Investigators are baffled over the case of a woman who died after eating chocolate she got from a palm reader who said she didn’t have long to live.
“She vomited, her vision was a bit blurred, her body was soft… it was a matter of hours,” the victim’s bereaved cousin Bianca Cristina told Globo 1 of her untimely passing.
The tragedy occurred on August 3 while Fernanda Silva Valoz da Cruz Pinto, 27, was walking through the city center of Maceió, Brazil — a mecca for fortune tellers, Jam Press reported.
The mother of one was reportedly stopped by an elderly woman who asked to read her palm.
Pinto accepted, whereupon the street seer told the young woman that she had only “a few days to live.”
The soothsayer then gave Pinto a piece of chocolate as a parting gift. “As [the candy] was packaged, it didn’t occur to her [that it could pose any danger],” cousin Cristina told local media. “And as she was hungry, she decided to eat it.”
Hours after eating it, Pinto started to feel seriously ill, experiencing symptoms ranging from vomiting to dizziness and blurry vision.
She reportedly described her condition in text messages sent to her family shortly after consuming the sweet.
“My heart is racing. I’ve thrown up. But I have this taste in my mouth,” Pinto described. “So bitter. Bad. My vision is blurry. I’m so weak.”
She continued, “I leant on the water tank. I almost fell. I almost met God. I don’t know why I’m like this, sis. I’ve been feeling bad all day.”
Due to the patient’s preexisting conditions, including gastritis and an ulcer, the family didn’t initially suspect foul play but grew suspicious after Pinto mentioned her encounter with the gypsy woman.
“Because I accepted a chocolate in the city center. I ate it. After that, I felt sick,” the deceased had texted before her death. “At the time, it didn’t even cross my mind. She was an old lady.”
The woman was subsequently accompanied by her cousin to the Santa Casa de Misericordia hospital whereupon her nose started bleeding upon arrival.
Despite doctors’ best efforts, the patient passed away the next day on August 4.
It wasn’t until two months later that her cause of death was confirmed.
Toxicology reports conducted on biosamples from the autopsy revealed that the deceased’s body had harbored high concentrations of the pesticides sulfotep and terbufos.
“These substances are highly prevalent in cases of poisoning, [and] intoxication in Brazil due to their easy access, despite being regulated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply,” said Thalmanny Goulart, Head of the Chemistry and Toxicology Laboratory that analyzed her samples.
Unfortunately, the examination did not confirm that the candy was the source of Pinto’s poisoning, Globo 1 reported.
Nonetheless, the family reported the palm reader to authorities, who are still trying to identify the suspect.
The Civil Police have since registered her case as “a death to be clarified, and are currently waiting on forensic results so that they can confirm homicide speculations.”
Some authorities postulated that the fortune teller may have been hired to kill da Cruz Pinto, however the motive remains unclear.
“I don’t see anyone having a reason to do this to her, but we don’t know what’s in anyone’s heart,” said the victim’s other cousin Lumenita Valoz. “Whether it was someone who ordered her to be killed or if the woman did it because she wanted to, only the police will find out.”
Pinto leaves behind a 9-year-old daughter with special needs.