Maria Chelysheva lost her father, mother, brother, and grandmother after the gas of a rotten potato stored in the cellar for the winter poisoned them one by one.
The eight-year-old Russian girl has been orphaned after the tragic incident at her house in Laishevo, a town near Kazan, in the Russian republic of Tatarstan on the Volga River.
Relatives are caring for the girl who is heartbroken over her loss.
According to the police, Mikhail Chelyshev, 42, Maria’s father was first to enter the cellar, not realizing the potatoes had become completely rotten. He fainted from the harmful fumes, and died afterwards.
When he did not come back, his worried wife Anastasia, 38, also went to look for him in the dark room and was killed by the poisonous gas.
Maria’s older brother Georgy, 18, then went in search of his parents, only to suffer the same tragic fate as his mother and father after inhaling the highly toxic fumes of the potato.
Anastasia’s mother Iraida, 68, called a neighbour to say there was something suspicious and to beg for help.
But she also went into the cellar, suffocated from the gas, and collapsed and died like the others before assistance arrived, the police said.
As Iraida went in, she left the door open, allowing the fumes to disperse. That is why when Maria entered the cellar; she found the bodies of her whole family on the cellar floor.
According to a local investigator, they all died of gas poisoning which has accumulated in the basement as a result of badly rotting potatoes.
Relatives and friends are asking for cash to support the girl.
Professor Chelyshev memorial service was held in the marble hall of Kazan Federal University, where he was head of the department of civil and business law.
Potatoes contain toxic compounds known as glycoalkaloids, of which the most prevalent are solanine and chaconine. – Wikipedia
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