Her lawyers, on the other hand, have asked the jury to find the deaths were a tragic accident and acquit Patterson.
Her husband Simon Patterson’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and aunt, Heather Wilkinson, died in the week after the lunch from organ failure attributed to mushroom poisoning.
Heather Wilkinson’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, fell gravely ill but recovered after a long stint in hospital.
Defence suggests police missed phone, computers
In cross-examination, Mandy suggested to Eppingstall that police missed several items when they searched her home on August 5.
Earlier, Eppingstall said he spent much of the search with Patterson, and left the search to his colleagues.
The officer told the jury they seized every electronic item they could find, but conceded additional electronic devices were located when police returned for a second search on November 2.
Taken to a photo of an ottoman with two powerboards, charging cables and a black Samsung tablet in a red and black case police did seize, Mandy pointed to a black object on the window sill above the ottoman.
He suggested this could be Patterson’s “Phone A”, which Eppingstall said on Wednesday that police never located.
“If that was a phone I would think we would have found it,” the officer said.
“I don’t think that’s consistent with a phone but it’s a matter for the jury.”
Another two photos are shown to the jury from Patterson’s “computer or Lego room”.
Mandy suggested that a white basket appeared to contain a phone box, which Eppingstall conceded does look like a phone box.
About a dozen Lego technical figurines can be seen on shelving, with the jury previously hearing evidence Patterson enjoys building Lego.
Mandy suggested that two objects on the shelving appear to be Acer laptops.
Eppingstall said he couldn’t make one out from the photo, but said the second “has the similarity to a laptop”.
“These items were not seized by police,” Mandy questioned.
“If these are laptops that’s the first I’m learning of these items,” the officer responds.
“I wasn’t searching, sir. I was with Ms Patterson.”
Subway photo not Patterson’s son – Defence
Eppingstall was then taken to evidence he gave on Tuesday about an investigation he took into Patterson’s movements after the lunch.
Earlier in the trial, Simon Patterson said his estranged wife told him she had taken their son to Subway the evening after the lunch for dinner but didn’t leave the car because she was worried she may have an accident.
On Tuesday, the jury was shown a compilation of CCTV footage showing a red SUV entering the car park, where a teenage boy exits and enters the restaurant.
Eppingstall told the jury the car then left, and, despite efforts to track the vehicle, police did not know where it went until 11 minutes later when it returned to collect the boy.
Mandy took the officer to two photos, one of Patterson’s son with his grandfather, Don, dated on July 17, 2023, and a still from the CCTV inside the Subway on July 29.
“We suggest to you that’s not (the boy’s name) getting out of the car,” the barrister said. “To be clear we’re not suggesting there wasn’t a visit.”
“Just that I got the wrong one,” Eppingstall finished.
Eppingstall did not concede that the boy pictured in the Subway CCTV was not Patterson’s son.
Bank records show purchases on day after fatal lunch
The day’s evidence began with Eppingstall questioned about a series of purchases he identified that Patterson made.
These included her Booktopia records, which the officer confirmed included a “large number” of books relating to diets.
Eppingstall was then taken by Mandy to banking records obtained for Patterson’s Bendigo Bank account between July 1 and August 4, 2023.
The officer confirmed earlier records, including April 2023 when Patterson said she purchased dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer in Melbourne, were not obtained.
“No sir,” he said.
The jury were shown two bank records that were consistent with earlier evidence about stops Patterson made on the afternoon of July 30, 2023, driving to and from Tyabb, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, for her son’s flying lesson.
The records capture $15.10 at a BP service station in Caldermeade, where a confectionary, a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich and a sweet chilli chicken wrap were purchased.
A second record, dated in the bank records as August 1, shows $13.10 spent at a doughnut van in Koo Wee Rup.
Simon, Don and Gail Patterson’s phones were analysed by police.
Asked questions about Simon Patterson’s phone, Eppingstall told the jury that Patterson’s estranged husband had provided police with his phone and those of his parents.
He told the court that an attempted extraction of Simon Patterson’s phone on August 6 failed, and his phone was returned.
“Given that his parents had just passed away we gave it back,” Eppingstall said.
“He re-attended on September 12 and it was done by our cybercrime.”
Eppingstall confirmed that Simon Patterson informed him that he had recently got a new phone, but it was his understanding the same phone was provided on August 6 and September 12.
The detective said the extraction conducted on Simon Patterson’s phone was limited to messages found on the device.
The jury was told messages from encrypted messaging platform Signal were extracted from Gail Patterson’s phone, but her husband’s was “fairly empty”.
“I don’t think he really used his phone much,” the officer said.
Patterson’s medical records probed by defence
After prosecutor Jane Warren told the court that she had no further questions for Eppingstall on Wednesday afternoon, Mandy began to probe the detective before the hearing was adjourned for the day.
His first question asked the officer if his client had no criminal history, with Constable Eppingstall responding: “Yes”.
Mandy then turned to whether Erin Patterson was helpful in the initial stages of the investigation, advising police where to find leftovers of the lunch, giving her gate access code and permission to break into her home if needed.
Again the detective said: “Yes”.
Over the last 45 minutes of the day, Mandy took Eppingstall through a series of medical notes, phone messages and hospital records about Patterson’s health.
Records shown to the jury in late 2021 and early 2022 indicate Patterson was seeking medical advice for a host of health complaints including fatigue, weight gain and overactive bladder, pins and needles and clumsiness.
“Erin worries about ovary cancer, has been googling her symptoms, thinks her symptoms may suggestive of ovary cancer,” a doctor’s note from October 2021 reads, indicating follow-up tests had been scheduled.
Another medical record outlining Patterson’s self-reported family history, states that her paternal aunt and maternal aunt had ovarian cancer.
Messages on encrypted messaging platform Signal between Patterson and Simon Patterson on January 4 and 5, 2022, record her complaining about her health while on a holiday to Tasmania.
“It’s my heart that’s troubling me,” Patterson wrote.
“I’m struggling with the energy to do basic things like get in and out of the car and, after I have a shower, I need to lie down and rest.”
Patterson later messages she’s “been doing some research” and her symptoms fit with right-sided heart failure.
Mandy asked Eppingstall if the records were “consistent with Erin Patterson being concerned about various health issues?”
“Yes, sir,” the detective replies.
Prosecutors alleged Patterson orchestrated the lunch with the “false claim” of a cancer diagnosis, while her defence contests she only told the lunch guests she had a “suspected” diagnosis.
The trial continues.
