Erin Patterson is facing trial after pleading not guilty over a fatal mushroom lunch that killed Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson.
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Latest posts yesterday 4.00pm
Jury dismissed for the day By Erin Pearson and Marta Pascual Juanola yesterday 3.32pm
Erin regularly used mushrooms in her cooking: online friend By Marta Pascual Juanola and Erin Pearson Jenny Hay, a semi-retired social worker, is the next witness and will be the last to give evidence today. She also met Erin Patterson through the Keli Lane true crime group on Facebook.
Hay said she was part of a smaller group that included Erin.
Witness Jenny Hay.
“We did talk a lot about recipes and things that we liked, but around February or March 2023, Erin had bought a dehydrator, and she was particularly keen to be using it to dehydrate mushrooms,” Hay said.
“I remember her making mushroom soup. I remember her talking about blitzing it to make powder, to put in things so that the kids would eat it.”
Hay, who never met Erin in person, said she seemed to use mushrooms a lot, but never discussed foraging for fungi.
She told the jury that on the Monday after the fatal lunch, Erin emailed her and asked Hay to call her. The pair spoke on the phone.
Hay said that during that conversation, Erin said the mushrooms had come from an Asian grocery store and her children had eaten some of the meal.
“She said she was sick [and she was] in hospital,” Hay said.
In his cross-examination, defence counsel Colin Mandy, SC, asks Hay about Erin’s request for advice about cooking a beef Wellington.
“I remember her saying, ‘How do I make sure that it’s not soggy?’” Hay said.
“And I said, ‘Just make sure you wrap the pastry as close to putting it in the oven as possible, and that will help stop it being soggy’. I mean, I’ve only ever made it once or twice, but that’s what I remembered.”
Hay has now finished her evidence.
yesterday 3.20pm
Erin told online friends she loved mushrooms By Marta Pascual Juanola Defence counsel Colin Mandy, SC, has started his cross-examination of Daniela Barkley.
The jury has heard that Erin told members of the Facebook group at various times that she loved mushrooms.
“I alwa
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