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On the eve of her trial for allegedly killing three relatives with poisonous mushrooms, Erin Patterson had additional murder attempt charges dropped for when she was accused of trying to kill her estranged husband, Simon Patterson.

In July 2023, Patterson, 50, was accused of poisoning her husband’s family by way of a Beef Wellington laced with toxic mushrooms. Patterson’s former in-laws – Don Patterson and Gail Patterson, as well as Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson – died in the hospital following the meal. Wilkinson’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, survived after weeks of hospital treatment. Patterson was arrested in November 2023.

Patterson’s trial began on Wednesday in the Supreme Court of Victoria, an Australian state. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges. On Tuesday, the jury was informed that the prosecutors were not pursuing the charges that Patterson had tried to kill Simon on the occasion with his family, nor the previous...

A simple family lunch in Australia turned out to be the last lunch three people were ever going to have.

Erin Patterson, 48, prepared beef Wellington with “lots of mushrooms” and served them to her guests. Patterson’s lunch guests included her ex-husband’s parents, Gail and Don Patterson, both 70, and a pastor and his wife, Ian and Heather Wilkinson, 68 and 66, respectively.

Patterson’s ex-husband, Simon Patterson, was also invited to the lunch but was unable to make it. Their two children were also not at the lunch, as they had left to go to the movies, but are said to have eaten the beef Wellington with the mushrooms removed because they did not like them.

On the night of the beef Wellington lunch, all the guests felt sick and were taken to the hospital. Days later, both of Simon’s parents and Heather, who was also his mother’s sister and his aunt,...

Two cousins were sentenced to prison for the 1973 murders of a 12- and 13-year-old girl that went unsolved for more than four decades, People confirms.

William Lloyd Harbour, 65, and Larry Don Patterson, 66, were sentenced to five years to life in prison Thursday for using a shotgun to kill 12-year-old Valerie Janice Lane and 13-year-old Doris Karen Derryberry.

Both are eligible for parole every five years, a Yuba County Superior Court official tells People. Their penalty was the maximum allowable under the law at the time of the murders.

Harbour and Patterson were arrested in September, 43 years after the murders, following...

The families of two California girls found dead in 1973 have waited nearly 43 years for answers and justice. Authorities tell People they got some of that this week with the "long overdue" arrest of two suspects in the double homicide. William Lloyd Harbour and Larry Don Patterson were arrested Tuesday in Linda, California, and Oakhurst, Oklahoma, respectively, the Yuba County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Sheriff spokeswoman Leslie Carbah tells People the near-simultaneous arrests were coordinated to avoid having one suspect potentially tip off the other. The men are cousins, Carbah says. Harbour and Patterson, both 65, were 22 when they allegedly killed Valerie Janice Lane,...

The families of two California girls found dead in 1973 have waited nearly 43 years for answers and justice. Authorities tell People they got some of that this week with the "long overdue" arrest of two suspects in the double homicide. William Lloyd Harbour and Larry Don Patterson were arrested Tuesday in Linda, California, and Oakhurst, Oklahoma, respectively, the Yuba County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Sheriff spokeswoman Leslie Carbah tells People the near-simultaneous arrests were coordinated to avoid having one suspect potentially tip off the other. The men are cousins, Carbah says. Harbour and Patterson, both 65, were 22 when they allegedly killed Valerie Janice Lane,...