In 2023, Erin Patterson was accused of murdering her husband’s parents and aunt after they were suspected of having laced a lamb meal with highly poisonous “death cap” mushrooms.
Australian woman Erin Paterson’s triple murder trial
The trial revolves around a rare mushroom that smells “slightly sweet” but is extremely deadly.
In 2023, she was accused of adding the highly poisonous “Death Cap” mushroom to a beef Wellington dish she served to her husband’s parents and mother-in-law.
Paterson, 50, has denied the murder. She claims she served the meal wholeheartedly and unknowingly poisoned it.
During the sensational two-month trial, experts used forensic science to dissect the brown and white mushrooms.
Death caps — or Amanita phalloides — are responsible for about 90 percent of deaths from mushroom poisoning worldwide. They are considered the deadliest mushrooms.
These mushrooms, whose appearance is so close to that of edible mushrooms, are widely mistaken for edible mushrooms. They are not bad tasting, which increases the risk.
But these mushrooms contain highly potent toxins called amatoxins, toxicology expert Dimitri Gerostomoulos told the trial.
“People who eat these toxins experience symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, and severe illness,” he told the jury.
“If this toxin is not removed immediately, it gradually destroys body tissue.
This can lead to organ failure. Without proper treatment, death is inevitable.”
Three of the guests died of organ failure within a week after Patterson’s meal contained death cap mushrooms.
“It is very unlikely that anyone would survive the effects of this toxin,” intensive care specialist Stephen Walero told the jury.
A fourth guest was seriously ill but survived in hospital.
Death caps are a mushroom native to Europe but are now widespread in parts of the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, mycologist Tom May told the inquest.
The mushrooms have a “slightly sweet smell” when fresh, he said.
“They are not native to Australia. They have been introduced here from overseas,” he said in evidence.
Their breeding season is usually in the wet autumn. They grow mainly in the shade of oak trees.
“Every year, when the weather is right, they produce a mushroom-shaped sporulation body – that’s the part we’re looking at,” May explained.
“These mushrooms are easily rotted. They probably won’t last more than two weeks in the field,” he said.