A man has been arrested after allegedly killing his family with poisoned rice fed to them as a New Year's Day meal.
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53-year-old Francisco Pereira is suspected of poisoning his wife, brother-in-law, and stepchildren by slipping a deadly pesticide into their meals. After reheating their rice from the night before, they all fell ill, succumbing to the poisoned meal within hours on New Year's Day.
The meal was shared between many people with eight members of the family and a neighbour feeling the effects of the poisoned food. So far the poisoning has killed four of his family members. His 18-year-old brother-in-law was the first to die in the back of the ambulance only hours after eating the food. His one-year-old stepson, Igno da Silva, died next, with his three-year-old stepdaughter, Maria Lauane da Silva dying only days later.
A day later his wife Francisca da Silva also succumbed to the poisoned meal. Her four-year-old daughter remains in hospital in critical condition.
No Remorse For Poisoned Meal
Pereira has shown no remorse for the suspected murder of his family. He is still under investigation, but his reaction to both his wife and stepchildren points towards a likely court decision. The police have revealed that he has little to no love for his family.
"This feeling of hatred was so great that even with her on her deathbed, he couldn't hide it in his statement,' Piauí Civil Police Chief Abimael Silva said. "He said that when he looked at her he felt disgust and anger. These are his words in his statement"
According to the police report, he referred to his stepchildren as primates. "He called them 'primates', unhygienic people, people he didn't want to be around, but he put up with them," the report says. Currently, he is still under investigation for feeding them a poisoned meal.
It is suspected that whoever poisoned the meal did it during the night. The rice, beans, and fish they ate were left over from the night before. The meal was okay previously, but when eaten the next day ended up killing almost all who consumed it.
It was originally presumed that it was the fish added to the meal on new years day that caused the sickness. However, after investigation, it transpired that terbufos, a poison used in pesticides had been mixed into the food.
