THE woman who baked a deadly Christmas cake that cost the lives of three people had previously laced powdered milk with arsenic to poison her father-in-law, it has been alleged.
The bombshell twist comes as investigators confirmed that Paulo Luiz Dos Anjos had indeed ingested arsenic after an exhumation of his body was ordered.
The woman has been accused of poisoning her family with an arsenic-laced Christmas dessert[/caption]
A post-mortem confirmed Zeli’s husband Paulo had also ingested arsenic[/caption]
Cops requested a post-mortem after 39-year-old Deise Moura was accused of baking the arsenic-laced dessert which killed three members of her family in Porto Alegre in southern Brazil on December 23.
She was arrested on suspicion of triple murder and attempted murder.
And it has now been revealed her father-in-law- Paulo had drunk coffee with arsenic-laced powdered milk before his death.
Deise’s mother-in-law Zeli Dos Anjos survived and was admitted to the ICU from where she was discharged on Friday.
She is the only one of the three sisters to have survived what appears to be a poisoning after cops found arsenic in the blood of those who ate the cake.
Her niece Tatiana Denize Silva dos Anjos, 43, and sister Maida Berenice Flores da Silva, 58, passed away after eating the dessert when they suffered cardiac arrest.
In the wake of the Christmas tragedy, it emerged Zeli’s husband had died from suspected food poisoning back in September.
Following revelations about Deise’s deadly cake, cops decided to investigate the man’s death – who had reportedly died after eating mashed bananas grown in the family’s garden.
His body was exhumed last week and a post-mortem confirmed he had also ingested arsenic, Fantástico reports.
The tragedy struck on December 23 during the family gathering at the apartment of Maída, one of the victims.
Her husband, Jefferson, told the outlet everyone started to feel sick right after eating the cake.
He said: “Zeli ate first and said: ‘Wow, it tastes strange’… When I took the first bite, I also felt something sour. Then Neuza went to eat.
“She ate, took a bite, went for the second… ‘No, don’t eat it because this cake doesn’t taste good.’”
According to one of the investigators, the cake had an odd “spicy” and “peppery” flavour, but this didn’t stop the family from eating it.
Zeli fell ill after reportedly eating two slices of the Bolo de Natal traditional cake while her ten-year-old great-nephew was also hospitalised after eating a piece.
Neuza Denise, another of Zeli’s sisters, was one of the three people killed, as was her daughter, Tatiana.
A concerned family friend had reportedly raised the alarm about the family feud, reporting to the police three days before the incident that Deise had threatened the family in a heated argument.
Brazilian police discovered an unidentified bottle of “whitish liquid” at Zeli’s house.
After investigators seized Deise’s phone they found searches for “poison for the heart”, “arsenic poison”, and “poison that kills humans.”
Fantastico also reports the arsenic was purchased online by Deise just days before Paul’s death in September.
Arsenic is a metallic element that occurs naturally.
Its inorganic form is highly toxic and classified as a category one carcinogen by the EU.
Investigations are ongoing.
The baffling case echoes the poisoned mushroom case in Australia that killed three last year.
Mum Erin Patterson served up a beef wellington that left her former parents-in-law Don, 70, and Gail Patterson, 70, as well as Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, dead.
The 49-year-old is set to face a murder trial after pleading not guilty to all charges.
