Tatiana Denize Silva dos Anjos, 43, Maida Berenice Flores da Silva, 58, and Neuza Denize Silva dos Anjos, 65, died after eating a Christmas cake on 23 December.
The cake had been prepared by 61-year-old Zeli Terezinha Silva dos Anjos, sister to Maida and Neuza, and aunt to Tatiana.
Zeli was the first person to be hospitalised after eating two slices of the cake and is currently in hospital along with two other family members, one of them a 10-year-old boy.
The family had eaten a homemade ‘Bolo de Natal’, a traditional Brazilian Christmas cake, with Tatiana and Maida suffering cardiac arrests and the hospital Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes de Torres saying that Neuza died of ‘shock after poisoning’, the Independent reports.
According to the Mail, blood tests carried out on those who ate the cake found the poisonous substance arsenic in the blood of some of the victims, though the investigation is still determining whether or not those affected were poisoned.
A police investigation will look further into the causes of his death, and found a number of expired ingredients at Zeli’s home, including a bottle of medicine.
Police said: “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 investigation has not found any evidence of inheritance disputes or falling out among the family members, and the Christmas cake was a holiday tradition.
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A Bolo de Natal is a type of Christmas cake popular in Brazil (Getty Stock Photo)
The woman who made the cake ate two slices and was the first to be hospitalised, and told police she’d bought some of the ingredients for it on the day she made it.
Traces of arsenic were found in Neuza’s body and in two of the people who ate the cake but survived.
The 10-year-old boy who was hospitalised and has not been named is thought to be Tatiana’s son, while there was one person at the family gathering who did not eat the cake.
A friend told Globo News that the family ‘always, always, always, made’ the traditional cake at Christmas and explained that it was a major part of their festive celebrations.
