What Happened When Erin Patterson’s Husband Skipped Beef Wellington Lunch?

Simon Patterson delivers his pivotal testimony in the Mushroom Murder Trial, revealing complex family dynamics and new details about the deadly Beef Wellington lunch allegedly served by his estranged wife Erin Patterson. 

His account includes text messages from the night before the fatal meal, observations about different coloured plates used for serving, the beef Wellington and his wife Erin Patterson’s $2million inheritance.

The 50-year-old Leongatha woman stands accused of serving death cap mushrooms to her former in-laws and their relatives in a beef wellington dish. She denies all allegations.

• Simon declined to attend the beef Wellington lunch via text message the night before, 
• Erin Patterson responded expressing disappointment about the costly Beef Wellington she had prepared
• Simon's parents, aunt and uncle all became severely ill after the lunch with similar symptoms
• Heather Wilkinson, a lunch attendee, noticed Erin Patterson ate the beef Wellington from different coloured crockery than the other guests
• Erin Patterson told the beef Wellington lunch guests she had ovarian cancer requiring chemotherapy and “possibly surgery.”
• Simon first learned about Erin Patterson using a food dehydrator while at Monash Hospital
• Erin Patterdom claimed she had conducted "taste tests" of muffins with dehydrated mushrooms with their child
• Text messages revealed the deteriorating relationship between Erin and Simon and Erin Patterson.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello and welcome to the Mushroom Murder Trial
podcast, your source forcoverage of what is actually one
of Australia's most fascinatingcriminal trials.
My name is Lisa, I'm apodcaster and a journalist, and
I've followed this story since2023.
Now, before we start, as Ialways ask with my begging,

(00:27):
could you please make sure yousubscribe to our newsletter,
mushroommurdertrialcom.
It's full of updates andinformation about the trial.
You'll receive the firstepisode of the newsletter when
you sign up, and I'm also goingto be putting one out this
weekend.
Now the purpose of today'sepisode is to give you an update

(00:47):
on the proceedings, and theywere so fascinating.
We're in Victoria, australia,and Miss Erin Patterson, age 50,
from Leongatha, is pleading notguilty to three charges of
murder and one of attemptedmurder.
Today in the Supreme Court ofVictoria, we heard from her

(01:10):
estranged husband, civilengineer Simon Patterson.
Now I'm going to give you asummary of what he said, but
after that I'm also going toexpand upon what else we heard
today in the courtroom.
So, in a sitting at La TrobeMagistrates Court in Morwell,
victoria, the court heard MsPatterson had a close

(01:32):
relationship with Simon'sparents, particularly his father
, don, whom she shared a love oflifelong learning and science.
But over the years Erin andSimon had a tumultuous
relationship, experiencing manyseparations and reconciliations.

(01:52):
Mr Patterson told the court itwas always her leaving me.
Mr Patterson believesdisagreements over child support
and property eventually led toa big rift between himself and
Ms Patterson.
However, his wife was laterasking Simon's parents over text

(02:15):
messages to intervene in thedispute over their money issues.
The older couple, however,encouraged them to try and work
it out between the two of them.
In addition, the court heard MsPatterson inherited $2 million
from her grandmother in 2006,money which was then used to

(02:35):
purchase properties for thecouple to live in and facilitate
loans to Simon's siblings.
Mr Patterson confirmed that hisaunt, heather Wilkinson, who
died following the BeefWellington lunch, was puzzled
about why Ms Patterson had eatenher meal from a different
coloured crockery to the rest ofthe group.

(02:56):
This comment was made as MrPatterson was taking his aunt
and uncle to the hospital afterthey became gravely ill with
gastrointestinal problems.
He told the court, however,that Erin didn't own many plates
and that may have been thereason why.
Mr Patterson also spoke of aconversation at Monash Hospital,

(03:19):
which was the first time he hadheard of Erin using a food
dehydrator.
So that, in summary is whatwe've learnt today, and now I'm
going to take you through whathappened on that terrible day
when Simon's parents, his auntand uncle started feeling

(03:41):
extremely unwell.
The court had a glimpse into thedeteriorating relationship
between the couple via some textmessages.
They were from the evening ofJuly 28,.
The night before the deadlylunch, simon had texted Erin at
6.54pm saying, quote sorry, Ifeel too uncomfortable about

(04:05):
coming to the lunch with you,mum, dad, heather and Ian
tomorrow, but I'm happy to talkabout your health and
implications of that at anothertime.
If you'd like to discuss on thephone, just let me know.
Ms Patterson then replied at6.59pm.
That's really disappointing.

(04:26):
I've spent many hours this weekpreparing lunch for tomorrow,
which has been exhausting inlight of the issues I'm facing,
and I spent a small fortune onbeef eye fillet to make beef
wellingtons because I wanted itto be a special meal.
As I may not be able to host alunch like this again for some

(04:49):
time, it's important to me thatyou're all there tomorrow and
that I have the conversationsthat I need to have.
I hope you'll change your mind.
Your parents and Heather andIan are coming at 12.30.
I hope to see you there and, asfate would have it, simon did
not appear at Erin's GibsonStreet lunch and the remainder

(05:13):
of the invitees heard Erin talkabout having ovarian cancer
while they ate Beef Wellington.
The next day, don Pattersoncalled Simon at 8.45am and said
he and his wife Gail were sickand it had been continuing
through the night.

(05:33):
They called an ambulance totake them to hospital.
Don added that the other guests, ian and Heather, were
experiencing similar symptoms.
Simon tried to call them butthere was no answer, so he drove
to their house.
Anne answered the door.
Mr Patterson said his unclelooked sick.

(05:54):
He was grey and stooped.
Quote he was struggling.
Mr Patterson told him to go tothe hospital and he offered to
call an ambulance.
Heather was in the lounge roomand she looked, quote, pretty
crook, which for those of youwho aren't from Australia, means
really sick.
There was a container forthrowing up sitting next to her.

(06:17):
She was also on the couch.
Simon Patterson gave his auntand uncle two options One, he'd
call them an ambulance, or two,he'd take them to the hospital.
They were told, however, therewas a one-hour wait for an
ambulance.
So he suggested to them to goto Corrumburra Hospital and he

(06:39):
would drive them Later.
Mr Patterson informed hiscousin, ruth that her parents
were in Leongatha Hospital, plushe called her siblings.
Her husband, brad, arrived withRuth and after they were there,
simon went back to CoramboroughHospital later that morning to

(07:00):
see his parents.
They were in the same room butin separate beds.
While fighting back tears, mrPatterson said quote Dad was
substantially worse than Mum.
He was lying on his sidehunched, noticeably discoloured
in the face, struggling to speak.
His voice was strained.

(07:21):
They had a conversation.
Don said Erin told them abouther medical condition.
They weren't sure whether itwas appropriate to tell him and
they asked him do you want to betold?
He said yes, she'd had testsand a positive cancer diagnosis.
It was not a problem with herelbow, it was ovarian cancer and

(07:43):
she would need chemotherapy andpotentially surgery.
Mum said I should talk aboutthat with the kids, together
with Erin.
They were very strong on usworking on our marriage together
.
On the morning of July 31, erincalled Simon and she asked to
speak to him about something.
He said to her he'd only had acouple of hours sleep because

(08:07):
his parents had been in hospitaland he requests to speak later.
Mr Patterson claims Erin wasindignant at that response.
Quote, she said somewhatsarcastically.
I'll sort out my own problems,he says.
Ms Patterson says she'd beenhaving frequent diarrhoea about

(08:28):
every 20 minutes and she thoughtshe should also go to the
hospital.
Later she told him she wasgetting sick throughout the
afternoon.
At about 4pm following thelunch and that continued through
the night.
She was planning to drop one ofthe children's friends home but
she didn't want to get out ofthe car.

(08:49):
Drop one of the children'sfriends home but she didn't want
to get out of the car, worriedshe might have an accident.
She was worried that she wouldquote poo her pants.
Later the Wilkinsons weretransferred from Leangatha to
Danding Nong Hospital.
Simon eventually got home at2.30am from Coram Borough.
During that conversation Erintold Simon she'd been to

(09:12):
Leangatha Hospital and had toldthe medical staff she'd fed the
children leftovers from theirlunch meal.
He recalls Erin saying shewanted to pick the children up
from school so they could betested.
Simon tells Erin he's happy topick up the children.
Jurors were told Quote, she wasreally keen for the children to
be taken to the same hospitalshe was at.

(09:35):
Simon says.
Mr Patterson says he thinks hiswife may have quote had a bit of
a barney.
Barney is a word for fight inAustralia with hospital staff
about which facility thechildren would be admitted to
for observation, as she wantedthem in the same hospital as her

(09:55):
, he says she later told him shechecked herself out of hospital
and drove home where she laiddown and slept for 45 minutes.
The children and Erin wereadmitted to Monash Medical
Centre for observation.
The children were found not tobe ill but they were kept

(10:16):
overnight as precaution.
Erin was in a separate part ofthe Monash Medical Centre while
the kids were in the children'shospital, erin came in on a
trolley from patient transferfrom Landgather.
She was also kept overnight forobservation.
According to Mr Patterson,there were no signs to him of

(10:39):
Erin vomiting.
She went to the toilet oncewhile he was at her room but
there was not the frequenttoileting she'd expressed she'd
been experiencing.
On Tuesday, the 1st of August,their daughter mentioned
mushrooms and said she didn'tlike eating mushrooms.
Ms Patterson said that she'dactually done a taste test of

(11:02):
muffins with dehydratedmushrooms with different amounts
of the dehydrated mushrooms asa taste test in muffins.
She'd done a taste test for thedaughter and she preferred the
muffins with the greatest amountof mushrooms, mr Patterson said
.
It felt like news to me thatshe dehydrated food.

(11:27):
So until next time, I'm Lisa andthis is the Mushroom Murder
Trial podcast from the SupremeCourt of Victoria.
I have so much material toshare with you, so you will be
getting upcoming episodes, andover the weekend as well.
It's impossible to puteverything in one podcast.

(11:48):
I think the best way to go isthat we get good little
digestible nuggets that we canhope to understand what's going
on in the Supreme Court.
Now for more information, makesure you visit my website, which
is mushroommurdertrialcom, andI'm on Instagram at Erin

(12:09):
underscore pod.
You can find me on Facebook.
Just search the name of thepodcast, the Mushroom Murder
Trial Podcast.
I will put links in the shownotes to those social media
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And if you feel like rewardingme for the thousands of hours
I'm not kidding and I'mtravelling interstate to cover
this I have a Buy Me A Coffeemembership which allows you to

(12:32):
pay $5 as a thank you and I geta coffee.
How good's that?
Because I'm going to need it togo through all this material.
This goes towards the editingstudio, hire, liability
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So thank you so much forlistening and I will talk to you

(12:53):
very soon.
Bye.