Breastfeeding mum and her baby die ‘after father puts rat poison in their food’

A woman and her baby son have died after the father allegedly fed the mother rat poison in Itapema, Brazil.

Luiz Edivaldo de Souza, 35, has been accused of killing his wife, Josiele Lopes and their infant son after putting the poison in her food.

The 36-year-old mum was breastfeeding at the time and it is believed that the poison contaminated her milk and was passed to the baby, killing him.

De Souza was charged in October last year with homicide, concealment of a corpse and procedural fraud.

Josiele and her son were first reported missing on September 15 last year, before their bodies were found by police the following week.

While they were missing De Souza sent messages to Josiele’s family pretending to be Josiele, before he blocked all her contacts.

An investigation was launched after the mum’s 17-year-old son contacted the police before filing a report.

The investigation concluded that De Souza poisoned Josiele with rat poison in her food and after she ate it she breastfed her baby causing him to become poisoned as well.

She later became unwell and asked her husband to drive her to the hospital.

However her husband instead drove her to a forest in Rio dos Cedros, in Santa Catarina in Brazil, 118km away.

Authorities say that the mum and baby had both already passed away by the time they had reached their destination.

De Souza then proceeded to bury their bodies in the wooded area.

Police think that Josiele had been trying to leave her husband before she was killed.

This week a court ruled De Souza would have to face trial in front of a jury in his home city of Itapema.

His legal team has until the end of next week to decide if they want to appeal to decision to have the case tried with a jury present.