Community Chat

[geegerbee]

Since the baker's husband also died from arsenic poisoning some months before, I would guess some arsenic was added to their food and the cake wasn't the killer.

[CamilleP]

@Sugipine  is correct, not all bacterial toxins are heat labile.  Also, while bacterial vegetative cells are killed by heat, bacterial endospores need a much higher heat level to be killed.  I worked over 30 years in a university department of microbilogy.   The standard temperature everything had to reach inside the autoclave to be sterile was 121 degrees Celsius, and it had to be maintained at that level for at least 15 minutes.  To get to that temperature (above boiling) the autoclave uses pressurized steam to 15 pounds per square inch.  Think giant pressure cooker.  To sterilize dry materials, like glass pipettes, I baked them in ovens at 350 degrees Fahrenheit OVERNIGHT.  So baking a cake is very, very unlikely to kill bacterial endospores.  Any bacterial that produce either spores or toxins are easy culprits to cause food-borne illness, and depending on the level of contamination and the causative organism, that can range from some mild nausea and a case of the "green apple quickstep" to death from rapid, acute kidney failure, toxin-induced paralysis, or any number of other actual causes.  Before I would conclude these women, or the husband, died of either food-borne illness or arsenic poisoning I would want to know what symptoms they displayed, as well as how much arsenic was in their systems.  Odds are that many people have a little arsenic in them, if they eat a lot of rice, for instance, so how much these people had "on board:" would be critical information.  The news reports I've seen in this thread are far from complete enough to draw a conclusion. 

So, long story short, "cooking" may or may not kill bacteria or bacterial products.

[Venezia]

If the police have the cake (pictured), they can easily test that for any possible cause of food poisoning.

But the husband, then the sisters and a niece?  Arsenic?

I don't think they'll have to look far for the cause.  Now they need to find the motive.  It's usually money!

[Still Raining]

Just had to google, arsenic has no taste or odor.  On your mark, get set,........

[skatting44]

   Did she have mice  in her home- did she have rat poison laying out ?  Weird,  too coincidental  , makes one think something  was off with the person who made the cake.

[Venezia]

I think the pertinent question is (and I'm sure the authorites are asking it):  did she eat anything of what killed her husband and did she eat any of the cake that killed the three women?

Hmmm.

[confetti betty]

Such a great answer!

[confetti betty]

Such a great answer.

[drizzellla]

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@Venezia wrote:

I think the pertinent question is (and I'm sure the authorites are asking it):  did she eat anything of what killed her husband and did she eat any of the cake that killed the three women?

Hmmm.

The haunting six words that a Brazilian woman said after guests tucked into her poisoned Christmas cake that later killed three people have been revealed.
 

The surviving three family members who consumed the tainted desert during the holidays reportedly noticed that it had an 'unusual' taste, according to police reports after a homicide investigation was launched. 

The victims, including Zeli dos Anjos, who baked the cake, took several bites and found that it had a 'spicy' flavor, as the family gathered for an afternoon coffee on December 23, Rio Grande do Sul Civil Police Chief Marcos Veloso told RBS TV.

Dos Anjos, 60, stopped eating the traditional holiday pastry, known as 'Bolo do Natal,' while her loved ones complained about it before they all fell sick.

After multiple guests voiced their concerns at the flavor, the woman reportedly put her hand over the cake, and uttered the words: 'No one will eat it anymore.' 

Police Chief Veloso explained that some of dos Anjos' loved ones were not too fond of trying out the cake - and only did so out of respect.

'According to some testimonies, there were people who didn't even want to eat, but so as not to be rude to her [Zeli], who is considered a very affectionate person with her family, they ended up eating,' Veloso said.

"Zeli (made the cake) and her 10-year-old great nephew Mateus were also taken ill and rushed to hospital in Torres near Porto Alegre in southern Brazil where they are in a stable condition.

Zeli's brother-in-law Joao and her late husband Paolo are brothers who married two sisters. Joao was married to Zeli's sister Neuza, who died in the tragedy along with their daughter Tatiana.

[Venezia]

Did you know that someone can eat a tiny amount of arsenic every day to build up a tolerance?  Then a dose that would kill someone else, can be consumed by the person ingesting it daily with no effect.  (Or make that person "ill" without it being fatal.)

Sorry, but it all sounds suspicious to me.  Either it was deliberate (the husband, then the relatives) or she's the worst cook in the world.  I mean, what is she using for ingredients?  I don't buy the raisin bacteria story.  Did she use bad raisins in what she fed her husband, too?

It will be interesting, if there's any follow-up to the new investigation into the husband's death.