Already and this this is the Daily Off. This is the Daily ohs oh, now it makes sense. Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the seventh of May. I'm Billy FitzSimons.
I'm Zara Seidler.
We are taking a break from our election coverage today to update you on another event that you've probably been hearing a lot about in the headlines, the mushroom trial. In case you missed it, the murder trial of a woman accused of killing three people by serving them poisonous mushrooms is underway in Victoria's Supreme Court. Aaron Pattison was charged with murder after three people died following a meal
at her home in July twenty twenty three. She pleaded not guilty, and so now we are in the middle of a six week trial. On today's podcast, we're getting you up to speed with the details of the case.
Billy, I remember when this story first broke a couple of years ago, it was absolutely everywhere. I think it was just such a unique story and there were so many elements that just defied logic really that it was all anyone was talking about. But as you said, it has been two years since the incident took place. So can you just give everyone a really quick recap of what happened.
Yeah, Before I tell you what happened, I'm going to take you through kind of who the main characters are because there are so many different details in twists and turns, so I'll just give you a very brief overview. So, the first person, who I think is probably the most important person you need to know about to understand this is Aaron Pattison. She is fifty, she is a mum of two, and she's the person who is accused of
these murders and who is currently standing trial now. She was married to a man named Simon Patterson, and he's the father of their two children. They married in two thousand and seven split in twenty fifteen, but they never divorced. They were just estranged, and they by all accounts, had a relatively good relationship. It kind of went downhill in late twenty twenty two, which we will talk about, but yeah,
they pretty much had a quite good relationship. And Simon didn't attend the lunch, which is kind of at the center of all of these allegations, but it was his relatives who did attend the lunch, and three of them died and one fell critically ill. He was invited to the lunch, but he didn't attend. He actually pulled out the night before the lunch because he said that he
felt uncomfortable attending. Now to speak about the lunch that I've referenced many times, so this is where the alleged poisoning took place, and it all happened in July twenty twenty three. Now Erin invited her estranged husband's parents, so her ex in laws. Their names are Don and Gale Patterson, and she also invited her ex husband's auntie and uncle, whose names are Heather and Ian Wilkinson. Now at this lunch,
she served them a beef Wellington. Now, following this meal, all four guests became critically ill, and Don, Gale and Heather died. So those are the two parents of Simon.
So her ex in laws, her ex in laws.
They both died, and then the ex husband's auntie also died. The uncle was very ill. He spent many weeks in hospital.
That's Ian, right, that's it.
He survived, and so he was the sole survivor of this lunch. Erin, who was eating at the lunch. She did not fall critically ill. I don't think that she was sick at all. Now, following their deaths, Erin was charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
Just quickly before we get into the trial.
I've read a lot of headlines about this, and one of the ones that I haven't really understood is about one of the murder charges against Aaron being dropped. Can you just talk me through that.
Yeah, So that did happen, but it was actually in relation to something separate. So Aarin was also charged with attempted murder of her ex husband, who I've been speaking about, Simon, but that was not in relation to this lunch.
So there was a separate murder charge, not in relation to this lunch that police had previously brought against Aaron Patterson, but that has been dropped.
Now that has been dropped. It was dropped at the start of the trial. We didn't really find out too many details.
About I always thought it was about the lunch.
No, okay, Yeah, we didn't really find out too many details about why it was dropped. We just know that it was dropped. And so now this entire trial just centers around this lunch and the alleged murders and attempted murder of the four guests.
Okay, so this trial is focusing on a lunch where three people who became critically ill and died and another was very unwell but managed to survive. So what have we learned during the course of this trial, because it's now been a week or so, what have we learned so far?
So mostly what we have learned so far is from Erin's estranged husband, Simon. He was the first witness called and he told the court that his relationship with Erin was amicable following their split in twenty fifteen, but that, like I said before, it started to go downhill in late twenty twenty two, and that was allegedly over child support. Okay,
just quickly to recap. Simon was invited to the lunch in July twenty twenty three, but he canceled the night before via text, and we have seen those text messages come out during this trial, and so in the text messages shown to the court, Aeron told Simon that she wanted to have an important conversation with him and his
relatives about her health at this lunch. And so she said that his cancelation was quote really disappointing, and she noted that she had spent many hours and a small fortune preparing a special meal.
So a special meal being a direct quote from what she said to Simon in those texts.
It's so fascinating.
You mentioned there that she said or it's alleged that she said she wanted to talk about her health.
What was that about? Do we have any more understanding about what the health issues were?
Yeah, so Erin did tell her lunch guests that she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. That wasn't true, though we have since learned and both sides, so defense and prosecution agree that she was not diagnosed with that disease. So that's not in contention.
Okay.
We also know that in March she did do a cervical cancer test, but that returned negative.
Okay, So we underst and that she wanted to talk to her ex's family about a health update, and that that health update turned out not necessarily to be true.
What else have we learned from Simon's testimony?
So we also learned that Simon told the court he visited both couples the following morning. He said both were not feeling well at all.
I thought that they had died fairly quickly after and that's not what happens.
There was time between.
Yeah, And one thing that he mentioned is that his aunt, Heather, commented on the plates that Aaron used.
And a lot of headlines about these plates.
Yeah, so Heather told Simon that Aaron served herself on an orange plate but served her guests their meals on these gray plates. Now, when he was cross examined by the defense, Simon said that it was fair to assume the mismatch could have been due to the fact that Aaron, quote had a bunch of ceramic plates that weren't all the same. But like you said, the plates have emerged as kind of a key piece of evidence that is being scrutinized.
We're going to be back with the rest of today's deep Dive after a quick message from our sponsor. Simon wasn't at the lunch, so his testimony he's reflecting on the conversations he had after the lunch. But you said that there was a soul survivor, so there was someone at that lunch who can testify. What have we heard from Ian?
Yes, so he only entered the witness box yesterday and he started off by kind of describing his relationship with Erin. He said that they had a fairly amicable relationship and that they were very happy to accept the invitation to go to lunch. One thing he mentioned is that Heather, his wife, wanted to look at the pantry in Aaron's kitchen. He said that she had a particular interest because they
had just built one in their own home. But he said that Erin was really reluctant about this visit to the pantry and that she kind of followed Heather In. I will just point out these all allegations, so these haven't been put to Erin, but this is his recounting of what happened.
Because Aaron hasn't testified yet. No, okay understood.
He also confirmed what we were talking about before about these different plates, so he again said that the four guests ate on one style of plate and Erin ate on another. He also confirmed that after the lunch, Aaron told the guests that she had a life threatening cancer and that she was particularly anxious about telling their kids
about it. He said that then when they left, it wasn't until that night at about eleven PM when Heather first started to feel sick, and then he soon after that also started to feel quite ill, and then the next day all four guests went to hospital where they were treated for suspected mushroom poisoning.
I just want to shift gears a bit because I've read about a Facebook group and I've seen quite a few headlines around that.
What's that in relation to?
Yeah, so this is also something that has come out that Aaron was allegedly part of a true crime Facebook group where she met some people on there and they created a private group chat, and she allegedly told those people about dehydrating mushrooms and a particular interest that she had in dehydrating mushrooms. In one message exchange shown to the court, Aaron had said, quote, I've been hiding powdered mushrooms in everything. So that has been another piece of
evidence that has emerged in the trial so far. And some of the people that were in that true crime Facebook group have also been called as witnesses to this trial.
Okay, so it's a six week trial. You said, we're about one and a half weeks into it. When are we expecting to hear from erin because obviously these are just allegations that she hasn't been able to defend yet because she hasn't been in the wind Sparks.
When will we hear from her.
I'm actually not sure when exactly we will hear from her, but I do know that we have heard from her once before, and that was in August twenty twenty three, so that was before she had actually been charged with the murders.
Oh I remember this, yes, yeah.
It went quite viral and it actually made global headlines when it happened, and she was very emotional at the time. So the media found her and they asked her questions and she was really emotional talking about she said, losing people that she loved, and she said she was devastated by it. I thought I'd play a little bit of that clip.
I just can't fit them what has happened that Ian and Henna have lost her lives and Gaya has lost her life, and Donna's still in her foot and I pray, I pray that he pulls through.
So that was almost two years ago. Now, like I said, we haven't yet heard from Erin herself, but I'm sure that will be a very big moment when we do hear from Erin in the witness box.
Just quickly before we end, is this trial being decided by a judge or a jury? Because I'm always curious in cases like this where there's so much media attention, like everyone around the country was talking about this story NonStop.
Is it a judge or a jury.
It's a jury. It's a jury of fifteen. Read what you're saying about it being a high profile case. I have seen the judge ask the jurors many times not to read any social media commentary about this case so that their opinions aren't influenced by others.
Yeah, really really interesting and certainly a story that has gripped the country, and so we'll be sure to bring you updates, certainly as Aaron herself begins to testify and defend these murder charges and later once that jury, as you said.
Hands down their decisions. So thank you for explaining that.
Billy, thank you, and thank you for joining us for another episode of The Daily Os. The best way that you can help this podcast grow is by hitting follow, because that sends a message to the platform that you like what we're doing. We'll be back later today with the headlines but until then, have a great Wednesday.
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Kalkadin woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres s right island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.