The Erin Patterson story reads prefer it was ripped straight from the pages of a gripping crime novel or TV miniseries.
In any case, the case featured a small nation city, a household gathering, a home-cooked meal – and three lifeless company.
However it seems Patterson’s evil actions do have stark similarities to the plot of an episode of traditional British TV crime drama Midsomer Murders.
A 2001 episode of the long-running and much-loved collection titled ‘Destroying Angel’ has eerie parallels with Patterson’s case, mixing the worlds of mushroom foraging and her true crime obsession in a chilling method.
On Monday, a jury in Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court docket discovered Patterson responsible of killing three family and the tried homicide of a fourth.
Her former parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, each 70, have been killed, in addition to Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, after being fed an ill-fated beef Wellington lunch laced with dying cap mushrooms.
Patterson hosted the lunch at her residence in Leongatha, a quiet city surrounded by farmland and forest, 135km south-east of Melbourne, on July 29, 2023.
Mrs Wilkinson’s husband, native church pastor Ian Wilkinson, 70, miraculously survived however spent weeks preventing for all times in hospital, the place he was in an induced coma and underwent a liver transplant.
A publicity shot for the Midsomer Murders episode Destroying Angel. Rosemary Leach who performed Evelyn Pope is pictured with John Nettles who performed DCI Tom Barnaby. Evelyn Pope used destroying angel mushrooms in a horrific revenge killing.
Erin Patterson has been responsible of killing three family and the tried homicide of a fourth
Haunting parallels
Though the Midsomer Murders episode aired 24 years in the past, its plot has a hanging resemblance to the Patterson case.
Within the episode, resort supervisor Gregory Chambers goes lacking whereas out foraging within the woods for wild mushrooms.
The grotesque discovery of his severed, partially buried hand sparks a fancy investigation.
Detectives Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) and Troy (Daniel Casey) observe a path of secrets and techniques that entails a dispute over a will, the inheritance of a resort, and performances of Punch and Judy coded with secret messages.
There are failed relationships and lethal motives, mirroring Patterson’s fractured relationship along with her estranged husband and in-laws.
As typical in a Midsomer Murders episode, the physique rely is excessive – with 5 murders, together with one that’s notably grotesque.
The weapon? Extremely toxic mushrooms: Amanita virosa, often called ‘destroying angel’.
Within the Midsomer Murders episode ‘Destroying Angel,’ Detectives Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) (pictured left) and Sgt Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey) (pictured proper) examine a collection of murders in a quaint rural village, together with a grotesque dying brought on by lethal destroying angel mushrooms, bearing eerie similarities to the Erin Patterson case
Victoria Police Detective Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall (left) was one of many key investigators within the Erin Patterson case
This lethal fungus is sort of similar in impact to the dying cap mushrooms that have been Patterson’s weapon of selection, inflicting unintended effects resembling liver failure resulting in a gradual dying.
The mushrooms’ lethal options are depicted in graphic element within the present, with Chambers’ killer, Tristran Goodfellow (Tom Ward), poisoned after consuming a meal he ready that contained lethal destroying angel mushrooms.
Evelyn Pope (Rosemary Leach) despatched the mushrooms to Goodfellow through a gardener in a really nasty revenge killing.
Each of those mushrooms, dying caps and destroying angels look innocent, even stunning. Destroying angels are named for his or her pure-white, angelic look. However each are among the many most deadly fungi on Earth.
Within the Destroying Angel episode, Evelyn Pope knew precisely what she was doing. So, prosecutors argued, did Patterson.
A ardour for mushrooms and true crime
Patterson’s fascination with mushrooms was documented to the jury at trial.
And whereas there is no direct proof she watched the Destroying Angel Midsomer Murders episode, the horrifying similarities are laborious to disregard.
A lethal destroying angel mushroom is pictured being examined within the Midsomer Murders episode Destroying Angel
Erin Patterson’s estranged husband Simon Patterson (pictured) was invited to the ill-fated lunch however did not attend,
A feminine killer with an intense curiosity in mushrooms, a quaint setting, and dying by mushroom.
Patterson’s life mirrored the Destroying Angel episode in uncanny methods.
Just like the character Evelyn Pope, she used mushrooms to kill. Like Evelyn Pope, Patterson was surrounded by fractured relationships.
Her marriage had damaged down and her relationship along with her in-laws was strained.
Her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, was invited to the deadly lunch, however fortunately did not attend, fuelling hypothesis he could have been the supposed goal.
Lodge supervisor Gregory Chambers (Philip Bowen) was the primary sufferer within the Midsomer Murders episode Destroying Angel. He was killed whereas foraging wild mushrooms and his killer was murdered by the toxic destroying angel mushrooms
In the actual world, Don and Gail Patterson (pictured) each died following a lunch at their former daughter-in-law’s residence
Ian Wilkinson (proper) was the only surviving visitor from the ill-fated Beef Wellington lunch that claimed the lifetime of his spouse Heather (left)
The ending- fiction vs actuality
The ‘Destroying Angel’ episode ends with justice. The killer is revealed and the village returns to peace and tranquillity.
However in Leongatha, regional Victoria, the injuries are nonetheless uncooked and will probably be perpetually.
The Patterson case will probably be remembered for years.
Not only for the horror of the crime, however for the eerie method life imitated artwork.
Generally, fact actually is stranger, and darker, than fiction.
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