Three Brazilian women are dead, and a relative is accused of murdering them with an arsenic-poisoned Christmas cake that sickened six of her other family members.
Reportedly, the incident happened on Christmas Eve in Brazil, and the suspect, Deise Moura, was the daughter-in-law of one of the victims. Brazilian law enforcement says the woman had feuded with her family for years. A victim who was sickened but recovered baked the cake. High levels of arsenic were found in the deceased’s bodies.
Citing Brazilian authorities, People reports the suspect searched arsenic-related topics online before it happened, and arsenic was in the flour used to bake the cake. Forensic police director of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, Marguet Mittman, said 35 micrograms of arsenic are enough to kill someone, CBS News reported. “In one of the victims, there was a concentration 350 times higher,” she added.
One surviving victim with the least amount in their system still tested for 80 times the allowed amount in food. “These concentrations are so high that it’s impossible to consider it a natural contamination,” Mittman said.
Family members reported an “unpleasant” spicy flavor to the cake
Multiple reports have said surviving family members told police they noticed an “unpleasant” and “spicy” flavor when they ate the cake, but it was too late. The three women who died were Denize Silva dos Anjos, 43, Maida Berenice Flores da Silva, 58, and Neuza Denize Silva dos Anjos, 65. Denize was Silva dos Anjos’ daughter.
All the victims began vomiting and had diarrhea before seeking medical attention, and the two older women who lost their lives died from cardiac arrest, doctors said. Denize, meanwhile died later from “shock after food poisoning,” according to the BBC. One person there that night who didn’t eat the cake did not become ill. One of the victims, a 10-year-old boy, was reportedly still “fighting for his life” when Moura was arrested.
At first, Brazilian authorities said it could not definitively be determined if the poisoning was intentional. Arsenic occurs naturally; small, non-lethal amounts are often found in food. Out-of-date food items were also recovered from her kitchen.
The woman who baked the cake’s husband died in September from food poisoning, and authorities have now requested his body be exhumed and tested for arsenic. The woman was also sickened at that time, but she recovered. Authorities said a flood may have contaminated the wild-grown bananas they both ate. The late man’s wife is not a suspect in either case.
The exact motive for why the woman may have tried to kill her family has not been determined. A Brazilian police official called the family “very harmonious” but added long-standing “differences” might explain the crime.
According to Metro, Police Chief Veloso said, referring to the case, “[Moura] was arrested for triple homicide and a triple attempted homicide. She was taken initially to a police station at Canoas, then to Torres police station, and is now in the women’s jail in the city, at this moment we cannot say anything else.”
