The Mushroom Trip

On 29 July 2023, Erin Trudi Patterson murdered three of her relatives and seriously injured a fourth by serving beef Wellingtons containing highly toxic death cap mushrooms, during a lunch at her home in Leongatha, Victoria, Australia. Within 24 hours, all four victims were admitted to hospital and subsequently diagnosed with severe liver failure. Three died within six days (in one case despite receiving a liver transplant), and one recovered seven weeks after the lunch. Patterson was arrested on 2 November 2023 and charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder of her in-laws and their relatives, including four counts of attempted murder of her estranged husband Simon. After the charges of attempted murder of Simon were dropped, Patterson was tried before a jury in the Supreme Court of Victoria, sitting in Morwell, commencing on 29 April 2025. On 7 July 2025, the jury convicted Patterson on all remaining charges. On 8 September 2025, Justice Christopher Beale sentenced her to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 33 years. It was the first sentencing hearing in Victoria to be broadcast live. The case received extensive media coverage, both in Australia and around the world. A book about the murders and the trial published in 2025, titled The Mushroom Tapes, co-authored by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper, and Sarah Krasnostein, won the 2026 ABIA General Nonfiction Book of the Year. In August 2026 Patterson's lawyers argued for a retrial on several grounds including jurors mingling with hotel guests while being sequestered, alleged "unfair and oppressive" cross-examination, and evidence claimed to be irrelevant and prejudicial. Prosecutors also appealed the sentence given, calling it "manifestly inadequate" and arguing for the removal of the parole period in Patterson's sentence due to the seriousness of her crimes. In October 2026, the Court of Appeal dismissed Patterson's appeal against conviction and allowed the crown's appeal against sentence, resulting in her sentence being increased to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. She became the second woman in Australian history to receive such a sentence.