The doctor who first treated triple-murderer Erin Patterson after she arrived at hospital suffering symptoms from her own poisonous mushroom meal says he knew she was guilty from the beginning.
Dr Chris Webster was the first medical professional to speak with Patterson when she presented to Leongatha Hospital around 8am on July 31, 2023 – the day after the fatal beef Wellington lunch that killed three members of her extended family and left a fourth critically ill.
Patterson stayed just five minutes before self-discharging against medical advice, prompting Dr Webster to call emergency services. That triple zero call – along with dozens of other exhibits – has now been publicly released.
“This is Dr Chris Webster calling from Leongatha Hospital. I have a concern regarding a patient that presented here earlier but has left the building and is potentially exposed to a fatal toxin from mushroom poisoning,” Webster told the operator. “I’ve tried several times to get hold of her on her mobile phone.”
Dr Webster explained that Patterson left the hospital before a nurse could begin observations. “I had a brief chat with her about where the mushrooms were obtained and after that, while I was attending to the other patients, the nurse informed me she had discharged herself against medical advice,” he told the operator.
Speaking out for the first time, Dr Webster said something about Patterson’s arrival set off alarm bells. “My heart skipped a beat,” he said. “I bypassed all of the usual triage protocols and just brought her straight in and sat her down and just looked her straight in the eye directly and said ‘the people at Dandenong suspect death cap mushroom poisoning, where did you get the mushrooms?’
“That’s when she said ‘Woolworths’. She was fairly impassive, wasn’t loud or hysterical, wasn’t crying. She just answered the question in a pretty matter-of-fact way.
“After that I was like: ‘OK, I don’t want to talk to you anymore, I know what you’ve done’.”
At the time, Ian and Heather Wilkinson were also in hospital, gravely ill. But Patterson, he said, showed no sign of concern.
“She wasn’t shaking, Erin was sat in a chair, I don’t even remember her looking at Ian and Heather,” he said. “She’s evil. She wanted people out of her life and rather than using normal channels she snuffed out their lives and attempted to snuff out another.”
Dr Webster’s call to emergency services was the first step in a chain of events that would ultimately lead to Patterson’s arrest, trial, and conviction for three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
“When she didn’t respond in a way that would instantly explain it was a tragic accident, from that moment in my mind she was guilty. She was evil, and she was very smart to carry it all out but she didn’t cross the Ts and dot the Is,” he said.
Recalling the moment he saw Patterson again, this time in the courtroom, Webster said the atmosphere was unmistakable.
“When I looked at her, when I found the opportunity to sneak a peek, it was visceral, I felt the intensity, the hostility, the negativity, it was an intense gaze,” he said.
“She’s evil and she had a problem, she had a dilemma, and the solution that she chose is sociopathic.
“If you don’t like your in-laws there are other things you can do besides snuffing out a family.”
Images: Victoria Supreme Court / Nine News
