Mushroom Recap: The Deadly Decline

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The rapid and deadly decline.

After Erin Patterson's Beef Wellington Lunch.

I'm the ABC's True Crime Investigative Reporter, Rachel Brown.

And I'm Stephen Stockwell.

This is the fourth episode of a five-part series that takes you back through the whole story that started with a homemade meal and ended with a triple murder trial.

In this episode, what happened to the people who sat around Erin's table?

Welcome to the case of the mushroom lunch.

Just a week after four people sat down for a family lunch in rural Victoria, three of them were dead.

Homicide detectives are still piecing together what exactly happened at the lunch.

It's certainly looking like

the symptoms are consistent with death cap mushrooms.

Erin Patterson said she bought the dried mushrooms at a supermarket in an Asian grocery store months earlier.

I cannot think of another investigation that has generated this level of media and public interest.

I want to take us back to

immediately after the lunch at Aaron Patterson's house, the afternoon of Saturday the 29th of July, because There are kind of dueling timelines of Aaron Patterson's sickness compared to that of Don and Gail Patterson and Heather and Ian Wilkinson.

So in this episode, we're going to step you through the experiences of these people day by day, in some cases, hour by hour.

So following the lunch, Saturday afternoon, Erin Patterson says she started feeling sick around 4 p.m.

or so, just an hour after lunch guests have left her house.

And by that evening, 7 p.m., she says she was experiencing diarrhea every 20 minutes or so.

So on Saturday afternoon, the lunch guests feel fine immediately following the lunch.

Ian's having a meeting with folks from his church.

Heather's raving about the meal.

Don and Gail speak to their daughter Anna around 5pm and don't mention anything about being unwell.

They don't start getting sick until around midnight or 1am.

So very early Sunday morning, we're in now.

Everyone's experiencing vomiting and diarrhea.

They're up most of the night.

Don and Gail get an ambulance to the hospital early in the morning.

Heather and Ian are driven to the hospital by Simon Patterson and they arrive at Liam Gather Hospital around 11 a.m.

Sunday morning with vomiting and diarrhea.

At around this time, Erin Patterson is sitting at her kitchen table drinking out of a coffee cup.

She doesn't go to church this morning.

She skips it because she says she wasn't feeling that well.

Simon Patterson, her estranged husband, gives her a call asking if she went to church.

She says no, she's not feeling well.

And they talk a bit about how the lunch guests aren't feeling well either.

This is about a six-minute phone call.

Late Sunday morning, Simon Patterson sees his father, Don, for the first time.

And Simon says he's really struggling.

He's lying on his side, hunched quite noticeably.

He's got a really discoloured face.

Speaking is an effort.

His voice is strained in a way that

he just wasn't right inside.

He was feeling pain.

And by the afternoon, Don's blood tests are extremely abnormal.

On Sunday afternoon, Simon Patterson calls Erin again, about 2.30pm.

He talks about his parents and Heather and Ian being sick.

After this call, Erin Patterson has to take her son to a flying lesson.

This was scheduled for 2pm but was delayed until 4pm because of bad weather.

You know, she still says she's experiencing diarrhea at this point.

And it's a two-hour round trip.

And despite that, she gets in the car and starts heading in that direction.

She says that she actually had to stop on the way to the flying lesson because she was experiencing a burst of diarrhea.

She says she took herself behind some bushes on the side of the road and relieved herself there.

She says she cleaned herself up with some tissues that she had in her bag and put them into a dog poo bag and then put that into her bag, getting back in the car and continuing the drive.

She then stops at a service station on the way.

And this we know happened because we see CCTV footage from this.

She goes into a bathroom for nine seconds, comes out and buys some food to take back to the car.

In this video, we see Aaron Patterson wearing a pair of white pants while she says she's experiencing diarrhea.

A lot has been made of those pants.

Despite this, she gets back in the car and continues the drive to the flying lesson.

When she gets there, she finds out that it's actually been cancelled.

She gets a call about 10 minutes before the lesson's about to start from instructor Ulysses Villalobos, who says the weather's no good and she can't take her son up.

Erin Patterson is frustrated with this.

It's been an hour drive out there and she now has to make the hour drive back home.

She turns the car around and on the way home stops at a donut van in Kooe-Rup.

Her son gets out, buys her a coffee.

Aaron Patterson says she stayed in the car.

They then get back to her house in Leangatha.

So we're at Sunday evening, 5 p.m.

Don Patterson's not doing well at all.

He's got a high lactate rating, so that shows a metabolic disorder, liver failure, sepsis, the decisions made to transfer Don and Gail to Dandy Noll Hospital.

As the lunch guests are all experiencing pretty similar conditions on Sunday night, Erin Patterson says she's feeding the leftovers from that meal to her children.

You know, she's spoken to Simon Patterson at this point.

He has told her that the lunch guests are unwell.

She herself says that she is unwell.

Yet she says she scrapes the mushrooms off of these parcels and feeds them to her children.

And the question that has been asked a lot of times and was asked in court was, if everyone who has eaten your lunch is feeling sick, would you feed that meal to your children?

All through Sunday night, Gail Patterson's condition worsens.

Her liver starts to give out.

Her daughter Anna stays with her, taking her to the bathroom again and again.

She joins her husband Don in the intensive care unit in the early hours of Monday morning.

So we're now the 31st of July.

And before dawn breaks, Ian Wilkinson can't keep down water or ice.

His wife Heather's vomiting and having diarrhea.

Her loose bowel movements are foul smelling and pink.

Erin Patterson is getting her children ready for school.

She's packing the bags.

She's making the lunches.

she's taking them to the bus stop.

It's around 7 a.m.

and this is when the call comes from Dandenung Hospital to Dr.

Chris Webster at Leon Gather, telling him there's a high level of concern that Don and Gail Patterson have been poisoned with death cat mushrooms.

As Dr.

Webster returns from that conversation, Aaron Patterson arrives at hospital.

He talks briefly to Aaron Patterson, hands her over to nurses, and Aaron Patterson, when talking to those nurses, refuses to come into a patient bay.

She's told that her in-laws are sick, that she needs treatment, that she might need high-level care.

But she says she can't stay, that she needs to get things prepared.

She signs a discharge against advice form and drives home.

She was only in the hospital for less than five minutes.

When Dr.

Webster finds this out, he is ropeable.

He calls her, she doesn't answer, he leaves a message, calls again, calls again, leaves another message.

And the third message, he says, is really sorry, but for her own health and safety, he's going to have to call the police to come and find her.

Now, treating a patient against their will is pretty serious, but he's so concerned.

So he calls Triple O to try to get her back.

Mercy Services.

Hello, what a dress team head to the police.

This is Dr.

Chris Webster calling from Leon Gatha Hospital.

I have a concern regarding a patient that is potentially exposed to a fatal toxin from mushroom poisoning.

In the period Erin's away from the hospital, Ian and Heather Wilkinson are moved to Dandenong Hospital.

They need urgent care.

Ian's vomiting constantly.

He gets in the first ambulance.

Heather gets in the second one.

Dr.

Webster, as he's putting Heather in the ambulance, hears six words that will haunt him for life.

She says to him, thank you for looking after me.

And Dr.

Webster tells a newspaper, these words stick in my brain and will haunt me because I knew she was going off to her death.

He said, Heather was one of the greatest souls, the kindest person.

Her liver's falling apart inside her body, and the thing that she makes sure she does before she leaves the hospital in an ambulance is to thank the doctor.

At this point, Erin Patterson says she's at home, packing a ballet bag for her daughter, feeding her dogs, and moving the lambs from her property into a shelter so they're safe from the foxes.

She also says she had to lie down.

on the floor for a bit.

She does come back to the hospital though, at about 10 minutes to 10, an hour and a half after leaving.

And Erin Patterson agrees to treatment.

She's given some fluids via an intravenous drip, but she keeps asking why she needs treatment for death cat mushroom poisoning and is really reluctant to receive a lot of this.

She's also really reluctant to get her children to the hospital.

She doesn't want to pull them out of school.

She says she doesn't want to scare them.

Dr.

Chris Webster puts an ultimatum in front of her.

He tells her that her children can be scared and alive or dead.

Erin Patterson agrees to bring her children in for treatment.

She calls their father, Simon Patterson, to go and get them.

And the police that Dr.

Chris Webster had called when Erin had left the hospital arrive at her house.

They call Dr.

Webster, they let him know that they're there and he says that Erin Patterson has arrived at hospital.

But thinking quickly, he asks if they can recover the leftovers from the meal.

They go through Aaron Patterson's bin.

and take out a Woolworth bag.

By the Monday afternoon, Don Patterson has been been transferred to the Austin Hospital.

He's critically ill, multiple organ failure.

He's on life support with a tube down his windpipe.

At the same time, Erin Patterson is being taken from the Leon Gather Hospital by ambulance to the Monash Medical Centre.

She's given fentanyl in the ambulance because the alternative pain relief could react badly.

She's calm and chatty along that drive according to the paramedics that drove her.

Once she arrives at Monash, Simon Patterson brings her kids to join her there.

And he has a conversation with Erin.

The dehydrator comes up.

And Erin Patterson says that Simon said, is that how you poisoned my parents using that dehydrator?

Simon Patterson denies ever saying this.

Monday night.

Gail Patterson joins her husband Don at the Austin ICU.

She's also intubated.

Her liver isn't working, but she's too sick for a transplant.

So we're now into Tuesday, the 1st of August.

This is three days after the lunch.

By late Tuesday afternoon, all four lunch guests are in the intensive care unit at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne, all in advanced states of organ failure.

Basically, all their organs are shutting down.

They're in horrendous pain.

Stocky, we heard about just what amanita poisoning does to the body, and I'd never heard anything like it.

So you start with gastrointestinal symptoms, like severe diarrhea, and that can persist for a period of time.

But then here's where it gets tricky.

It's followed by what may feel like some improvement for a patient.

So I guess this climate of kind of the eye of the cyclone, you think you're out of the woods.

And then a relentlessly progressive and quite frightening rapid deterioration into multiple organ failure happens, where the body's different organ systems essentially just start shutting down.

Erin Patterson on Tuesday afternoon is discharged.

from hospital after receiving some fluids.

She's sent home with no clinical or biochemical evidence of amanita poisoning and no liver damage.

The lunch guests continue to decline.

As I said, with amanita poisoning, their organs start to decay.

And amanita poison is internally recycled by the body.

So it causes persistent injury to the liver.

And that's why they were given activated charcoal to try to remove amanita from their bowels because this toxin just recycles and recycles.

But to no avail.

Heather and Gail pass away on the Friday.

Erin finds out that Heather and Gail have passed away the very next day, on Saturday, exactly one week on from the lunch.

Police come to her door at her house in Leon Gather to search her house and interview her.

And before they come in, they tell her that Heather Wilkinson and Gail Patterson have died.

What happens during that search and what Erin Patterson tells police, we'll get into more in our next episode.

And later that day, late on Saturday night, Don Patterson passes away.

So as you said, that's a week after the lunch.

Ian Wilkinson is still in an induced coma that he won't be pulled out of for another week and a half.

And he won't be discharged for another month.

So he's fighting for his life and three have lost theirs.

Rachel, I remember...

kind of putting together this timeline and kind of realising how far apart the,

I I guess,

the experiences of the people involved in it were.

Yeah, Stocky, this was a really visceral juxtaposition for me, these very different timelines.

And up until now, there's a lot of things that Erin Patterson tried to explain away, and we'll hear some of them next episode.

But just how these people's bodies reacted, which was so different to Erin's, just can't be explained away.

But incredibly, as this situation becomes a national news story, Erin decides to try and set the agenda with an impromptu interview to the media on the Monday after Don, Gail, and Heather had died.

And Channel 9 and Herald's son had been waiting outside her house for days, hoping for anything, I guess, vision, a sound bite from Erin, anything.

So I imagine they were probably very shocked when she stopped and gave them this interview.

It's a tragedy what's happened.

Can you tell us about the meal that you cooked?

I'm so

devastated by what's happened, like the loss of Don and Don is still in hospital, the loss of Ian and Heather

and Gail,

who were some of the best people that I've ever met.

Gail was like...

Take your time.

Gail was the mum that I didn't have because my mum passed away four years ago.

And Gail's never been anything but good and kind to me.

And Ian and Heather were some of the best people I've ever met they never did anything wrong to me and I'm so devastated about what's happened

can you tell us and the loss to the community

and to the families and to my own children have lost their grandmother can can you tell us a bit more about the lunch

what I can tell you

is that I just can't fathom what has happened.

I just can't fathom what has happened.

That That Ian and Heather have lost their lives and Gail has lost her life and Donna's still in hospital and I pray,

I pray that he pulls through

because my children love him.

And you must be pretty shaken up by this as well.

I'm devastated.

I love them.

And I can't believe that this has happened.

And I'm so sorry that they have lost their lives.

I just can't believe it.

Just can't believe it.

Can you tell us where the mushrooms came from?

Were they kicked from the property area or something?

Leave me alone, Alplease.

Police say you're a suspect.

Do you have anything to say about that?

I say I didn't do anything.

I love them.

And I'm devastated that they're gone.

And I hope that

every fibre of my being, they've done pulls through.

That's where they're...

Where did the mushrooms come from?

Were they picked by you or where did they come from, Mary?

Can you tell us?

What meal did you cook them?

Did you eat the same meal, Mary?

Everyone will end up talking about this interview and studying it.

Her body language, her tears, are they fake?

And much is made of her mixing names up.

As you heard, she said she hopes Don will pull through when Don's already dead and it's Ian whose life hangs in the balance.

And the image of her standing in front of her car crying is etched into people's minds as the first image of this woman who served a meal to her relatives after three of them died.

I am amazed that Erin Patterson said anything to the people camped outside of her house to give any oxygen or anything to that story, I think just really surprised me in that moment.

But as we know, Stocky, the fuel was never going to come out of this story.

The people who went to lunch rach at Aaron's Patterson's house, Don and Gail Patterson and Ian and Heather Wilkinson, these are people that were a huge part of their community.

Much loved members of Corrumborough, where deep scars will always exist because of this lunch.

For their families and friends, for Erin's children now too, with their mum in jail, I think about them a lot.

Ian Wilkinson, we watched every day in court, Stocky, him listening to this case, this thing that for most of you is a story.

This is his life, his waking nightmare.

And he listened to every day of the court case about the decline of his best mate and wife, Heather, his friends, Don and Gail, and his own decline, Stockie.

He was listening to doctors saying, we thought he was going to die.

And he listened to this with a grace that I've never witnessed before.

In our next episode, we're going to detail everything that Erin Patterson did to cover up her crimes, from dumping the dehydrator to resetting her phones to lying to the police.

You'll be able to listen to that episode, the final in this series, tomorrow.

And everything you're hearing in this series is drawn from evidence presented during Erin Patterson's trial earlier this year.

So many of you told us that Mushroom Case Daily opened a window into the justice system.

We want to keep being that window.

So I'm very excited to say that from very soon, we'll be bringing you recaps from the most fascinating trials around Australia twice a week.

And our first trial is kicking off very, very soon.

To find out what it is, make sure you're following this podcast because very soon it will be called The Case of, and it'll look a little different.

The case of the mushroom lunch is produced by ABC Audio Studios and ABC News.

It's presented by me, the ABC's true crime investigative reporter, Rachel Brown, and Stephen Stockwell.

Our executive producer is Claire Rawlinson, and supervising producer for this series is Yasmin Parry.

Many thanks to Audio Studios manager Eric George and our commissioning executive producer Tim Roxburgh for helping to make this show a reality.

This episode was produced on the land of the Rurunderi people.

Hi, I'm Sam Hawley, host of ABC News Daily.

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