Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering her estranged husband’s parents and aunt in July 2023 by spiking a beef Wellington lunch with the fatal fungi.
Patterson denies all charges in the trial, which has made headlines worldwide.
Two days after the lunch, Patterson went to hospital but left within minutes against medical advice, saying she needed to make arrangements for her children and animals and would return shortly afterwards.
Prosecution lawyer Nanette Rogers charged Patterson with using this time to “cover your tracks” and only went back to hospital to “maintain the fiction of being similarly unwell as your lunch guests”.
Patterson rejected the accusation.
The accused said she used the 95-minute window to pack her child’s ballet bag and feed the animals.
Patterson said she could not recall visiting that website.
The lunch host said her “only interest” in death cap mushrooms was to ensure they did not grow in the South Gippsland area, where she lived.
Patterson denied the claim.
Patterson had invited her estranged husband Simon to join the family lunch at her secluded home in the Victorian state farm village of Leongatha.
Simon’s parents Don and Gail, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson, attended the lunch and all three were dead within days.
Patterson has told the court she had an eating disorder and made herself vomit after her guests left, explaining why she did not become as ill as her lunch guests.
Patterson responded: “I wish that were true, but it is not.”
The trial in Morwell, southeast of Melbourne, is expected to last another two weeks.
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