A woman has been arrested in Brazil on suspicion of murder and attempted murder after three members of her family died after eating a Christmas cake.

Deise Moura is accused of poisoning a Christmas cake baked by her mother-in-law, Zeli dos Anjos.

MailOnline reporter Nick Pisa told The Pat Kenny Show that those who ate the cake became violently ill only minutes after.

“A lady by the name of Zeli dos Anjos had baked a cake, as she does every year, and she’d taken it around to her relative’s house in the town of Tôrres near Porto Alegre in Southern Brazil,” he said.

“There was seven of them there – her two daughters, her niece, her great nephew and various husbands and partners.

“The seven of them began to eat the cake, and within a few minutes, they all started feeling violently ill.

“Paramedics were called to the flat and they were rushed to hospital and three people died.

"They were Zeli’s two sisters and her niece... Zeli, the person who actually made the cake, survived and spent 10 days in intensive care, and was only released on Monday.”

Young woman suffering from stomach pain. Image: BigShot01 / Alamy. 24 September 2022

Mr Pisa said Ms dos Anjos had been cleared of suspicion given how sick she had been.

Initially, police suspected there may have been an accidental mix-up of ingredients – but test results showed the victims had suffered from large amounts of arsenic in their blood.

“They were tipped off about various family disagreements that had been going on for many, many years between Zeli and her daughter-in-law, a woman called Deise Moura - who in fact was later arrested and is now in custody,” Mr Pisa said.

“She is accused of triple murder and triple attempted murder.”

Suspicion over previous family death

Ms Moura has since been charged in court and will remain in custody for another 30 days while police continue to put the case together.

However, Mr Pisa said her arrest has now raised suspicion over a past death in her family.

“Back in September, Zeli – the baker – her husband Paolo died from food poisoning, and initially it was dismissed as a tragic accident,” he said.

“Now, police have told us that they do plan to exhume his body later this week to carry out tests to firmly establish what his cause of death was.

“Intriguingly, we managed to get hold of his death certificate, which says that he died without making a will – and there is some suggestion in Brazilian media this was all a row perhaps over inheritance.”

Mr Pisa said the events had shocked locals in the area, particularly the family involved.

Featured image: Split image showing a Christmas cake (L) and a bottle of poison (R)