Woman arrested after Christmas cake laced with arsenic kills 3 family members in Brazil
Brazilian police have arrested a woman who faces triple murder charges after several members of her family were poisoned Christmas cake with arsenicpolice said Monday.
Three women died and three other relatives fell ill after eating the cake during a family gathering on December 23 in Torres, a small coastal town in southern Brazil.
The police official in charge of the investigation, Marcos Veloso, said at a news conference on Monday that there was “strong evidence” incriminating the family member who was arrested.
Her identity was not revealed by the police, but Brazilian media reports she was the daughter-in-law of the woman who prepared the cake. G1 reports that the woman had researched arsenic on the Internet before the incident, officials confirmed to RBS TV.
Expert analyzes revealed high levels of arsenic — a natural and extremely toxic element — in the blood of the victims, the remaining slices of cake and the flour used for baking.
Veloso said family members noticed a “spicy” and “unpleasant” taste in the cake. The woman who was baking the cake asked them to stop eating it, but it was too late.
Six relatives were hospitalized. Two sisters, 58 and 65 years old, as well as the 43-year-old daughter of the oldest sister, died within a few hours of each other.
The third sister, aged 61, who prepared the cake, is still in hospital in a stable condition, according to the latest medical information.
Police said they also found several expired food items during a search of the woman’s home, CBS News partner BBC reported.
The husband of one of the deceased sisters and a 10-year-old boy — whose mother and grandmother were among those killed — have since been released.
According to local media, the police requested the exhumation of the body of the deceased husband of the woman who made the cake. He died in September from food poisoning, and the police considered his death to be natural at the time, the BBC reported.
The director of the forensic police of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, Marguet Mittman, said that “very high concentrations of arsenic were found in the three victims.”
“For an idea, 35 micrograms is enough to cause the death of a person. In one of the victims, the concentration was 350 times higher,” she said.
As for the motive behind the deadly cake, Veloso said the family had a “very harmonious” relationship, but with long-standing “differences” that could explain the origin of the crime.
Very low levels inorganic and organic arsenic are found in many food products, according to the National Institutes of Health. Testing is routine, as slightly elevated levels of either form can cause symptoms such as vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, numbness and muscle cramps.
Inorganic arsenic is more toxic to humans than the natural mineral form of arsenic, and the health effects of exposure are more severe, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. The Environmental Protection Agency has designated inorganic arsenic as a carcinogen, i.e. a substance that causes cancer.
