Chennai: Eight-year-old Evangelin Alvina is the sole survivor of a family tragedy in Perambur which took the lives of her father, younger brother, and mother. They ate poison-laced cake in a suspected case of suicide pact.Police said S Sagaya Sebastian, 43, who worked as accounts staff at a warehouse in Madhavaram, laced a cake with poison and fed it to his family at their residence on Sankaramadam Street, before hanging himself on Tuesday night.
His four-year-old son, Ivaan Anto, died upon arrival at the hospital. His wife, Rexy Beula, 38, who was undergoing treatment for cancer at Rajiv Gandhi Govt General Hospital, died late on Wednesday. Evangelin Alvina remains under treatment at the same hospital.Evangelin escaped death by a whisker, as she vomited the cake in the washroom shortly after consuming it. However, as she had consumed a portion of the poison, she lost consciousness, according to inspector M Chiranjeevi, who is investigating the case. When Evangelin regained consciousness on Wednesday morning, she found her younger brother and mother lying unconscious beside her, while her father was hanging from the ceiling. The Class III student called the police. A team rushed to the house and took all four to the hospital.All bodies were sent for postmortem. On Thursday, police handed over Rexy Beula’s body to her family members, who assured authorities that they would take care of Evangelin Alvina.Preliminary investigation revealed that the family struggled financially due to Beula’s cancer treatment. Sebastian purchased the cake from a neighbourhood bakery on Tuesday night, with the words ‘Happy family’ written on it, police sources said.
