Brazilian couple die in hot tub while celebrating 4-year-old daughter's birthday - 'They likely...'

A couple in Brazil died after getting high on cocaine and then getting into an overheated bathtub while celebrating their 4-year-old daughter’s birthday. The man involved in the incident was a police officer, while his wife was a businesswoman. The two died of heatstroke, authorities in Brazil said. Brazilian outlet G1 Globo reported that Jeferson Luiz Sagaz was a military police officer who was found dead in a motel in Santa Catarina on the night of August 11. Ana Carolina Silva, 41, owned a nail salon and was with him at the time. According to the authorities, Jeferson and Ana drank alcohol and did cocaine on the day of their daughter's birthday. They dropped her off at a relative's place and then went to a nightclub. Later, they checked into the Dallas Motel at around midnight. The family alerted the police when they didn't turn up to pick up their daughter. The police found their dead bodies in the motel bathtub.

Detectives stated that the temperature of the hot tub had risen to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius). The couple was intoxicated, and the presence of alcohol and cocaine in their blood likely affected their reaction time. “The cause of both deaths was exogenous poisoning, favouring the process of heatstroke with intense dehydration, thermal collapse, culminating in organ failure and death,” Chief Medical Examiner Andressa Boer Fronza said Thursday. A space heater in the room was also turned up high, investigators found.

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Brazil hot tub death: Couple entered a state called torpor

Toxicology tests showed the presence of cocaine and extremely high blood alcohol levels in both their bodies. Director of Forensic Medicine for the Scientific Police, Dr Fernando Oliva da Fonseca, told G1 Globo that the deadly combination of alcohol and cocaine increased their risk factor. Notably, both toxic items can cause torpor (a physically dormant condition where the body’s metabolic rate slows considerably), coma and drowsiness individually. "The person goes into torpor at that temperature, and it rises and they don’t feel it and don’t have a defence reaction,” the doctor said. This is what likely happened with the 37-year-old police officer and his wife.

Police Chief Felipe Simao Gomes said that other causes, such as carbon monoxide poisoning, drowning or electric shock, were ruled out following the examination of the motel room, their car and the security cameras.