What police discovered on Erin Patterson’s laptop and textual content messages with mother-in-law revealed

Digital information taken from a pc seized by police from Erin Patterson’s home indicated that it had been used to go to webpages itemizing sightings of demise cap mushrooms, a Victorian courtroom has heard.

The courtroom additionally heard on Wednesday that Patterson despatched a number of textual content messages to her mother-in-law, Gail Patterson, about well being points and medical appointments that police discovered no file of getting ever occurred.

Patterson, 50, faces three fees of homicide and one cost of tried homicide referring to poisoning her 4 lunch company – kin of her estranged husband, Simon Patterson – with a beef wellington served at her home in Leongatha on 29 July 2023.

Patterson has pleaded not responsible to murdering Simon’s mother and father, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson, and making an attempt to homicide Ian Wilkinson, Simon’s uncle and Heather’s husband.

Attorneys for Patterson say the demise cap mushroom poisoning was a tragic and horrible accident.

Det Main Sen Const Stephen Eppingstall, the informant or officer in command of the investigation, continued giving proof on Wednesday. He’s the final prosecution witness within the trial.

Eppingstall was requested about textual content messages despatched by Patterson, and phone information which he mentioned indicated that the telephone she primarily used within the months earlier than the lunch was by no means discovered by police.

He was additionally requested about searches he performed utilizing URLs taken from a pc seized from Patterson’s dwelling. Knowledge extracted from the pc revealed a sequence of URLs visited in Might 2022.

It confirmed a sequence of visits to posts on iNaturalist, a web site the courtroom has beforehand heard is utilized by citizen scientists to checklist environmental observations, together with of untamed mushrooms.

In December 2024, Eppingstall used the URL addresses uncovered in the course of the extraction to go to the web sites they associated to.

The courtroom was proven screenshots Eppingstall took throughout this course of, which included an iNaturalist commentary together with pictures of demise cap mushrooms that had been reportedly uncovered at a reserve within the Melbourne suburb of Moorabbin on 18 Might 2022.

Eppingstall was additionally requested about URLs visited instantly afterwards on the identical laptop, which appeared to point out an order for meals had been positioned on the Korumburra Center Resort.

Eppingstall mentioned the pub later confirmed a meals order had been positioned that day which included a telephone quantity utilized by Patterson, and was delivered to her tackle on the time.

Jane Warren, for the prosecution, additionally requested Eppingstall about cellphones police consider Patterson had used.

He mentioned that there have been three telephones, two Samsungs and a Nokia, and that one of many Samsungs, known as telephone A, had by no means been recovered.

Cellphone information indicated that telephone A was the machine primarily utilized by Patterson, Eppingstall mentioned.

Eppingstall mentioned telephone information appeared to point {that a} sim card was switched between gadgets whereas police searched Patterson’s dwelling on 5 August 2023.

The telephone that was offered by Patterson to police on the finish of that search – telephone B – was topic to a distant manufacturing unit reset after it had been seized and brought into storage by Eppingstall, he confirmed.

Earlier in his proof, Eppingstall was requested about messages exchanged by Patterson and Gail in June and July 2023.

He was additionally requested about extracts from Gail’s diary, which included the notice: “Erin St Vincents arm lung” on 28 June 2023.

She messaged Patterson that night saying “simply questioning how you bought on at your appointment right now? Love Gail and Don.”

Patterson wrote again the following morning that the appointment “went OK”, that she had a needle biopsy taken of a lump, and would have an MRI the next week.

“That’s a check of endurance isn’t it!? Praying you’ll know God’s peace,” Gail responded.

On 6 July 2023, Gail requested Patterson how she went along with her check.

Patterson responded there was “a bit to digest” however that she would discuss to her and Don when she noticed them in individual.

Eppingstall mentioned that checks of Patterson’s Medicare information discovered there had been no exams of that nature, and St Vincent’s hospital additionally confirmed it had no file of treating Patterson.

Colin Mandy SC, for Patterson, began his cross-examination of Eppingstall on Wednesday afternoon.

Mandy began his cross-examination with asking Eppingstall to verify that Patterson didn’t have a prison file.

He then requested Eppingstall to verify that Patterson directed police to the leftovers of the meal, offered them with an entry code for the gate to enter her property, retained the fruit platter and gravy from the meat wellington lunch within the fridge, and had given police permission to interrupt into the home in the event that they needed to in an effort to discover the leftovers.

Mandy took Eppingstall to well being information, and Sign message exchanges between her and Simon, to exhibit she additionally had considerations about ovarian most cancers, and a historical past of researching her signs, courting again to 2021.

She additionally had a household historical past of most cancers, together with ovarian most cancers.

The trial continues.