A Brazilian woman was arrested on Jan. 5 on suspicion of poisoning a Christmas cake that ravaged her husband’s extended family, leaving three dead and three seriously injured. The suspect, Deise Moura, reportedly “quarreled” frequently with her mother-in-law, Zeli Dos Anjos, and that may have been a motive for the shocking holiday tragedy, according to local reports. Zeli is thought to have baked a Bolo de Natal, a traditional Brazilian Christmas cake, at her seaside home in southern Brazil, which was served at a Christmas party at her sister’s apartment in Torres, near Porto Alegre, on Dec. 23. As part of the investigation, police seized the cake’s ingredients, which included flour, fruit — and arsenic. Police confirmed that the poison in the cake was mixed into the flour used in its preparation. Deise Moura is accused of killing three people with a poisonous cake. (Photo: Facebook/O Saudosista) Family members immediately detected a “bitter and peppery” taste, and within minutes, all six who ate the cake were vomiting. Several ambulances arrived to rush the inflicted family to the hospital, the outlet reported. But it was too late. Within hours of eating the poisoned treat, three were dead: Zeli’s two sisters’ Madia da Silva, 58, and Neuza dos Anjoys, 65, and also Neuza’s grown daughter, Tatiana Dos Santos, 43. Zeli is currently fighting for her life in the ICU. Her 10-year-old grand-nephew and another family member who only had a few bites were treated and released. Just one person who was in the room was spared that day, Neuza’s husband, because he didn’t partake in the dessert. Investigators found extremely high levels of arsenic in the urine and stomach samples of the deceased and have ruled out accidental contamination. “The arsenic levels in these samples are so high that they are considered toxic and lethal. And that explains the cause of death,” Marguet Mittmann, Forensic police director of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, said at a press conference, per CNN. “These concentrations are so high that it’s impossible to consider it a natural contamination,” she added. Deise has been charged with a triple homicide along with a triple attempted homicide and was arrested at the home she shares with her husband, Diego. The family was blindsided by the arrest, according to relative Isabel Moraes, 54, who told the Daily Mail that they thought someone with a “grudge” against the clan had been targeting them. “The whole family is shocked. We just don’t know what to say, someone who is so close to us, we never imagined it.” But there was at least one person who knew of bad blood between Deise and her in-laws. At the funeral, Deise and Diego were reportedly confronted by an angry family member after Deise placed a set of rosary beads and a rose in the hands of victims Maida and Tatiana as they lay in their caskets. ‘“Why are you here? You didn’t like any of them. Everyone knows,”’ shouted the enraged relative; Daily Mail reports it was told by a source. The source added, “Diego and Deise kept themselves apart from the rest of the family the last few months. They didn’t really participate much. There was tension.” In a strange twist, police discovered that Zeli’s first husband, Paulo Luis, suddenly died in 2024 after eating a banana. At the time, doctors believed the cause was food poisoning, as the banana came from a tree on their property, which had been flooded in May, opening the door to the possibility of contamination. But the horrific poisoned cake incident has prompted investigators to reopen the case, and they plan to exhume his body to determine if something more nefarious was at play. Deise is currently being held in custody at a women’s jail in Brazil as the investigation continues. ‘Didn’t Like Any of Them’: Grudgeful Woman Accused of Poisoning Cake, Killing 3 Family Members In Shocking Feud — Police Now Question First Husband’s Death