Three family members die after eating traditional Christmas cake

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Three family members are dead, and three others were hospitalized after eating homemade Christmas cake — months after the baker’s husband died from food poisoning.

The fatalities included Tatiana Denize Silva dos Anjos, 43, and Maida Berenice Flores da Silva, 58, who suffered a cardiac arrest after consuming Bolo de Natal — a homemade Brazilian Christmas cake — in Brazil on Dec. 23, local news outlet Globo reported.

A third woman, 65-year-old Neuza Denize Silva dos Anjos, died the following day due to “shock after poisoning,” hospital officials said, according to the publication.

Zeli Terezinha Silva dos Anjos, 61, who made the cake with her sister and reportedly ate two slices, and a 10-year-old boy fell ill and were taken to hospital. A third victim who was hospitalized has not been named.

Tests are being run to confirm the cause of death, but police have reopened an investigation into Zeli’s late husband, Paolo Luiz, Globo reported.

Luiz died from food poisoning in September, but his death was not investigated because it was deemed natural.

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“As we became aware of this fact today, we opened a police investigation, and we are going to exhume this man’s body to check whether there was also poisoning,” Det. Marcos Vinicius Velho said.

The investigation is ongoing, but police said they there were no issues or disputes among the family members before the gathering.

A friend of the family told the outlet that the cake was key to their Christmas celebrations over the years.

“It was a traditional family cake, a king cake, which they always, always, always, made.”