Woman Accused Of Killing 3 Family Members With Arsenic-Laced Christmas Cake Found Dead In Prison

A woman who was accused of killing three of her relatives with a Christmas cake laced with a fatal dose of arsenic has been found dead in a jail cell in southern Brazil.

Deise Moura dos Anjos, 42, was being held in custody at a prison in the southern Brazilian city of Guaiba since early January, according to multiple outlets. But this week, officials at the prison discovered the woman dead in her cell from as-yet-unknown causes.

This follows her arrest at the very start of the year for allegedly poisoning at least six of her family members with what cops claim was a Christmas cake purposely laced with arsenic at more than 2,700 times the survivable limit. Three of those family members — later identified as Tatiana Denize Silva dos Anjos, 43, Maida Berenice Flores da Silva, 58, and Neuza Denize Silva dos Anjos, 65 — died from the poisoning. Three other family members were sickened, but survived.

According to CNN, the criminal police in the city of Guaiba released this statement regarding Deise’s death in the prison:

“Deise was alone in the cell. The circumstances will be investigated by the Civil Police and the General Institute of Expertise.”

According to that outlet and the BBC, Deise had denied having anything to do with the murders and attempted murders of her family members after her arrest. But both outlets and others cited local police chief Cléber dos Santos Lima, who previously told Brazilian media outlets that Deise had allegedly purchased the deadly poison at least four separate times leading up to the crime.

Family members had been eating the cake while celebrating Christmas last December when they noticed it had a “spicy” taste to it. They were encouraged by others to stop eating, and did so, but for the three who lost their lives, it was too late. The levels of arsenic ingested from the cake were so high as to be unsurvivable, per local police.

CBS News and others previously reported in January that cops began doing the math on what might have happened after the three shocking deaths occurred in such quick succession. Then, the day before Deise was eventually discovered as the alleged murderer, her husband asked her for a divorce.

Now, her death — and prison officials’ pending investigation of the cause — would seem to put this case to an end. What an awful story all around… and a shocking and unexpected ending, to boot.

We send all of our love to the family members, friends, and loved ones of those lost following what should have been a fun and enjoyable Christmas with family.

[Image via WENN]