Story By: Les Steed, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency:  Newsflash

A husband who allegedly decided to kill his estranged wife by poisoning her accidentally murdered his infant son as well when the baby drank poison through its mother’s milk.

The man was supposed to move out of their apartment in the seaside resort city of Itapema after they became estranged, but then decided to kill her when he found out that she had another lover who she was planning to move in with.

As seriously ill Josieli Lopes, 36, collapsed with the “mystery illness” caused by the poisoned meat, her estranged husband said he would take her and the baby to hospital, but instead he drove them to a remote jungle location and buried them both in the ground when he was sure they were dead.

Ms Lopes’ ex-husband, who was not named but who is aged 34, was arrested after he confessed to the murder a week after the victims were reported missing, on Tuesday 15th.

The bodies of the mother and child were then found buried in the wooded jungle in Rio dos Cedros, Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil, on Tuesday 22nd September.

The suspected killer told police that he poisoned her with a piece of meat, but had not anticipated that this would then be transferred to the baby through her breast milk when she fed the child soon after, ND+ reports.

He cynically offered to help them by driving them to hospital, but instead drove them 72 miles (115km) into the jungle and buried them.

Under questioning, he had stressed that the child’s murder was accidental and later showed the cops where the bodies were buried.

Suspicions rose after the suspect sent messages to the victim’s family from her phone after the murder making mysterious comments about her moving to a new location after which she was no longer available when they tried to call her back

Ms Lopes’ teenage son raised the alarm after deciding that the message from his mother saying she was moving to the Rio Grande do Sul looks as if it had been composed by someone else.

Chief of Police, Diogo Medeiros, said the suspect’s testimony was confusing and that there were gaps in his story during interrogation.

The investigation is ongoing.

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