Khaberni - São Paulo, Brazil, witnessed a tragic incident after the death of a woman and her daughter from eating a birthday cake suspected to have been poisoned, sent by a relative who owed them money.
According to "Daily Mail", Ana Maria de Jesus, 52, and her daughter Larissa de Jesus Castelo, 21, died after being rushed to the hospital in critical condition after consuming a piece of cake brought to them by Ana’s niece's husband, named Patricia.
Postmortem examinations revealed traces of pesticides in the bodies of the victims, leading Brazilian police to launch an extensive criminal investigation and request the detention of Patricia and her partner Leonardo, although the judge has refused the request for reasons not yet announced.
Police investigations through the examination of the suspects' phones revealed suspicious online searches, including "causes of heart attacks" and "poisoning by cleaning substances". It was also shown that Ana Maria had a habit of lending money to her relative and her husband, and it is believed that the financial debt was a possible motive for the crime.
On the day of the incident, Leonardo arrived at the family's home on his motorcycle and delivered the cake to Ana, who had not attended the celebration due to a cold.
After eating a piece of the cake, she felt severely ill and called her daughter saying she could no longer stand, so she was transferred to Heliopolis Hospital in São Paulo and placed on artificial respiration before she passed away.
The tragedy did not end there, as Larissa and her cousin, who was 16 years old, later consumed the remaining cake after leaving the hospital, which quickly deteriorated their health and resulted in Larissa's death.
Paulo's Public Security Secretariat announced that the Criminal Investigation Unit confiscated the suspects' phones and sent them for digital data analysis, confirming that the investigation is still ongoing to determine the circumstances of the death and the motives behind the crime.
This incident comes amidst an increase in poisoning crimes in Brazil during recent months. In December, the country experienced a similar case after three people died from consuming a birthday cake contaminated with arsenic in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
