After weeks of tension and speculation in mushroom murder trial, attention returns to the three lives taken

With each guilty verdict, Patterson looked straight at the jury, unflinching, her face unreadable

• Five key moments in the murder trial of Australia's mushroom lunch cook Erin Patterson

• Erin Patterson found guilty of murdering relatives with lunch laced with death cap mushrooms

After two-and-a-half months, more than 50 witnesses and a media frenzy that had journalists sprinting through the streets of Morwell to make the verdict in time, the final moment of Erin Patterson's trial arrived in silence.

At 2.15pm on Monday at Latrobe Valley law courts in Morwell, about a two-hour drive from Melbourne, courtroom four was packed and humming with tension.

Justice Christopher Beale, who had presided over the supreme court trial, instructed everyone to remain silent during the hearing. He didn't need to. You could hear a pin drop.

Before the judge entered, Patterson sat between two security guards. She closed her eyes. Her chest rose and fell with slow, deliberate breaths.

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