Erin Patterson is a resident of Leongatha, South Gippsland. Now, she is up against dire legal challenges with the prospect of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder hanging over her. Those charges stem from a tragic, preventable lunch in July 2023. Throughout the course of the dinner, she reportedly poisoned her guests with beef wellingtons made with toxic death cap mushrooms. This shocking incident has rocked the local community and emerged a number of questions related to Patterson’s intentions and state of mind.
The lunch took place at Patterson’s beautiful home. She is said to have gone all out, spending a “small fortune” on top-quality eye fillet steak to serve at the meal. As she looked forward to this convening, she experienced a new level of feeling the importance of it. The last-minute disappointment of her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, cancelling a day before only exacerbated her pain. In a text message sent at 6:59 PM the night before the lunch, Erin expressed her frustration, stating, “That’s really disappointing. This lunch week, I’ve spent two dozen hours just getting ready for lunch, and it has tuckered me out. I treated myself to some beef eye fillet to whip up some delicious beef wellingtons, hoping to put on a real impressive meal as I may not have the opportunity to host like this for some time.
Erin and Simon Patterson have two wild children, born in 2009 and 2014. Their relationship has had a tumultuous history, with several breakups culminating in a 2015 final split. This messy family dynamic only further complicates the case as Simon’s revealing testimony sheds light on Erin’s emotional state. He mentioned, “I think Erin is not particularly happy with how she is, including probably most aspects,” while acknowledging low self-esteem issues she faced.
In the lead-up to that fateful lunch Erin—despite her own grief—provided financial support to Simon’s siblings and their spouses. She provided them loans of hundreds of thousands of dollars, without a repayment timetable imposing any burden on those institutions, simply indexing the interest to inflation. This deep financial entanglement hints at a complicated network of relationships that likely shaped her decisions.
After lunch, many of the guests experienced very serious symptoms of poisoning and were subsequently hospitalized. Erin suffered serious physical symptoms after the meal as well. She was worried that she might “poo her pants” because she experienced significant diarrhea after eating the food provided. This recent development casts serious doubt on her assertions that the poisoning was unintentional. Her defence lawyer Colin Mandy SC contested that Erin had not intended to hurt her visitors. He alleged that she was responsible for the unfortunate result, all by accident.
On cross, Mandy Jones, Erin’s attorney, was trying to get to Erin’s mental state, her feelings about herself. Granted, he’s working with the unfortunate anti-hero, Simon Cowell, but for very different reasons than you’d expect if you read those headlines. These kinds of questions help to get a fuller picture of Erin’s mental state as she navigates life in this stormy chapter.
Erin’s emotional issues seem to be more than just her bonds with Simon. In her emails leading up to the lunch, she emphasized how essential it was to have her family in attendance. She hoped their participation would spark important conversations. In her closing message, she reiterated the need for all of us to be present the following day. Her goal is to make sure she’s having the conversations that she needs to be having. This desire to belong indicates a deep emotional struggle within her that drove her to commit these heinous acts.
Along with the punchy illustrations, Simon Patterson delivered terrifying descriptions of his father’s state after eating the meal. He recalled his father’s body on its side with a purple colored face, and unable to talk. “Lying on his side, hunched quite noticeably. His complexion was stony gray; he could hardly articulate. Every word seemed a struggle, and his ragged voice betrayed that something was terribly wrong on the inside. Pete was almost nonverbal and very clearly in pain.
The court proceedings continue to uncover details about Erin Patterson’s life and relationships, shedding light on the events that led to one of the most shocking incidents in the region’s recent history. Via her texts to friends and subsequent testimony, we learn what was driving her state of mind and actions that night. These findings will help inform strategies for the prosecution and defense, as both sides craft their unique cases.