Brazil police investigating after 3 women die in suspected Christmas cake poisoning
Local media said ex-husband of woman who made cake died ‘of foodborne illness’ in September and police have ordered exhumation of his body
Brazilian police are investigating three deaths and several hospitalisations resulting from a family eating an arsenic-laced Christmas cake, local media reported over the weekend.
Three women died after eating the cake at a family get-together on December 23 in Torres, a small seaside town in southern Brazil.
The woman who baked the cake, along with a 10-year-old child who also ate it, remain in hospital, receiving treatment for poisoning.
The CartaCapital news website said the ex-husband of the woman who made the cake died in September.
Police initially believed that he died of foodborne illness. But his death was now being re-examined and an exhumation of his body has been ordered, according to CartaCapital.
The news website G1 said police were waiting until the hospitalised woman’s condition improved to question her. Testimony had meanwhile been taken from 15 other people as part of the investigation.
