Erin Patterson’s Mushroom Lunch: Four Grey Plates, One Orange. Three Dead. Today, Life Without Parole
🎧 Narrated Mystery: press play and hear the whole case read aloud, like an audiobook (about 23 minutes).
Four grey plates, one orange: the Erin Patterson mushroom lunch
Saturday, 29 July 2023. Leongatha, a country town in South Gippsland, Victoria, about 135 km from Melbourne.
It is midwinter. Inside a newish house on Gibson Street, a lunch table is set for five.
Four guests sit down: Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, with her husband Ian, 68.
The host is Erin Patterson, Don and Gail’s daughter-in-law.
Each guest gets an individual beef Wellington, served with mashed potato and green beans.
According to the prosecution, the four guests ate from larger grey plates. Erin’s plate was smaller and lighter in colour, described as tan or orange.
It looked like an ordinary family lunch.
Erin herself was not a stranger to the family. She had been married to Don and Gail’s son Simon since 2007, and they shared two children.
By the night of 5 August, three of the four people at that table would be dead. (SGST-plates) (SBS-Ian) (GUA-figures)
One line in Gail Patterson’s diary
Gail Patterson kept a paper diary.
For that Saturday she wrote a single line: “Lunch at Erin’s w Heather + Ian.”
It was later shown as evidence in court.
Gail and Don were both former school teachers. They lived in Korumburra, about a 14-minute drive from Leongatha.
Their son Simon said his father “loved rockets”.
Heather, Gail’s sister, was also a former teacher. She had been married to Ian for almost 45 years.
Ian was the pastor of Korumburra Baptist Church. He described his relationship with Erin as “friendly, amicable”, more like acquaintances than close family.
Nothing about the plan looked unusual.
A lunch with family. A short drive. One line in a diary.
It is one of the last ordinary things the case left behind. (RNZ-evidence) (GUA-figures) (SBS-Ian)
The Erin Patterson appeal: life, with no parole
Now jump forward three years.
Friday, 30 October 2026, 10am. Victoria’s Court of Appeal hands down its judgment, livestreamed to the public.
Three judges, Justices Stephen McLeish, Lesley Taylor and Peter Kidd, rule on two appeals at once.
Erin Patterson had challenged her convictions on seven grounds. The court gave her leave on two, about the jury’s hotel and the phone data, then dismissed both. The other five were refused.
Her convictions stand.
Her lawyer Richard Edney had argued it was a “fundamental irregularity” that the jury shared a hotel with the lead detective and prosecutors. He conceded the jury keepers reported no contact.
The prosecution had appealed too, calling her sentence “manifestly inadequate”. That appeal succeeded.
Her 33-year non-parole period was set aside. She was re-sentenced to life without parole.
Justice McLeish called the offending “extraordinarily cold and calculated”.
So how did a family lunch end here? Go back to the invitation. (SCV) (ABC-live) (NIGHTLY-appeal)
The Leongatha lunch invitation
Ian Wilkinson was surprised to get the invitation, about two weeks before the lunch.
He told the court he and Erin were not especially close.
Erin had moved into her Leongatha house about a year earlier. She said she had designed its layout herself.
She and Simon had married in 2007 and had two children. They had separated for the last time in 2015, but stayed on amicable terms until November 2022.
On the day, Don and Gail picked up Ian and Heather and drove them to Gibson Street.
Two elderly couples, heading to lunch at their daughter-in-law’s house.
Before all this, Erin had worked as an accountant, qualified as an air traffic controller, and worked at Monash City Council, where she met Simon in the early 2000s.
Erin’s two children were not at the lunch. She said they were at the movies.
One other person had been invited.
He had already said no. (SBS-Ian) (RNZ-evidence) (GUA-figures)
The text that kept Simon Patterson away
Simon Patterson, Erin’s estranged husband, was meant to be at the table.
The day before, he declined by text: “Sorry, I feel too uncomfortable about coming to lunch with you, Mum, Dad, Heather and Ian.”
Erin replied that it was “important to me that you’re all there tomorrow”.
She added that she had spent “a small fortune on beef eye fillet”.
When his mother Gail asked why he wasn’t going, Simon later told the court, he said it wouldn’t be wise because of “all the things that happened in the recent past with Erin.”
He described the relationship as “strained”.
In 2022 he had listed them as separated on his tax return, which upset Erin because of a family tax benefit.
About five months before the lunch, he had removed Erin as his medical power of attorney.
He stayed home.
His parents went without him. (1N-Simon) (NH-Simon)
A closed pantry door in Leongatha
The guests arrived and were shown around.
According to Ian’s evidence, Heather asked to see the pantry.
Erin was reluctant.
Ian told the court about this moment almost two years later, when he was the only guest left who could describe it.
Instead, the group went out and toured the garden.
At the time it was nothing. A host who didn’t want guests poking around her cupboards.
Later, the pantry would matter a great deal.
At her trial, Erin said dried mushrooms she had bought in Melbourne were kept in that pantry.
She told the court “there was a possibility that there were foraged ones in there as well.”
Nobody on that winter visit knew any of this.
The prosecution’s case was that the deadly mushrooms did not arrive by accident.
They admired the garden, came back inside, and waited for lunch. (SBS-Ian) (RNZ-forage)
Five beef Wellingtons, plated by one pair of hands
When the food was ready, Heather and Gail offered to help plate up.
Erin refused. She did it herself.
Each guest got an individual beef Wellington, the meat wrapped in a pastry case.
Erin later explained why they were single parcels, not one large log. She said she had adapted a RecipeTin Eats recipe because her local Woolworths had no eye fillet for a log.
The meal came with mashed potato and green beans.
The prosecution said the four guests’ portions went onto the larger grey plates, and Erin’s onto the smaller tan or orange one.
Erin, for her part, told police weeks later that the guests “chose their own plates”.
Everyone ate.
Erin ate too, from her own plate.
Nobody felt ill at the table. (SBS-Ian) (RNZ-evidence) (SGST-plates)
The cancer story, and a pastor’s prayer
After the main course came dessert: Gail’s cake and Heather’s fruit platter.
Then, according to Ian, Erin told the group she had cancer.
She asked them for advice on how to tell her children.
Ian, the pastor, prayed for her.
It was a moment of kindness from four people who had come to share a meal.
None of them had any reason to doubt her. They were family, and she had asked for their help.
At her trial, Erin gave a different explanation. She said she had been hiding plans for gastric bypass surgery.
She denied ever saying she had been diagnosed with cancer.
The guests went home that afternoon.
By the next day, all four of them were in hospital. (SBS-Ian) (SBS-witness)
Death cap poisoning: three lives lost in two days
On 30 July 2023, all four guests were admitted to hospital with suspected gastro.
They were later moved to Melbourne’s Austin Hospital with liver failure.
Heather Wilkinson died early on 4 August. Gail Patterson died later that same day. Both were too unwell for liver transplants.
Don Patterson received a liver transplant. He died at 11:30pm on 5 August.
Ian Wilkinson was placed in an induced coma.
He was the only one who survived.
On 21 August, he was moved from intensive care to a ward.
Three former school teachers were gone.
Now police wanted to know what had been in that lunch. (CN-medical) (1N-tl23)
The dehydrator at the Koonwarra tip
On 28 April 2023, three months before the lunch, Erin had bought a Sunbeam food dehydrator for $229.
On 4 August 2023, the day Heather and Gail died, police found it at the Koonwarra Transfer Station, the local tip.
CCTV showed Erin dumping it.
In her police interview on 5 August, she said she had never owned a dehydrator.
She also said she had never foraged for mushrooms.
Both were lies. At her trial, she admitted it.
Prosecutors would later put the purchase date, the tip, the CCTV and the denial side by side in front of the jury.
Her explanation for the tip run: she said she dumped the dehydrator because she feared her foraged mushrooms had made people sick.
The prosecution saw it differently.
To them, it was the first sign of someone getting rid of evidence. (RNZ-evidence) (SBS-witness)
Four factory resets and a mystery Asian grocer
Erin’s phone was factory reset four times in 2023. Three of those resets came after the lunch.
One happened on 5 August, the day police searched her home.
Another was done remotely, hours later, while the phone was sitting at a Melbourne police station.
She said she “just panicked”.
On 14 August, she gave police a statement. She said she had bought button mushrooms from a major supermarket and dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer.
She could never name the store. She suggested Oakleigh, Clayton, Mount Waverley or Glen Waverley.
A council worker found no matching product, and the health department closed its inquiry.
Prosecutors said she invented the grocer story earlier, during roughly 90 minutes away after she left Leongatha Hospital against medical advice. (1N-wk4) (RNZ-jury) (1N-tl23)
Death cap mushrooms by a country road
In April 2023, a user on the nature app iNaturalist posted a death cap mushroom sighting in Loch, in South Gippsland. The poster was poisons expert Christine McKenzie.
Around 21 May 2023, a second post reported death caps on Neilson Street, in the small town of Outtrim.
On the morning of 22 May, Erin’s phone connected to the Loch South tower for about 43 minutes.
Then it connected to the Outtrim tower for about 25 minutes.
The court was told this.
A death cap sighting posted online. Then, a day later, Erin’s phone pinging the towers in the same two areas.
But the expert who gave the evidence also said phone data shows only a general area, not an exact spot.
Erin’s lawyers later took the phone-tower evidence to the Court of Appeal.
The judges granted leave on that ground, then dismissed it. (RNZ-phone) (RNZ-evidence) (ABC-appeal)
Mushrooms on the kitchen scales
Investigators found photos on Erin’s tablet.
They showed mushrooms sitting on kitchen scales.
An expert identified them as death caps with a “high level of confidence”.
Erin denied picking them.
She did not deny the photos existed. She denied the story the prosecution built around them.
Police also recovered leftovers from her bin. There was no visible death cap in them.
But chemical analysis found beta-amanitin, a toxin from death cap mushrooms.
At trial, Erin said she gave the leftover meat to her children the next day, after scraping off the mushroom paste.
Prosecutors called that a lie.
Piece by piece, the case was building: the dehydrator, the phone, the photos, the toxin.
Each one on its own could be argued. Together, they told a story. (RNZ-evidence) (1N-wk4)
Korumburra says goodbye to Don and Gail Patterson
On 31 August 2023, hundreds of people came to a memorial for Don and Gail in Korumburra.
It was the town where they had lived and taught, a short drive from the house where they ate their last meal.
Ian was still recovering.
Homicide detectives were by then investigating the deaths.
He left the Austin Hospital in September 2023.
His first public appearance came on 4 October 2023, at Heather’s funeral.
He had survived. His wife of almost 45 years had not.
Through those weeks, the case stayed open.
No one had yet been charged.
But the questions about the lunch on Gibson Street were getting louder. (1N-tl23) (SGST-2023)
“I loved them”: Erin Patterson speaks to the press
Go back to 5 August 2023, the day after Heather and Gail died.
That day, homicide detectives searched Erin’s Leongatha home.
Reporters gathered outside.
Erin spoke to them: “I didn’t do anything, I loved them.”
It was the same day she told police she had never owned a dehydrator and had never foraged, both claims she later admitted were false.
It was also the day one of her phone’s factory resets took place.
To the cameras, she was a woman insisting she had done nothing wrong.
To the investigators, the story she was telling did not match what they were finding.
They kept digging for another three months. (1N-tl23) (RNZ-evidence) (SBS-witness)
97 days later, detectives at the Leongatha door
On 2 November 2023, shortly after 8am, Erin Patterson was arrested at her Gibson Street home.
It was 97 days after the lunch.
She was 49. Police took her to Wonthaggi Police Station.
The next day, she was charged with eight counts.
Three were murder: Don, Gail and Heather. One was the attempted murder of Ian.
The other four named Simon as the alleged victim, over his claims that she had tried to poison him before.
None of those four ever went to trial. One was dropped early. The other three were discontinued after the courts ruled they could not be tried alongside the lunch charges.
Prosecutors said there was then “no reasonable prospect of conviction”.
The case would rest on the lunch alone. (1N-tl23) (SGST-charges) (NIGHTLY-Lynskey)
The mushroom murder trial comes to Morwell
The trial began on 29 April 2025.
Victoria’s Supreme Court sat at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts in Morwell, a regional town in the state’s east.
Justice Christopher Beale presided. A jury of 12 would decide.
Erin Patterson, now 50, pleaded not guilty.
On the first day, the remaining charges over Simon were discontinued.
Over the weeks that followed, more than 50 witnesses gave evidence.
By one count, the hearings ran for about nine weeks.
Simon described a strained marriage and the text he sent the day before the lunch. Ian described the meal, the pantry, the plates and the prayer.
Then came a key moment of the trial.
The accused chose to speak. (RNZ-start) (RNZ-jury) (1N-Simon)
Erin Patterson in the witness box
Erin gave evidence in her own defence.
She admitted she had lied to police about owning a dehydrator and about foraging.
She said dried mushrooms bought in Melbourne were kept in her pantry, and that “there was a possibility that there were foraged ones in there as well.”
She said she added them to the dish because the paste tasted bland.
She said she dumped the dehydrator because she feared her foraged mushrooms had made people sick.
And she said the cancer claim covered for plans for gastric bypass surgery she had been hiding.
Her case was that it was a terrible accident.
In the first week of July 2025, the jury went out to deliberate, sequestered at a hotel in Traralgon.
That hotel would later become one of her grounds of appeal. (SBS-witness) (RNZ-forage) (SGST-hotel)
Guilty, and a sentencing broadcast live
On 7 July 2025, after about a week of deliberations, the jury returned its verdict.
Guilty of the murders of Don Patterson, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson. Guilty of the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson.
She showed no obvious emotion.
Her sentencing on 8 September 2025 made history. It was the first in Victorian Supreme Court history to be broadcast live, aired by 7NEWS on a 10-second delay.
Justice Beale called the crimes “an enormous betrayal of trust”.
He told her: “Your failure to exhibit any remorse pours salt into all the victims’ wounds.”
On why she did it, he said: “Only you know why.”
The sentence: life for each murder, 25 years for the attempted murder, and a 33-year non-parole period, backdated to 2 November 2023.
The hearing lasted about 46 minutes. (RNZ-verdict) (NIGHTLY-live) (RNZ-sent)
Ian Wilkinson, the survivor who forgave
On 25 August 2025, Ian Wilkinson read the first victim impact statement.
He spoke about Heather, his wife of almost 45 years.
“I only feel half alive without her,” he said.
Then he did something few expected. He said he forgave Erin for the harm she had done to him.
But he said he had no power to forgive the harms she had done to others.
Seven relatives’ statements were read or tendered to the court.
After the sentence was handed down, Ian made his first direct public statement.
“Our lives and the life of our community depends on the kindness of others,” he said.
A pastor who had prayed for his host at the lunch table had lived to speak for those who could not. (CBS) (NPR) (RNZ-sent)
After the appeal: no parole for Erin Patterson
Erin Patterson is held at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre as a “notorious” prisoner.
She spends at least 22 hours a day in her cell. Her only permitted fellow inmate exercises in the yard next to hers, behind a mesh fence.
Under her original sentence, she would have been eligible for parole in November 2056.
On 30 October 2026, the Court of Appeal removed that chance.
Justice McLeish said the crimes involved “such shocking criminality that it is inappropriate to fix a non-parole period.”
Her only realistic remaining route is to seek special leave from the High Court of Australia. Experts describe that path as strict and unlikely.
Two days before the ruling, Paramount+ announced a six-part series, “Mushroom Murders”, covering the 97 days from the lunch to the arrest.
Life, with no parole. (NPR) (MC) (1N-Lynskey)
Case notes: the Erin Patterson mushroom murders
On 29 July 2023, Erin Patterson served beef Wellington to four guests at her home in Leongatha, Victoria, Australia. Three died of death cap mushroom poisoning and one survived (SBS-Ian) (CN-medical). A jury found her guilty of three murders and one attempted murder on 7 July 2025 (RNZ-verdict). On 30 October 2026, the Court of Appeal upheld the convictions and re-sentenced her to life without parole (ABC-appeal) (ABC-live).
Timeline
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 28 Apr 2023 | Buys a Sunbeam food dehydrator for $229 (RNZ-evidence) |
| 22 May 2023 | Her phone connects to towers near reported death cap sites at Loch and Outtrim (RNZ-phone) |
| 29 Jul 2023 | The lunch in Leongatha (SBS-Ian) |
| 30 Jul 2023 | All four guests in hospital (1N-tl23) |
| 4 Aug 2023 | Heather Wilkinson and Gail Patterson die; dehydrator found at the tip (CN-medical) (RNZ-evidence) |
| 5 Aug 2023 | Don Patterson dies; her home is searched (CN-medical) (1N-tl23) |
| 2 Nov 2023 | Arrested, 97 days after the lunch (1N-tl23) (NIGHTLY-Lynskey) |
| 29 Apr 2025 | Trial opens in Morwell (RNZ-start) |
| 7 Jul 2025 | Guilty on all four counts (RNZ-verdict) |
| 8 Sep 2025 | Life, with a 33-year non-parole period; first live-broadcast sentencing in Victoria’s Supreme Court (RNZ-sent) (NIGHTLY-live) |
| 19–20 Aug 2026 | Court of Appeal hears both appeals (NIGHTLY-appeal) |
| 30 Oct 2026 | Conviction appeal dismissed; re-sentenced to life without parole (ABC-appeal) (ABC-live) |
Where the records disagree
| Detail | What reports say |
|---|---|
| Plate colours | Most say grey for the guests and tan or orange for Erin; one ABC summary says white plates. Erin said guests chose their own (SGST-plates) (1N-tl23) |
| Ian Wilkinson’s age | Given as 68, 70 or 71 depending on the report and year (1N-tl23) (GUA-figures) (SBS-Ian) |
| Trial length | Described as nine, ten or eleven weeks (RNZ-jury) (SGST-hotel) (MC) |
| Memorial venue | Korumburra Memorial Hall or Korumburra Recreation Centre (1N-tl23) (SGST-2023) |
| Charges over Simon | Four were laid; one was dropped early and three discontinued; none went to trial (SGST-charges) (RNZ-start) |
Details most coverage missed
Her phone was reset while police held it. One of four factory resets in 2023 was done remotely while the phone sat at a Melbourne police station (RNZ-jury).
No death cap was visible in the leftovers. The toxin beta-amanitin was found by chemical analysis (RNZ-evidence).
The survivor forgave her for his own harm only. Ian Wilkinson said he had no power to forgive the harm done to others (CBS).
What we still don’t know
- Why she did it. The sentencing judge said: “Only you know why.”
- Exactly where the death cap mushrooms were picked.
- Whether she will seek special leave from the High Court of Australia.
- When the Paramount+ series will be released.
Case file summary
- What: Three murders and one attempted murder by death cap mushrooms in a beef Wellington lunch
- Where: Leongatha, South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia
- When: 29 July 2023
- Victims: Don Patterson, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson; Ian Wilkinson survived
- Status: Convicted 2025; appeal dismissed and life without parole imposed on 30 October 2026
Illustrations are artistic interpretations, not photos. No real person has a recognizable face.
Sources
- Supreme Court of Victoria, “Erin Patterson appeals livestreamed”
- ABC News, 30 Oct 2026, “Mushroom murderer Erin Patterson likely to die in jail after failed appeal”
- ABC News live blog, 30 Oct 2026
- ABC News, 30 Oct 2026, Court of Appeal judgment video
- ABC News, 30 Oct 2026, “Erin Patterson’s failed appeal leaves few legal avenues”
- Marie Claire AU, 30 Oct 2026
- The Nightly, 19 Aug 2026
- South Gippsland Sentinel-Times, 29 May 2026
- Lawyer Monthly, May 2026
- The Nightly, 28 Oct 2026
- 1News NZ, 28 Oct 2026
- RNZ, 9 Sep 2025, key moments from sentencing
- NPR via KPBS, 7/8 Sep 2025
- Law Society Journal, 8 Sep 2025
- The Nightly, 4 Sep 2025
- CBS News/AP, 25 Aug 2025
- RNZ, 7 Jul 2025
- RNZ (ABC content), 8 Jul 2025, “See the evidence used to convict Erin Patterson”
- RNZ, 1 Jul 2025, “The evidence laid before the jury”
- SBS News/AAP, 7 Jun 2025
- RNZ, 4 Jun 2025
- 1News NZ, 24 May 2025
- RNZ, 19 May 2025
- CityNews (AAP), trial medical evidence
- SBS News, 6 May 2025
- 1News NZ, 1 May 2025
- Newcastle Herald (AAP), 8 Aug 2025
- South Gippsland Sentinel-Times, 30 Apr 2025
- RNZ, 29 Apr 2025
- The Guardian (Adeshola Ore & Jordyn Beazley), “Australia’s mushroom murders trial: who are Erin Patterson and the other key figures?”, via inkl
- South Gippsland Sentinel-Times, 11 Aug 2025
- 1News NZ, 14 Jun 2025, full timeline
- 1News NZ, 2 Nov 2023, timeline
- South Gippsland Sentinel-Times, 24 Aug 2023
- Variety Australia, 4 Jul 2025
- Variety Australia, 28 Aug 2025
- The New Daily, 5 Oct 2025
- Text Publishing, The Mushroom Tapes
