MELBOURNE, Australia — The high-profile case of the so-called Death Cap Mushroom Cook is likely to remain a topic of conversation across Australia for years to come.
For more than two months, the triple-murder trial has gripped the public's attention with details of how Erin Patterson murdered three of her estranged husband's relatives by deliberately serving them a lunch of poisonous mushrooms.
It was no surprise that on Tuesday — the day after the guilty verdict was delivered by the court in Victoria — media websites, social media and podcasts were scrambling to offer analysis on what motivated her.
Newspaper headlines described Patterson, 50, as a coercive killer with narcissistic characteristics. ''Cold, mean and vicious,'' read one.
Strict Australian court reporting laws prohibit anything that might sway jurors in a trial. Some news outlets had saved up thousands of words awaiting the verdicts: scrutiny of Patterson's past work history, behavior and psyche.
The coverage tried to explain why the mother of two meticulously planned the fatal lunch and lured three people she said she loved to their deaths. Any certain answer, for now, remains a mystery.
No motive
After a nine-week Supreme Court trial in the state of Victoria, it took the jury six days to convict Patterson. She was found guilty of murdering her parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, by serving them a lunch of beef Wellington pastries laced with poisonous mushrooms.