Brazilian police have revealed that the woman arrested for suspected Christmas cake poisoning had argued with her family for years before three of them died from the arsenic-laced dessert.
Deise Moura, daughter-in-law of one of the poisoned women but who survived, was arrested yesterday at her home in Rio Grande do Sul on suspicion of triple murder and attempted murder.
Her mother-in-law Zeli Dos Anjos prepared the traditional holiday delicacy that killed three members of her family at a Christmas party in the southern city of Torres on December 23.
Zeli, a mother of one, is still in hospital fighting for her life, while her two sisters Maida da Silva, 58, and Neuza Dos Anjos, 65, died along with Neuza’s daughter Tatiana Dos Santos. 43 years old.
They lost their lives within hours of eating the cake, and police chief Marcus Vinicius Veloso said today that the flour found in Zeli’s house contained large amounts of arsenic.
“We suspect that the detained individual entered Zeli’s house and then contaminated the flour,” the investigating agent revealed today at a press conference.
Police and forensic officers confirmed that “elevated levels” of arsenic had been found in the cake and in the blood and urine of those who had died, as well as those who survived.
Veloso added that other substances were found in searches of the suspect’s home in Nova Santa Rita, but said testing and investigations were still ongoing and he could not comment further.
Police said “disagreements” between the suspect and Zeli dated back almost 20 years, but declined to go into exactly details other than to say that “further elements would be released in due course.”
Deise was initially taken to a Canoas police station, then to the Torres police station and is now in the city’s women’s prison.
Zeli dos Anjos (pictured) prepared the traditional ‘Bolo de Natal’ for an afternoon coffee with the family
In the photo: the Christmas cake that the guests consumed on December 23.
The Brazilian police in Torres offer a press conference today to explain the arrest of Deise Moura
When asked what the family circumstances were, Veloso said: “We knew there had been minor disagreements between the suspect and elements of the family for several years.
“At first glance, everyone present at the party was close and harmonious, but when we expanded our investigations we found motives that were probably behind this poisoning.
Police have also confirmed that they plan to exhume the body of Zeli’s husband, Paulo, who died last September from “food poisoning”, to determine if there were traces of arsenic in his body.
Veloso added: “We have evidence, very solid and solid evidence that she was the one behind this crime, and we have the reasons, but we can’t go into the details yet.”
According to Marguet Mittman, director of the General Institute of Experts (IGP), the source of the contamination was the flour used to make the cake consumed by the victims.
She told the press conference: ‘Very high concentrations of arsenic were identified in all three victims. So high that they are toxic and lethal.
«To give you an idea, 35 micrograms are enough to cause death. In one of the victims there was a concentration 350 times higher.’
He added that 89 samples were collected in the house of the woman who made the cake and only one sample, of flour, showed high concentrations of arsenic.
Brazil’s Ministry of Justice today confirmed to MailOnline that an arrest warrant was issued for Deise ‘on suspicion of having committed a triple homicide, with futile motive and use of poison, and three attempted homicides, with double aggravation’.
The ministry statement added that “the suspect will have a custody hearing on Monday afternoon.”
Deise Moura (pictured) was detained by police at the home she shares with her husband.
The woman was arrested for triple homicide and triple attempted homicide
Police reportedly began investigating Deise after an apparent argument with a relative at the victims’ funeral last month.
Deise is said to have placed a ‘set of rosaries and a rose’ into the hands of Maida and Tatiana as they lay in the cemetery in their coffins, a gesture which prompted an extraordinary outburst from a furious relative who, a source told MailOnline , shout. : ‘Why are you here? You didn’t like any of them. Everyone knows it.
The source added: ‘Diego and Deise have been staying away from the rest of the family for the past few months. They didn’t really participate much. “There was tension.”
Tatiana’s 10-year-old son Matheus, Zeli’s great-nephew, was treated at the hospital and was not released until Friday, while Maida’s husband, Jefferson, was also treated, but Neuza’s husband, Joao , did not eat any cake and was not affected.
Police are set to expand on what they believe is behind the horrific poisoning, with reports in Brazil that the suspect and Zeli quarreled in the past in a dispute said to be linked to what happened later.
It comes after MailOnline revealed that Zeli’s first husband Paulo Luis, 68, died after eating a banana that had been contaminated, with officials set to exhume his body from his final resting place next Thursday. as part of his research.
It was on Zeli’s seaside property that she made the cake on December 23, which she took to Maida’s apartment for the party, and at the house police confiscated ingredients such as nuts and flour, as well as pesticides.
Last week, police said they are “not aware of any dispute within the family” but are keeping an open mind as they await lab test results due any day now and interim reports revealed arsenic in the blood. of the victims.
Matheus Marques da Silva, 10, survived by eating the poisoned cake with Father Leonir Alves in the hospital in Torres, Brazil.
Several family members died after eating the cake.
Neuza Denize Silva dos Anjo, 65, was rushed to hospital in critical condition before dying the next day.
Investigation sources confirmed that Paulo’s body would be exhumed next Thursday for further analysis, since none was taken after doctors at the Torres hospital ruled that he had died from food poisoning.
Family members told MailOnline that he and Zeli became suddenly ill after eating mashed bananas they had grown from a plant in their garden and which may have been contaminated after floods hit the region in May.
At that time, Zeli was also taken to the hospital, but recovered, while Paulo died a few hours after being admitted.
The group of seven people who attended the Christmas party complained that the cake she baked tasted “bitter and spicy.” Within minutes everyone was vomiting and a fleet of ambulances were called to take them to the hospital.
Maida, a retired teacher, was the first to die on Christmas Eve, Neuza died a few hours later, followed by her daughter Tatiana.
The mother of one of them had been arrested at her home in Nova Santa Rita late on Sunday.
Zeli’s great-nephew, ten-year-old Matheus, Tatiana’s son, also fell ill and spent a week in intensive care before being transferred to a pediatric unit on Friday night from the Senhora dos Navegantes hospital in Torres.
Paulo’s brother, Joao, married to Neuza, did not eat any cake, but Maida’s husband, Jefferson, ate a few bites and also became ill, but did not require hospitalization.
Just a few days ago, Jefferson’s sister Isabel Moraes, 54, exclusively told MailOnline she thought someone with a “grudge” had been responsible for attacking the family and described the tragedy as “bizarre”.
When MailOnline contacted her to ask her reaction to the arrest, she said: ‘The whole family is shocked. We just don’t know what to say, someone so close to us we never imagined.’