The son of mushroom poisoning victims Gail and Don Patterson has revealed the heartbreaking final WhatsApp message his mother sent before her death.
Gail and Don Patterson, both aged 70, died after ingesting what Australian authorities believe were death cap mushrooms at a family lunch hosted by their son’s estranged wife Erin Patterson, 49, in Gippsland, Victoria, on July 29.
Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson also died, while her husband, Ian Wilkinson, is still fighting for his life in hospital.
Simon Patterson, estranged husband of Erin, reportedly fell gravely ill in 2022 after eating one of her meals— (Facebook / Simon Patterson)
Victoria Police have launched a homicide investigation, and are treating Ms Patterson as a suspect in the killings.
Erin Patterson has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged by Victoria Police.
At an emotional memorial for his parents in Gippsland on Thursday, Simon Patterson, 49, revealed the final text his mother sent to the family group chat as he lay dying in hospital.
“It was no fluke that mum’s final text message on our family group chat as she lay in Dandenong hospital was: ‘Lots of love to you all’,” Mr Patterson told 350 mourners, according to the NCA NewsWire.
The 49-year-old described his parents as “very much a team,” news.com.au reported.
“The fact they died in consecutive days reflects the togetherness that they always worked so hard to grow,” he said.
Mr Patterson also described his mother and father as people who lived deeply by their Christian faith.
Erin Patterson— (7 News)
“They acknowledged life’s transience and death’s reality as something that is not right about the world and very sad but also knew that death is not final,” he said.
“They would always wave goodbye when they parted ways. It was partly because one day would be the last wave.”
He added: “As mum and dad lay in comas in the hospital in their final days and each day … we were unsure if they would recover or not, it was comforting to know that when we said, “See you later,” we knew it was true.
“The only thing we didn’t know was when. In the meantime, we’ll miss them.”
Erin Patterson did not attend the service.
The mother of two gave a sworn written statement to police documenting her recollections of the July 29 lunch where she served beef wellington to her four guests.
She claimed she bought the dehydrated mushrooms from a grocer in Mount Waverley at least three months before the lunch and rehydrated them before mixing them into the dish with supermarket-bought mushrooms.
Ms Patterson also admitted she had intentionally disposed of a food dehydrator that police found in a skip bin at the Koonwarra Transfer Station after people began accusing her of intentionally poisoning the meal, according to broadcaster ABC.
Toxicology reports have not confirmed that the lunch guests ingested the poisonous mushrooms, but police initially believed their symptoms were consistent with death cap mushrooms.
Ms Patterson, who was known to expertly pick wild mushrooms, claimed she was also admitted to hospital with stomach pains and diarrhoea following the lunch but survived.
Simon Patterson reportedly became gravely ill and spent 16 days in an induced coma in 2022 after eating one of his wife’s meals.
