Court testimony has revealed details about Erin Patterson’s personal life before she was found guilty of murdering her three in-laws with death cap mushrooms in a beef Wellington that she served at her home for lunch.
Patterson’s father-in-law and mother-in-law Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson died after the lunch at her Leongatha home, in south-east Victoria, on July 29, 2023.
Following a 10-week trial and seven days of deliberation, Patterson was found guilty of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, as Heather’s husband, Pastor Ian Wilkinson, survived the deadly meal.
Details of Patterson’s personal life were aired in court during the trial, including the extent of her wealth, which included $2million from her paternal grandmother’s estate.
Patterson was raised in a brick home on a quiet street in Glen Waverley – a middle-class suburb in Melbourne’s south-east.
Her mother, Heather Scutter, was a respected lecturer at Monash University and an expert in children’s literature, and her father, Eitan Scutter, held director roles in multiple Australian companies.
Those who knew Patterson from her younger days described her as being a smart and witty woman.
However, in her childhood, Patterson told the court she developed an eating disorder and low self-esteem – a battle which remained with her into her adult life.
Erin Patterson was found guilty of murdering her three in-laws and attempting to murder a fourth person after she served them beef Wellingtons containing death cap mushrooms
In her mid-20s, Patterson left her science course and pursued a degree in accounting.
In 2001, she also sat for an Air Services class photo – which included all the trainee air traffic controllers for that year.
She became one of the few people to make it through the training program after successfully passing the notoriously difficult air traffic controller test.
Former colleagues described Erin as a solitary, odd and strange young woman who was a bit of a loner and could be abrupt, abrasive and rude.
She was also the only person in the 14-person air traffic controller training group who declined every invitation to social activities and events.
Accounts from former air traffic controller colleagues painted a picture of Patterson as a crafty employee who would call in sick pretending to be other workers so that she could pick up lucrative shifts.
Patterson was not an air traffic controller for long before she transitioned to working in animal management for the RSPCA at Monash City Council.
It was here, in 2004, where she met her ex-husband Simon Patterson who was working at the council as a civil engineer.
Patterson served the beef wellingtons at her home in Leongatha, southeast Victoria, on July 29, 2023 (pictured, court exhibit)
During the trial, details about Patterson’s life were revealed as she and other witnesses took the stand
In his testimony to the court, Mr Patterson described his former wife as ‘very intelligent’, ‘witty’ and ‘quiet funny’.
He added the pair got to know each other as part of a ‘fairly electric’ group of friends before they developed a romantic relationship.
‘I guess some of the things that attracted me to her in the first place was definitely her intelligence,’ Mr Patterson testified. ‘She is quite witty and can be quite funny.’
Patterson was involved in a drunken crash, where she was almost three times over the legal limit, the same year she met her now-estranged husband.
Court records revealed she had been driving an unregistered car and fled the scene of the crash. She was also caught driving 35km/h over the 60km/h speed limit.
Patterson pleaded guilty to five charges. She was fined $1,000 and had her licence cancelled and was disqualified from driving in Victoria for two and a half years.
In her testimony, she told the court she was a ‘fundamental atheist’ and initially tried to convert Mr Patterson, who was a devout Christian.
‘Things happened in reverse and I became a Christian,’ Patterson told the jury.
Patterson’s father and mother in-law Don and Gail Patterson (pictured) were killed after they ate the poisoned lunch
Heather Wilkinson was also killed, while her husband Ian survived (pictured, Heather and Ian)
She explained she experienced a ‘spiritual experience’ while on a camping trip when the pair attended a service at Korumburra Baptist church where Simon’s uncle, Ian Wilkinson, was a pastor.
‘I’d been approaching religion as an intellectual exercise up until that point,’ Patterson said.
‘But I had what I would call a religious experience there and it quite overwhelmed me.’
In June 2007, the Pattersons were married.
The wedding was held at Don and Gail’s Korumburra home and Simon’s cousin, David Wilkinson, walked Patterson down the aisle.
Patterson told the court her parents did not attend the wedding as they were on holiday travelling across Russia on a train.
In July 2006, her paternal grandmother Ora Scutter died, leaving her significant estate to her two sons and seven grandchildren.
Mr Patterson told the court his ex-wife’s share of the estate ended up being about $2million, which was paid out across eight years from 2007.
Her ex-husband Simon Patterson (pictured) took the stand, telling the court Patterson was ‘very intelligent’, ‘witty’ and ‘quiet funny’
Soon afterwards, the pair quit their council jobs and set off on a cross-country trip, travelling around Australia.
When they reached Western Australia, the pair settled down and bought a house without a mortgage.
In January 2009, they welcomed their first child, after what Patterson called the ‘very traumatic’ birth of her son.
Her experience led to a mistrust of doctors, with Patterson telling the jury she would often question whether they knew what they were doing.
On the stand, Patterson said Don and Gail stayed with them after the birth of her son and described Gail as being ‘really supportive, and gentle and patient’.
‘I remember being really relieved that Gail was there because I felt really out of my depth,’ Patterson said.
The pair did not stay in the rural community for long and just a few months later packed up their home and moved to Townsville.
After months of travelling, Patterson said she had had enough and wanted to fly back to Perth while Mr Patterson and their son drove back to Western Australia.
This led to the couple’s first separation in late 2009, with Patterson and her son living in a rental while Mr Patterson lived in a caravan nearby for six months.
The deadly lunch was served at Patterson’s home on Gibson Street in Leongatha (pictured)
Witnesses described Patterson as a devoted mother-of-two, who was a crafty, odd and strange woman that could be abrupt, abrasive and rude
The couple underwent marriage counselling before reuniting when Mr Patterson moved to the wheatbelt town of York where he worked for council as a civil engineer.
For a time, the couple also lived in Quinninup, in Western Australia’s southwest, where Patterson opened a second-hand bookstore in the small rural town of Pemberton.
Mr Patterson told the court there were other brief periods of separation while they lived in Western Australia before they moved back to Victoria in 2013.
In 2014, the pair welcomed their second child, a girl, and also bought a family home in Korumburra to be close to Mr Patterson’s family.
The couple separated for a final time in late 2015. When asked about the separation, Patterson told the jury she believed the key issue was communication.
‘Primarily what we struggled with over the entire course of our relationship … we just couldn’t communicate well when we disagreed about something,’ Patterson said.
‘We could never communicate in a way that made each of us feel heard or understood, so we would just feel hurt and not know how to resolve it.’
The pair remained close and co-operative, with Patterson explaining she kept close to her father and mother-in-law and would attend family events.
Prosecutors argued Patterson had intentionally sourced the poisonous mushrooms with the intent to kill or seriously injure her four guests (pictured, Patterson’s legal team)
‘It never changed. I was just their daughter-in-law and they just continued to love me,’ Patterson said.
The court heard Patterson inherited a large amount of money after her mother passed away from cancer in 2019.
Eight years earlier, Patterson’s father had also died from cancer, which meant her grandmother’s entire estate was left to her and her sister.
Her parent’s beachfront retirement home in Eden sold for $900,000, with part of the money used to buy a block of land at Gibson Street in Leongatha.
Patterson built a family home on the block of land, the home which became the location of the deadly lunch.
She registered the home, and also a property in Glen Waverley, as shared ownership with Mr Patterson.
Mr Patterson told the jury he believed Patterson put his name on the titles because she was committed to their family and that she remained hopeful for a reconciliation.
The court heard from three witnesses who became acquainted with Patterson in 2020 through an online true crime Facebook group.
Patterson (pictured) now awaits sentencing
Patterson began socially chatting with others during the Covid pandemic and well into 2023.
Non-profit manager Christine Hunt told the court Patterson was known as the group’s ‘super-sleuth’, claiming she uncovered details of true crime cases they discussed.
Daniela Barkley, a stay-at-home mum, described Patterson to the jury as a ‘wonderful’ mother but recalled she would often air issues about her husband and his family.
In a series of messages sent to the group in 2022 between December 6 and 9, Patterson complained about her ‘deadbeat’ partner and his ‘lost cause’ family.
‘I’m sick of this s*** I want nothing to do with them. I thought his parents would want him to do the right thing but it seems their concern about not wanting to feel uncomfortable and not wanting to get involved in their son’s personal matters are overriding that so f*** em,’ one message read.
Mr Patterson claimed that while they remained friendly during separation, things changed in 2022 when his relationship status on his tax return was changed to single.
He told the court the status change was the result of a mix-up with his accountant.
‘She discovered that my tax return for the previous year for the first time noted we were separated,’ Mr Patterson said.
The Trial of Erin Patterson is available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Listen here
Patterson told him the move would impact the family tax benefit the couple had previously enjoyed and she was obliged to now claim child support.
‘She was upset about it,’ he said.
Patterson also wanted child support and the school fees paid. However, Mr Patterson said he was advised by authorities to stop paying for school fees and medical bills he had been previously covering.
The move upset his increasingly estranged wife and the court heard Patterson had even changed the children’s school without consulting their father.
In the end, the jury had to weigh up all the evidence and sift through the testimony of those who took the stand.
The mother-of-two sat defiantly throughout her 10-week trial, glaring at the media, members of the public and the family of the people she murdered.
The unassuming Victorian woman drew international attention after three of her husband’s family died following a lunch at her Leongatha home, in south-east Victoria, on July 29, 2023.
Patterson pleaded not guilty to the murders of Don and Gail Patterson – her husband’s parents – and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson.
Only Heather’s husband, Pastor Ian Wilkinson, survived her plot – a blunder Patterson would live to regret, and will now serve time for after also being found guilty of attempting to murder him.
Prosecutors argued Patterson had intentionally sourced the poisonous mushrooms with the intent to kill or seriously injure her four guests.
Following seven days of deliberation, the jury returned to Latrobe Valley court on Monday and delivered a unanimous guilty verdict on all four charges.
The estranged wife, devoted mother-of-two, multi-millionaire and generous in-law was deemed a callous killer.
With three murder convictions and one attempted murder conviction, Patterson will be sentenced at a later date.
