A woman accused of killing three relatives with a Christmas cake laced with “extremely high” levels of arsenic has broken her silence.
Deise Moura dos Anjos was arrested on 5 January suspected of triple murder and triple attempted murder.
She is the daughter-in-law of Zeli Terezinha Silva dos Anjos, a 61-year-old woman who hit headlines over a week ago after baking the deadly dessert.
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On 23 December, a family of seven gathered in Torres, Brazil, to enjoy some festive food.
According to Brazilian officials, some of the group complained the cake tasted “bitter and peppery”.
Within minutes, they were all were vomiting.
Zeli’s two sisters, Tatiana Denize Silva dos Anjos, 43, Maida Berenice Flores da Silva, 58, and her niece Neuza Denize Silva dos Anjos, 65, died.
Mother-of-one Zeli is still in hospital fighting for her life.
Zeli’s ten-year-old great nephew Matheus, Tatiana’s son, was also taken ill and spent a week in intensive care before being moved to a paediatric unit.
Maida’s husband Jefferson had a few mouthfuls and was also taken ill but did not require a stay in hospital.
Yesterday (Tuesday 7 January), Moura issued a statement which was read on her behalf by her lawyer Cassyus Pontes.
The statement read: “Everything’s all very preliminary.
“There are still questions to be answered.
“What is the causal link between the poison and Deise?
“There is no explanation of how the flour ended up in Zeli’s house, or where or how it was acquired.
“These are minimal questions to indicate the authorship of the facts.
“Instead, all we have are the accounts of some family members and a supposed extraction of data from a mobile phone.”
Officials this week confirmed the source of the poisoning had been “arsenic-laced flour” in the cake that was eaten.
They said the toxic chemical was present in “extremely high concentrations” which were far too high to be naturally occurring and were enough to be fatal.
Marguet Mittman, director of the General Institute of Expertise (IGP), said: “Very high concentrations of arsenic were identified in the three victims.
“So high that they are toxic and lethal.
“To give you an idea, 35 micrograms are enough to cause death. In one of the victims, there was a concentration 350 times higher.”
Brazilian judicial officials have confirmed that an initial analysis of Moura’s phone showed “internet searches, including on Google shopping, for the word arsenic and other similar ones”.
She is said to have carried out the searches in November as well as in the days before the victims died or fell ill.
Police have confirmed that they plan to exhume the body of Zeli’s husband Paulo, who died last September from food poisoning, to establish whether there were traces of arsenic in his body.
As the new details emerged from officials, old Facebook posts on Moura’s social media account came to light.
In July 2024 she shared a video which provided reflections on ‘death’ and ‘forgiveness’ that originally appeared in a popular soap opera, as reported by Need To Know.
The post featured several quotes.
One read: “Truth is like a lion; you don’t need to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.
“Withholding forgiveness is like taking poison and waiting for those who have not been forgiven to die.
“The punishment of every disordered mind is its own disorder.”
It also emerged this week that the use of poison can aggravate a prison sentence in Brazil by up to 30 years.
Criminal lawyers Carlos Coruja and Arthur Richardisson confirmed that the use of poison can qualify not only as homicide, but also as premeditation.
Moura is set to appear in court for a custody hearing on 13 January.
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