A jury has convicted a 50-year-old Australian woman of murdering members of her estranged husband's family with a meal laced with poisonous mushrooms.
In a case that took hold of the entire country, Erin Patterson on Monday was convicted following a 10-week trial in which prosecutors claimed she killed her mother-in-law, Gail Patterson, father-in-law, Donald Patterson, Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, and she attempted to also killed Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson.
According to Reuters, Patterson invited the family over for lunch at her home in the town of Leongatha, population 6,000. It's located some 84 miles southeast of Melbourne. Once at the house, prosecutors claimed Patterson served them Beef Wellington, mashed potato and green beans. Following an investigation, it was determined that the green beans were laced with death cap mushrooms.
Throughout the trial, Patterson proclaimed her innocence and said she did not intent to kill the family. She had pleaded not guilty and claimed their deaths were accidental.
Following her conviction on three murder charges and attempted murder charge, Patterson will now be sentenced at a later date. The mother of two faces a maximum life prison sentence. No word yet if Patterson will appeal the verdict.
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The trial was held in Morwell, a former coal ming town some two hours east of Melbourne. Reuters reports that the case attracted global interest, with network news producing podcasts and even documentaries. It's reported that ABC's daily podcast on the case was consistently among the most popular in Australia.
Some of the details discussed on the podcast included prosecutors claiming Patterson conjured up "four major deceptions" in order to murder her guests, including that she lied about a cancer diagnosis to lure the family to her home for lunch.
Prosecutors also claimed she lied about getting sick from the meal before attempting to destroy evidence and lying to investigators. Patterson, who was the only witness in her defense and spent eight days on the stand, admitted on the stand that she lied about her cancer diagnosis because she was too embarrassed to tell her children that she was soon going to have weight loss surgery.
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