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A Brazilian woman, Deise Moura dos Anjos, aged 42, was discovered deceased in her prison cell, with authorities suspecting suicide as the likely cause of death. This incident follows her arrest in January, facing allegations of murder for the poisoning of three family members during a Christmas gathering, along with attempted murder charges for three others.
The tragedy unfolded when the victims consumed a Christmas cake, which forensic analysis revealed had been made with flour tainted by arsenic. Investigators are also probing the potential poisoning of Moura dos Anjos’s father-in-law, who passed away in September. An autopsy conducted after his exhumation uncovered elevated arsenic levels in his remains, suggesting he suffered a similar fate.
Moura dos Anjos consistently denied any involvement in the alleged crimes. Nevertheless, Cléber dos Santos Lima, the local police chief, expressed confidence in her guilt, stating that evidence indicated she had intentionally acquired and utilized poison to harm her relatives. Reports confirmed that she had made multiple purchases of arsenic on four different occasions.
Following the illnesses of the victims, investigators meticulously searched the home of Moura dos Anjos’s mother-in-law, where the poisoned cake was prepared. Their efforts identified dangerously high arsenic levels in the flour used, linking it back to the cake served at the Christmas event. However, attention swiftly shifted away from Zeli dos Anjos, the mother-in-law, who had also consumed the cake and fell gravely ill but ultimately survived the ordeal.
Tragically, two of Zeli dos Anjos’s sisters and one niece succumbed to the effects of the poison. Additionally, a 10-year-old grandson and a relative’s husband were among those sickened but were fortunate to recover from the incident.
Source
www.bbc.com