A woman who died after receiving flowers and chocolates on her birthday is believed to have been poisoned.
Lindaci Viegas Batista de Carvalho received what appeared to be a gift from a mystery sender on Saturday.
However, police in Rio de Janeiro are now investigating whether the chocolates were poisoned after her sudden death at the age of 54.
Lindaci’s sister Lenice Batista claims that an expert from the Instituto Medico-Legal had indicated that rat poison was present in the victim’s body.
Further analysis on the chocolates is expected to be complete within 30 days.
Relatives also claim that Lindaci had been threatened on social media in the build-up to the incident.
A call last Saturday telling her that there was a delivery for her caused enough suspicion that she asked for the package to be left at her boyfriend’s store.
Lindaci then took the chocolates to a beauty salon but refused to start eating them until she established a sender.
When she asked her ex-husband, he took responsibility for sending the gift and Lindaci ate some of the chocolates.
Her sister says she then felt sick, her eyes rolled back in her head and her arms started convulsing. She was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.
Her son had also tried the chocolate but spat it out because of the strange taste and was not unwell.
The ex-husband claimed to have been joking when he said he sent the gift following the death, with
Lenice saying that she does not consider him a suspect due to his good relationship with her sister.