Ana Maria de Jesus, 52, and Larissa de Jesus Castilho, 21, have both died in a suspected deliberate poisoning in Brazil after eating a birthday cake with family members under suspicion
A mum and daughter have died after eating a birthday cake with police investigating a possible deliberate poisoning.
Ana Maria de Jesus, 52, and Larissa de Jesus Castilho, 21, were rushed to hospital after eating a slice of the cake delivered to them by a family member. Tests conducted after they died have showed up the presence of pesticides in their bodies. Detectives have demanded the arrest and incarceration of Patricia and her partner, named locally only as Leonardo, after going through their phones.
It was discovered that his online searches had included one for ‘heart attack causes convulsions’ and one of his partner’s ‘Intoxication from cleaning product.’ But a judge has just refused the police request for reasons that have yet to be made public but the investigation is ongoing.
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News of the mum and daughter death comes after a law student in Brazil who allegedly tested rat poison on 10 dogs was accused of killing four people in a five year long killing spree. Police claim Ana Paula Veloso Fernandes, 36, was helped by her twin sister Roberta Cristina Veloso Fernandes and friend Michelle Paiva da Silva, 43, who is the daughter of one of the alleged victims.
Police investigating the new poisoning case have been told Ana Maria, who lived in the Sao Paulo neighbourhood of Ipiranga, regularly lent money to her niece and her partner and a debt could be linked to what subsequently happened. Leonardo was filmed arriving on his motorbike the day after the family birthday which Patricia’s aunt missed because she had a cold and dropping off a slice of the cake for her which she ate the same afternoon.
She called her daughter shortly afterwards saying she felt ill and couldn’t stand up and ended up being rushed to Sao Paulo’s Heliopolis Hospital where she was put on a ventilator. Larissa and a 16-year-old cousin who survived despite also eating the birthday cake, tucked into the treat after leaving hospital and returning home when they were told Ana Maria would be kept in for the night.
Sao Paulo’s Secretariat of Public Security said in a statement, confirming a police homicide unit was probing the deaths: “On October 8 search and seizure warrants were executed, resulting in the seizure of cell phones, which were sent for data extraction. The information obtained is still being analysed by investigators.”
Initial results leaked to Brazilian press, along with the tests showing up the pesticides, have pointed to incriminating searches on the phones of the two people at the centre of the ongoing police probe. Leonardo says he was simply helping a friend and Patricia, whose Google searches from her phones also included one with the words ‘FBI persuasion manual’ has reportedly told cops she doesn’t remember making them.
Police are thought to have been investigating the deaths of Ana Maria and her daughter since the end of July when Larissa’s mum lost her fight for life in hospital, although the results of their probe so far have only just been made public. Brazil has been rocked by a string of poisoning scandals over the past year.
A Christmas cake poisoning in December last year in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul which left three people and three others fighting for their lives, made headlines around the world.
Teacher Maida Bernice Flores da Silva, 58, another sibling called Neuza Denize Silva Dos Anjos, 65 and Neuza’s daughter Tatiana Silvia Dos Santos, 43, died within hours of eating the cake late on December 23.
Maida’s sister Zeli dos Anjos, who baked the cake later found to have been contaminated with arsenic-laced flour, survived after a long hospital stay. The victims also included a 10-year-old boy. Zeli’s daughter-in-law Deise Moura dos Anjos was arrested over the horror crime but hanged herself in prison in February after being remanded in custody.
The poisoning murders law student Ana Paula has been accused of occurred between January and May 2025 in Guarulhos and São Paulo in south-eastern Brazil and Duque de Caxias in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
Her motivations remain unclear as police chief Halisson Ideiao has claimed: “She takes pleasure in killing. Her motivation doesn’t really matter – she wants to kill.” She is accused of making a poisoned stew to kill a 65-year-old man who was the father of one of her alleged accomplices. Another death was that of a 21-year-old Tunisian man she had been romantically linked with.