Speaker 1: Before we begin, a quick note. We've used voice actors
Speaker 1: throughout this episode to bring you the words spoken in court.
Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, May twenty eight, twenty twenty five. Gas is
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Speaker 1: fully liberal government to unlock sixteen thousand square kilometers for
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Speaker 1: be Queen Ingrid. You can read our colleague Richard Ferguson's
Speaker 1: hilarious take on that story right now at The Australian
Speaker 1: dot com dot au. Aaron Patterson told police she'd never
Speaker 1: foraged for mushrooms and didn't own a dehydrator, even after
Speaker 1: police had seized CCTV showing Patterson dumping a dehydrator at
Speaker 1: a tip. Today, we're bringing you Aaron Patterson's police interview
Speaker 1: recreated by voice actors after it was played at the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court trial where she's pleaded not guilty to murder.
Speaker 2: My name's Luke Farrell, detective sergeant. The reason we hear
Speaker 2: today is to execute a search warrant, sure, and it's
Speaker 2: in connection with the death of two people over the
Speaker 2: last couple of days.
Speaker 3: Hey died.
Speaker 1: That's the opening moment of a day that's become very
Speaker 1: important in the trial of Aaron Patterson, the Victorian mother
Speaker 1: of two who's accused of murdering three elderly relatives and
Speaker 1: attempting to murder a fourth. She has pleaded not guilty
Speaker 1: at eleven forty am. On August five, twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: four police officers showed up at Patterson's home on the
Speaker 1: outskirts of Lea and Gaffer, a small community in Victoria's Gippsland.
Speaker 1: Homicide Detective Luke Farrell took the lead, and after that
Speaker 1: exchange on the doorstep, the officers spent four hours combing
Speaker 1: through the house. On Tuesday, Prosecutor Jane Warren took Detective
Speaker 1: Sergeant Farrell through photos taken on the day and.
Speaker 4: On the bench there, what do we see that.
Speaker 2: Is a cookbook recipe Team Eats Dinner cookbook.
Speaker 4: Did you open the book and look inside the book
Speaker 4: at the time of locating this, Yes, I did, okay,
Speaker 4: And did you locate a recipe of relevance to your inquiries?
Speaker 2: Yes, So it wasn't a bookmark page, but on a
Speaker 2: separate page there was a beef Wellington recipe. Yes, and
Speaker 2: that page was spatted with cooking liquids.
Speaker 1: The cops went through the house, seizing electronic devices and
Speaker 1: other items, and then they took Erin Patterson to one
Speaker 1: Thaggy Police station to answer some questions. Today, we're going
Speaker 1: to voice act for you that interview, which was recorded
Speaker 1: on video and played to the jury on Tuesday. The
Speaker 1: interviewing officer was Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall of
Speaker 1: Victoria Police's Homicide Squad. He's the lead investigator in this matter.
Speaker 1: Eppingstall told the court one of his first actions in
Speaker 1: the case on August four, five days after the lunch,
Speaker 1: was to ask a tactical intelligence officer, Detective Senior Constable
Speaker 1: Meg Crawford, to begin looking through Aaron Patterson's records, including
Speaker 1: bank details. Crawford found a transaction from two days earlier
Speaker 1: August iiO made by Aaron Patterson at the Kunwara Transfers station.
Speaker 1: The local tip police obtained CCTV of Patterson at the
Speaker 1: tip and visited to recover the item she deposited, a
Speaker 1: black Sunbeam food dehydrator. After searching Patterson's home, Eppingstall was
Speaker 1: ready to ask his questions.
Speaker 5: This is a DVD recorded interview between Detective Leading Senior
Speaker 5: Constable Stephen Eppingstall and Aaron Patterson of Leon Gatha, conducted
Speaker 5: at the one Thaggy Police Station on Saturday, the fifth
Speaker 5: of August twenty twenty three. The other person present is
Speaker 5: my cooperator, Detective Senior Constable David Martin. Eron. Do you
Speaker 5: agree The time is now four forty one by my watch? Yep.
Speaker 5: Could you please state your full name and address.
Speaker 3: For me, Aaron, Trudy Patterson, Lee and Gatha.
Speaker 5: Now, as we discussed earlier, and we've been together for
Speaker 5: a few hours now, it was after eleven thirty that
Speaker 5: we came to your house today. We want to discuss
Speaker 5: the deaths of Heather Wilkinson and Gal Patterson today with you.
Speaker 5: When we were at the house earlier, we discussed that
Speaker 5: you hadn't really been kept in the loop, and it
Speaker 5: come as news to you that Heather and Gaiale had
Speaker 5: both passed away. Following eating at your house. Donald, Ian, Gale,
Speaker 5: and Heather all became so ill that they ultimately ended
Speaker 5: up in the intensive care unit at both danny On
Speaker 5: Hospital and then moved to Austin Hospital. Following that they've
Speaker 5: had a deterioration in their condition that they become so
Speaker 5: ill that their livers have failed. All right, Donald underwent
Speaker 5: a transplant last night, okay, and his condition is still
Speaker 5: extremely critical. As I advised before, Heather and Gale have
Speaker 5: passed away. In relation to Ian, I don't have a
Speaker 5: current prognosis in relation to where he's at. We're trying
Speaker 5: to understand what has made them so ill. Do you
Speaker 5: understand why we're asking these questions?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: On the other hand, conversely, we're trying to understand why
Speaker 5: you're not that ill. Do you understand why we're interviewing
Speaker 5: you today?
Speaker 3: Yeap, I do. But I'm sure you understand too that
Speaker 3: I've never been in a situation like this, and I've
Speaker 3: been very very helpful with the health department through the
Speaker 3: week because I wanted to help that side of things
Speaker 3: as much as possible, because I do want to know
Speaker 3: what happened. So I've given them as much information as
Speaker 3: they've asked for and offered up all the food and
Speaker 3: all the information about where the food came from at
Speaker 3: the house.
Speaker 5: And I must say, for the record again you were
Speaker 5: very helpful at the house and you did point out
Speaker 5: a couple of things for us that will help us
Speaker 5: with our investigation, mainly the fruit platter that you said
Speaker 5: how they bought for you, and the gravy and the
Speaker 5: fridge or the pantry that you said was from the
Speaker 5: night and you kept on advice from the Health Department,
Speaker 5: so thank you for that. You also pointed out a
Speaker 5: recipe book on the counter and you referred me to
Speaker 5: page two hundred and fifty odd the recipe for beef Wellington,
Speaker 5: and you indicated that was the recipe you'd cooked. We
Speaker 5: didn't see a lot of food Fromation Grossers or Indian
Speaker 5: gross or those kinds of stores.
Speaker 3: Did you look in my fridge. I've got a lot
Speaker 3: of Asian cooking stuff in my fridge.
Speaker 5: I did to find more of that kind of stuff
Speaker 5: at the Mount Waverley address, do you think or no?
Speaker 3: Because I did a big clean out of the pantry,
Speaker 3: which is the last time that I was there, because
Speaker 3: I'm going to sell that place.
Speaker 5: Obviously, we've got concerns in relation to the mushrooms and
Speaker 5: where they've come from. Is that something you've done in
Speaker 5: the past, foraging for mushrooms or anything like that.
Speaker 3: Never, never, never, do.
Speaker 5: You preserve foods or anything like that. No, have you
Speaker 5: ever dehydrated food or anything?
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: Coming up more of Aaron Patterson's police interview. That's after
Speaker 1: the break.
Speaker 5: You've described the relationship with your ex partner, Simon. I'd
Speaker 5: like to understand why you had his parents and his uncle.
Speaker 3: And aunt over for lunch because I've no other family
Speaker 3: and they've always been really good to me, and I
Speaker 3: want to maintain those relationships with them in spite of
Speaker 3: what's happened with Simon. I love them a lot. They've
Speaker 3: always been really good to me, and they always said
Speaker 3: to me that they would support me with love and
Speaker 3: emotional support even though Simon and I were separated, and
Speaker 3: I really appreciated that. Because my parents are both gone,
Speaker 3: my grandparents are all gone. They're the only family that
Speaker 3: I've got and they're the only grandparents that my children have,
Speaker 3: and I want them to stay in my kid's life,
Speaker 3: and that's really important to me. I think Simon hated
Speaker 3: that I still had a relationship with his parents, but
Speaker 3: I love them. Nothing that's ever happened between us, nothing
Speaker 3: is ever done to me, will change the fact that
Speaker 3: they are good, decent people that have never done anything
Speaker 3: wrong by me.
Speaker 5: Ever, so we've been told that. On the thirty first
Speaker 5: of July, So two days after the lunch you went
Speaker 5: to the Lambgatha Hospital. I think you were only there
Speaker 5: for about five minutes and then you left. Can you
Speaker 5: explain why you went there for five minutes?
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I just went there thinking I needed a
Speaker 3: couple of bags of saline because I was really dehydrated.
Speaker 3: And they said they want to admit me and send
Speaker 3: me to Melbourne. And when you've got animals at home
Speaker 3: and children who have multiple after school activities, you can't
Speaker 3: just be told to drop everything and you're off to
Speaker 3: Melbourne for the night. So I had to go home
Speaker 3: and feed the animals and pack my daughter's ballet bag.
Speaker 3: And I did that and I went back.
Speaker 5: Who did you speak to?
Speaker 3: So I walked in and there was like, I don't
Speaker 3: think they were a nurse. It was like, I don't know,
Speaker 3: it could have been an enrolled nurse or it was
Speaker 3: like to help a person in the triage room, right,
Speaker 3: And she says, like, are you okay? And I said said, well, no,
Speaker 3: I have to run to the toilet. I've got diarrhea.
Speaker 3: And she wasn't quite sure where it was, and so
Speaker 3: she went and found out and showed me where it is,
Speaker 3: and then she said, I'll go and find someone. I'll
Speaker 3: get a nurse or a doctor for you. And so
Speaker 3: I went to the toilet, I came back out. I
Speaker 3: was waiting in the triage area and then a doctor
Speaker 3: came out, Dr Webster, and he said to me, sorry,
Speaker 3: we're going to be a little whild because we've got
Speaker 3: a couple of critical patients in the hospital. And I said,
Speaker 3: that's fine, don't worry about me. I'm just a gastroad case.
Speaker 3: I'm not urgent, obviously. And he said, oh, what's your
Speaker 3: name and I said Erin and he said, oh, we've
Speaker 3: been expecting you because other people that you ate with
Speaker 3: on Saturday are sick. And he said can you come
Speaker 3: through and I said sure, and then he said to me,
Speaker 3: I can't remember the exact words, but he said something
Speaker 3: along the lines of we've got a concern that they've
Speaker 3: eaten death cap mushrooms and I said what and he said, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's what we think they've eaten, and then started asking
Speaker 3: me about what food I served them, and I told him.
Speaker 5: All right, I understand you went down at the hospital
Speaker 5: and got treatment of that. What kind of treatment did
Speaker 5: you get?
Speaker 3: Oh, they hooked me up to a drip. They said
Speaker 3: that they were concerned. So Dr Webster had to leave.
Speaker 3: I think he was at the end of his shift,
Speaker 3: and he passed on to another doctor and she said
Speaker 3: to me, because the concern is that everybody's eaten something
Speaker 3: that hurts your liver, we need to give you this
Speaker 3: protective medicine. And so there was saline or something or other,
Speaker 3: but she said, we need to get you this and
Speaker 3: then put you in an ambulance up to Melbourne where
Speaker 3: they can give you more, where they can get you better.
Speaker 3: So I got saline and other stuff. How long are
Speaker 3: you at the hospital for till Tuesday?
Speaker 5: And again full disclosure, so you understand, we've obtained warrants
Speaker 5: to medical records for everyone involved in this, so we'll
Speaker 5: get medical records in relation to new treatment there as well.
Speaker 5: Sure you were at home in person when we did
Speaker 5: a search warrant today, right, And like I said, we'll
Speaker 5: give you a little copy of this everything we've seized.
Speaker 5: Kitchen fire left bottom drawer instruction manual for a Sunbeam
Speaker 5: Food Lab. Electronic dehydrator. What's that in relation to you
Speaker 5: know anything about a dehydrator in your house? No, do
Speaker 5: you own a dehydrator? No?
Speaker 3: Oh, I've got manuals of lots of stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Over the years, I've had all sorts of appliances and
Speaker 3: I just keep them all.
Speaker 5: Okay, Okay, when did you own a dehydrator?
Speaker 3: About eight or nine years ago?
Speaker 5: Okay, what did you use that for?
Speaker 3: Like when I first got the Thermomix, I got really
Speaker 3: excited about making everything from scratch, you know, and I
Speaker 3: did get a lot of you know, like everything from
Speaker 3: scratch ingredients, and I did a lot of that. So
Speaker 3: we'll have something like that.
Speaker 5: Okay, kitchen bench located against the wall. Recipe Tineat's book.
Speaker 3: That's that recipe book.
Speaker 5: That's the same book that the Wellington recipe comes out of.
Speaker 5: M well I think of it. One other thing that
Speaker 5: I should mention again to your credit. Police went around
Speaker 5: the house on that morning on the thirty first, and
Speaker 5: they were obviously responding to the hospital call to check
Speaker 5: up on you, and they spoke to you on the
Speaker 5: phone and you gave them the pin code for your
Speaker 5: gate and directed them to the bin where there were
Speaker 5: some leftovers. What were those leftovers that you directed them to?
Speaker 3: Uneeded food from the lunch.
Speaker 5: So you helped them getting that so it would be sampled.
Speaker 3: Because my kids ate them too, So there was stuff
Speaker 3: that was left over and it went straight in the bin.
Speaker 3: And so when I went to the hospital and they
Speaker 3: said they were concerned that everyone ate some contaminated food,
Speaker 3: I said, well, there's the leftovers in the bin. You
Speaker 3: can have it. Feel free to look through it. And
Speaker 3: I said I'll go and get it if you want.
Speaker 3: And they said that's fine, you need to go on
Speaker 3: a drip. We'll call the police. And I said, well,
Speaker 3: that's fine, just let them know I need to give
Speaker 3: them a pin code. So they did that and a
Speaker 3: bag of food appeared a bit later.
Speaker 5: Yep, so again thank you for helping us locate that.
Speaker 5: All right, erin do you agree? The time is now
Speaker 5: five point thirty pm by my watch? All right, I'm
Speaker 5: going to suspend the interview.
Speaker 1: Now, the video stopped and Justice Christopher Biale told the
Speaker 1: jury that irrelevant material had been edited out of the video.
Speaker 1: Prosecutor Jane Warren confirmed with Stephen Eppingstall that Don Patterson
Speaker 1: died later that night. A few weeks later, Ian Wilkinson
Speaker 1: was released from hospital and police continued their inquiries.
Speaker 4: As a result of those inquiries, was the accused arrested
Speaker 4: by police on the second of November twenty twenty three
Speaker 4: and formally charged.
Speaker 5: Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson has consistently denied deliberately poisoning anyone and has
Speaker 1: pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial continues on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: The Australian subscribers get all our live coverage, plus the
Speaker 1: reporting from our team on the ground, John Ferguson and
Speaker 1: Ellie Dudley. Check it out at the Australian dot com
Speaker 1: dot Au