Breastfeeding baby ‘poisoned to death after evil dad spikes wife’s food with RAT POISON when they broke up’
A MAN who allegedly killed his wife and baby son by putting rat poison in his wife's food will face trial by jury, a court has ruled.
Luiz Edivaldo de Souza stands accused of killing his wife, 36-year-old Josiele Lopes, and their three-month-old son, with the deadly substance.
He was formally charged in October last year and a court has recently decided that he will face trial by jury in his hometown of Itapema.
The dead bodies of Lopes and her baby son were found by the police in the Brazilian municipality of Rio dos Cedros on September 23 last year.
The pair had been missing since the 15th of the same month.
During that time, the suspect, then 34, had sent messages to his wife's relatives, posing as her, before blocking the contacts.
Cops started to investigate the case after the woman's eldest son, 17, went to the police and filed a police report.
HOW YOU CAN GET HELP:
Women's Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
- Always keep your phone nearby.
- Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
- If you are in danger, call 999.
- Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without speaking down the phone, instead dialing “55”.
- Always keep some money on you, including change for a pay phone or bus fare.
- If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to go to a lower-risk area of the house – for example, where there is a way out and access to a telephone.
- Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you might be shut into a cupboard or other small space.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – [email protected].
Women’s Aid provides a . from 10am to noon.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
They concluded that the man had spiked his wife's food with rat poison and that, after eating, she breastfed her baby son with her contaminated breast milk.
The woman then began to feel ill and asked her husband to take her to hospital.
However, he allegedly drove them instead to a wooded area in Rio dos Cedros, some 118 kilometres (73 miles) from their home in Itapema, where he buried the two, who were, by then, dead.
Most read in News
The day Lopes and her baby son died, would have been de Souza's last day in the family home,
The defendant's legal team has until the end of next week to appeal the decision.
If the decision is not appealed, the court will set a date for the trial, when the defendant will respond to charges of homicide, concealment of the corpse and procedural fraud.
The police believe he committed the crime because his wife had asked for a separation.
If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Samaritans for free on 116123.
