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Revealed - Death Cap Murders (2025) Season 1 Episode 1
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FunTranscript
00:00Could you please state your full name and address for me?
00:21Erin Friede Patterson, 84 Gibson Street, Langatha.
00:24Alright, now, following eating at your house, Donald, Ian, Gail and Heather all become so ill that they ultimately ended up in the intensive care unit at both the Daniel Hospital and then moved to the Austin Hospital.
00:47Alright. Following that, they had a deterioration in their condition and that they become so ill that their livers have failed.
01:03Alright.
01:05Um, Donald underwent transplant last night.
01:09Okay, his condition is still extremely critical as of last report.
01:15Heather and Gail passed away.
01:19Yeah.
01:20When we're trying to understand what has made them so ill, do you understand why we're asking these questions?
01:31Yeah.
01:32The other thing, conversely, we're trying to understand why you're not that ill.
01:37I like this, yes, yes, yes.
01:38Yeah.
01:40I don't know.
01:41We'll see you if you can meet us in the next video.
01:44Bye.
01:45Bye, guys.
01:46Bye.
01:47Bye.
01:48Bye.
01:49Bye.
01:50Bye.
01:51Bye.
01:52Bye.
01:55Bye.
01:56Bye.
01:57Bye.
01:59Bye.
01:59Bye.
02:00Bye.
02:02Bye.
02:03Bye.
02:04Bye.
02:05Bye.
02:06Bye.
02:07I'm afraid
02:12When I go
02:17Back to the floor
02:24Make me feel
02:27Where do you want me looking?
02:37You?
02:37You're looking at me.
02:38Yeah, yeah.
02:39The first time I heard about the story,
02:41it was multiple victims of a poisoning.
02:45And at that point, it just looked like it could be just a dreadful accident.
02:50It became pretty clear within days that this was deadly serious.
02:57It was a Saturday morning.
03:04I was about to take my son to play Australian Rules football.
03:08A contact tipped me off.
03:10There had been a mass poisoning.
03:12To be honest, my instincts were going,
03:15nah, this is a food poisoning thing.
03:18But I rang the police.
03:21Usually a request like that for a mass food poisoning accidental or whatever
03:27might take three hours.
03:29This took, I reckon, ten minutes.
03:32So they were just waiting for a journalist to ring and ask.
03:36At night, there's this underworld figure that gets shot dead in a laneway in South Yarra.
03:47And on Saturday, I am desperate to be part of the story.
03:51I'm at the start of my tenure as a crime reporter.
03:54I've just joined the team and I'm super eager.
03:57I woke up to the newsroom on my day off, ready to, like, sink my teeth into this underworld murder.
04:04I had a really substantial police statement.
04:07And I read it and I thought, oh, gee, this is actually more interesting than I thought.
04:12I wasn't actually working, which is another disincentive to file.
04:15But it was just an instinct thing.
04:17Need to file.
04:18There might be something in this.
04:20And then, around that period, people started dying.
04:25And it's brutal journalism, but the story just took off.
04:29My news director comes around and was like, you know, have you heard about this thing about the mass poisonings?
04:33We're thinking about sending someone down there.
04:36Would you mind going?
04:38And I was like, oh, well, that's a bit of a shame.
04:41I came here prepared to, like, take on the big crooks, you know?
04:44And so the brief is like, go down there, see what you can find.
04:52Like, we've got to identify these people.
04:54Maybe it's the Country Women's Association going foraging for mushrooms and they've had a barbecue and they've accidentally poisoned themselves, right?
05:00Like, there was so little that we knew.
05:02Currumburra is a lovely, gentle, proud town.
05:12And in a small country town of 5,000 or 6,000, everyone knows everybody.
05:20Okay, all right.
05:21Well, my name is Bob Newton and Robert, but I go by the name of Bob and I get the name of Jack up the golf club.
05:30But anyhow, that's all a bit of fun.
05:32And I've been born and bred in the town.
05:35I could tell you lots of stories about Currumburra.
05:41It's a coal mining town.
05:42That's how it started off.
05:44Most of the people that are generations that are left have ancestors that did work in the coal mines.
05:51Oh, yeah, they were bred tough.
05:55Gippsland is a beautiful hamlet.
05:58Worldwide, when you think of outside of the cities in Australia, you think of the outback.
06:05This is country.
06:07It's a different thing altogether.
06:08South Gippsland is such an untouched gem.
06:12It's a beautiful place.
06:13There's rolling hills.
06:14It's like beautiful patchwork farms.
06:16You feel like you're walking around somewhere in, like, Europe.
06:19It is the most fertile soil.
06:22It's green virtually all year round.
06:24And it's rich and it's dairy country, so it makes the best milk.
06:27You can walk down that main street down there, and I guarantee you, you're walking past somebody
06:32and they say, good day to you.
06:33How are you?
06:33You know?
06:34I don't think Melbourne's got a clue on how to talk to each other.
06:37You don't even, you sit in the train and they're all on their phones.
06:40Hello?
06:43Gee, everyone's come over to say hello now.
06:45What you'll find around Curranborra is that there's families that have been here for multi-generations
06:51and who have been the backbone of the community and who have established it.
06:5721 years I've been here now.
06:59I'm a bit of a new boy.
07:02You're not going to get road rage in town and, you know, flip the bird or anything like that
07:07because you're likely to know the person.
07:10A lot of people come here for the farming, and some people come because they're young families.
07:14They want affordable places and they're good communities to be part of.
07:19And, yeah, I think some people come to hide away.
07:22I just think it's a wonderful place to live and bring up a family.
07:26They don't have disturbances and we don't have a lot of crime and that sort of thing, you know.
07:31So people come for that peacefulness in the area.
07:39Poisonous mushrooms have killed three people, and tonight a man is in hospital fighting for life.
07:43After being poisoned by wild mushrooms at a lunch with friends in Gippsland.
07:48Amber Johnston with this report.
07:50The two couples were dining with friends at a home in Leangatha last Saturday.
07:55The group became sick the following day and went to hospital, but their conditions deteriorated.
08:0166-year-old Emma and her 70-year-old sister Gail died this week.
08:05Her husband, Don, aged 70 last night.
08:08Reverend Wilkinson and another friend remain in hospital while other guests from the lunch have since been discharged.
08:15The homicide squad raided a home in Leangatha yesterday with detectives questioning a 48-year-old local woman.
08:22By the time Monday rolls around, we know that Erin Patterson is the person that police are looking at as the cook that has prepared the meal.
08:39And my main job is to try to find Erin Patterson's house in Leangatha.
08:43And so a lot of it early in the morning is like driving around trying to find ground zero.
08:49I roll into the street and there's only one other reporter waiting there, camped out the front.
08:56And that is someone from Channel 7 that has managed to crack this before I've been able to.
09:01And so there's the two of us in Italy.
09:03And as the day goes on, more press arrive and they start rolling in into different cars.
09:08And next minute, the street is just got like all these cars parked on that nature strip waiting for Erin to come.
09:15Good afternoon, Detective Inspector Dean Thomas from the Victoria Police Homicide Squad.
09:33I'm here this afternoon to provide an update in relation to the death of three people which occurred late last week
09:42as a result of suspected mushroom poisoning.
09:47Firstly, I'd like to say that because the Homicide Squad is investigating this matter,
09:52it doesn't automatically mean that the deaths are suspicious.
09:56I can say that at this point in time, the deaths are unexplained.
10:01And for that purpose, we are involved.
10:03The Homicide Squad was called in before there was a death.
10:06And that told us that this was very, very serious.
10:12What we know is that Erin Patterson, a stay-at-home mum that has been separated from her husband, Simon,
10:22for a number of years, decides to invite over for lunch on July 29 her in-laws.
10:28Four elderly people went to an address in Leangatha to take part in a lunch.
10:36At that location, there was another person present and also two children.
10:41The guests are Don and Gail Patterson, who are Erin Patterson's mother and father-in-law,
10:47as well as Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, and her husband, Ian Wilkinson,
10:53the local pastor at the Carambara Baptist Church.
10:56At that point, we think it's a log beef wellington that was for lunch.
11:00This is a special lunch.
11:01This is not just mushrooms on toast.
11:03This is a big signature dish.
11:06It's old-fashioned beef wellington.
11:09You know, it's Miss Marple stuff.
11:12And having her ex-in-laws over, well, that's not particularly unusual.
11:17But to have the extended family over, no.
11:19Your brain is flooded with all these questions, like, why would she want to kill them?
11:24Could this all be a terrible accident?
11:27There's, you know, rumours in town that she invites her estranged husband, Simon, to come along as well,
11:32but he decides to pull out for whatever reason.
11:34Lunch was had, and the four people left the address.
11:41And unfortunately, late on the Saturday night, early Sunday morning,
11:46they came down with symptoms of some type of food poisoning.
11:51As a result, they attended local hospitals in the area, being Lee and Gatha and Carambara.
11:58The rumour going around as well was that this was a mediation lunch,
12:01and that the reason that they were coming to the lunch was to talk about the custody of their children
12:06and how to move forward as a family.
12:09And they had brought along Heather and Ian Wilkinson because Ian was a pastor in town,
12:14and so he could be this sort of, like, almost impartial presence.
12:18So is the 48-year-old a suspect?
12:21The 48-year-old is, well, yes, she is.
12:24And she was, and she is because she cooked those meals for us,
12:29for those people that were present.
12:32Now, again, she hasn't presented with any symptoms,
12:37but we have to keep an open mind in relation to this,
12:41that it could be very innocent,
12:43but, again, we just don't know at this point.
12:46What authorities suspected that killed all three of them was death cup mushrooms.
12:50We're talking about an area down at South Gippsland where it's ideal for growing mushrooms.
13:08There's plenty of moisture, there's trees and cover, and the soil is very fertile.
13:12It's easy to grow mushrooms.
13:15There was two types of mushrooms.
13:17There was mushrooms and there was toadstills.
13:20And you just don't go near the toadstills.
13:22And that's basically what the death caps are.
13:25To me, it's a toadstill, not a mushroom.
13:28Mushrooms to us were, and they were pink underneath, or black.
13:32But never white or yellow.
13:34They were toadstills.
13:37We don't even know how many fungi there are.
13:40There's somewhere between 1 million and 10 million species on the planet.
13:44And we've named 150,000.
13:48So that means we know about 2% of the fungi that are out there.
13:54Knowledge of what fungi you can eat probably is a hit and miss thing.
13:59Like, what I usually say is all mushrooms are edible, but some are only edible once.
14:05So the death cap, Amanita phalloidis, is a very toxic mushroom.
14:15And it has the typical sort of toadstool structure that we see in storybooks and stuff like that,
14:22with the red relative with the white flecks on top that you often see fairies sitting on top of.
14:28And if there are any fairies watching this, I recommend that you don't sit on them.
14:32They're not good for you.
14:33Amanita phalloidis is the very toxic but boring cousin.
14:39The cap is often, can be kind of a greenish, olive, yellow to white on the top.
14:44And the gills underneath the cap, where the spores form, that is often white.
14:51But, you know, it otherwise looks fairly innocent.
14:55And it looks quite similar to a lot of the mushrooms that we would consider safe for eating.
15:02It's not Australian.
15:03It's a European mushroom.
15:05And it was introduced around the world along with European trees.
15:11Largely oak and chestnut and pines.
15:14Half a death cap will kill an adult.
15:17It is the most poisonous mushroom known.
15:20It contains a chemical called an amatoxin, which is thermostable, which means that it won't degrade in heat and it can kill an adult very, very quickly.
15:44Some of the common symptoms of having an ingested death cap can look very similar to food poisoning.
15:51So lots of gastrointestinal upset, like diarrhoea, vomiting, nausea, things that kind of sound quite common.
15:58The problem, though, is that little window when your liver is trying to filter the blood, where you might feel a little bit better until the liver cells start to die.
16:09And then you get downstream effects from liver failure and kidney failure and it's a pretty rapid downhill decline from there.
16:19Everybody down there knows about death cap mushrooms.
16:25It's like, you know, people in the Northern Territory don't swim with crocodiles.
16:2984 Gibson Street is sort of towards the end of a really quiet cul-de-sac and that is where Erin's place is.
16:42There's a couple of incidents where, like, you know, Erin comes out through the electric fans and then she comes back in.
16:49She brushes the media off.
16:50She's not willing to talk and she's just not engaging.
16:53She's, like, driving in and out.
16:54At this point in time, something must have clicked in her brain because she drove back into her car park and she didn't lock the gate.
17:02And so all the journalists flocked into her driveway.
17:07She comes out of the car, she closes the door, she leans against the car and starts talking.
17:15Erin, can you tell us what happened on Saturday?
17:18What happened on Saturday was devastating.
17:22It's a tragedy what's happened.
17:24Can you tell us about the meal that you cooked?
17:30I'm so devastated by what's happened, by the loss of Don and Don is still in hospital, the loss of Ian and Heather and Gail, who are some of the best people that I've ever met.
17:45Gail was like...
17:49Take your time.
17:50Gail was the mum that I didn't have because my mum passed away four years ago.
17:56And Gail's never been anything but good and kind to me.
18:00And Ian and Heather were some of the best people I've ever met.
18:04They never did anything wrong to me.
18:06And I'm so devastated about what's happened.
18:09And the loss to the community and to the families and to my own children have lost their grandmother.
18:16What I can tell you is that I just can't fathom what has happened.
18:31I just can't fathom what has happened.
18:36That Ian and Heather have lost their lives and Gail has lost her life and Don is still in hospital.
18:41And I pray, I pray that he pulls through because my children love him.
18:47And you must be pretty shaken up by this as well.
18:52I'm devastated.
18:53I love them.
18:55And I can't believe that this has happened and I'm so sorry that they have lost their lives.
19:03How are you kissed her?
19:04I just can't believe it.
19:07I just can't believe it.
19:11Can you tell us where the mushrooms came from?
19:13I just can't believe it.
19:15Will they pitch from the property airing the mushrooms?
19:32I just asked you just to leave me alone now, please.
19:36Police say you're a suspect.
19:38Do you have anything to say about that?
19:39Yes, I say I didn't do anything.
19:41I love them.
19:42And I'm devastated that they're gone.
19:44And I hope with every fibre of my being that Don pulls through.
19:50Where did the mushrooms come from?
19:53Were they picked by you or where did they come from, Erin?
19:57Can you tell us?
20:01There she is, standing still outside her car.
20:07No trying to brush off.
20:09No aggression.
20:09She's standing there and talking to us.
20:13She didn't have to.
20:14It's that I just can't fathom what has happened.
20:17You know, that's a hard thing for somebody to face, particularly if they've genuinely lost several in-laws.
20:24Look, there are probably a hundred different ways to grieve.
20:28She's got people in her front garden.
20:30We've got the big city media here.
20:32It's pretty intimidating.
20:33She's clearly shaken.
20:34And Gail's never been anything but good and kind to me.
20:37The days that followed that additional press conference, that's when the whole thing just imploded.
20:43There was all this content online, on TikTok, on Instagram.
20:47Everyone wanted a bar of it.
20:49You'll notice she's touching her face a lot.
20:52She's looking at her hands as though she's crying, but there are no tears.
20:58Just can't believe it.
21:01I can't even tell you how many times I've watched that clip.
21:05I think it's just too many to count.
21:07You find yourself re-watching it and, like, nitpicking and looking and zooming in and trying to make sense of it.
21:14Normally, in a murder case, the suspect keeps their head down, doesn't talk.
21:19The Erin Patterson case is rare, where we actually have the suspect talking to the media.
21:26I'm devastated.
21:28I love them.
21:29Police had an open mind on all this at the start.
21:32There's no doubt.
21:33But when she started talking to media and whatnot, that's when they started going,
21:40oh, there's something not quite right.
21:41It's what I felt.
21:42It's just, it's an instinctive thing.
21:46Like, is she lying?
21:47Like, why is she acting so odd?
21:50Like, is she just frazzled?
21:51Is it the trauma of what's going on?
21:53Or is she trying to hide something?
21:55Were they picked by you or...?
21:58The main question that basically overarches this entire thing is, like,
22:03who is Erin Patterson?
22:06Did you eat the same meal, Erin?
22:12The first thing you would do as a reporter is to try to find anything you can about this person online.
22:18There was nothing.
22:19Absolutely nothing.
22:21And so you start from a point of view of, like,
22:23I have no idea who this is.
22:25It was very, very difficult to even get the most basic details about Erin's life,
22:29you know, from anyone who knew her.
22:32Hi, this is Marta Pascual-Gonola, journalist at The Age.
22:42You have reached the message bank of a private number.
22:44If you could give me a call back on this number.
22:46My name's Marta.
22:47All right, have a good day.
22:49The name is Erin Scuddle or Erin Patterson.
22:52Where did you get my details from?
22:53This is a daily thing that we do as journalists.
22:57It's basically, like, every time you cover a story,
22:59nine times out of ten you're calling people you've never met.
23:02Erin was very one-dimensional initially, right?
23:05When the news first broke that this had happened
23:08and we knew, like, about Erin's name
23:10and we knew that there had been a lunch
23:11and we knew that she had potentially done this horrible, horrible thing.
23:15We don't know much about her character beyond little snippets from people,
23:18so it would be good to get a bit of a retrospective view,
23:21to get a sense of who Erin is,
23:23who Erin was back in the day,
23:25what is she like as a person?
23:27You know, it's that chasing those tidbits of information
23:30to sort of put together this web
23:32or, like, a bigger picture of what the story is.
23:35That is very exciting.
23:36This is Marta from The Age. How are you?
23:39My name is Marta Pascual.
23:41Yeah, there's more to this story than we see on it.
23:48What we know is that, you know, she was born in Melbourne in 1974.
23:53We know that she's the daughter of an academic
23:55and an expert on children's literature.
23:57She had a sister, an older sister, called Cainwen.
24:00Both of them were really smart
24:02and Erin was put in an accelerated program at University High.
24:07This is the kind of program that eventually produces surgeons, lawyers,
24:11and people that go on to have pretty stellar careers.
24:14After she graduated high school,
24:17she started to become an accountant.
24:19Eventually, she found her way into air traffic control
24:23through Air Services Australia.
24:25And then she winds up working at the Monash City Council.
24:29And it is there that she meets a tall basketball player and engineer
24:32by the name of Simon Patterson.
24:44My name is Rob Maggs.
24:46I was an air traffic controller at Melbourne Centre from 2000 through to 2018
24:51and met Erin on my training course
24:54and then worked in a similar environment in the same big room, actually.
25:00I saw the image of Erin on the telly.
25:04When I first saw that, I thought,
25:05that looks like Erin from our course,
25:07although it was 20 years on since we'd seen her last.
25:10And it wasn't until I actually saw the footage of her walking into her house
25:13where the reporter said to her,
25:16Erin, how are you travelling?
25:18And she turned around and said,
25:19shit ass, thanks for asking.
25:20And that phrase and the tone in which it was said,
25:23it smashed at home.
25:25That was her.
25:26There was no doubting at all that that was her.
25:27When you get into air traffic,
25:31only about 2% of the population
25:32have the required combination of skills
25:35to do the job effectively.
25:38Erin was as switched on
25:39as anybody else that I know in the job.
25:42There's no room for error at all.
25:44Sometimes it's like playing a video game,
25:46but you only have one life
25:48and there's no option of losing that life.
25:53The first time I met Erin Patterson was 23 years ago.
25:58So Erin joined Monash City Council
25:59in the animal management section of local laws.
26:03I remember talking to her about animals
26:05because I had a dog
26:06and talking to someone who was on Sir Common from the RSPCA.
26:11It was really nice to talk about dogs and things like that.
26:14For the most part,
26:15during that time,
26:16Erin was living in that house
26:18with two of the guys on our course.
26:20From my recollection,
26:21that she got along quite well
26:22with the people in the house.
26:24I remember at some stage,
26:25it was tax return time.
26:26There wasn't a lot that we could claim
26:28being in that job,
26:29but Erin knew the tax loopholes
26:31and she convinced people
26:32to do their tax returns for them.
26:34So she's an intelligent woman,
26:36smart.
26:37She knew how to maximise it with minimal risk.
26:40The motives behind it,
26:42there's a sense of wanting to belong,
26:44I suppose,
26:45and trying to connect with the people within the group.
26:48Working at Monash was my first real job that I'd had
26:51and I met Simon that first day.
26:54He said,
26:55do you want to go over the road
26:56and get a baguette from the bakery?
26:57And that became something that we did for two, three years,
27:01pretty much every day.
27:03Simon and I bonded over music
27:05and we used to get together at my place,
27:08just play a little bit of music together.
27:10We wrote a couple of songs together
27:11and so we put together this project called Simon is Home
27:14that we just released two songs on a little CD
27:19and gave it to a whole bunch of friends.
27:22Simon was very much family comes first.
27:24He was very involved with his family
27:25and the faith is very important.
27:28She did interact with other people in the class.
27:35She wasn't always aggressive necessarily,
27:38but the tone could come across pretty tight sometimes.
27:43Anything that she thought of,
27:44it would come out of her mouth
27:45without actually thinking about the ramifications of it.
27:48It didn't really matter who she was talking to,
27:50whether it was us, the cleaner,
27:51the head of air traffic.
27:53She had sort of no qualms
27:55about putting people in their place.
27:59In the early stages of having done
28:01quite a bit of the classroom theory work,
28:03the head of training was actually in the building at the time
28:06and walking through the simulator.
28:08He happened to walk behind Erin
28:10and the cord of her headset was on the floor
28:14and he's got his foot cord in it
28:16and it pulled the headset off her head
28:19and without it even blinking,
28:22she just turned around and snapped and said,
28:23are you right, you buffoon?
28:25The room went silent essentially.
28:27Everybody just stopped.
28:29It was shocking,
28:30but at the end of the day,
28:31it wasn't surprising that it came from Erin.
28:34Early 2005, Erin and I,
28:36we decided that we were going to move in together
28:38with a third person
28:39and we found a place in Oakley East.
28:42I was a big drinker at the time
28:44and Erin was able to keep up with me.
28:47She drank a lot
28:48and would get drunk by the end of the night
28:51and drive home.
28:53She was involved in an alcohol-induced car accident,
28:58which was after one of those drinking nights.
29:01I know her licence was suspended
29:02and she drove almost every night
29:04and sometimes still drunk.
29:07When we were all hanging out as friends,
29:10she would crave being around us all
29:12and she would stay there until the end.
29:14She always struck me as someone
29:17who was lonely inside
29:18and she just craved community.
29:22I think what attracted Erin to Simon first
29:25was his intelligence
29:27and how friendly he is
29:29and how gregarious he is in company.
29:33I think also that there was a built-in community
29:35around him with church
29:37and with a big family as well,
29:39which Erin didn't seem to have.
29:44I first heard about this famous bike trip
29:48in early 2004
29:49and this was around the time
29:51when Erin told me
29:51that she was in love with Simon.
29:54She decided to take some time off work
29:57and go on a trip around Australia
29:59where she would be riding a bike
30:00with her dogs in the back
30:02in one of those baby carrier things.
30:04I didn't think it was very realistic at the time.
30:09She wasn't a bike rider
30:11and she didn't strike me
30:14as someone who was athletically fit
30:15and her and Simon would pour over maps
30:18at lunch times
30:18and they'd sit and with grey-lead pencils
30:21work out different directions
30:22and different ways of going
30:24to the places that Erin was going to go to.
30:26Now, when Erin finally did leave
30:28on that bike trip,
30:29it lasted three days.
30:31Erin ended up in Curranborough.
30:35Simon got in his car
30:36and drove up there to meet her
30:38and I guess it was a way for her
30:42to meet his family.
30:44She wanted Simon.
30:45She was going to stop at nothing
30:46until she got him.
30:48Erin had been leaving work early,
30:51up to half an hour
30:52before the end of each shift.
30:55She hadn't been telling anybody
30:56that she was doing that.
30:58As an air traffic controller,
30:59things can go wrong or very badly
31:02in a very short period of time,
31:04then you have the ability
31:05to call for some help
31:07and somebody can come along
31:08and actually stand behind you
31:09and they can actually watch
31:11what you're doing,
31:11making sure that you're not
31:12missing anything.
31:13And when those sort of things happen,
31:15you expect that if you call for help,
31:17then there's going to be people
31:18all around you
31:18that can actually step in
31:19and assist.
31:20It's pretty frowned upon
31:22if you are going to leave work early.
31:24She had been called in to HR
31:26to explain herself.
31:28She denied having done it.
31:30HR showed her some video footage
31:33of her car leaving the premises
31:35a couple of times
31:36over the previous week or two
31:37and her response was
31:39so blasé
31:40as to say,
31:41OK, you got me.
31:43And seeing her being terminated
31:45wasn't necessarily a surprise at all.
31:47She was going to do something
31:48or say something eventually
31:49to put enough people's noses
31:51out of joint
31:51to cause issues for herself.
31:53So it wasn't a surprise
31:54that the day had come.
31:56I met my first wife, Kithra,
31:59and eventually we thought
32:00it was best if she moved in with us.
32:03Erin wasn't too happy about it.
32:04She would berate us
32:06for not having dinner with her.
32:08She wanted us to have
32:09sort of family dinners every night.
32:12Whereas Kithra and I
32:13were in the early throes
32:14of our relationship
32:14and we wanted to eat only together,
32:17Erin would get quite angry about that.
32:20Probably two weeks after Kithra
32:22had properly moved in,
32:23we found out that her dad
32:24had died tragically.
32:26Up in Castlemaine.
32:28By that point,
32:29Erin had moved out
32:30but had left a whole bunch of stuff
32:32for a long period of time.
32:34And Kithra's family
32:35were flying in from the US
32:37to deal with all the things
32:38that you deal with
32:39when someone's died.
32:40And Kithra rang her.
32:42She was on speakerphone.
32:43And Kithra was explaining to her,
32:45you need to come and get your stuff
32:46because my dad's died
32:48and I've got family coming in.
32:50To which Erin's response was,
32:52I'm sorry, your dad's died,
32:54but that's not my problem.
32:55I'm just busy this week.
32:58Kithra responded angrily,
33:01grabbed all of Erin's stuff
33:03and asked me to help her
33:05take it and throw it out
33:07on the front lawn of the house.
33:10The next day,
33:11Simon drove up with Erin in his car.
33:15They picked up everything,
33:16didn't come to the door,
33:18didn't speak to us.
33:19And that was the last time
33:22that I saw either of them
33:23in real life.
33:29I got married later that year.
33:30Simon wasn't invited
33:31because of what had happened.
33:34I think he probably
33:35would have been my best man
33:36when I got married.
33:37and he wasn't there.
33:39And that was the first time
33:41that I sort of felt
33:42that he wasn't around.
33:45I feel like I lost
33:46one of the most important people
33:47in my life that day.
33:50Looking back,
33:52I wish things had been
33:53a lot different.
34:10Mum and Dad were
34:11very much a team
34:13working at life together.
34:15The fact they died
34:16on consecutive days
34:17is pissing in some ways
34:19as it reflects
34:20the togetherness
34:22as a couple
34:22that they always
34:24worked so hard to grow.
34:28A lot of the information
34:29that we get
34:30about who Heather,
34:31Dawn and Gail are
34:33comes from being able
34:34to listen to
34:34those memorial services.
34:37My schoolmate Trav
34:39once said to me,
34:40your dad
34:41is the only person I know
34:42who can talk about
34:43pretty much every topic
34:44and he usually
34:45knows more about that topic
34:47than the person
34:48he's talking to.
34:49And that wasn't
34:50far off the money.
34:51There's pain
34:52for so many people.
34:54I mean,
34:55the schools
34:55where Heather worked,
34:57there's the community
34:59groups where
35:00Don and Gail
35:01were avid
35:02contributors to.
35:03You know,
35:04I miss not seeing
35:05Heather in IGA.
35:06You know,
35:07she'd wave
35:07and go,
35:08hi.
35:09We were one
35:10of the few families
35:11even as kids
35:12who always sat together
35:13at the tea table
35:14for our evening meal.
35:16Mum resisted
35:17getting a microwave
35:18for years
35:19as she feared
35:20that it would
35:21encourage the busy
35:22come and go lifestyle
35:24where food could
35:25easily be heated
35:26and gobbled up later
35:27rather than us
35:29all being together
35:30for a meal each day.
35:32Gail was one of the
35:33most lovely human beings
35:34I'd ever met.
35:34So sweet.
35:35And she found out
35:37that I was a singer-songwriter
35:38and she got me
35:40a book by Bob Dylan,
35:42the original
35:43No Direction Home book,
35:44the first one,
35:45and she said,
35:46oh, you'll probably
35:47like this.
35:48It's about a songwriter.
35:49I thought that was
35:50really sweet
35:51at the time
35:51as someone who
35:52took something
35:53that was interesting
35:55to me
35:55because we came
35:56from different worlds
35:57and tried to connect
35:59with me on that level.
36:00They made a difference
36:01in other people's lives.
36:02They were very well
36:03respected,
36:04loved,
36:05cared for people
36:06because they'd given
36:07so much back
36:08to the community
36:09over such a long
36:10period of time.
36:11Mr Patterson
36:12was softly spoken.
36:14He was very friendly,
36:15chatty,
36:16happy.
36:17We always loved science
36:18in Mr Patterson
36:19so when we got him
36:21as a year-level teacher
36:22we were all happy.
36:23No one ever had
36:24a bad word to say
36:25about him.
36:26Heather taught my son
36:28in an after-school
36:29homework club
36:30and absolutely
36:31adored her.
36:33Just the dialogue
36:34between Heather
36:35as an adult
36:35and my son
36:36as a child
36:37was just beautiful
36:38to watch
36:38and she knew
36:39how to work
36:39with anybody.
36:41On a go?
36:42Well,
36:42I used to go around
36:43there a lot
36:44to their place
36:44and she'd give you
36:45a cup of tea
36:46and Scott
36:46and whatever.
36:48Warm,
36:48receptive,
36:49yeah.
36:50Well,
36:51they were Christian,
36:51mate.
36:52I suppose
36:52that's the key.
36:55We'd like to publicly
36:56thank the Dandenong
36:57Hospital
36:58that they're at
36:59for a couple
36:59of days too
37:00and especially
37:02appreciate
37:02the overtime
37:04work
37:04their team
37:05did.
37:07Just to let
37:08Mum visit
37:08Dad
37:08one last time
37:10before he was
37:11shipped off
37:11to ICU.
37:12That was amazing.
37:14Just beautiful
37:14people
37:15and we certainly
37:16miss them
37:16out of the town
37:17but we haven't
37:19forgotten them.
37:21And it was
37:22no fluke
37:23that Mum's
37:24final text message
37:25on our family
37:26group chat
37:26as she lay
37:27in Dandenong
37:28Hospital
37:28was
37:29lots of love
37:30to you all.
37:37The hope
37:38of
37:38see you later
37:39that was their
37:40hope
37:40and it's ours
37:41and in the
37:43meantime
37:43we'll miss them.
37:57The lone survivor
38:10of the infamous
38:11mushroom meal
38:11has been
38:12discharged from
38:13hospital
38:13and is
38:14recovering
38:14at his
38:15Curranburra
38:15home.
38:16Mr Wilkinson
38:17spent nearly
38:18two months
38:18at the
38:19Austin Hospital.
38:20The 68-year-old's
38:21recovery has
38:21the potential
38:22to form a
38:23breakthrough
38:23in the
38:24homicide squad
38:24investigation
38:25into the
38:26deaths.
38:27The miracle
38:28here
38:28is that
38:29there was
38:30a survivor
38:31in
38:32Reverend
38:32Ian Wilkinson.
38:34The hospital,
38:35the doctors
38:35and the police
38:36didn't believe
38:37he would
38:38survive.
38:47Obviously
38:48we've got
38:49concerns
38:49in relation
38:50to these
38:50mushrooms
38:50and where
38:51they've
38:51come from
38:52but is
38:53that something
38:54you've done
38:55in the past
38:56foraging
38:57for mushrooms
38:58or anything
38:58like that?
38:59Never.
38:59Never?
39:00Never.
39:01Right.
39:02Do you preserve
39:03foods or
39:04anything like that?
39:06No.
39:07Have you ever
39:07dehydrated food
39:09or anything
39:09like that?
39:11No.
39:11Kitchen
39:12far-left-bottom
39:13drawer,
39:14instruction manual
39:15for a
39:15sun-deem
39:16food layer
39:17electronic
39:18dehydrator?
39:19What's that
39:22in the
39:22way?
39:23Do you know
39:24anything about
39:24a dehydrator
39:25in your house?
39:26No.
39:26Oh.
39:29Okay.
39:30Do you own
39:31a dehydrator?
39:31No.
39:32Wow.
39:33Okay.
39:33Within that first
39:49week of the news
40:02breaking about
40:02this mass poisoning
40:03event,
40:04we get whispers
40:05that Erin
40:06Patterson might
40:07have dumped
40:07a dehydrator
40:08that she used
40:09for the meal
40:09at the local
40:10tip.
40:14I go down
40:14the Kunwara tip
40:15and I talk to
40:16the staff there
40:17who confirm
40:17that yes,
40:18police have
40:19come to the
40:20tip looking
40:21for an appliance,
40:22a dehydrator
40:23that had been
40:24dumped a few
40:24days earlier.
40:25It's not
40:27confirmed other
40:27than hearing
40:28whispers from
40:29sources until
40:30Erin finally
40:30admits to it
40:31in her unsworn
40:32police statement
40:33which is
40:33leaked to
40:34the ABC.
40:36And that is
40:37the first time
40:38that we hear
40:38Erin Patterson's
40:39version of
40:40events.
40:42So in that
40:43statement,
40:44what we hear
40:44for the first
40:45time is that
40:46Erin Patterson
40:46claims that
40:47she bought
40:48the dried
40:48mushrooms she
40:49used in the
40:49beef wellington
40:50from an Asian
40:51grocery store
40:52up to three
40:52months before
40:53the lunch.
40:54She also
40:55admits to
40:56dumping the
40:56dehydrator
40:57after the
40:58lunch because
40:58she panicked
40:59when the
40:59investigators
41:00started coming
41:01asking questions.
41:02She also
41:03said that her
41:04children were
41:04not present
41:05at the lunch
41:06and that they
41:07were at the
41:07movies.
41:08Also,
41:09something else
41:09that Erin
41:10Patterson reveals
41:10in that
41:11statement is
41:11the fact that
41:12she fed the
41:13leftovers of
41:13the meal to
41:14her children
41:15with the
41:15mushrooms
41:15scraped
41:16off.
41:17Now,
41:18the police
41:19statement is
41:20done in
41:21private and
41:21normally stays
41:22that way.
41:23So we
41:24wouldn't have
41:24known about
41:25Asian
41:26grocers.
41:27We wouldn't
41:28have known
41:28every guest
41:30was able to
41:30pick their
41:31own plate.
41:32And she
41:33just took
41:33the last
41:34one.
41:40She's not
41:41going to talk
41:41to you.
41:42The woman
41:43at the
41:43centre of
41:44the deadly
41:44mushroom
41:45lunch has
41:45travelled to
41:46Melbourne
41:46to speak
41:47to her
41:47lawyers.
41:48We're
41:52expecting her
41:53to be
41:54charged
41:54any minute
41:55but it
41:55doesn't
41:55come.
41:57Then after
41:57that there's
41:58radio silence.
42:00My lawyer
42:00has told me
42:01not to talk
42:01to her so I've
42:02got nothing to
42:03say for one
42:04time.
42:04If you've
42:05been unfairly
42:05persecuted in
42:06the media as
42:07you say,
42:07this is your
42:08chance Erin,
42:09you set the
42:09record straight.
42:10The media
42:13attention was
42:14like nothing
42:15I've ever
42:15seen.
42:16In all
42:16honesty,
42:16it just,
42:17it snowballed.
42:18Now an
42:19update for
42:19you on that
42:20deadly
42:20suspected
42:21mushroom
42:21poisoning
42:22that has
42:22gripped
42:22Australia
42:23and the
42:23wider
42:24world.
42:24An
42:24Australian
42:25family's
42:25meal is
42:26now the
42:26centre of
42:27a homicide
42:28investigation.
42:29After
42:29the deaths
42:29of three
42:30people by
42:31suspected
42:31mushroom
42:32poisoning.
42:33The
42:33question
42:33is,
42:34is Erin
42:34Paterson
42:35hiding
42:35something?
42:36One of
42:36the moments
42:37where I
42:37realised
42:38that this
42:38story was
42:38really big
42:39was when
42:39my 91-year-old
42:41grandmother
42:41in Spain
42:42called me
42:42and asked
42:43me about
42:43the case.
42:44There's a
42:44poisoning
42:45story coming
42:46out of
42:46Australia
42:47right now.
42:48Media were
42:48almost here
42:49before a
42:50lot of
42:50the
42:50township
42:50realised
42:51what had
42:51taken
42:52place.
42:54We are
42:55invested.
42:56We need
42:57to know
42:57what's
42:57going on.
42:58People's
42:59fascination
42:59with true
43:00crime isn't
43:01new.
43:02Anyone
43:02who's got
43:02an interest
43:03in a
43:03case can
43:04do their
43:04own
43:05research
43:05and can
43:05start
43:06pulling
43:06strands
43:07together
43:07and telling
43:08that story.
43:09She cooks
43:09his dinner
43:10party.
43:10This was
43:11a church
43:11mediated
43:12meeting.
43:13Just about
43:13everybody at
43:14the lunch
43:14party were
43:15her ex-husband's
43:16relatives.
43:18There is
43:19that hook
43:20to this
43:21story as
43:21well which
43:22is that
43:23it's happening
43:24in a place
43:24that people
43:25don't associate
43:26with crime
43:27and people
43:27don't associate
43:28with danger.
43:30We don't
43:31expect them
43:31to happen
43:32in a place
43:33where everyone
43:33knows everyone.
43:34We don't
43:35expect them
43:35to happen
43:36outside of
43:37urban environments.
43:37Erin can we
43:38just ask you
43:39a couple
43:39of questions?
43:41We were
43:42all essentially
43:43in one big
43:44stakeout
43:44together and
43:45you'd do
43:46the rounds
43:46you'd go to
43:47Erin's house
43:47you'd go to
43:48Ian Wilkinson's
43:49house you'd
43:49go to
43:50Simon's house
43:50and you'd
43:51go around
43:51door knocking.
43:52I live
43:53just a couple
43:54of doors
43:54up from
43:55Simon
43:55you'd see
43:56cars parked
43:57there and
43:58you'd feel
43:58like just
43:59going up
43:59and telling
43:59them to
44:00buzz off.
44:01I went
44:01to the
44:02church service
44:03at the
44:03Baptist
44:03church and
44:04there was
44:05just journalists
44:06everywhere
44:06out the
44:07front doing
44:08live crosses
44:09harassing
44:10people.
44:11We shouldn't
44:11have had to
44:11be ushering
44:12people out
44:12at the
44:12back door
44:13of a
44:13church.
44:15That's
44:15ridiculous.
44:16I think
44:17the town
44:17basically
44:18became probably
44:19more hostile
44:20and it always
44:21does.
44:22It's almost
44:22like a
44:23repetitive
44:23strain injury
44:24and they
44:25tend to
44:25shut down
44:26even more.
44:28Obviously
44:28to the people
44:29in town
44:29it became
44:30the most
44:30annoying
44:30thing
44:31that's
44:31ever
44:31happened
44:31to them
44:32to the
44:32point
44:32that some
44:32people
44:33were spraying
44:33reporters
44:34with their
44:34garden
44:35hose
44:35outside.
44:37I had
44:38this very
44:39tense
44:39exchange
44:39with a
44:40local.
44:41She felt
44:41really strongly
44:42she was
44:42like you
44:42guys are
44:43coming here
44:43and you're
44:44talking about
44:46us
44:46talking about
44:46our town
44:47and then
44:47you're going
44:48to go
44:48away and
44:49we have
44:49to live
44:49with this.
44:50It's a
44:50really hard
44:51act to
44:51balance
44:51because when
44:52someone looks
44:52at you
44:53really upset
44:53and they
44:54say please
44:54leave
44:55please I
44:55don't want
44:56to talk
44:56you'd
44:57rather hug
44:58them than
44:58keep pestering
44:59them.
44:59When an
45:02unusual crime
45:04that gets
45:04a lot of
45:05media attention
45:06takes place
45:07that town
45:09can be
45:11stained.
45:12That's
45:13been a
45:15concern
45:15for a lot
45:17of people.
45:23Small
45:24towns are
45:24just smaller
45:25versions of
45:26big cities
45:27you know
45:28shit happens
45:29everywhere.
45:33When an
45:34event like
45:35these
45:35mushroom
45:35poisonings
45:36happens
45:37it does
45:38leave a
45:38lasting
45:39memory.
45:40It just
45:40kind of
45:40stitches
45:41itself
45:41into the
45:42DNA
45:43of a
45:44town.
45:46Curranburra
45:46knows what
45:47that feels
45:48like.
45:50Curranburra's
45:51most politically
45:51active citizen
45:52publican
45:53Mike
45:53Lowry is
45:54usually
45:54fighting for
45:55the community
45:55but this
45:56evening the
45:57dedicated
45:57family man
45:58is fighting
45:58for his
45:59life.
46:00Late last
46:00night in
46:01the residence
46:01upstairs from
46:02his hotel
46:03bar Mr
46:03Lowry and
46:04six-year-old
46:05son Eddie
46:05caught a
46:06female burglar
46:07going through
46:08his office.
46:08The woman
46:09shot the
46:0951-year-old
46:10in the head
46:11at close
46:11range as
46:12young Eddie
46:13was running
46:13away.
46:14So gunned
46:15down in
46:15quite dramatic
46:16circumstances
46:17the only
46:19witness was
46:20the six-year-old
46:21son.
46:23Police scouring
46:24the premises
46:24for clues
46:25it's unclear
46:26whether the
46:26burglar got
46:27away in a
46:27car or on
46:28foot and
46:29no gun
46:30has been
46:30retrieved.
46:31A woman
46:32is accused
46:34and obviously
46:36her reputation
46:37is just
46:38trashed.
46:39News of his
46:40shooting has
46:40shocked the
46:41close-knit
46:41community.
46:42It's normally
46:43a fairly
46:43quiet town
46:44and an
46:46incident of
46:47this type
46:48would be
46:48very concerning
46:49to everyone.
46:50It kind
46:52of has
46:52echoes of
46:53what happened
46:54with Aaron.
46:58Towns can
46:59get unfairly
47:00tarnished by
47:01the actions
47:02of a
47:03perpetrator.
47:05You can't
47:05run that.
47:06It also
47:08kind of
47:09says
47:09not everything
47:11is great
47:12here.
47:13Stuff
47:14just does
47:14get buried.
47:17People just
47:17don't want to
47:18talk about that
47:18sort of stuff.
47:23Yeah, I think
47:23probably people
47:24have put it to
47:25the back of
47:25their minds
47:26at the moment.
47:27Certainly
47:27for myself,
47:28I would not
47:29be talking
47:29about it.
47:31It just
47:32stirs it up
47:32too much.
47:33They sort
47:34of get on
47:35with their
47:35life.
47:36There's not
47:36a lot of
47:37sitting around
47:37in the city
47:39having coffees
47:40and chatting
47:41about it.
47:42Country people
47:43are resilient
47:44with this
47:45type of thing,
47:45yeah.
47:46We go straight
47:47to the
47:47psychologist
47:47when we're
47:48having a bit
47:48of mental
47:49health
47:49crisis.
47:49They just
47:50play in a
47:51garden,
47:52you know.
47:53They just
47:54go and milk
47:54the cows,
47:55you know.
47:56They just
47:56get on
47:57with things,
47:57yeah.
47:58Yeah.
47:58Yeah.
48:18They just
48:28go and milk
48:28go and milk
48:29go and milk
48:30go and milk
48:30go and milk
48:31go and milk
48:31go and milk
48:32go and milk
48:32go and milk
48:33go and milk
48:33go and milk
48:34go and milk
48:34go and milk
48:35go and milk
48:36go and milk
48:36go and milk
48:37go and milk
48:37go and milk
48:37go and milk
48:38go and milk
48:38go and milk
48:39go and milk
48:39go and milk
48:39go and milk
48:40go and milk
48:40go and milk
48:41go and milk
48:41go and milk
48:41go and milk
48:42go and milk
48:42go and milk
48:43We don't hear anything for months, and all of a sudden, at 7am in the morning, we get
48:57a tip-off.
49:05Police are at Erin Patterson's house, and they are raiding it.
49:09Police swooped just after 8 o'clock this morning, and for hours, forensic officers combed Erin
49:15Patterson's property in Lee and Gatha.
49:18It was quite a dramatic day.
49:20There was a bit of O.J. Simpson with the helicopters of her house.
49:25Collecting bags of evidence with the help of the AFP and specialist technology detection
49:31dogs.
49:32And so they're there all morning and into the afternoon for hours.
49:35Erin is sitting inside this house, waiting while officers just search the entire property,
49:40looking for anything that they can find.
49:44And then in the afternoon, when we least expect it, we see Ophelia Holloway, who's a member
49:48of Erin Patterson's defense team, arrive to the house.
49:51And that's how you know that probably charges are coming.
49:55What follows next is a bit of a mud blur.
49:58There's a bit of a swapsie, and she gets put in a different car.
50:00And we don't get to actually take the photo of her walking in handcuffs out of the house.
50:05Instead, you have her already inside the car, and all the photographers scrambling, trying
50:09to shoot through the window of the car.
50:11And they drive her out and take her to Wontagi police station.
50:17We're all madly following the police car, like trying to trail it, trying to get a glimpse
50:22of her.
50:22And so we're waiting, waiting, waiting.
50:26And finally, after nightfall, around 8, 9 o'clock at 9, we get the email.
50:33Erin Patterson, who's been interviewed for hours, has just been charged.
50:37And the charges laid include three counts of murder for Don, Gail, and Heather, one count
50:46of attempted murder for the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, but crucially, and perhaps
50:51more significantly, four counts of attempted murder for trying to kill her husband, Simon
50:57Patterson, over a number of years.
51:02Holy shit!
51:07This is Dr. Chris Webster calling from Lee and Gasser Hospital, and I have a concern regarding
51:19a patient that presented here earlier, but has left the building.
51:24What's her name?
51:25And it's Erin Patterson.
51:27By that stage, I was aware that everything that I was about to say was going to be played
51:34in court one day.
51:37They swear to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
51:40Are they really telling the whole truth?
51:43Could she have visited this mushroom field on the 22nd of May?
51:47Yes.
51:47There must be more to the story than what we have heard.
51:50Throughout the trial, there's multiple versions of the same story, and it's really hard to
51:56keep track of which one's which.
51:58Holy hell, I've forested the mushrooms.
52:00I've accidentally killed them.
52:01What this map shows us is these are the possible routes that she could have taken.
52:05As soon as I heard it, I went, oh God, are they going to throw out the whole jury?
52:10More of the evidence just vanished, and the jury never heard about it.
52:14Has anyone seen the news about four people killed by eating mushrooms?
52:18I think it's Erin Patterson from our group.
52:21I feel like this trial was one unexpected thing after another.
52:24We all sat there and went, what the fuck is going on?
52:29It's accepted that it was death, death mushrooms.
52:31It's accepted it came from the beef whinington.
52:33It's accepted it was made by Erin Patterson.
52:36So let's cut to the chase.
52:38Did she do it deliberately, or did she not?
52:40A few moments ago, we just received an email from the Supreme Court media team
52:44confirming that the jury have reached their verdict.
52:47Transcription by CastingWords
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53:47Transcription by CastingWords
54:17Transcription by CastingWords
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