Italian authorities have opened a double murder investigation following the deaths of a mother and her teenage daughter following a Christmas Eve meal last year, after prosecutors said preliminary blood tests showed the pair had the poison ricin in their systems.
Antonella Di Ielsi, 50, and Sara Di Vita, 15, were treated in the Cardarelli Hospital, in southern Italy, on December 24 with suspected food poisoning, but died two days later.
Blood tests later found the lethal substance ricin in the victims’ blood, prosecutors say.
Symptoms of ricin poisoning vary depending on how the person came into contact with the substance – whether ingested, inhaled or injected.
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