380: She Murdered With Mushrooms...The Shocking Erin Patterson Case

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We got new chairs for you. Yes you guys did get me new chairs because that was part of the reason I cried is I was uncomfortable on that couch. The couch was a little yeah this is major upgrade where if you're listening we're in basically rocking chairs. Yeah we're like in a nursery. Like a glider chair. We're getting ready for newborns. We're like I just like to imagine we're on a porch. I wish we were on a porch outside right now but yeah we're spitting in our spittoons. what speak for yourself you don't get it no i i see what you're saying yeah you know what you do when you sit on the rocking chair on the porch picking my banjo you don't remember that i learned it from freddie fish to know i'd expect you to know that i love freddie fish remember when the like the little fish would sit on their rocking chair oh my god yeah the tunes oh my god yes what a great game by the way yeah bring freddie fish back for real i need my kids to play freddie fish. Also, I'm going to need you guys to rock and sink. Wait, you're going too fast. Otherwise, I don't like the way it. Back, forward, back, forward. That's very good. Yeah, this is nice. And what's nice is I can now remove the chair if I want to and sit on an exercise ball, which is great for me. Yes. And I apologize in advance for my voice. Yeah. We actually had, we already delayed this recording this episode several days later than we normally do. And all week I've been battling a bronchitis. Yeah. So I might just lose my voice at some point. Does that sound a little chungus over there? It is a bit chungus. And I feel a little, a little, a little, down under the weather right now. Down under. Because we go on down under for today's episode. We are. We are. This is a crazy fucking story. Could not believe I hadn't heard of it. Josh found this case, and I was hesitant because it's a large one. There's a lot to it, but it's going to be so worth it. Ian did an incredible job pulling this episode together. Hats off to you. Thank you. Thank you very much. That means you need to take your hat off. Oh, the hair is bad, man. It was a long night, but I'm happy. I'm happy you guys are happy. I'm trying to find you. I know. We have to look at this little hole. I'm happy you like the episode. I do. It's crazy. It is the Aaron Patterson case out of Corumbra, Australia. Yep. Our Aussies probably know this case. Huge over there. Yes, this was massive. And this happened in 2023, so just a couple years ago. Yeah. And Aaron, you're about to get acquainted with her because she is on a whole other level of insane. Top of the chungus. Good God. Insane. But this is one of the few cases that, I mean, I hadn't even heard of a case where the murder weapon was poisonous mushrooms. Mm-hmm. There's only two murders, I think, recorded where poisonous mushrooms were used. Only two? Mm-hmm. That shocks me. Yes. Wow. One of the cases I believe was here in the U.S. and then the other one is in Australia. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty wild. And the mushroom of choice is the death cat mushroom, hence the name. Which is a beautiful mushroom. Yeah, there's a lot cooler mushrooms. I think you're thinking of the Amanita muscaria. Oh, you're right. I am. Muscaria, yeah. The fairy tale one. Right. These just look like pretty plain mushrooms, kind of just white, different tints to them. But yeah, this case is absolutely insane. And Erin is absolutely insane. And all the things she attempted to do to cover up the triple murder. You want to just go ahead and hop into this one? Yeah, yeah. Head on down under. Let's do it. Let's go. On July 29, 2023, Erin Patterson opened her door to four people to share lunch with her at her home in Leongatha, Australia. The guests were Donald and Gail Patterson alongside Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, and her husband, Ian. On the surface, this seemed like, you know, a regular kickback of adults just enjoying some lunch. Ian was the pastor at the Corumbura Baptist Church, where Aaron had been made a convert. However, in reality, these were all family members of Aaron's estranged husband, Simon, who declined the lunch invitation only the day before. Why did he do that? His parents, though, Donald and Gail, had come to view Aaron as a daughter. And at first, the reason for this lunch was somewhat unknown, with guests surrounding custody of the two children that Aaron shared with Simon. As the guests settled in for lunch, Aaron served them a very complicated and expensive dish, a classic beef wellington, which is, if you didn't know, a combination of beef filet, shallots, mustard, pastry, and of course, mushrooms. Sounds delish. The small group ate the wellies, and then they said their goodbyes and all seemed normal. However, in a matter of days, three of the guests would be dead and one would be in critical condition. And the only one left untouched was Erin Patterson. This in addition to Erin's strange behavior after the lunch and what was found inside the food led investigators, prosecutors, and the world to wonder, did Erin Patterson poison her in-laws? Born in 1974, we know pretty scarce details of Erin's upbringing. Raised in a brick home on a quiet, leafy street in Glen Waverly, Erin lived in the suburbs of Melbourne. But it was still rather beautiful, with gum trees lining her family's front yard and park lands with horse-riding trails within walking distance. Her family was made up of academics. Her mother, Heather Scudder, was a lecturer at Monash University and an expert in children's literature. She wrote books, academic articles, and gave numerous interviews to several large media corporations, including ABC. Her former peers remembered her as lovely and dedicated, but not as someone who socialized with them after work. Aaron's father, Aiden Scudder, was a director at numerous Australian companies and a very successful businessman. However, while things may have seemed ideal for a young girl, Erin would later detail some of the strange behaviors and patterns of abuse that her mother forced on her. She said, when I was a kid, mom would weigh us every week to make sure we weren't putting on too much weight. And so I went to the extreme of barely eating. And she would go on to say that she struggled with eating disorders and self-esteem issues for most of her life, leading her to become bulimic in her 20s. However, as a teenager, Erin was offered a place to study science at the University of Melbourne. Her sister, Kynwin, had already become a scientist at Monash University, and this would fit nicely with their family of well-respected academics. However, Erin's time at the university would be short-lived. While in her mid-20s, Erin left her science course and began studying accounting before drifting to another career, air traffic control. Now, this is kind of a strange career turn because the test to become an air traffic controller is notoriously hard in Australia. And Erin seemed to just on a whim become one of the few to make it through the training program. However, according to co-workers and those who knew her during this time, you can guarantee they'll have a story to tell. Some describe Miss Patterson as a loner. She's that lady. she's just prowling around the air traffic control tower lurking in the shadows not wanting to participate in any sort of social activity according to one former colleague Aaron was the only person who declined every single invitation for some sort of social activity they said we always joked and support each other she was never part of that she was clever she is no dope. So that tells me and I think what you can kind of take away from this especially this sharp career turn and the fact she becomes an air traffic controller is that Erin is weird. Period. For one but she is also smart to some extent. Clever is a good word for her. Clever and quiet. But during her time as an air traffic controller she lived with three other controllers and Aaron became known for finding tax loopholes for them. So they're like, Oh, that's kind of nice. She likes to read the tax code and find the tax loopholes. She's saving us money, which is, uh, is an interesting thing. Was it purely for the tax savings or is Aaron just a person who likes to find loopholes everywhere? She's always looking for a shortcut and looking for, uh, you know, to find a hole in anything, you know, that's Aaron. Aaron's finding the holes. Yep. Rob Maggs, who is one of Aaron's former coworkers, said this was her way of connecting with others at the workplace by finding the loopholes and inviting you in and inviting you to put your money through it. Others called her Crazy Aaron or Scudder the Nutter, which I like that one. That's a good one. That's great. Yeah, Scudder the Nutter. So, you know, they're kind like yeah Aaron's pretty fucking weird she's scutter the nutter at one point Aaron did make a bullying complaint against another person while at the same time she's being described as quite aggressive in the way she spoke to people so she's rubbing people the wrong way and people are just kind of uh don't want to hang out with her and we'll see more why later on but there's always tension when Aaron was around. Another colleague said she wasn't necessarily always unpleasant to be around, but you tended to be wary that she could snap or say something unpleasant at the drop of a hat. So little unhinged. Rob remembered another incident during training when the instructor accidentally knocked Aaron's headset off and she turned to him and said, are you all right, you buffoon? That was Aaron, by the way. And then there were her schemes. So she's a She's a schemester. She's just a shyster, man. Another former colleague said that Aaron would call into the Air Traffic Control Center, pretend to be another worker, and say they were sick. Oh, great employee. This was all part of a scheme to pick up more lucrative shifts. One colleague remembered how Aaron was once giggling in the corner of the room while her boss spoke to someone saying, Why are you here? Didn't you call in sick? However, according to another coworker, they said, I think that she's clever. She's crafty, but she ain't as clever as she thinks she is. Erin's final scheme was to realize that she could just leave work half an hour early and thought no one would notice, which this is dumb. Let's be honest. You don't think there's a fucking camera in the air traffic control tower? Come on. They're going to know. But somehow she thought she was going to get away with that. And this became a big issue, right? If you take off early, there's other air traffic controllers that are counting on you. If something comes up, hey, Aaron, I need you to come over and help me. Oh, wait, where the fuck did Aaron go? Aaron went home early, which just tells me she didn't really take this job that seriously. And this could create dangerous situations. What if a plane crashed and it was Aaron's fault because she fucking left work early? Well, that was just the kind of employee she was. And Aaron was eventually called into HR. And guess what? She got fucking fired. because she was dishing at the end of her shifts and not leaving at the scheduled time. She denied these claims, but after they showed her footage of her leaving the parking lot early, she simply said, Ah, you got me. Kind of love that. And yeah, she'd worked there for three years and got away with it for a while, but finally they got her. After that, Aaron was working in animal management for the RSPCA, which operated out of the city of Monash's council building in the southeast area of Melbourne. It was here that Erin met Jay Westall, who had become one of her closest friends. And in 2004, that is when she met her future husband, Simon Patterson. Erin said, he was friends with people I'd become friends with, so we would come up against each other at lunch or after work drinks, that sort of thing. He was super close with Jay and the two would often play music together and even once recorded a CD of two original songs they called Simon is Home. And while Erin had become somewhat estranged from her family, faith and family were a big part of Simon's life, really at the center of it. Simon later on would say this about Erin. I guess some of the things that attracted me to her in the first place was definitely intelligence. Jay would say that Erin craved community. And for her, Simon's family was a way in. In 2004, shortly after she told Simon she loved him, Erin began making a big deal about a huge bike trip. Woohoo! That she planned to take across Australia. And she was going to haul her dogs around in the back. Alright? This was a thing. Jay, her friend, never thought that this plan was very realistic because Aaron, quote, wasn't a rider or fit. But she was like, well, you know, maybe her and Simon will find a way to do it. You know, spend some time riding bikes around. Raise your hand if you've been putting off your dental cleaning, an annual checkup, or honestly any doctor's appointment. I'm raising my hand because I am that guy for years. I would delay or just straight up forget to book a doctor's appointment because it was always a pain. I was always confused and it just didn't know where to start. 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But finally, Erin set out on her trip of a lifetime and it lasted 72 hours or less. Three days. She stopped in Corumbura, which is conveniently where Simon's family lived. So really, it had all been an elaborate scheme to meet his parents. But she actually was welcomed into Simon's family with open arms. Aaron even began to attend church service at the Baptist church pastored by Simon's uncle, Ian Wilkinson, and became very close with Simon's parents, Donald and Gail. Eventually, Aaron moved in with Jay Westall, and he saw a different, less family-oriented side of her. He said that they drank a lot together, and that Aaron often drove after getting drunk, which tells you a whole lot about Aaron's character, doesn't it? In June of 2004, Aaron was almost three times over the legal limit when she was involved in a car crash. She was driving at 35 kilometers, or 21 miles, over the speed limit. Not only that, she was driving an unregistered car and didn't stop after the crash. She refused also to give her name and address, and she eventually pleaded guilty and was fined $1,000 with her license suspended for two and a half years. However, according to Jay, that did not stop her from drinking or driving or the combination of both. And when Jay first met his wife, Kithra, Erin became territorial. She moved in with them, and Erin was not happy about that. She yelled at them for not having family dinners with her and eventually left to live with Simon. Two weeks after Aaron moved, Kithra's father unexpectedly died. And Kithra needed to let some extended family members stay at the house, but Aaron hadn't cleared out her stuff yet. So Kithra called up Aaron, explained the situation, and said she needed her to go and get her crap out of the house. And Aaron said, I'm sorry your dad died, but that's not my problem. I'm just busy this week. Bitch. Angered by this response, Kithra and Jay threw out all of Aaron's shit onto the front lawn, as they should. And Simon and Aaron came the next day and picked up everything. And when they were there, they didn't say a damn word to Jay or Kithra. And Jay said this was the last time he saw either of them. And when Jay later got married, he said that Simon would have been his best man if it weren't for Aaron. Friendship ruined. And Jay said, it felt like I had lost one of the most important people in my life. And three years after they first met, Erin and Simon got married. And because Erin had no friends of her own, Simon's cousin walked Erin down the aisle. Her parents didn't even attend her wedding because they were in Russia on a train. More like they just didn't want to come. She's really estranged from... Mm-hmm. Then in July 2006, Aaron's grandmother, Oris Scudder, passed away and left her share of her estate worth around $2 million. Soon after this, Simon and Aaron quit their jobs and began traveling all across Australia. They bought homes in Perth and York, in Pemberton. Simon got a job with the local council, and Aaron opened a second-hand bookstore. However, like Aaron's other careers, this bookstore was quickly abandoned. Then in 2019, Aaron's mother passed away from cancer eight years after her father had died, and the entire estate was left to Erin and her sister. And while we don't know the exact figure, we know that their home alone was worth $900,000 when it sold. With that inheritance money, Simon and Erin provided interest-free home loans to his siblings with several hundred thousand dollars. Now, with all this money floating around, it's hard to pinpoint exactly how Erin felt about her in-laws. Some described her as caring, somewhat needy, but still filled with love and respect for Simon's family. And after the traumatic birth of her first son, Erin had a deep distrust of doctors. She described how she was told she needed to stay after the birth because she required surgery and needed to be cared for, but she wanted to go home and just be with her son. She bonded with Gail in the aftermath, and she and Don even traveled to Perth to be even closer to Erin as she recovered. Erin said, I remember being really relieved that Gail was there because I felt really out of my depth. I had no idea what to do with a baby, and I was not confident, and she was really supportive, gentle, and patient with me. Simon and Aaron would even move to Corumbura ahead of the birth of their second child to be even closer to Simon's parents. Don and Gail even brought their son to the hospital after the birth of their daughter. Simon would later say that Aaron and his father shared a love of knowledge and learning and an interest in the world. I think she loved his gentle nature. He said that both of his parents were active in maintaining a relationship with Aaron and that she shared a special bond with Don in particular. Now, a little less clear is the nature of Aaron's relationship with Simon's uncle, Pastor Ian Wilkinson. And while Aaron would say they were friendly and often met after services to chat, others said the relationship was neither close nor negative. Although both Ian and Heather had ongoing roles in Aaron's life. And you're probably wondering, why are we talking so much about their relationships? Well, that becomes very, very key in the events that unfold next. But after a while, Erin appeared settled in Corumbra and nearby Leangatha, where she also owned a home. She followed local theater productions on Facebook and even applied to study nursing. So yet another career change here. Although she never started the coursework, it sounds like. But tensions between Erin and Simon's family seemed to rise and she would join a Facebook discussion group dedicated to Kelly Lane, who was jailed over the murder of her baby daughter. While publicly, Erin seemed happy with the Patterson family, she showed a different face to this Facebook group. Plus, her relationship with Simon was now on the rocks. Even though they had separated several times since the birth of their first child, that split became permanent and official in 2015 when a financial settlement was reached. However, they remained close and often went on several private vacations, both alone and with their children. But then in 2022, Simon filed a tax return and listed himself as single. And he chalked it up to a mix up with his accountant. But as a result, Simon stopped paying child support to Aaron. He also stopped paying medical and school fees. And this further enraged Aaron. However, we have to just note, Simon's payments were only about 40 bucks a month. That's a deal. Yeah, that's a deal. And he wouldn't pay that for his own kids. Yeah, that's a little lame, for sure. A little lame? Yeah. It's very lame. I do believe in Simon's defense, although, you know, who knows, but he said that he was basically, he didn't really understand what his accountant was telling him when he said to file his single. He said like, oh shit, when that went down, he was like, I didn't know that was going to be the case. It's just the accountant told me to do that. But if that was the case, wouldn't he just hand her two $20 bills every once in a while or send it over? Yeah, I mean like, do it as toots. But like I was saying before we started recording, on Erin's end also, 40 bucks. Yeah. We can let that slide, Erin. Is that enough to get enraged over? Right, right. Yeah, agree, agree. But anyway, her attendance at church and other Patterson family events became briefer after this, and she repeatedly referred to Simon as a deadbeat and his family as a lost cause in messages to the Facebook group. She said she wanted nothing to do with them. Fuck them. And then she also spoke about Gail saying, why isn't she horrified that her son is such a deadbeat that I had no choice but to claim? And then she started cooking strange meals for Simon on their private getaways. Why are you airing this out on a Facebook group? I know. What does that say about you? I know. It's so stupid and so pathetic. Does a whole lot about Aaron. just gonna, she's gonna, it's because she's getting the answers back. She wants to hear. Yeah. I feel like if it had existed back then, she would have been telling us all the chat GPT. Oh, 100%. Oh, thousand percent. Yeah. Yeah. She would have been one of those, you know, getting, they're like, oh yeah, fuck him. You know, he is a deadbeat dad. You are in the right. So on November 16th, 2021, Simon Patterson arrived at Aaron's home. and they were planning on taking a family camping trip to Wilson's Promontory the next day, and Erin was preparing food for the trip. Simon said she told me she had made pasta for all of us, and she was going to feed it to the kids that night when she gave it to me. Simon took the penne pasta home. Sounds good, some nice penne pasta right now. Not this one, of course. He ate it, and then he immediately fell ill. He spoke with Erin either over text or phone call, in which she encouraged me to have tea and not wait until too late to have the tea. But Simon was feeling much worse than a cup of tea could solve, and he ended up having an overnight stay at the hospital and suffered from severe vomiting and diarrhea. Have any of you been hospitalized for vomiting or diarrhea? No. Thank God, no. So, like, just to think about... Wait, have you? No. Oh. Just saying, it sounded like you had. No, I was just curious if anybody here, because we've all here had episodes of, like, really bad of both, or you're doing it at the same time. Well, the danger is dehydration. And if you can't keep anything down and you get dehydrated, that's going to get sketchy. Yeah, I got listeria from Panera Bread. Josh, you did not get listeria. You got listeria? I got listeria Chad GPT speaking of which got him thinking he got lyspharia No you got traveler illness I nearly died in my bathroom He was so mad at me I'm a heavy sleeper, and I slept through him, like, dying all night. And then finally he started making loud enough noises for me to hear, and he was so pissed. No, I almost called an ambulance for myself. Wait, why? After I ate a don't ever eat the meats from Panera. I had a sliced chicken sandwich nearly killed me. Totally. Panera, don't fucking sue us. I don't even believe you. I'm still eating Panera. I had a bread bowl yesterday. It was excellent. I will never give that company another dime of my money. He hates Panera. I would rather eat a 99 cent meal from 7-Eleven. Why do you think you got listeria? You probably just got food away from the airplane. I think you got it from the airplane. We came from Costa Rica. Stop answering for me. I felt things crawling through my body. I'm not even kidding, dude. I had sweat coming out of places I didn't know I could sweat. That does happen. It's scary. No, it was horrifying. When you're like praying to God on the toilet, you're naked. You're crying. It's scary. You're clutching. You're clutching. The carpet with your toes. Oh, the carpet in the bathroom? Yeah, I mean the mat, not the carpet. The bath mat. Right, the bath. Okay, okay. No, I was on a cold hard floor sliding in my sweat. Ew. Crying out for me and I slept through it all. Hoping my wife would hear me dying on the floor. If the roles were reversed, Kendall would have whooped your ass. Well, I would have just woken you up. He's a really light-saker. No, she would have threw something at me and I would have gotten up. He wakes up just from me changing positions now. Anyways, I don't know how we got sidetracked. So imagine getting hospitalized after eating this meal, you know this person that supposedly loves you yeah serious stuff and you might be wondering hmm what's she do to it what's she doing what's Aaron putting in his his chicken what's Panera putting in their chicken you know I have a real beef with Panera and it's you know they would make a good beef Wellington. I feel bad for the people that work there because I think Panera just sets them up for failure quite honestly. Jeez. We need to start another episode about Panera. It shouldn't be $8 for a bagel. It's ridiculous. It's robbery. Nothing is made fresh at all from there. It's all heated up in a fuck ass microwave and that shit pisses me off. True but it tastes good. Yeah it should be $5 max. Also how dare they not put the cream cheese on your bagel for you. What the fuck? That makes me mad. See? See? I'm not the only one. I'll still buy it, though. One time I went to Panera to get a meal with bread, and they're like, sorry, we're out of fresh bread. Would you like a fuck-ass dinner roll that's from the deli down the street? I feel like we got King's Rolls for you. Listen, bitch. I came here for your fucking French bread. It's called Panera. Bread. Panera bread. I'm telling you, man. The CEO needs to be fired. All right. All right. Anyways. We should do like the secrets of Panera Exposed conspiracy. We were just talking about fast food earlier. Yeah. We want to do a fast food conspiracy episode. Maybe we can. I don't know. Panera is going to be like the. No, it's all facts with Panera. All right. Anyway. There's no conspiracy. No. Back to poor Simon in the hospital. Well, he gets out of the hospital, and guess what? They go camping again. Yeah. That's the last thing I'd be doing if I was out of the hospital. Yeah, right? God. There's flush bathrooms here, but it sounds like there wasn't. Nothing like having diarrhea in a port-a-potty. Yeah, that is a nightmare. What about throwing up in a port-a-potty? Don't even say that. I'm too pregnant for that. I'm going to leave. Ew. Oh, my God. It splashes back. Oh. This episode is derailing quick. As a relatively new parent and another child on the way, our children's health is of utmost importance to us. And I want to make sure that I'm giving my kids all the right things, including vitamins. When you go to the store, you can get lost in the vitamin aisle. And especially when it comes to kids' vitamins, even those vitamins that we used to take as kids are still there but just in new forms and a lot of them are just filled with a bunch of crap they're filled with sugar and they just aren't as clean as you'd want it to be and that is why we love Haya. 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After having similar severe stomach problems, including vomiting and diarrhea, he was taken to the Mansfield Hospital, though he was discharged later that afternoon. But a few days later, Simon's condition got considerably worse. And what's crazy is that Simon fell into a coma for 16 days. 16 days. Not only that, he required a bowel resection surgery in order to save his life. Sounds extremely serious and horrible, horrible. Resection surgery. I've never even heard of that. I think they take out part of your bowel that's been like essentially damaged to the point where it can't be used anymore. and they have to like re-stitch back together. Simon's family even came to visit him in the hospital to say their final goodbye. So they really thought that Simon wasn't going to make it. It was that serious. However, after 20 days in the hospital, Simon miraculously recovered. And he said, they've done a lot of tests. They hadn't found the case of what happened to me, but they seem to have dealt with the symptoms effectively. So there was a good chance I would make a full recovery, but still the lack of results of what was the root cause of his illness confounded doctors what could have caused such a life-threatening severe reaction Simon spent weeks in rehab and even took additional time to recuperate at Aaron's home he said it became obvious to me that she didn't want me to be there in an increasing way one morning she came in while I was in bed and she told me that she was very upset with me that I'd spent a lot of my time in bed and that I'd did not help out around the home like she would like me to. And that I didn't get up early to bring the kids to school at all. It's like, god damn. Cut Simon a break. He just was in a coma and nearly died. She's like, get your lazy bones out of bed, Simon. I mean, especially after he's specifically at Aaron's home to recuperate from basically dying. He was on his deathbed. And the only reason he's here now is to recover. And she's like, you gotta get your ass up. Get your fucking ass up and work. Yeah, literally. Yeah, that's especially when it was all because of her chicken. Yeah, seriously. But that wouldn't be the end of Simon's mystery illnesses. On September 6, 2022, he and Aaron returned to Wilson's Promontory for another camping trip. Aaron once again said she'd prepare food for the trip. Simon said she brought items to make a curry, a vegetable wrap for me, and I think she had some of those things, but not in a wrap. I trust my memory of this. The wrap was prepared and when I see that I can picture the wrap in aluminum foil and I can picture the ingredients for her lunch which weren't wrapped. After eating the wrap Simon said he felt like he really needs to go to the toilet before he passed out and was hospitalized again. While in the hospital he slurred his speech and suffered numerous seizures. Just a horrible horrible time yet again. Finally in late 2022 Simon spoke to Dr. Christopher Ford and told someone for the first time that he feared Aaron was trying to poison him. And Dr. Ford told Simon, I suggest you don't tell too many people about that. After this conversation, Simon revoked Aaron's medical power of attorney. He began tracking his meals in a spreadsheet, trying to figure out what was causing these mysterious, serious illnesses if it wasn't in fact Aaron's cooking. And while Simon thought he was the only target, Aaron was taking steps a year in advance to make an elaborate lunch for the entire Patterson family. Later on, Simon's symptoms were found to be consistent with low potassium levels. Around the same time Simon fell ill in September 2022, Aaron had accessed an article on her computer related to barium bicarbonate or rat poison. The symptoms of ingesting barium bicarbonate were consistent with Simon's illness and low potassium levels. but at the time doctors didn't even consider this as they didn't think of rat poison being a possibility which is kind of surprising to me to be honest that poisoning never crossed their minds or maybe it did and they just they didn't do all the tests required to figure it out or it just wasn't detectable somehow right i mean i wonder if they just kind of conflated the fact that they were camping with maybe he ate something wild maybe this is just serious food poisoning or whatever and they didn't want to jump to the conclusion i mean especially since dr ford told simon like months later don't tell anyone you think aaron's trying to poison you i wonder if simon really took that to heart and was like okay i need to kind of keep that under wraps must have been something like that my god and this would be the first of many strange things aaron access on her phone and computer in the lead up to the infamous beef wellington lunch between february 12th to the 15th, 2023, Aaron began using two mobile phones because I got two phones. Okay, sorry. Aaron's got her two phones. She's got phone A, phone B. She's got a SIM card. The last three digits that are seven, eight, three. Then on March 24th, Aaron tested negative for cervical cancer after a self-administrated screening test. Don't forget this. This becomes very important later on in the story. But on April 18th, a user on the iNaturalist website found and logged Death Cat Mushrooms in the lock area before removing as many as she could. So Death Cat Mushrooms, as we mentioned in the very beginning, is the center point of this case and is the murder weapon. We'll talk about it. And what is this app, iNaturalist? So first off, it's important to note that the entire South Gippsland area is ideal for growing mushrooms. This is like, It's like the fucking shire. It's just green, lush. There's moisture. There's lots of milk cows out there dropping lots of poo, making the soil even more fertile. It's just the perfect, all the perfect ingredients to grow mushrooms. And so the locals have become very accustomed to foraging for meals and finding ingredients growing out of the earth. But obviously, part of that is identifying which mushrooms are poisonous because there's lots of poisonous mushrooms out there and just poisonous plants in general. But and what's fascinating is that while there are up to 10 million species of fungi on the planet, we've only been able to identify 2 percent. That is insane. So we got 10 million and that's only 2 percent of the total population of fungi. And as experts put it, all mushrooms are edible. Some are only edible once, which I love that. That explains it perfectly. But the most famous of the poisonous mushrooms is the Amanita muscaria. And these guys are the cute mushrooms with the red caps, the white spots, the white stems. And yeah, you know, they're often associated with like garden gnomes and fairies and all that. but they're very, very pretty. Fun fact, Amanita muscaria mushrooms are the only legal psychoactive mushrooms in the United States. 49 states out of the 50 have it legal, except for Louisiana. And the reason I bring that up is because I have consumed muscamol, which is the psychoactive compound of aminina muscaria mushrooms that has a mild sort of psychedelic experience to it because you could actually buy it legally in most head shops believe it or not whether or not it's actually real extract from the aminina muscaria is one thing but they're a fun time but definitely don't go picking them and eating them because they are they are a poisonous mushroom. You don't want, there's other compounds in it. But anyways, we're talking about death cap mushrooms and death cap mushrooms are very different from the Amanita mushrooms because they look pretty innocent with the only distinguishing features being its yellow gills and cap. However, they are far more dangerous. Containing omatoxin, which is the Chernobyl poisons, death caps are incredibly dangerous. The toxin won't degrade at high temperature so it can be cooked and still be toxic, which is another reason why you got to cook your portabellas. portobello mushrooms also a dangerous one there's like a kind of a kind of like a whole conspiracy with portobello mushrooms actually it's kind of interesting anyways death cat mushrooms uh the effects of eating them are very consistent with what you see if you were poisoned uh via food some people even start to feel better as their liver filters their blood but once the liver begins to fail there's a rapid decline of the body while some sources state that half a death cap can kill an adult, a more likely number is 1.5 to 2 full-grown death caps. If you were, say, planning on killing 5 to 6 people, you would need approximately 12 full-grown caps. However, this presents another problem. It's hard to accurately identify death caps because they look so similar to regular mushrooms and grow in much smaller numbers. In order to get the amount of death caps you need, you have to go to multiple locations in order to find enough to kill that many people. However, this is where iNaturalist comes in. On this site, users can post a photo of any living thing giving a GPS location and an image. And of course, since anyone can post it, the quality of the post can vary, but it can be a very useful tool for anyone looking to forage for flora. Now, while Erin's story surrounding her history with foraging would vary significantly in the next few months, this part is undisputable. On April 18th, a user on iNaturalist posted a photo of death caps and said they'd removed as many of the mushrooms from the area as possible. Then, 10 days later, on April 28th, Erin drove to Locke and her phone remained in that area for at least an hour. While that doesn't prove that she visited that specific area where the death caps grew, we do know that two hours later she purchased a sunbeam food dehydrator. What are the chances? And this would be essential to preserving the mushroom's toxicity over several months. We also know that Erin accessed the iNaturalist website that day, but we don't know what specific posts she viewed. But, you know, you put all this together, 2 plus 2 plus 2 equals 6. From March to May, Erin sent numerous messages and posts in her true crime discussion group detailing how she dehydrated mushrooms before adding the powders to various foods. Not only that, she also continued shit-talking the Patterson family, although her short conversations with them remained friendly in real life. Just as fake as they come. The Facebook group, which was now mainly five people who spoke consistently to one another, bunch of losers, said that Aaron painted Simon as controlling and coercive. The group also spoke about the website Recipeton, and Erin said that she had purchased the Recipeton cookbook and planned to cook the recipe for beef wellington. Since this dish is rather complicated, she asked the group for advice, and on May 21, 2023, a user account named Funky Tom posted a photo of the exact location of another group of Death Cat Mushroom on iNaturalist. And while, again, not every user can be trusted on the site, most users knew that Funky Tom belonged to Tom May, Australia's premier mycologist. If he posted some mushrooms, you could be certain that he was accurate. So the location of Tom's death caps was in Outrim, about 20 minutes south of Leongatha. Cell phone data showed that the next day, May 22nd, Erin traveled to Outrim. She stayed in Outram for at least 30 minutes, and the Outram-based station where her phone connected was right next to where Tom posted his mushrooms on to iNaturalist. And what's strange is that instead of returning home, her cell phone connected to odd cell towers, indicating that she drove immediately back to lock the site of the original Death Cap mushrooms. So there you have it. And on June 28th, Erin contacted Donald and Gail after a long period of no contact between them, and she informed them that she had an appointment at St. Vincent's Hospital. The next day, she told Gail that a biopsy was taken of a lump in her elbow. On July 11th, Erin connected a new SIM card to one of her phones with the last three digits 835. On July 16th, Aaron attended a service at Corumbura Baptist Church, pastored by Ann Wilkinson. She spoke to his wife, Heather, Donald and Gail Patterson, and also Simon. And it was here that Aaron invited Heather to that lunch on July 29th. She told her to bring Don and Ian and that Aaron would bring Simon. Of course, Don would bring Gail as well. Heather and Ian were really happy to be invited and sort of thought that maybe their relationship with Erin, which, you know, they had known her in passing and had these issues, was finally going to improve. I've said it over and over and over again, people. I despise the mall. I hate the mall. Thinking about the mall sends shivers up my spine. the people the fitting rooms oh nothing worse than a fitting room but I still you know want to look good I like wearing clothes that I'm comfortable in but I want to do it in the most lazy way possible I don't want to have to go anywhere I don't even want to have to pick things out I don't want to have to shop online I don't have a fashion sense so you know what I do I entrust Stitch Fix with my wardrobe you guys know that I love Stitch Fix okay I've been a paying customer for years they have helped me find so many of my favorite pieces gotten me dressed for several events occasions through now two pregnancies so here's how stitch fix works it could not be easier you take a quick style quiz you share your size you share your style you share your budget and then you get matched with a real human no ai in this situation a real stylist actually who gets your vibe i love my stylist i've been working with her for a long time and she truly gets my style She understands what I'm going to like and what I'm not going to like. And she just saves me so much time. And I get so many compliments on my fits. And it's no risk, all style. Get a personalized fix box straight to your door and try it all on in the comfort of your home. Shipping and returns are always free and there's no subscription required. Plus, get a free try on for your first fix. Get started today at stitchfix.com slash mile higher. And get 20% off your first order when you buy five or more items. That's stitchfix.com slash mile higher. Once again, stitchfix.com slash mile higher. Now again, the reason for this lunch changed constantly. Early reporting said that it was a mediation meeting regarding the custody of their children. However, Simon later said that Aaron wanted to share serious medical news with them, which at the time made sense because Aaron didn't have any extended family, had no friends or any kind of people who cared about her at all. Yeah, basically no one gave a fuck about Erin and she knew it. She wasn't just a loner in the workplace. She was a loner in the world. Yeah. That's a sad existence. Yeah. And now... Deserved, though. She's still a loner. Uh-huh. Then on July 28th, Simon messaged Erin saying, Sorry, I feel too uncomfortable about coming to the lunch with you, Mom, Dad, Heather, and Ian tomorrow. But happy to talk about your health and implications of that at another time if you'd like to discuss this on the phone. Just let me know. And Erin responded, That's really disappointing. My Australian accent is so bad. I try to do it when I read Bluey books to Holly, but... I've spent many hours this week preparing lunch for tomorrow, which has been exhausting in light of the issues I'm facing. And I spent a small fortune on beef eye filet to make Beef Wellingtons because I wanted it to be a special meal as I may not be able to host a lunch like this again for quite some time. It's important to me that you are there tomorrow and I can have the conversations that I need to have. I hope you'll change your mind. Your parents and Heather and Ian are coming at 1230. I hope to see you there. That was excellent. Bravo. The again that you got that one down. Again? Again. Again? Was that your chili voice? Yeah, I'm literally thinking of chili. I know. The mom in bluey. By the way, one of the best things Australia has given us. Don't get us on a bluey tangent. This will never end. Bluey. Bluey is so good. Fantastic show. It is. Now, if you ever watched The Goat, Gordon Ramsay. Speaking of fantastic. When you think of Beef Wellington, Gordon Ramsay's face pops up in my head. For sure. That's where I first heard of it. I didn't even know Beef Wellington was a thing until I started watching Hell's Kitchen. Can you imagine getting served a Beef Wellington dinner made by Gordon Ramsay? How much would you pay for that? I would love that. Well, Mr. Beast has had it. Oh, yeah, he did make Mr. Fucking. That's so unfair. Beast gets everything, that bitch. I would love to. Honestly, I'm a big fan of Gordon Ramsay. I think he's an excellent chef and even greater entertainer, though. My God, I could watch any show that guy's on. He's a good man. We love Hell's Kitchen. Hilarious. And his food looks incredible, too. Ian's eaten at Hell's Kitchen in Vegas, right? Yes, I have. I had the tasting menu, which came with the beef wellington. And that shit was goaded as fuck. That was for my birthday meal. Oh, your birthday meal. It was so good. I love that. Josh, we ate there, too. You just don't remember. No, no, no. We went to his burger place. Oh, yeah. He's talking about the actual Hell's Kitchen. Oh. We need to go back to Vegas. But his burger place was good, too. It was. So Erin, she thinks she's Gordon Ramsay, apparently, making beef Wellington. She has no right to be making beef Wellington in the first place. She can't even make a curry chicken. She thinks it's exhausting. But in case you're not familiar with the dish, first you sear a large beef tenderloin. Then you wrap it in a mixture of sauteed mushrooms and prosciutto. And you wrap the whole log in a puff pastry. And then you bake the whole dish. That just sounds so good to me right now. But Aaron's version for this special lunch he was organizing was a bit different. Instead of the single log, because that's how you get it from any butcher is going to give you a tenderloin like that. Like a lot of people eat beef tenderloin for Christmas, the holidays. And so they'll get like a big log and then you can always slice it up into steaks. or if you just want to save money. I don't love it being called a log, I must say. Well, it's like big, thick log. Yeah. I know, that makes a word. A humongous log. A big, chungus, juicy log. Ew. Well that how it supposed to be prepared but Aaron made individual beef wellingtons with smaller steaks rather than the entire tenderloin So rather than cooking it all together like you supposed to then after it all cooked you slice it up. She made little individual ones from all these different steaks that she got. No wonder she was exhausted. Good God. That made it so much harder. Oh, yeah. It was definitely a lot more work. And she said that she did it this way because there was a deal on a dozen steaks and she couldn't find the whole tenderloin. But yeah, this just made the whole thing even more intense and complicated than it needed to be. So Ian, Heather, Gail, and Donald all arrived around 1230, hoping that Simon would come. Aaron prepared Wellington for him as well, even though he was a no-show. And Simon would later say that the reason he felt uncomfortable, which you can probably guess, given the information we've gone over, was that he was certain that Aaron had been poisoning his food on those various camping trips, but couldn't imagine that she would target anyone else. Which I was saying to them earlier, it's pretty crazy to me that he didn't at least kind of warn everyone else. I mean, he knows them well. His own parents are going to be there. You'd think he'd be like, just like, word of caution, maybe don't go. But maybe he really didn't know. And he was certain. I mean, he was definitely personally certain, but I think this goes back to the fact that The doctor told him, like, you can't tell anyone this basically until you can prove it in a court of law. That sounds like the worst advice he could have possibly done. Yeah. If my parents were going to a meal where I was certain that the chef had poisoned me multiple times and almost killed me, I think I would take a chance and just tell them, screw the court of law. This is Australia, though. I'm not hating on Simon. I just, it's kind of surprising to me that he didn't say anything. because I think then they could have used some clues around as we'll go over. Okay. So Ian recalled that while all of the guests were served their Wellingtons on gray plates, Aaron ate off one that was rusted orange color. And this is the main thing that I'm talking about here. If the guest had any idea that maybe she was going to poison them, maybe they would think, hmm, interesting that she has a different plate than all of us. But at the time, he didn't think much of it. and the group had their lunch before they ate some orange cake brought by Donald and Gail. Then Erin announced her medical news. She had ovarian cancer, and she didn't know how to tell her children. The group consoled Erin, they prayed for her, and then they left Erin's house at around 2.30 p.m. However, around midnight, Ian and Heather started to feel very sick and began taking numerous trips to the bathroom, and Don and Gail felt similar. And then the next morning, July 30th, Don and Gail called Simon and told him that they were both seriously ill. They call an ambulance, which takes them to Dandenong Hospital. And meanwhile, Simon picked up Heather and Ian and drove them to Corumbura Hospital and then to Langatha Hospital, where they were under the care of Dr. Chris Webster. Dr. Webster got a call from Simon's doctor, Dr. Ford, who informed him that he suspected that Aaron had deliberately poisoned Heather and Ian at the lunch the previous day. Dr. Webster, of course, heard this and thought it was bizarre, but still kept a note of it. He made his way to Heather and Ian, who were then kept in the isolation room. He said that at that point they looked unwell, but not distressed. The couple was, quote, conscious and alert. Meanwhile, Erin told her children that she felt sick, but she didn't show any symptoms. She eventually drove her son to flying lessons at TIAB. Now, that is about a two-hour return trip from her home in Lian Gatha. She would say that at one point she had to pull over on the side of the road because she was having the Hershey squirts, and she did it right on the side of the road. Show us the evidence. No, I do not want to see the evidence. Yeah, please spare us. Then, Erin cleaned up using napkins in her car and put them in a dog bag. Like the dog that she is. I don't believe that at all. She then pulled over again at a service station. Now, there's surveillance footage of this. It shows her entering the service station wearing clean, white pants. She didn't look like she just shit on the side of the road. And while she didn't have the supposed dog bag filled with the napkins and underwear, right? Whatever she had in there. She did have a handbag that she may have used to store it. However, after only a few seconds in the restroom, what did we say? Nine seconds? About nine seconds. About nine seconds she was in the bathroom. And then after that, she exits the bathroom and she walks over to the sandwiches and spends 40 seconds looking at them. Then she grabs one. I mean, who would do that? After she just shit on the side of the road, shit in the bathroom. She goes over to the sandwiches. Because then not only that, she then grabbed some candy to top it all off with. And she purchased all these items before leaving the station. And she would later say that the sandwich and the candy were for her children. Okay. We don't believe you, Karen. Maybe. Maybe not. Let's take a look at the surveillance footage. Yeah, you can see this for yourself. Does she look like someone who's just had explosive diarrhea on the side of the road? I don't think so. I don't see any waddling. Mm-mm. No waddles to be seen. And again, clean wet pants. She's gathered this BP. Clean white pants. Check out the pants. Really got a good gander at the pants. On the drive, she's reportedly suffering from diarrhea symptoms, but then the police have gathered this BP CCTV that shows her walking into the bathroom, going in there for a mere nine seconds, coming up. From there, it's on to the sandwich section. Patterson spends about 40 seconds before making a selection. She then moves to what appears to be the lolly aisle where she grabs another snack, later saying the food was for her children. So when she returned home, Erin served her children leftover wellingtons with the mushrooms scraped off. That's wild. That is, oh my God. Now this is obviously an odd thing to do. if she truly wasn't feeling well, wouldn't she have served them one of the other four uncooked steaks from the pack rather than the food that potentially made her ill, which has made her shit on the road not too long ago? Well, on top of that, a painter had visited Erin's house and noticed crayon drawings that her children had done on the wall depicting tombstones and words like, I am dead. And the next morning, July 31st, Erin dropped her children off at school and texted Simon. She asked him to take her to the hospital, but he told her to do it herself as his parents were entering a dire situation. Dr. Chris Webster spoke to Dr. Beth Morgan, who was caring for Don and Gail at the Dandenong Hospital. She explained that their symptoms 12 hours later had turned into a severe toxin syndrome and they were being taken to Austin Hospital for more intense treatment. Dr. Morgan said that it was consistent with the ingestion of death cap mushrooms. And just then, Dr. Webster received a new patient who said that she was experiencing gastro. When he learned her name was Erin Patterson, he thought, oh fuck. Dr. Webster brought her into urgent care and told her that there was a concern of mushroom poisoning. Dr. Webster clearly remembered asking her where she had gotten the mushrooms, but Erin remembered him asking her where she had gotten the ingredients. She answered Woolworth's, which is a supermarket chain. Dr. Webster said that at this point there was no point in even speaking to Erin anymore because she was a goddamn liar. A reputable grocery store obviously would never accidentally stock the most poisoned mushroom in the world. She's just out of her mind trying to convince them of this. Dr. Webster noticed that while Erin was in the hospital, She never spoke to Ian or Heather, even though they were only two meters away. Now, she didn't have much time anyhow, because within five minutes of arriving, Aaron was discharged against medical advice. She really put up a fight to leave, and she did. After Aaron dipped from the hospital, clearly worried that Dr. Webster was starting to put the pieces together, Dr. Webster called the triple zero, which is 911 over there, to alert the authorities about Aaron Patterson. Here is the phone call that put Aaron on the police's radar. Take a listen. Hello, what a dress team at the police. This is Dr. Chris Webster calling from Leangatha Hospital. And I have a concern regarding a patient that presented here earlier that has left building and is potentially exposed to a fatal toxin from mushroom poisoning. And I've tried several times to get hold of her on her mobile phone. What's her name? Last name is Patterson, T-A-T-T-E-R-S-O-M. First name? Erin, E-R-I-N. When did she present at hospital? At 8.05. Today? mushroom pork we're doing you said? Yeah, there were five people that ate a meal on Saturday and two of them are in intensive care at Dandenong Hospital. Two have just been transferred from Lea and Gatha Hospital to Dandenong Hospital. And Erin presented this morning with symptoms of poisoning. And what happened when she presented? She just got up and left? No, there was time for the nurse to begin observations and I was managing the other critically unwell patients, so I had a brief chat to her about where the mushrooms were obtained. And after that, while I was attending the other patients, the nurse informed me that she had discharged herself against medical advice. She was up only here for five minutes. Okay. And just to clarify, you said there were four other people who ate the same meal, is that correct? Yeah, so the meal was consumed by five people, and four of those people are now hospitalised, and the errand presented this morning. I've got the police notified by 84 Gibson Street, Lee and Gaffa in Victoria. Would you like them to contact you with an outcome? Yes, I'd be happy to send them to contact me at any time on the mobile number. Shouts out to Dr. Webster, because he started sniffing this out. Pretty early on because he started putting, as Kendall said, the pieces together. But especially suspicions were raised as soon as he asked her about where did you get the mushrooms? She starts wigging the fuck out. She's like, oh, no, I'm not. I got to get out of here because he's going to figure it. You know, I'm going to say something and he's going to figure it out. Well, Josh, Aaron said that she was traumatized after the birth of her son, which at birth is traumatic, but she needed to get the fuck away from doctors. because of that so she could nap at home. However, her phone was recorded connecting to Network Towers and Leangatha, Kunwara, and Outram. She returned to the hospital at 9 48 a.m. and was transferred to the Monash Medical Center where she met Simon and her children. Then on August 1st, Heather and Ian arrived at Austin Hospital where Don and Gail were quickly deteriorating. A doctor assessed Erin at Monash and she seemed completely normal. Erin was then discharged from the hospital at 1 p.m. She was then interviewed by the Department of Health fearing that the mushrooms had been accidentally purchased and that they potentially had a public health crisis on their hands. Because again, because if you remember, Erin had originally said that she had gotten the death cat mushrooms from Woolworths, but then she decided to change her story and said, oh, I got these dried death cat mushrooms from an Asian grocery store in Melbourne. And of course, she couldn't remember the name. But yeah, she's just trying to be like, oh, yeah, it's just I almost accidentally bought them. Like, come on. Do we believe that? Then on August 2nd, Erin factory reset phone B, one of the two phones that she has, the one she had been using before February 12th. So factory resetting phones, especially in this situation, she's trying to hide from the cell towers, a cell god. She thinks that she can just factory reset her shit and can delete everything. She was later spotted driving to the Kunwara transfer station and landfill where she dumped numerous items into an electronic waste bin. All the while, members of Monash Council searched around Melbourne for the mystery grocery store, but they were led on a wild goose chase. as Erin either avoided their texts, sent them vague messages, or just changed their story once again. On top of that, Simon held a meeting with extended family at a chapel in Austin where he laid out his suspicions. Simon's cousin said he wanted to tell us that his own illnesses had been a deliberate act, that he'd stopped eating food Erin had prepared because he suspected that she might have been messing with it. He was really sorry he hadn't told our parents or our family about this. Then, on August 3rd, a Victoria Police investigation was officially launched into the mushroom poisonings, as Donald and Ian tested positive for death cap mushroom ingestion. Meanwhile, Erin moved her SIM card with the last three digits 835 into phone B, the one she had factory reset. Then on August 4th, sadly, Heather died at 2.50 a.m., followed by Gail at 5.55 p.m. and Victoria police following a tip from the landfill discovered a black sunbeam dehydrator in the e-waste bin. Then on August 5th, Donald died at 11 30 p.m. However, Ian was miraculously recovering. A search warrant was finally issued and executed at Aaron's home where police seized a receipt for the dehydrator, a receipt from the landfill for the dehydrator's disposal, as well as phone B with the 835 SIM card. Erin completed a second factory reset at this time. She later explained that she panicked during the search and wiped it, fearing that police would see photos of mushrooms and the dehydrator. I'm a big fan of this next sponsor, ButcherBox. We all need protein. I love protein almost with every meal. 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And don't forget to use our link so they know we sent you please. after this evidence is seized from her home erin is taken to the one daggy police station and interviewed and it was here that erin was questioned about the food dehydrator and whether she had actually gone out and forged for mushrooms she said her children were at the movies during lunch and explained that once again she had bought these mushrooms at the asian grocery store she explained that all the guests picked their own plates and she simply grabbed the last one which happened to be the different colored one. When police later informed her that they had found the food dehydrator, she explained that she just panicked. Oh, I just panicked and got rid of it. Thinking the police might suspect her. They're going to suspect you even more Missy. If you get rid of it, not Missy, but let's take a look at some of this interrogation footage from the police interview. Is that something you've done in the past foraging for the mushroom? do anything like that? Never. Do you preserve foods or anything like that? No. Have you ever dehydrated foods or anything like that? No. You've described to me a relationship with your pet's heart assignment I'd like to understand why you had his parents and his uncle and aunt in over for lunch because I've got another family so they're only they've always been good to me and I want to maintain those relationships in spite of what's happened to Simon I love them a lot they've always been really good to me and they always said to me that they would support me with love and emotional support, even though Simon and I are separated. And I really appreciated that. Yeah. Because my parents are both gone. Yeah. My grandparents are all gone. They're the only family that I've got. Yeah. And they're the only grandparents that my children have. And I want them to stay in my kids' life. Yeah. And that's really important to me. And I think Simon hated that I still had a relationship with his parents. But I loved them. Nothing has ever happened between us. Nothing he's ever done to me will change the fact that they're good, decent people that have never done anything wrong about me. After this, Erin travelled to Melbourne to meet with lawyers. Even though she knew the police were suspecting her, she still managed to act very suspiciously. on August 6th she performed a remote factory reset on phone B which was in police custody apparently the police got to turn it off or whatever or maybe she did it you can like initiate it remotely and then once it's powered on it it runs it and when asked why she did this she said she was curious if they left it on in the evidence locker uh huh but Aaron continued using phone A the other of the two phones with SIM card 73 but the police were unable to recover it and this is a phone that just disappeared. We have no idea what happened to it. All the while, Erin's Lee and Gatha home was being stalked out by dozens of reporters. Everyone was curious. And she did manage to avoid them for a while throughout this entire ordeal up until this point. But for whatever reason, on August 8th she decided to make a statement. Let's watch. Is it tragedy? What happened? Can you tell us about the old people? Crocodile tears. I'm sorry I'm devastated by what's happened by the loss of Don Don is still in hospital the loss of Ian and Heather and Gail some of the best people that I've ever met Gail is like Gail is the mum that I didn't have because my mum passed away four years ago and Gail's never been anything but good and kind to me and Ian and Heather were some of the best people I've ever met they never did anything wrong to me and I'm so devastated about what's happened and the loss to the community and to the families and to my own children have lost their grandmother can you tell us a bit more about the lunch? What I can tell you is that I just can't fathom what has happened. I just can't fathom what has happened. That Ian and Heather have lost their lives and Gail has lost her life and Donna still went off. And I pray, I pray that he pulls through because my children love him. And you must be pretty shaken up by this as well. I'm devastated. I love them. And I can't believe that this has happened, and I'm so sorry that they have lost their lives. How are you kids? I just can't believe it. I just can't believe it. Can you tell us where the mushrooms came from? I just asked to leave me alone now, please. Police say you're a suspect. Do you have anything to say about that? Yes, I say I didn't do anything. I love them. And I'm devastated that they're gone. And I hope that every fiber of my being that Don calls through. That's what I have to say. Where did my friends come from? Were they picked by you or where did they come from now? Can you tell us? Nasty ass. Why an ass bitch? Yeah, a lot to unpack there. I mean, obviously, she was... She didn't choose to make a statement, really. they just came up on her and what was she supposed to do well she could have just said no comment and walked straight to the door i guess so gone inside maybe at some point she's like well i think i think she's like i feel like i can get the tears flowing which she didn't well my guess is that she she at least had a few seconds if not a minute or so to kind of like plan out what she was going to say because she's coming back from the store coming into her house and i'm that kind of seemed Like they were already there, ready to go waiting for her to come back. And so as she like pulled in, I'm, she's probably like, well, what do I do? Do I go just straight inside? Does that look more suspicious or should I use this opportunity to put something out there that, you know, for the world to see. And that's what she gave us. And it just don't see a whole lot of tears going along with that crying for one, lots of just hands to the face. Uh, you know, blocking as it's called. And also saying that Don, hope Don pulls through when he has already passed. She has no idea what's going on. And still refuses to answer the question of where did she get the mushrooms from? Yeah. Well, she clearly like had her little statement prepared. And then after that, she like didn't know how to go forward and what was she supposed to say? Yeah. But it's just, it's, it's wild. Cause she's, you know, she's like, I love them. My kids love them. I can't fathom what happened. Oh, it's disgusting. Just people, criminals that go and do shit like this. Sick. It's just like, they're the worst. And it's like, it's so interesting to think about the psychology behind someone choosing to poison someone. There's many reasons why someone would go that route. Obviously, it's to try and make it look like an accident or hide it or whatever it is. But you wonder, too, I think it takes a certain kind of really evil human being to make others suffer in that way. I mean, dying from poison is just like one of the worst. It's longer. It's extremely painful. And I don't know. What do you think her main motivation for choosing poison was? Get away with it. Yeah, that it was the most. Yeah, I think in her mind, she really believes she's super intelligent. She's going to be able to outsmart the authorities, even in the interrogation footage. She looks like she's still in that mindset of of don't give them anything. I'm going to just be blank faced, act clueless, act like don't know what you're talking about. And she took that approach to to all this and then also put on the theatrics. I think as things start to unfold and people start dying, she's like, okay, well, now we have people are dead. And so they're going to go, the police are going to come after me. So now my goal is to make this look like a terrible accident. Yeah. That somebody gave me some bad shrooms and I put them in this beef long tent and I accidentally killed people. It's especially stupid for her to try and pull that off considering how smart she thought she was. when you think about the fact that she had attempted and failed to do this to Simon several times, and he was also invited to this lunch. I mean, as an investigator, this looks pretty obvious right off the bat. And you would think that she would have thought that through and maybe thought about different methods. Well, she upped the ante of the poison. Yeah. Going from rat poisoning to death cat mushrooms. Right. She's like, I know this is going to work. The toxin is. She's definitely spent time researching toxins. and poisons. For sure. Evil. Evil. Just disgusting. These poor people. I don feel anything about that statement is genuine at all No It just seems like it The tears There no tears Theatrical production brought to you by Beefcake Patterson Beefcake Patterson. That's all I got to say about that. On August 11th, the Department of Health suspended its search, unable to find any grocery stores matching Erin's description. Of course, they realized that she had been simply stringing them along the entire time. However, while Aaron was dodging reporters and clearing phones, Simon, poor Simon, is grieving the loss of his parents. During an August 31st memorial service, he spoke. And it's important to note that Aaron Patterson, of course, did not attend. There's no fluke that mom's final text message on our family group chat as she lay in Dandenong Hospital was, Lots of love to you all. It's the first time we've heard from Simon Patterson, whose parents, Gail and Don, and Aunt Heather died. Simon's uncle, Reverend Ian Wilkinson, remains in hospital. The tiny Victorian communities of Leangatha and Curranborough, torn apart by tragedy, united in grief. However, there was some good news. On September 11th, Ian was moved to a rehabilitation ward and was expected to make a full recovery. And then he would be able to attend his wife's funeral on October 5th. And now reporters, lawyers, and basically the entire world was lying in wait, expecting an arrest any day now. Then on November 2nd, journalists received a 7 a.m. tip that police were at Aaron's home. and they were raiding it. There were helicopters, dogs, and bags and bags of evidence. They were there all morning with Erin just sitting inside, watching it all unfold, watching her world crumble. When Erin's lawyer, Ophelia Holloway, arrived, the journalist knew that charges were coming. She was then swapped into another police car so they couldn't get photos of her in handcuffs, and then she was transferred to the Wondagi Police Station. The next day, Aaron Patterson was charged with three counts of murder, one charge of attempted murder against Ian Wilkinson and additional charges of attempted murder for trying to poison Simon over a number of years. He must have really, I imagine, like struggled with survivor's guilt after all of this, too. You know, knowing how many times it happened and how he was invited to be there and everything. Definitely. I mean... Poor guy. I mean, I'm sure he was thrilled to finally see, you know, these charges brought against her. Obviously, much rather have his family members still alive. But to get confirmation after all this time. Yeah, right, that he wasn't just like making shit up that this was really going on. On May 7th, 2024, Erin pleaded not guilty to the three murder charges and the five additional attempted murder charges. four of those regarding her attempted poisonings of Simon with another charge for Ian Wilkinson who had completely recovered from this whole ordeal and while the stories relating to Simon were heard during pretrial meetings the prosecution ended up dropping those charges at the 11th hour and this would mean that not only was the trial barred from speaking about Simon's previous suspicion of Aaron but also her internet searches relating to rat poison and other incriminating searches made before 2023 which this was interesting to me that they dropped all this. I think, so the criminal justice system in Australia works a little bit differently. During the pre-trial, they look at the, you know, all the evidence and look at, is there enough to move forward with the evidence being a part of the actual trial? And so what I think may have happened was when it came to Simon, there wasn't necessarily enough like concrete evidence that they felt strong enough about to move forward with it. Although it would have been nice to see maybe lesser charges given. But again, maybe it's just more difficult to prove that in Australia's court of law. I do believe there was talks, although, you know, it was later not done, but there were talks at that point of like, hopefully after this trial commenced, then retrying her for the charges against Simon. That could, yeah, that could make sense too. rather than trying to loop it all together might have been really difficult and kind of stay focused on the immediate situation, right? And at Aaron's request, the trial was held in Morwell rather than Melbourne. I think, yeah, which I don't, I think she requested this because I think she felt like Melbourne was just going to be, you know, all the people had seen the media, was not going to be, uh, was going to be pretty biased against her. So she opted to do it in more well, uh, this small, small town court, um, kind of a jury of her peers type situation instead. But at this point, the case had reached international heights. I mean, this is blowing up on world news, uh, and you know, hundreds of thousands of people are posting about Aaron's body language, you know, from her, her infamous statement that we watched earlier, all the suspicious actions and just the general insanity of beef wellington and these death cat mushrooms being used as a murder weapon that it'd be almost impossible to find a jury that was wholly unfamiliar with the case the trial commenced on april 29th 2025 with crown prosecutor nanette rogers delivering her opening arguments and this was only hours after the charges concerning simon were dropped first nanette focused on aaron's food dehydrator and how aaron had initially lied to police saying she never owned one. She showed Erin's photos, which she had sent to her Facebook group, which she had remained active in even after this infamous lunch. In fact, members of the group even alleged that Erin used fake accounts to post about her case on the page to drum up support shortly before her arrest, which is, uh, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if she did do that. They detailed the purchase of Erin's food dehydrator using the receipt found at her home, as well as trips to Locke and Outram following the iNatural posts. The Crown then showed footage of Aaron dumping the food dehydrator and said the tests on the dehydrator showed Aaron's fingerprints and traces of, you guessed it, death cat mushrooms, as well as the same traces found in Ian and Don's systems. The Crown suggested that Aaron ate a different Beef Wellington, lied about her cancer diagnosis, and lied about her symptoms following the lunch. However, the Crown admitted that they would not be trying to prove Erin's motive, only that she purposely poisoned her lunch guests. Erin's trial lawyer, Colin Mandy, acknowledged that Erin had lied to the police about the food dehydrator and that she had never foraged mushrooms, but that it was only out of panic. They also admitted that Erin lied about the cancer too. But they did maintain that Erin was close with her in-laws and would never willfully poison them. The defense went on to say that while death cap mushrooms had killed Don, Gail, and Heather, they were merely put in the meal as a result of a tragedy and terrible accident. Bullshit. And the prosecution called a considerable amount of witnesses, including Simon Patterson, Anne Wilkinson, and mycologist Tom May, who had posted the death caps on iNaturalist. What was his name? Funky Tom. Funky Tom. And they also brought up lead constable Stephen Eppingstall. They also included electronic evidence from Erin's internet history, including the fact that she had accessed the iNaturalist site and conducted numerous searches for death cat mushrooms. Simon was called to the witness box on May 1st, and while he couldn't reveal anything about the poisonings, he could speak about her relationship with his parents. He said that while they had been close to Aaron, she freaked out when she was left off the guest list for Gail's 70th birthday. While this was years after her separation from Simon, he felt that this is when Aaron started to view them as quote against her as well. He said that she felt like she had been abandoned. When Ian was called to the box, reporters said he had a commanding presence. Locals said that if Corumbura had a flag, Ian's face would be on it. He explained that his relationship with Aaron had been friendly, but lacked much depth. They are acquaintances at best, which is why he and Heather were excited for the lunch. He explained that beef Wellington was made individually rather than being sliced from the larger log as it's normally prepared, and that while the guests ate from gray plates, Aaron ate from an orange rusty colored one. Now the defense challenged this, as the police did not encounter any plates matching this description during their search. On May 26th, Sally Ann Atkinson was called to the stand to detail the wild goose chase Aaron had sent them on to find this mystery Asian grocery store she supposedly got the death cat mushrooms from. Constable Eppingstall would take the stand after this and explain how Erin went to extreme lengths to wipe her online presence clean before the investigation. They also brought up Erin's lie to the police that she had never forged for mushrooms before and this spurred Colin Manny to try to introduce evidence that had been tossed out with Simon's charges which were photos of forged mushrooms that Erin had taken herself. The judge asked Colin whether he was changing his case to the fact that Erin had use forage mushrooms in the Wellingtons rather than store-bought ones, and Colin answered, yes, your honor. The prosecution thought if they admitted these photos, they should be able to reintroduce all the other evidence that was thrown out, including Aaron's internet history from before 2023 and the multiple poisonings of Simon's food. After the prosecution and the defense met, it was decided that certain photos would be shown and others wouldn't. Now in court, Aaron's story had changed from getting the mushrooms from Woolworths to a random Asian grocery store, and now they had been accidentally foraged. Sure, dude. Mm-hmm. Accidentally foraged. Well, we'll see that that's not the case. On June 5th, the defense called their sole witness to the stand, Erin Patterson herself. And of course, this was a high-risk, high-reward situation for the defense. Erin could receive empathy from the jury and introduce doubt that way, or she could further incriminate herself. And right now, Colin Manning needed to challenge the prosecution's theory with a rival alternative theory. Instead of purposely foraging death caps, she accidentally forged death caps, dehydrated them, and then cooked them. So Erin explained that her foraging hobby began in 2020 when she was looking for ways to kill time during the pandemic. She said that she was so confident in her abilities that she would forage, dehydrate, and add the wild mushrooms to just about any dish. However, neither Simon or her children could remember this hobby. You'd think that would have stayed in their minds, right? Next, Erin had to explain her relationship with her in-laws. She explained that even though she had separated from Simon, she had no one else and she loved them a lot. She explained that the messages in her Facebook groups, including the one where she said, they're dead to me, were simply her venting and complaining, but didn't reflect her true feelings. She said, I wish I had never said it. They didn't deserve it. Then on June 3rd, she went over the entire timeline of the lunch. For one, she said that her medical news had nothing to do with cancer, but that she wanted to do weight loss surgery. She explained that her mother controlled her weight growing up, and she had developed bulimia in her 20s. She said that she wanted to do something once and for all and was interested in gastric bypass surgery. However, she was embarrassed about it, so she lied about the cancer so that they could just discuss child care for while she recovered. And once again, she admitted she lied, but it was for a good reason. She also explained that the individual Wellington resulted from not finding the tenderloin at the store and that she didn't own any gray plates. The police search backed this up. However, the question remained if she had eaten the same lunch as all the others, why didn't she get sick? She explained that after lunch, she ate the remaining orange cake brought by Don and Gail Patterson, and she felt awful about it and decided to purge it. This meant that she also threw up the poisoned beef wellington. Convenient. Not only was this a plausible theory, but also humanized her in front of the jury. The prosecution was worried their case was going to implode. She then explained her strange behavior at the hospital was due to her medical trauma. She also said that Simon asked her if she had poisoned her parents, which is what made her panic and dumped the dehydrator. So, of course, she blamed Simon. Such a victim. Yeah, right. Totally. Simon denied saying this. She thought she accidentally picked deaf caps and put them in the same container as store-bought mushrooms before using them in the meal. Once again, this became a pretty important testimony. It was plausible enough to raise reasonable doubt, and the prosecution needed to get Aaron to trip up since she seemed to have an answer for pretty much everything. Then on June 5th, Nanette began her cross-examination. Instead of the empathetic side Aaron showed before, she was now very argumentative. She even corrected Nanette on what day of the week she was supposedly visiting Locke, saying, I think that it was a Friday, and Aaron showed this other side of her that was very defensive and sarcastic. Eventually, Nanette just asked Aaron yes or no questions to get straight answers. She asked whether Dr. Webster had asked where she got the mushrooms from, and Aaron explained that he had asked where she got the ingredients from instead, which was from Woolworths. However, Dr. Webster distinctly remembered asking, there's a strong concern death caps were in the meal. Where did you get the mushrooms? Then Nanette asked about the supposed 40 minute nap, even though her phone was already connected to numerous other cell towers in the area. And why did she feed her children the leftovers, knowing they got people sick, including herself? And then there was the diary on the side of the road, which we all remember. How can we forget? but Aaron's son didn't remember this pit stop on the side of the road while his mom took a shit that's something you would just never forget come on yeah Nanette called this out and Aaron disagreed as of June 12th Aaron had been in the witness box for eight days and she was getting tired she's getting cranky she was getting beefy then that continued firing off questions and at one point asked Aaron, are you making this up as you go along? Because it sure seems like it. Then Nanette asked her if she had an appointment anywhere for gastric bypass surgery. Aaron said the Enrich Clinic. And this had never been in evidence and Constable Eppingstall even left the room. Within moments, they realized that the Enrich Clinic had never offered weight loss surgery. Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.nl. That's Shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. There we go. Yet another lie. The prosecution already knew. she fucked up. As Erin left the witness box, now officially caught in a lie in front of the entire jury and those elsewhere, tried to diagnose her with everything from schizophrenia to underlying BPD, the prosecution and defense prepared their closing arguments. Nanette laid out Erin's four deceptions, her fake cancer, the lethal doses of poison, pretending that she herself had been poisoned, and her sustained cover-up. However, Nanette said Erin had a secret, a fifth deception that won against the jury. She said that Aaron had a remarkable memory when she recalled that the 28th of April was a Friday and not a Monday, but somehow she could not recall where she purchased the mushrooms. It's just the one thing we all want to know. Where'd you get the damn mushrooms? She can remember everything else. She explained that Aaron's actions after the infamous lunch were not the result of panic, but were carefully executed to cover up her internet history and activities. Meanwhile, the defense simply said that while Erin was a liar, she was not a killer, did not have any motive to murder her in-laws. The jury was then sent away and sequestered for five days before returning a verdict. Then on July 7th, the 46th day of the trial, they announced they had reached a verdict and Erin Patterson was guilty on all charges. Guilty. Music to our ears. Yes. According to those in the courtroom, many of whom took off work to watch the trial, There was no reaction from Erin. She just sat there like a bump on a beef stick. Bump on a beef stick. That's good. She just emotionless. No, just this woman has no feelings at all. And then on the 8th of September, 2025, Erin returned to court for sentencing. Ian and Simon both delivered impact statements on how Erin's actions affected them. So let's take a look at that. The greatest impact of Erin's actions on me has been to deprive me of Heather's company. The silence in our home is a daily reminder. I only feel half alive without her. Then he extended a generous offer as a man of faith to the woman who left him fighting for life. I make an offer of forgiveness to Erin. I have no power or responsibility to forgive harms done to others. And for the murders of Heather, Gail and Don, I am compelled to seek justice. However, I encourage Errant to receive my offer of forgiveness with full confession and repentance. Her estranged husband, Simon, lost both his parents to Patterson's deadly dish. He told the court he is now a single father to the couple's two children who are adjusting to life without their grandparents and the knowledge of what their mother did. The grim reality is they live in an irreparably broken home with a solo parent when almost everyone else knows their mother murdered their grandparents. The fact these foreseeable hurdles were actively put in front of them by their own mother is an impact we will wrestle for the rest of our lives. And then the judge continued the statements during sentencing, broadcast for the first time since trial began. Because the rest of the trial was not filmed. You inflicted untold suffering on your own children, whom you robbed of their beloved grandparents. The victim impact statements reveal the immense and ongoing anguish suffered by your many victims, direct and indirect. No summary could do justice to the individual and collective power of those statements. It is not my intention here to summarise or refer to every statement, but rather to highlight some key aspects. Four generations of the extended Patterson and Wilkinson families have been traumatised by your crimes, not to mention their friends. Don's mother, Martha Patterson, who is aged 100, made a victim impact statement. In it, she prayed for God's healing for her family. Gail and Heather's father, now deceased, also reached his 100th birthday in 2024, but tragically, only one of his three daughters, Lynn Young, whose statement was read to the court, was alive to mark that milestone with him. And there are many references in the statements to the trauma experienced by the Patterson and Wilkinson grandchildren. Many of your adult victims struggled not only with the loss of their loved ones and the terrible way they died, but with the distress, even guilt, at their own seeming inability to ease the suffering of those close to them. Justice Beal sentenced Erin to three life sentences, each to be served concurrently, plus 25 years of imprisonment. So they came down on her ass hard. And Erin was most recently imprisoned at the Dame Phyllis Frost Center and won't be eligible for parole until 2056, when she will be 82 years old. Erin submitted an appeal in November, citing unfair questioning during her trial. And the prosecutors also had appealed, requesting a harsher sentence. They wanted to come down on her harder. While both appeals have been filed, it's unclear if there have been any updates there at this time. And while there's also been no recent updates from Simon, Ian Wilkinson said this of Erin. Now I am no longer Erin Patterson's victim, and she has become the victim of my kindness. I love that. Yeah, Ian Wilkinson, despite all this, he, big props to Ian for having such positivity after such a tragic event. He lost his wife. Seriously. And. Went through so much trauma himself. Yeah. And then the whole child. Nearly died. Just terrible. And, you know, had a positive outlook on life, despite all these things. And continued pastoring, which is really cool. So. So when someone wrongs you, make them the victim of your kindness. Yeah, and fuck Erin Patterson. Yeah. What a, yeah, she's right where she belongs. I wonder if they're serving prison beef, Allington Nerv. I was just going to say, I think the closest she'll probably get in prison is beef sticks, which is what she really deserves. Yep. Or a meat pie. Ew. That's the Aussie thing, meat pie. It sure is, yeah. Yeah, pretty insane, though. I mean. I know, wild, wild case. And what's wild is that she did almost pull it off. She almost pulled it off. She did. She really set things into motion to create the narrative and that, you know, this was a tragic accident. I accidentally put these in there. I just forged them and oopsie, they just ended up in the mushroom bucket that I put in the Wellington. But at the end of the day, the investigators, detectives did excellent work And there's a lot of really good forensic, digital forensic evidence that really helped tie this one all together because the phones were a big deal. And the fact she was using multiple phones, there is still that one phone that was never recovered. So she clearly disposed of it along with some of the other evidence. But luckily, they're able to pull all of the pings from all the cell towers that those phones are pinging off of, or at least the one that they had access to. and so they're able to trace a path that she took and those paths clearly crossed paths with some death caps based on the coordinates on the iNaturals website so they did a great job Erin I hate you fuck you Erin evil thing to do to people who you know sweet sweet people these are these are people that are enjoying their retirement the end of you know the the best the golden years. Yeah. They're in their, you know, late 60, 70 years old. And, you know, the rest of their life was taken from them. And they suffered so much at the end. It's horrible. Oh, such a horrible way to go. I mean, it shuts your whole, the toxin eats away at your organs and shuts them down one by one. I mean, it's a horrible way to go. God, I cannot even imagine. It's horrible, dude. Ah, any last thoughts from you guys? You think she got what she deserved? No, no, I think she should be in jail forever. She's not going to get out of 82. No, but still, I think the punishment should have been harsher. Well, they don't have death penalty there. I mean, she's a mass murderer, yeah. Yeah, true. But she should have been put away for life. Agreed. She will, but still. I also think this is definitely a case where if it wasn't for digital forensic work, like you were saying, Josh, she very well could have gotten away with it. Yeah, I was going to say that, too. Like, if they weren't able to cross-reference the iNaturalist pose, really, they couldn't prove anything, and poof, she would be free. Yeah, that's just crazy about it. And if she hadn't done this in the past assignment and there was no history and stuff, it does make you wonder how many times in history people have gotten away with poisoning someone and it's just gone undetected or looked like an accident. That was my thing, is, like, there's only two cases confirmed. Right. But I'm sure there's more than that. Oh, yeah, dude. And since this became a big thing, I bet you people have tried to use death caps for poisonings. 100%. That's scary. Yeah. People copycat. Yeah. Watch out for those death caps. They actually have signs around town down in that area about the death caps because people, you know, people also accidentally just die from eating death caps. So if you're in Australia, watch out for the death caps. And just if you're out foraging, be safe. Yeah, there's apps that can help you identify stuff, but don't eat anything you don't know what it is. It's not worth it. How reliable are those apps? It seems so risky to me. Oh, there's some good ones out there. I mean, ChatGBT is pretty good too. Okay. Basically an expert mycologist at this point. But that's going to be it for us today. We obviously want to know your thoughts. Do you think Erin got what she deserved in the end? I think she should have to eat some death caps of her own and experience what she put her victims through. But that's just me. Mm-hmm. That'd be real karma. I think so. Like slowly every day, a little bit more, a little bit more. Not enough to kill her, but. Yeah. That's pretty morbid. Just diarrhea and vomiting in her cell all day. Oh, my God. Ooh, in a cell? Yeah. Nothing to wipe with. That's wrong, man. I don't know, is that cruel? Give her a bucket. Yeah, that's right. Is that inhumane? She's cruel and inhumane. She's a mass murderer. Fuck her. That's right. This was just a random thought, but in her press conference, the one time she spoke to the press. She was still wearing the same white pants. Was she really? She was. The same white pants. Dude, the nerf. Your diarrhea pants. Do you think she ever diarrhea-ed? No, I don't. But she, God, she's publicly saying that these are my diarrhea pants and I'm re-wearing them. It's embarrassing. So embarrassing. Everything about Erin is embarrassing. That's right. but uh thank you for joining us for this episode of mile higher we love you we'll see you next week hopefully my voice won't sound that was cute we do love you too and i love you guys we love you we love you josh i appreciate that you did a pretty good job today you need some tea and a little rest yeah my voice needs a rest but we'll be back next week Thank you.