The woman whose beef wellington killed three of her relatives has admitted lying to police about the lunch that left her guests fatally poisoned – and has revealed that her husband accused her of poisoning his parents.
Erin Patterson, 48, invited her former parents-in-law Gail and Don Patterson, along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian, for lunch at her Leongatha home, in Victoria’s Gippsland region, on July 29.
Within days, three of her four guests died from suspected mushroom poisoning from the beef wellington served by the mother-of-two.
The surviving guest, Mr Wilkinson, remains in a critical but stable condition in need of a liver transplant.
Erin has given her first detailed account of the fatal meal in a lengthy written statement to Victoria Police, which was obtained by the ABC on Monday.
She had earlier given a no comment interview to police at the start of their investigations, blaming her decision to stonewall cops on it being a ‘terrifying and anxiety-provoking’ experience.
Erin has now revealed that she became unwell after eating the meal and that while she was in hospital, her ex-husband Simon Patterson accused her of poisoning his parents.
She said she was ‘discussing the food hydrator’ when her ex-husband asked: ‘Is that what you used to poison them?’
Food hydrators are used to dry out mushrooms before using them in beef wellingtons.
Erin Patterson (pictured at her home) has given a detailed account to police of what happened at and after the fateful mushroom meal she hosted at her Leongatha home
Erin’s former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson (pictured) died a week after attending the lunch
Ian Wilkinson and Heather Wilkinson (both pictured) became severely ill after they ate wild mushrooms. Mrs Wilkinson died earlier this month while her husband remains in a critical condition in hospital
Erin has also admitted lying to police about how long ago she disposed of the food dehydrator, which was found dumped at a nearby tip.
Ms Patterson said she panicked and dumped the dehydrator, which police have since seized, at the tip after her lunch guests fell ill.
She admitted initially lying to investigators when she told them she had dumped it at the tip ‘a long time ago’.
Police are examining CCTV from the landfill to determine when it was dumped.
Elsewhere in the police statement, Erin said she served the meal before inviting guests to choose their own plates.
She then took the last plate and ate a serving of the beef wellington.
The next day, her two children also ate the meal but the mushrooms were scraped off first as they do not like them.
Previously, it had been claimed that the children were present at the deadly lunch, but it has since emerged that they were actually at the movies at the time.
Erin said she was then hospitalised with bad stomach pains and diarrhoea, and was put on a saline drip and given a ‘liver protective drug’.
She was transported by ambulance from Leongatha Hospital to Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne.
Gail and Don Patterson died after eating the mushrooms
Gippsland Southern Health Service confirmed last Friday that a fifth individual, who initially came to Leongatha Hospital on July 30 with symptoms of possible food poisoning, later returned and was also subsequently transferred to Monash Medical Centre.
The leaked police statement is the first time Erin has spoken at length about the tragedy.
‘I now very much regret not answering some questions … given the nightmare that this process has become,’ she said.
‘I am now wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones.
‘I am hoping this statement might help in some way. I believe if people understood the background more, they would not be so quick to rush to judgement.
‘I am now devastated to think that these mushrooms may have contributed to the illness suffered by my loved ones. I really want to repeat that I had absolutely no reason to hurt these people whom I loved.’
What was left of the meal was preserved and given to hospital toxicologists for examination after Erin was contacted by Department of Health officials as the conditions of her guests worsened in hospital.
The fateful lunch was arranged to try to negotiate a reconciliation with her estranged husband Simon Patterson.
Ms Patterson said Simon had pulled out of the lunch ‘prior to the day’.
Ms Patterson told police she used a combination of button mushrooms bought from a well-known supermarket chain, along with dried mushrooms bought from from an Asian grocery store in Melbourne several months earlier.
She was unable to provide further details about the Asian grocery store.
Ms Patterson also paid tribute to her former in-laws and insists she maintained a positive and amicable relationship with them even after her marriage with their son fell apart.
‘I had been close with Simon’s parents for a long period of time. Our relationship had continued in a fairly amicable way after I finished the relationship with their son Simon,’ she said.
‘Our relationship was affected to some degree by seeing them less after my marriage breakdown with Simon however I have never felt differently towards his parents.
‘I had a deep love and respect for Simon’s parents and had encouraged my children to spend time with their grandparents as I believed they were exceptional role models.’
Erin’s estranged husband Simon Patterson was also meant to attend the lunch but pulled out
Ms Patterson also revealed she ‘reluctantly’ helped care for Simon last years after he spent two weeks in hospital battling a severe stomach illness unrelated to the current incident.
In her statement, Ms Patterson said she ‘reluctantly’ agreed to nurse Simon Patterson for three weeks when he was discharged from hospital, before telling him that she did not want to repair the marriage.
A representative for Simon declined to comment about Ms Patterson’s statement as he continues to mourn the devastating loss of both parents.
A source close to Simon, who has not been out in public since the tragedy, told Daily Mail Australia his mate had no interest in getting back together with the mother of his two children.
‘They went to her house for a mediation to talk to the family. Simon was supposed to go there for lunch, but he pulled out [at] the last minute. Otherwise he would be in that death bed too,’ the friend said last week.
‘The people who died, Gail, Don and the Wilkinsons, were talking to them because they’re heavily ingrained with the church and they wanted to make sure she was right to resume a relationship with Simon… she was basically petitioning to get back with him and the family didn’t think that was a good move.
‘They basically didn’t think she was good enough for him in their eyes.
‘This wasn’t just a lunch; it was an intervention with the pastor as mediator. That’s why this lunch happened.’