Colombian prosecutors have accused a well-known entrepreneur who once appeared on Shark Tank Colombia of coordinating the delivery of chocolate-covered raspberries laced with thallium that killed two schoolgirls and sickened other children in a north Bogota apartment last April.
The Attorney General’s Office says toxicology and tracing work show the metal, which is a rare, highly toxic substance that is colorless, odorless, and tasteless, was present in the fruit consumed by the children and was the direct cause of the deaths.
Two teenagers, identified in judicial records as Ines de Bedout and Emilia Forero, were hospitalized after eating the raspberries and died days apart, on April 5 and April 9, respectively. Several other youngsters who ate the fruit survived but required urgent treatment; prosecutors say one remains under care in Chicago, U.S., and another is recovering favorably.
Prosecutors have sought an international arrest warrant for 54-year-old Zulma Guzman Castro, a Bogota entrepreneur and founder of a car-pooling startup who appeared on Shark Tank Colombia in 2021. Authorities asked a judge to issue a capture order and obtained an Interpol red notice after concluding there is enough material evidence to bring charges, according to the attorney for one victim’s family, Fabio Humar.
Authorities are looking for the former Shark Tank Colombia contestant through an Interpol red notice
Humar said the investigation ties Guzman to the delivery through a web of digital and testimonial evidence. Online orders for raspberries placed in late March, cellphone records and messages, videos, and the testimony of the delivery worker who dropped off the package, have all been revealed to be key evidence for the investigation.
The courier, whose account prosecutors say was decisive, told investigators he received the order from a woman who said she was a friend of Guzman and that the parcel originated from an address near Bogota’s Parque de la 93. Investigators also unearthed calls from a phone line used in Argentina that they link to Guzman.
Prosecutors say traceability work found “an impressive” concentration of thallium in the victims, and forensic tests later detected traces of the metal in members of one victim’s household who never ate the contaminated fruit.
Humar said tests showed thallium in the blood of the girls’ father, Juan de Bedout, and one of his sons, and that medical records from several years earlier revealed traces of the same metal in the body of De Bedout’s late wife, whose death had been attributed to cancer. Those findings have prompted investigators to open a wider line of inquiry into whether exposure to thallium in the family predates the April package.
The Attorney General’s Office’s working theory, outlined in court filings and described by Humar, links a personal relationship to motive. Guzman reportedly had an extramarital relationship years earlier with De Bedout; prosecutors are exploring whether that relationship, and alleged ensuing obsession, could explain why a parcel was sent to his home. Humar said the evidence suggests Guzman had knowledge of the family’s routines, their taste for the raspberries, and the timing of a gathering at the apartment where the fruit was consumed.
Zulma Guzman denies any wrongdoing
Investigators also say they identified a pattern of contacts that led them to a man who offers “mentalist” and spiritual services in an office near the same building. Phone records and surveillance footage tied that location to the chain of custody for the order, and authorities continue to examine whether intermediaries were used to avoid exposing the sender.
Zulma Guzman has denied any link to the deaths in messages circulated privately and to acquaintances, according to reporting from Colombian outlets. In a WhatsApp message attributed to her, she acknowledged a past relationship with the father of one victim but said she had not been formally notified of any investigation and claimed she traveled to Argentina for study.
Authorities, however, say she left Colombia after the poisonings and that records show movements through Argentina, Brazil, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Prosecutors have said her current location is unknown.
The defendant has already contacted lawyers, court records show, and the Fiscalia’s request for international cooperation led Interpol to issue the red notice that allows member countries to help locate and detain her. Investigators from Colombia have been working with authorities in Brazil, Argentina, Spain, and the United Kingdom to follow leads, pull phone data, and reconstruct Guzman’s travels.
The discovery of broader thallium contamination has led the family to ask prosecutors to re-examine the death of the mother
Beyond the immediate case, the discovery of thallium in relatives who did not eat the raspberries has shifted the probe into a potentially broader, longer-running pattern of contamination, Humar and other sources told reporters. The family plans to ask prosecutors to re-examine the death of the mother and whether earlier medical problems could have been related to thallium exposure.
The investigation remains active and under judicial secrecy in several parts. The Fiscalia has said it collected “material evidence and physical proof” sufficient, at least provisionally, to request formal charges; Zulma Guzman has not been arrested and has not publicly answered questions about the criminal inquiry in court.
Prosecutors said they will continue to follow forensic, telecom, and testimonial leads as they seek to determine how the poison made its way into the fruit and who else may have been involved.