Mushroom trial week five: SIM cards, cancer claims and receipts

The murder trial of Victorian woman Erin Patterson, accused of poisoning her former in-laws with a beef Wellington laced with death cap mushrooms, is entering its final phase.

This week, the detective who led the investigation gave evidence, revealing key details about Patterson’s actions and behaviour following the fatal lunch.

The jury was shown a series of text messages between Erin Patterson and her former mother-in-law, Gail Patterson.

In one exchange, Erin claimed she had undergone a needle biopsy and was awaiting an MRI. But Detective Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall told the court police found no medical records to support that claim.

While the defence acknowledged there was no cancer diagnosis, they argued Patterson had long held fears about her health.

Eppingstall said Patterson had multiple mobile phones and alleged she swapped SIM cards between them during a police raid. One of those phones, he said, has never been recovered.

The jury also heard Patterson messaged friends saying she had purchased a new phone and had learned to do a “hard reboot” when hers broke.

Police also examined a computer seized from Patterson’s home. Its search history included queries about death cap mushrooms and visits to the iNaturalist website – the same site where two fungi experts had previously logged toxic mushroom sightings.

The defence maintains the data does not prove who performed the searches.

The prosecution presented a timeline of receipts linked to Patterson’s Everyday Rewards card. Between six days before the lunch and the day prior, she shopped at Woolworths three times buying mushrooms, pastry, eye fillet steaks, onions and 1.5 kilograms of mashed potatoes.

Patterson's bank records also showed an online purchase was made on August 4 from Desma Environmental, a business linked to the Gippsland tip where a used food dehydrator was later recovered.

Earlier this week, the jury also heard from Department of Health official Sally Ann Atkinson, who was tasked with tracing the origin of the mushrooms.

She told the court Patterson was initially difficult to contact and, when reached, gave changing accounts of where the mushrooms were sourced.

The defence argued Patterson was under significant emotional pressure at the time.

With the trial now in its fifth week, the case is expected to soon enter closing arguments before the jury begins deliberations.

Patterson denies all charges and maintains her innocence.