, Gail Patterson, had struggled with anxiety since suffering from encephalitis and did not look at messages from Ms Patterson during that period. ‘Bare minimum parent’: Mushroom cook’s messages Messages between Ms Patterson and her father-in-law Don Patterson in the family group chat have been read to the jury. The messages, on encrypted platform Signal, begin after Don expressed a hope to catch up with the family before Ms Patterson took her son and daughter on a New Zealand holiday. She responded at 8pm on December 5 and referenced child support after Simon filed a tax return listing him as separated in 2022. “I’m sorry but I can’t stop thinking about the comment that Don made on the phone … that Simon can ‘reverse the single thing in his tax return’,” she said. “That is mind boggling in its implication.” Ms Patterson went on to say she wasn’t able to access the Family Tax Benefit due to the change, which was wort about $15,000 annually. “We were basically lying to the government, telling them that we were a family with shared finances so they wouldn’t make him pay child support,” she said. “I would have been entitled to about 30k a year child support from Simon … but I didn’t claim it because I foolishly trusted him to do right by me and the kids.” She went on to claim Simon wanted to be a “bare minimum parent”. An hour later, Don replied, apologising for possibly making a “false representation” about Simon’s position. The next day Ms Patterson responded, saying she understood her husband’s parents did not want to get involved. “I respect your position, but I will continue to put messages in here on matters which I think are significant,” she wrote. “I would hope that you, as his parents, would be concerned that he was making the decisions that are in the best interests of his children, and not just operating from the place of being angry to that end.” Simon agreed with a suggestion by defence barrister Colin Mandy SC that the messages display Ms Patterson asking his parents to “intercede on her behalf” and their reluctance to do so. Husband denies ‘poison’ comment claim Under cross-examination by Mr Mandy, Simon denied he had once made a comment accusing his wife of poisoning his family. Mr Mandy suggested the comment was made in her hospital room at Monash Hospital on Tuesday, August 1, 2023, after a discussion about Ms Patterson previously using a dehydrator. The pair and their two children had just discussed a day where Ms Patterson placed varying amounts of dried mushrooms in muffins and their young daughter, who did not like mushrooms, preferred the muffin with some mushrooms present, the court was told. “Just after the conversation about the dehydrator you said, ‘Is that what you used to poison them?’,” Mr Mandy asked. Simon responded: “I did not say that to Erin.” ‘That’s odd’: Husband’s claim Simon was quizzed by Mr Mandy on whether Ms Patterson had asked how the lunch guests were fairing or had overheard his conversations on the issue. The questions came after Simon, on Friday, gave evidence that Ms Patterson “never actually asked” after his family members’ health, saying it “intrigued me”. He confirmed he was very busy in the days after his family fell ill, constantly taking phone calls and wandering the halls of the hospital. Asked if it was possible Ms Patterson did ask, Simon conceded it was “possible but not likely” she did. “I can’t recall her asking that,” he said. “It’s a feeling I remember which was ‘that’s odd’.” When asked if his wife could have overheard his phone calls, Simon said “possibly little bits”. Alleged mushroom killer’s side gig: court He was also quizzed about Ms Patterson’s civic engagement, noting she once helped his parents run the local town of Korumburra’s community development association. Simon agreed his estranged wife also took over running the town’s newsletter, the Burra Flyer, to give his parents a break when Simon’s mother Gail had health issues. He would regularly take photos for the publication, he said. Ms Patterson, 50, is facing trial over the alleged death cap mushroom poisonings of Simon’s parents, aunt and uncle at a lunch she hosted at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023. The mother of two has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, arguing the presence of poisonous mushrooms in her beef wellington dish was not intentional and not deliberate. Outlining the state’s case last week, Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC said it was alleged that Ms Patterson intended to kill the lunch guests after inviting them with the “false claim” of discussing a cancer diagnosis. “It is the prosecution case that the accused deliberately poisoned, with murderous intent, each … after inviting them for lunch on the pretence that she’d been diagnosed with cancer and needed advice about how to break it to the children,” she said. “It is the prosecution case that the accused used the false claim that she had serious medical issues to ensure and to explain why the children would not be present at the lunch on July 29.” Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died in hospital in the week after the gathering. Ms Wilkinson’s husband, Korumburra Baptist Church pastor Ian Wilkinson, fell gravely ill but recovered. Mr Mandy told the jury that Ms Patterson did not dispute that the four lunch guests consumed deadly death cap mushrooms at her Leongatha home. “The defence case is that Erin Patterson did not deliberately serve poisoned food to her guests at that lunch,” he said. “The defence case is that what happened was a tragedy, a terrible accident.” The trial, before Justice Christopher Beale, is expected to last for up to six weeks.