Australian woman appears in court charged with poisoning husband and his relatives with mushrooms

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A woman accused of serving her ex-husband’s parents and an aunt poisonous mushrooms with lunch has appeared in an Australian court charged with three counts of murder and five of attempted murder. Erin Patterson appeared briefly in the Latrobe Valley Magistrates Court on Monday by video link from a Melbourne prison where she has been held since she was arrested in November last year. The magistrate said he will announce on May 7 whether Patterson will face a committal hearing in the same court in Morwell or in Melbourne. Morwell is a rural town near Patterson’s home east of Melbourne, the Victoria state capital. Committal hearings determine whether prosecutors have sufficient evidence.