Trial begins for woman accused of murdering ex's family with beef Wellington laced with poisonous mushrooms

The trial of an Australian woman accused of serving her ex-husband s family poisonous mushrooms began this week nearly a year after the suspect pleaded not guilty to her charges Erin Patterson was charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder She was originally charged with two counts of attempted murder though the charge was dropped earlier this week Patterson appeared in the Victoria state Supreme Court on Wednesday where prosecutor Nanette Rogers narrated jurors the accused had served a meal of beef Wellington mashed potatoes and green beans at her home in the rural town of Leongartha on July Her guests included her in-laws Gail and Don Patterson both Gail s sister Heather Wilkinson and Wilkinson s husband Ian Wilkinson AUSTRALIAN WOMAN PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO MURDERING HER EX-HUSBAND'S FAMILY WITH POISONOUS MUSHROOMSThe next day all four of the guests were hospitalized with poisoning from death cap mushrooms or amanita phalloides which were added to the beef and pastry dish Simon Patterson Erin s husband was not in attendance despite being invited Ian Wilkinson spent seven weeks in the hospital following the lunch The other three casualties died in a hospital just days after consuming the meal at Patterson s home On Tuesday the prosecution informed jurors that three charges alleging Patterson attempted to murder her husband were dropped The two had been separated since WOMAN UNDER REVIEW AFTER POISONOUS MUSHROOM MEAL KILLED HER THREE FORMER IN-LAWSPatterson invited her husband and his relatives to lunch two weeks before the poisoning as she was attending a church function at Korumburra Baptist Church Ian Wilkinson was the pastor at the church and initially Simon had accepted the invitation She commented the purpose of the lunch was to discuss a few diagnostic issues that she had and to get advice about how to break it to the kids Rogers explained the jury The accused reported that it was critical that the children were not present for the lunch What was surprising to the Wilkinsons Rogers noted was that they had never been invited to Patterson s five-bedroom home The morning after the meeting at Patterson s home the prosecution alleged Heather Wilkinson described Simon Patterson she was puzzled that Erin was eating from a different plate than the guests JEFFREY EPSTEIN AFFAIR VIRGINIA GIUFFRE'S DEATH MARKS THIRD LOSS EXPERT SAYS PREDATORS NEED TO BE PUNISHED I noticed that Erin put her food on a different plate to us Heather Wilkinson revealed according to the prosecution Her plate had colors on it I wondered why that was I ve puzzled about it since lunch Simon notified his aunt it was feasible his wife may have run out of plates The prosecution also informed jurors Patterson made up an ovarian cancer determination to explain why her children were not at lunch After the lunch the accused released that she had cancer and requested for advice on whether to tell the children or keep it from them Rogers mentioned They had a discussion about it being best to be honest with the children They prayed as a group for the accused s healthcare and wisdom in relation to telling the children WELLNESS INFLUENCER EXPOSED FOR FAKING CANCER DODGES PERSONNEL A DECADE LATER DOCUMENTARYStill Patterson s lawyer Colin Mandy described jurors his client never had cancer He also mentioned guests were poisoned by mushrooms Patterson served though the poisoning was a terrible accident Rogers advised the jury that she would not be providing a motive for the poisonings saying You do not have to be satisfied what the motive was or even that there was a motive Erin Patterson eventually went to the hospital complaining about diarrhea and nausea two days after serving beef Wellington But at that point her guests had been diagnosed with suffering from death cap poisoning She later informed leadership she cooked with a mixture of mushrooms she purchased from a supermarket and dried mushrooms from an Asian food store denying that she had foraged for wild mushrooms But Mandy announced his client lied about not foraging for wild mushrooms She did forage for mushrooms Mandy stated the jury Just so that we make that clear She denies that she ever deliberately sought out death cap mushrooms The trial was adjourned until Thursday and is expected to continue for six weeks The Associated Press contributed to this analysis