September 4, 2025 • 9 mins
Erin Patterson is awaiting sentence. But as the world waits to hear her future, The Mushroom Cook team dives into her past.
The Mushroom Cook team is Brooke Grebert-Craig, Laura Placella, Anthony Dowsley, Jordy Atkinson and Jonty Burton.
The Mushroom Cook is a Herald Sun production for True Crime Australia.
Go to themushroomcook.com.au for news, features, previous episodes and more
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In a few short days, Aaron Patterson will learn her
fate when Justice Christopher Bill hands down the sentence for
the triple murder and attempted murder she committed at the
infamous Beef Wellington Lunch. But while we wait on Aaron's future,
we thought we would take a look at her past.
I'm Brook Greebert Craig and this is the Mushroom Cook.
(00:24):
I'm here with court reporter Laura Plassella, and as promised,
we're back with another episode before Aaron's sentencing on Monday.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yes, and I'm really keen to dive into this one.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
So we know a little bit more about Aaron's life
in high school. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yes, that's right. A colleague and I have been looking
into Aaron's early life early years and we managed to
figure out what high school she went to and from
there it really was a treasure trove. So before she
was married, Aaron Patterson was Aaron Scutter and Brooke. You
touched a little bit upon her life when she was
(01:02):
a young woman in season one. She lived in the
eastern suburbs of Melbourne, but the high school she attended
was in Parkville, and for our listeners, who don't know
Melbourne very well. That's a very inner city suburb. And
this was a very good school. This was a school
parents wanted to send their children to.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And what was that school called.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
So the school is University High School and it was
colloquially known as Uni High. And the main reason why
parents really wanted to send their kids there was because
they had an acceleration program, a place that really gifted
and talented students could flourish if they were lucky enough
to pass the entry exam and get in.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So you spoke to some of her classmates, what do
they say about her?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So the colleague I mentioned earlier, Darren Chapman, and I
between us, we spoke to about a dozen of her classmates,
and I will say there were some who didn't really
remember her, but those who did, what they did say
was that she was in this acceleration program. She was
one of those students. One of the former classmates I
spoke to said she remembered Aaron Scudder, but she actually
(02:07):
didn't connect the dots when Aaron Patterson hit the headlines
back in twenty twenty three. It wasn't until she spoke
with her sister, who said to her. The woman at
the center of this lunch is Aaron Scudder from high school,
and she told me some of her recollections of Erin.
She said she was quiet, reserved and didn't really get
involved in the wider cohort at Uni High and this
(02:29):
was because she was in that much smaller acceleration program.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
She said.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
All of the students in that program were super bright
and spent the first several years of high school whipping
through the curriculum. And the students in this program actually
had a name. She said that everyone else called them
the task Force. She said she didn't really know how
this nickname came about, but the mainstream students called the
students in the acceleration program the task Force.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
That's very interesting. And now you also found photos of
Erin when she was younger. Can you kind of describe
what she looked like at the time.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yes, And if our listeners want to look at these photos,
they can find them on our website at haroldsun dot
com dot au. And the photos were actually quite hard
to dig up. But in one of the photos, Erin
can be seen standing next to another young girl. They've
got their arms around each other. Erin is quite slim
in the face. She's got a very angular jaw, her
(03:25):
hair is a dark brown, and she's got a big
smile on her face. She's in an orange knitted jumper
as well. Another photo that was sent to us was
of the Uni High class of ninety one, and that
was the year Aaron graduated. In the photo, there's dozens
of students and she can be seen in the second row.
She's quite small compared to her classmates. But again we
(03:46):
were told that she was speeding through the curriculum faster
than others in the cohort, so she was likely to
have been a little bit younger.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
And I think a fun fact about this story in
particular is some well known Melbournians actually went to the
same school as her.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
That's right. This school was known for really nurturing artistic,
academic and even political types, and I'd say the most
famous alumni that they have is Olivia Newton John But
as I said, there were political types and former Victorian
Premier Joan Kerner also graduated from the school, although neither
of those women were in eron y level.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
And was there anything else that these students said about her?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
One thing that quite a few of them said was
that they remembered she was really passionate about math and science.
These days, we'd say that she was really interested in stem.
They called her a stem girl, and that kind of
checks out with what we heard throughout the trial that
she was very academic and as we've come to know,
was very interested in mushrooms and nature. We didn't have
(04:46):
the opportunity to speak to anyone in the acceleration program
who was good friends with Erin, but we have it
on good authority that she did have a group of
people around her throughout her high school years. I spoke
to the sister of one of her former friends, and
this woman told me that through conversations she's had, her
sister had actually described Erin as brilliant but unhinged.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
And that's very similar to what I've been told about
Aaron's time at Air Services Australia. Our listeners have heard
a bit about her career there in season one. But
further to that, I've found out that Aaron was called
Scudder the nutter. She was also called crazy. Erin and
her course mates at the time said that she was
(05:30):
a bit strange and she would say some weird off
the cuff, things, and apparently she was also super secretive.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
How soon after leaving high school did Aaron end up
at Air Services Australia.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yes, so she was in the traffic Control Course number
four and she was there between February and November two
thousand and one.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
So about ten years later.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yes. And we also found out that she left Air
Services Australia under a bit of a cloud. So a
former colleague told me that management became skeptical that she
was leaving work early but claiming the time. After management
checked CCTV footage from the car park, they were able
(06:12):
to confirm their suspicions. They then approached her and confronted
her with their suspicions and she replied, Ah, you've got
me there. So we can kind of see Aaron being
quite a manipulative person from her younger days.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And is it right, Brook that you actually came across
this information quite a while ago, but we couldn't report
on it because the trial was on foot.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yes, that's right. So I found out about the Scud
of the Night comments back when season one was really released,
but our lawyers gave us the legal advice to not
include that, like you mentioned, because the trial was approaching.
If you want to hear more about Aaron's time at
Air Services Australia, you can go back to season one
(06:55):
where I talked to reporter Mandy Squires who did the
early reporting on that.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So it's fair to say Aaron really did have a
colorful past.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yes, that's correct, but looking forward to her future, she
will be sentenced on Monday.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yes, and I feel like Monday is going to be
a very momentous day. So when a court first here
in Victoria, there will be a live stream in court,
so members of the public can actually watch Aaron's sentencing
for themselves. And I will say this is pretty huge.
Unlike America, it's very rare that court proceedings are broadcast
(07:31):
to the masses, and that's particularly the case when it
comes to criminal cases because there's a lot of sensitivities.
But just as Christopher Beale, the judge in this case,
it appears he has decided that the public interest in
this case is so large that people should be given
this opportunity to hear directly from himself in his own words.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah, So it's safe to say that all eyes will
be on the television screens on Monday.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I was actually speaking to a colleague yes today about this,
and I don't think it will be as big as
the murder trial of OJ Simpson in America, but I
do feel like on Monday there will be this moment
at least across Australia where people will be glued to
television screens watching this sentence, and I really do think
people will be transfixed on what Justice Biel has to say.
(08:20):
The TV camera will be set up right in the
courtroom and Justice Spier will almost be looking down the barrel,
so people will really feel like they're there in the
courtroom hearing what he's saying to Erin as she ultimately
learns her fate.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yes, and the camera, as you said, will just be
on Justice Bill and will not be on Erin or
any members in the courtroom.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
No, it will just be on him, and it's really
his words that are the most important. On Monday, there
won't be many arguments between the lawyers. It's all about
the decision he has ultimately come to. We had the
plea hearing last week and since then he's been taking
into consideration what the prosecution and the defense have both
put before him. To remind our listeners, the prosecutioner pushing
(09:02):
for life without parole, meaning that Aaron will die behind bars.
But on the other hand, while the defense concede that
she should be sentenced to life imprisonment, they're saying she
should be given a non parole period so one day
she can hopefully apply for release to live out the
rest of her days.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And we will bring our listeners the audio of justice Bills,
sentencing and our analysis on Monday. See you then,
In a few short days, Aaron Patterson will learn her
fate when Justice Christopher Bill hands down the sentence for
the triple murder and attempted murder she committed at the
infamous Beef Wellington Lunch. But while we wait on Aaron's future,
we thought we would take a look at her past.
I'm Brook Greebert Craig and this is the Mushroom Cook.
(00:24):
I'm here with court reporter Laura Plassella, and as promised,
we're back with another episode before Aaron's sentencing on Monday.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yes, and I'm really keen to dive into this one.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
So we know a little bit more about Aaron's life
in high school. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yes, that's right. A colleague and I have been looking
into Aaron's early life early years and we managed to
figure out what high school she went to and from
there it really was a treasure trove. So before she
was married, Aaron Patterson was Aaron Scutter and Brooke. You
touched a little bit upon her life when she was
(01:02):
a young woman in season one. She lived in the
eastern suburbs of Melbourne, but the high school she attended
was in Parkville, and for our listeners, who don't know
Melbourne very well. That's a very inner city suburb. And
this was a very good school. This was a school
parents wanted to send their children to.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And what was that school called.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
So the school is University High School and it was
colloquially known as Uni High. And the main reason why
parents really wanted to send their kids there was because
they had an acceleration program, a place that really gifted
and talented students could flourish if they were lucky enough
to pass the entry exam and get in.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So you spoke to some of her classmates, what do
they say about her?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So the colleague I mentioned earlier, Darren Chapman, and I
between us, we spoke to about a dozen of her classmates,
and I will say there were some who didn't really
remember her, but those who did, what they did say
was that she was in this acceleration program. She was
one of those students. One of the former classmates I
spoke to said she remembered Aaron Scudder, but she actually
(02:07):
didn't connect the dots when Aaron Patterson hit the headlines
back in twenty twenty three. It wasn't until she spoke
with her sister, who said to her. The woman at
the center of this lunch is Aaron Scudder from high school,
and she told me some of her recollections of Erin.
She said she was quiet, reserved and didn't really get
involved in the wider cohort at Uni High and this
(02:29):
was because she was in that much smaller acceleration program.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
She said.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
All of the students in that program were super bright
and spent the first several years of high school whipping
through the curriculum. And the students in this program actually
had a name. She said that everyone else called them
the task Force. She said she didn't really know how
this nickname came about, but the mainstream students called the
students in the acceleration program the task Force.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
That's very interesting. And now you also found photos of
Erin when she was younger. Can you kind of describe
what she looked like at the time.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yes, And if our listeners want to look at these photos,
they can find them on our website at haroldsun dot
com dot au. And the photos were actually quite hard
to dig up. But in one of the photos, Erin
can be seen standing next to another young girl. They've
got their arms around each other. Erin is quite slim
in the face. She's got a very angular jaw, her
(03:25):
hair is a dark brown, and she's got a big
smile on her face. She's in an orange knitted jumper
as well. Another photo that was sent to us was
of the Uni High class of ninety one, and that
was the year Aaron graduated. In the photo, there's dozens
of students and she can be seen in the second row.
She's quite small compared to her classmates. But again we
(03:46):
were told that she was speeding through the curriculum faster
than others in the cohort, so she was likely to
have been a little bit younger.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
And I think a fun fact about this story in
particular is some well known Melbournians actually went to the
same school as her.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
That's right. This school was known for really nurturing artistic,
academic and even political types, and I'd say the most
famous alumni that they have is Olivia Newton John But
as I said, there were political types and former Victorian
Premier Joan Kerner also graduated from the school, although neither
of those women were in eron y level.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
And was there anything else that these students said about her?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
One thing that quite a few of them said was
that they remembered she was really passionate about math and science.
These days, we'd say that she was really interested in stem.
They called her a stem girl, and that kind of
checks out with what we heard throughout the trial that
she was very academic and as we've come to know,
was very interested in mushrooms and nature. We didn't have
(04:46):
the opportunity to speak to anyone in the acceleration program
who was good friends with Erin, but we have it
on good authority that she did have a group of
people around her throughout her high school years. I spoke
to the sister of one of her former friends, and
this woman told me that through conversations she's had, her
sister had actually described Erin as brilliant but unhinged.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
And that's very similar to what I've been told about
Aaron's time at Air Services Australia. Our listeners have heard
a bit about her career there in season one. But
further to that, I've found out that Aaron was called
Scudder the nutter. She was also called crazy. Erin and
her course mates at the time said that she was
(05:30):
a bit strange and she would say some weird off
the cuff, things, and apparently she was also super secretive.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
How soon after leaving high school did Aaron end up
at Air Services Australia.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yes, so she was in the traffic Control Course number
four and she was there between February and November two
thousand and one.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
So about ten years later.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yes. And we also found out that she left Air
Services Australia under a bit of a cloud. So a
former colleague told me that management became skeptical that she
was leaving work early but claiming the time. After management
checked CCTV footage from the car park, they were able
(06:12):
to confirm their suspicions. They then approached her and confronted
her with their suspicions and she replied, Ah, you've got
me there. So we can kind of see Aaron being
quite a manipulative person from her younger days.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And is it right, Brook that you actually came across
this information quite a while ago, but we couldn't report
on it because the trial was on foot.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yes, that's right. So I found out about the Scud
of the Night comments back when season one was really released,
but our lawyers gave us the legal advice to not
include that, like you mentioned, because the trial was approaching.
If you want to hear more about Aaron's time at
Air Services Australia, you can go back to season one
(06:55):
where I talked to reporter Mandy Squires who did the
early reporting on that.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So it's fair to say Aaron really did have a
colorful past.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yes, that's correct, but looking forward to her future, she
will be sentenced on Monday.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yes, and I feel like Monday is going to be
a very momentous day. So when a court first here
in Victoria, there will be a live stream in court,
so members of the public can actually watch Aaron's sentencing
for themselves. And I will say this is pretty huge.
Unlike America, it's very rare that court proceedings are broadcast
(07:31):
to the masses, and that's particularly the case when it
comes to criminal cases because there's a lot of sensitivities.
But just as Christopher Beale, the judge in this case,
it appears he has decided that the public interest in
this case is so large that people should be given
this opportunity to hear directly from himself in his own words.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah, So it's safe to say that all eyes will
be on the television screens on Monday.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I was actually speaking to a colleague yes today about this,
and I don't think it will be as big as
the murder trial of OJ Simpson in America, but I
do feel like on Monday there will be this moment
at least across Australia where people will be glued to
television screens watching this sentence, and I really do think
people will be transfixed on what Justice Biel has to say.
(08:20):
The TV camera will be set up right in the
courtroom and Justice Spier will almost be looking down the barrel,
so people will really feel like they're there in the
courtroom hearing what he's saying to Erin as she ultimately
learns her fate.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yes, and the camera, as you said, will just be
on Justice Bill and will not be on Erin or
any members in the courtroom.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
No, it will just be on him, and it's really
his words that are the most important. On Monday, there
won't be many arguments between the lawyers. It's all about
the decision he has ultimately come to. We had the
plea hearing last week and since then he's been taking
into consideration what the prosecution and the defense have both
put before him. To remind our listeners, the prosecutioner pushing
(09:02):
for life without parole, meaning that Aaron will die behind bars.
But on the other hand, while the defense concede that
she should be sentenced to life imprisonment, they're saying she
should be given a non parole period so one day
she can hopefully apply for release to live out the
rest of her days.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And we will bring our listeners the audio of justice Bills,
sentencing and our analysis on Monday. See you then,
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