Police probing the food poisoning deaths of four people including two young children have arrested the youngsters’ stepfather. Francisco de Assis Pereira da Costa was held this morning on suspicion of killing one-year-old Igno Davi da Silva, his three-year-old sister Lauane, his 32-year-old partner Francisca Maria da Silva and Francisca Maria’s 18-year-old brother Manoel.
The four victims died over seven days after eating a New Years Day rice and beans dish laced with rat poison. Detectives in Parnaiba in the north-east Brazilian state of Piaui confirmed earlier this week they had launched a murder probe and said they believed someone put a pesticide used to kill rodents in the rice deliberately which Francisca and eight relatives including her partner ate with donated fish.
The 53-year-old suspect was also hospitalised briefly before being discharged. Lauane’s four-year-old sister is still serious in hospital in Teresina near Parnaiba. Police have not yet revealed a possible motive for the horror poisoning but are expected to offer more information later today at a press conference.
Francisca Maria’s death in the early hours of yesterday morning meant even more lives were lost than in Torres 2,500 miles south when three family members were killed and another three hospitalised after they ate a Christmas cake laced with arsenic.
