The Brazilian woman suspected of killing at least three of her family members with poisoned Christmas cake has been found dead. When employees at the Guaíba State Women’s Penitentiary performed the morning roll call, Deise Moura dos Anjos had no vital signs. The staff performed first aid and called emergency medical personnel. When they arrived, they pronounced the 42-year-old woman dead.
Police are reportedly treating the death as a suicide. There was no one else in the cell with her when she was found unresponsive. Police believe she hanged herself.
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Deise baked a cake with her mother-in-law.
Deise was arrested on January 6, 2025, for the alleged murder of three people and the attempted murder of three others, the Daily Mail reports. Detectives believe Deise prepared a cake with her mother-in-law Zeli dos Anjos, and used arsenic-laced flour.
Though Zeli had been involved with the preparation of the traditional bolo de Natal, she was ruled out as a suspect because she ate several bites of the cake and became ill. While Zeli survived, three of her relatives, who were Deise’s in-laws, died within hours of eating the cake on December 23.
The deceased include Zeli’s sister, Maida Bernice Flores da Silva, 58; sibling Neuza Denize Silva Dos Anjos, 65; and Neuza’s daughter Tatiana Silvia Dos Santos, 43.
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🚨 Veja: l Bolsonarista que envenenou bolo escreveu recado com 'desabafo' em cela antes de ser encontrada morta
— Notícias Paralelas (@NP__Oficial) February 13, 2025
Chefe da Polícia Civil afirmou que Deise Moura dos Anjos escreveu que estava com 'depressão' e em 'sofrimento' pic.twitter.com/rbO3uB18Q0
Three people died while others were treated in the hospital.
Tatiana’s son, 10-year-old Matheus, was taken to the intensive care unit and spent several days in the hospital before he recovered. Maida’s husband Jefferson was also hospitalized. While Deise claimed she was innocent, police still believe she killed her relatives.
After the three deaths just before Christmas, authorities were investigating the death of Deise’s father-in-law Paulo Luis dos Anjos, who died in September 2024 after eating bananas mixed with powdered milk. Police exhumed his body.
Forensic tests showed traces of arsenic in Paulo’s system. At the time of his death, family members assumed it was food poisoning, but Zeli refused to believe it. Police had evidence that she purchased arsenic on four different occasions, BBC reports.
‘… hopefully in the next life she is being punished …’ a family member said.
Isabel Moraes, whose brother Jefferson was Maida’s husband, said that the family was shocked to learn of Deise’s death. “Someone should have been watching her,” she told MailOnline. “She may have avoided justice now but hopefully in the next life she is being punished for all the evil and misery she caused us.”
Moraes revealed that Deise was a mother. “What really hurts everyone is that her son will grow up without a mother but if this is the type of woman she was, then maybe it’s for the better,” she said.
Police say Deise’s issues with her in-laws were minor.
Now, police have launched a separate investigation into Deise’s jail cell death. Before her death, detectives said that with the evidence they had so far, she would “probably not leave prison in her lifetime.”
There was tension between Deise and her in-laws, police chief Marcus Vinicius Muniz Veloso claimed. The disagreements apparently went back 20 years, but were seemingly minor.
