Mushroom cook painted as ‘evil witch’: Report

The mushroom cook whose beef wellington is suspected of killing three people says she has been painted as an “evil witch” in the mysterious case that has gripped the nation.

Speaking to The Australian newspaper, Erin Patterson complained that the media was hounding her and she was a prisoner in her own home at Leongatha, Victoria.

“And I’ve been painted as an evil witch. And the media is making it impossible for me to live in this town,” she reportedly told the newspaper.

“I can’t have friends over. The media is at the house where my children are at. The media are at my sister’s house so I can’t go there. This is unfair.’’

Ms Patterson also denied leaking her police statement which detailed her version of the tragedy.

She wrote to Victoria Police on Friday, a copy of which was obtained by the ABC.

“I didn’t put any statement out,’’ she said on Tuesday.

“I have no idea how it got out. I made a statement to the police.’’

In a separate media report, The Daily Mail quoted a “source” who claimed Ms Patterson was known to pick wild mushrooms around Victoria’s Gippsland region.

A friend of the Patterson family reportedly told The Daily Mail that Erin was “very good at foraging” and identifying different mushroom varieties.

Ms Patterson claims she used button mushrooms purchased from a major supermarket and dried mushrooms bought at an unspecified Asian grocery store in Melbourne.

Her in-laws Gail and Don Patterson, both aged 70, and Mrs Patterson’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died in hospital after eating lunch at her home on July 29.

Ms Wilkinson’s husband, Baptist pastor Ian Wilkinson, remains in Melbourne’s Alfred hospital in a critical but stable condition.

Homicide detectives have named Ms Patterson as a suspect as she cooked the lunch that is believed to have led to the deaths.

She has been interviewed by police and released without charge but has since faced intense media scrutiny.

Ms Patterson said her estranged husband Simon was due to attend the lunch but pulled out prior to the day, while her children were also out of the house at the time of the meal.

The children ate the leftover beef wellington the next day but Ms Patterson scraped off the mushrooms because they don’t usually eat them, the statement said.

Ms Patterson said she ate a serving and later suffered bad stomach pains and diarrhoea, contrary to the suggestion of detectives that she did not fall ill.

In a statement last week, the Gippsland Southern Health Service confirmed a fifth person was discharged after a short presentation at Leongatha.

Ms Patterson admitted she dumped her food dehydrator at a local tip after the lunch, although she lied to investigators and said she had done so “a long time ago”.

Victoria Police have not commented on Ms Patterson’s statement sent to them.

Simon Patterson suffered serious gut problems in 2022, spending three weeks in intensive care and undergoing three emergency operations.
Police previously said the couple had separated but their relationship was amicable.