An investigation has been opened into the death of three members of the same family who ate a Christmas cake poisoned with arsenic, in Torres in the south of Brazil, several local media report.
On December 23, seven people gathered for coffee with their family. One of them had prepared a traditional Brazilian cake usually served at Christmas. The six family members who ate it, including the one who prepared it, began to feel ill during the afternoon.
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Three of them lost their lives and the other three, including the cook, were hospitalized.
The three people who died are Tatiana Denize Silva dos Anjos, 43, Maida Berenice Flores da Silva, 58, and Neuza Denize Silva dos Anjos, 65.
One of the victims arrived at the hospital in cardiac arrest and died shortly after. A second, in critical condition, also fell into cardio-respiratory arrest before passing away.
The sixty-year-old died of “post-temporal shock” the next day.
Zeli Terezinha Silva dos Anjos, 61, who prepared the cake, and her 10-year-old son were among those hospitalized who survived. Another person is out of danger, whose identity has not been released.
Investigators initially believed it was food poisoning, having found several expired foods in the woman who had cooked the cake. However, scientific analyzes made it possible to discover the presence of arsenic in the blood of several of the victims.
Although the investigation continues to clarify the cause of death of the three women, this tragedy has also prompted the police to reopen another case.
Indeed, the husband of Zeli Terezinha Silva dos Anjos died of food poisoning last September, but his death was not investigated since the case was considered a natural death.
In light of the most recent events, the authorities decided to exhume the man’s body to check whether he too had been poisoned.
