SAO PAULO, SP (FOLHAPRESS)-The court stated on Monday (7) that Erin Patterson, a 50-year-old woman, murdered three relatives of her ex-husband and tried to assassinate a room by serving the victims with a meal with toxic mushrooms.
After a week of deliberation, the jury concluded that in July 2023 Erin invited to a family lunch by Simon Patterson, whom he was separating, and poisoned them with portions of meat that contained the mushroom Amanita Phalloides. Also known as the mushroom of death, the species is considered one of the most lethal in the world.
His former maid, Gail Patterson, his former driving, Donald Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson died after the meal. Already Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband, survived the attempted murder after spending several weeks hospitalized. Simon, with whom Erin had disagreements about the child’s alimony, had also been invited, but gave up at the last minute.
Throughout the trial, which lasted more than two months, Patterson stated innocent of the four accusations, stating that the deaths were accidental. According to her, the plate she had prepared was accidentally poisoned with the mushroom, easily confused with other edible varieties.
The press has followed every detail of the trial, which attracted podcasters, filming teams and fans of ‘True Crime’ programs to Morwell, a city in the state of Victoria 60 km from Leongatha, a locality with about 6,000 inhabitants where the crime occurred. Several documentaries about the case are already in production.
The prosecutor, led by lawyer Nanette Rogers, told court that Erin employed four major frauds to murder his guests.
First, she invented a cancer diagnosis to attract guests to lunch. Then it poisoned their meals as it served as a portion without contamination. He then lied that he was also sick because of food to avoid suspicion, before finally trying to destroy evidence and lie to investigators when the police began to ascertain the case.
Erin, who was the only defense witness, hired a legal team of four people led by Colin Mandy, one of Melbourne’s leading criminal lawyers.
She said she wages a longtime battle against her weight, facing a dietary disorder. Therefore, he would have lied about having cancer because he was ashamed to admit that he was actually having a weight loss surgery. She wanted her relatives’ advice on how to tell the two children about the procedure, she said.
Erin also told court that he was not as sick as his guests because he had eaten a cake that his mother -in -law had secretly taken and then induced his own vomiting. The mushrooms quickly affected the guests -Don, Gail and Heather died in a week.
The victims’ relatives refused to speak to the press after the verdict and called for privacy in a police report. Mandy either made comments as he left court in the midst of a multitude of journalists.
The sentence, of which Erin will be able to appeal, will be announced later. She can get a maximum life of life imprisonment.
