A pair of children died after eating poisoned candy given to them by a stranger outside a school in Brazil.
Benjamin Ribeiro, 7, fell ill after eating the chocolate with his classmate, Ythallo Rosa, 6, the afternoon of September 30 in the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of Cavalcanti.
Rosa went into cardiac arrest and died just hours after consuming the treat, which contained rat poison, according to a medical examiner’s report released Thursday and obtained by the news outlet Folha de São Paulo.
Ribeiro was declared brain dead on Monday by doctors at the Miguel Couto Municipal Hospital and declared dead on Wednesday.
According to the medical examiner’s report, the boys’ bodies had traces of an insecticide that is sold illegally in Brazil and used to kill rats.
Benjamin Ribeiro, 7, was confirmed dead by Wednesday after consuming a poisoned chocolate that was given to him and his friend in front of their school on September 30
Ythallo Rosa, 6, died hours after eating the poisoned chocolate
The Rio de Janeiro Civil Police said an unknown woman approached the children on a motorcycle and handed Rosa a chocolate, who shared a piece with Ribeiro.
Rosa’s 12-year-old cousin declined the woman’s offer because he wasn’t hungry.
‘She offered me the candy, but I didn’t take it because I was full,’ the child said, according to the news outlet O Dia. ‘But my cousin, who is younger, accepted it.’
Rosa became sick moments after consuming the tainted chocolate and was rushed to an urgent care center, where he was initially treated. He was then transferred to Miguel Couto Municipal Hospital, where he died.
An autopsy report revealed that he had small pieces of the chocolate in his stomach.
Ribeiro health worsened while at home and was rushed to the same urgent care facility and then moved to Miguel Couto Municipal Hospital, where he remained hospitalized.
Both boys vomited and fainted within hours of eating the chocolate, Ribeiro’s father, Felipe Rodrigues, told the news outlet G1.
Investigators with the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police Capital Homicide Division have been searching for the woman’s whereabouts.
According to the medical examiner’s report, the boys’ bodies had traces of an insecticide that is sold illegally in Brazil and used to kill rats
Ythallo Rosa (pictured) had pieces of the poisoned chocolate in his stomach, authorities said
A police official told Folha de São Paulo that investigators have reviewed surveillance camera footage that show the woman riding a motorcycle.
Authorities have refrained from releasing images to the public until they are 100 percent sure that she is the person who gave the children the poisoned candy.
The official also said that authorities want to be certain that they have identified the suspect due to concerns that residents could take matters into their own hands.
‘They destroyed my family, they took our Benjamin from us,’ Ribeiro’s aunt, Kayanne Rodrigues wrote on Facebook on Wednesday hours after he died.
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