Homicide probe over 3 deaths from ‘arsenic-laced Christmas cake’ as cops find ‘mysterious white liquid’ in baker’s home
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COPS have officially launched a homicide probe into the deaths of three people after they ate Christmas cake that is believed to have been laced with arsenic. Brazilian cops found a bottle of "mysterious white liquid" in the home of the cake's baker, Zeli Terezinha Silva dos Anjos, 61.
![[Zeli Terezinha Silva dos Anjos baked the cake that killed her sisters & niece]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/6a022c5c-4bb4-4ef0-88f0-61a8698585dc.jpg?strip=all&w=395)
Local media reports the cops upgraded their investigation into the killer cake - in which six people from the same family fell ill - from food poisoning to homicide. Zeli, who baked the cake, fell ill after reportedly eating two slices of the Bolo de Natal traditional cake and remains in hospital in Torres, Brazil.
![[The cake is feared to have been laced with arsenic]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/three-family-members-unwell-eating-960084738_91d64a.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
But her two sisters Maida, 58, and Neuza, 65, along with her niece Tatiana, 43, all died after eating the baked treat on December 23. Zeli's ten-year-old great nephew is also hospitalised after eating a piece, and another unnamed family member - understood to be Tatiana's husband - was released.
![[Zeli and her sisters who both died from the 'killer cake']](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/f1e08129-70cc-40b2-837d-14cae13cc025.jpg?strip=all&w=568)
A seventh member of the family at the party did not eat the cake and escaped any sickness. And cops are planning to exhume the body of Zeli's husband Paulo Luiz - who died months ago from suspected "found poisoning". Leading investigator Marcos Vinicius Veloso, from Torres Police Station, announced the case has been upgraded to homicide.
![[Zeli's husband Paulo also died of food poisoning in September]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/zeli-terezinha-silva-dos-anjos-960227197.png?strip=all&w=772)
He said cops have taken ten statements from other family members about them - but for now, there is "no malicious conduct". Detectives also raided six properties of people involved in the poisoning on Friday. And it was at Zeli's home they discovered an unidentified bottle of "whitish liquid".
![[Zeli's niece Tatiana Denize Silva dos Anjos was the youngest victim]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/three-family-members-unwell-eating-960084735_88c58a.jpg?strip=all&w=724)
