At least three family members died in Brazil after consuming a homemade cake at a family gathering and three other members were hospitalised, police officials said.
The victims – Tatiana Denize Silva dos Anjos, 43, and Maida Berenice Flores da Silva, 58, – suffered a cardiac arrest after eating the traditional Brazilian Christmas cake “Bolo de Natal” as they gathered for holiday celebrations in Torres on Monday, local reports said.
The third victim Neuza Denize Silva dos Anjos, 65, was also reported dead a day earlier on Christmas Eve. The hospital Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes de Torres said the cause of her death was “shock after poisoning”.
Three more members of the family, including a 10-year-old boy and Zeli Terezinha Silva dos Anjos who made the cake with her sister and hosted the gathering, are also hospitalised, officials said. Ms Zeli was the first person to be rushed to the hospital after she ate two slices of the cake.
Blood tests conducted on the family members, including one killed and two surviving members, revealed traces of arsenic, a toxic heavy metal, reported Brazilian television channel Globo.
The chain of deaths has sparked concerns among the civil police who are now investigating the death of the baker, Ms Zeli’s late husband as well, who died in September under similar circumstances of food poisoning.
Police officials are requesting exhuming his body now to launch an investigation into his death, the report added.
They added that several food products procured from Ms Zeli’s home were expired, including a medicine bottle that contained a white liquid.
“A bottle was found, a medicine, which should have had capsules inside it and there were no capsules – there was a white liquid and this white liquid will also be examined,” the police said.
Police said they have not found any history of inheritance disputes or falling-out among the family members before the gathering this Christmas.
A friend of the family said the native cake was key to the family celebrations. “It was a traditional family cake, a king cake, which they always, always, always, made,” the friend told Globo news.