A woman suspected to have killed three members of her family with a Christmas cake laced with arsenic was found dead in her prison cell in Brazil.
Deise Moura dos Anjos was found lifeless at the jail in Guaiba, near the city of Porto Alegre this morning., with her death being treated as a suicide.
The 42-year-old is alleged to have poisoned a cake with arsenic, which led to the death of three women and left two other people hospitalised, during a family gathering on Christmas Eve 2024.
Her family tucked into the food during the festive gathering, with the first casualties reported a short time later.
She was remanded in prison on January 6 on suspicion of three murders and three attempted murders.
Her mother-in-law Zeli dos Anjos, 61, had baked the cake, which was later found to have been contaminated with arsenic-laced flour.
Zeli was herself hospitalised but survived the poisoning. Her teacher sister Maida Bernice Flores da Silva, 58, another sibling Neuza Denize Silva Dos Anjos, 65 and Neuza’s daughter Tatiana Silvia Dos Santos, 43, died within hours of eating it.
Tatiana’s 10-year-old son Matheus, Zeli’s great nephew, was also taken into intensive care and spent several days in hospital.
Maida’s husband Jefferson needed hospital treatment too.
Deise protested her innocence but police branded her an alleged ‘serial killer’ after her arrest.
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