‘The Asunta Case’: the murder of a Chinese girl by adoptive parents that shook Spain | World

Warning: this article contains spoilers for the series “The Asunta Case”

It was a case full of unknowns – some still unsolved – that kept an entire country in suspense.

The disappearance of a 12-year-old girl and the subsequent discovery of her body abandoned in the field gave rise to a frantic police operation that quickly aroused the interest of the media.

The girl, of Chinese origin, was adopted when she was 1 year old by Alfonso Basterra and Rosario Porto, a wealthy couple from Santiago de Compostela, in the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain.

The adoptive parents named the girl Asunta and raised her in a privileged and apparently happy environment, until investigations showed a totally different picture.

The events occurred in 2013 and today make up the plot of the Netflix series “O Caso Asunta”, based on real events but with creative elements to preserve identities and adapt to a fictional narrative rhythm.

Born in the city of Yongzhou, in southeastern China, on September 30, 2000, baby Fang Yong was given up for adoption after her first birthday to the Spanish couple Alfonso Basterra and Rosario Porto (played in the series by Tristán Ulloa and Candela Grief).

He was a journalist and she chose her father’s profession, a rich lawyer who was honorary consul of France and well known in his city.

Doctors recommended that they not have children, as she suffered from lupus erythematosus, a disease that could put her life at risk if she became pregnant.

The girl, now with the identity of Asunta Basterra, soon began to show signs of her intelligence. She attended private schools and had a knack for learning, especially languages.

She enjoyed traveling with her family, had many friends and her adoptive grandparents adored her.

But when Asunta was just over a week away from turning 13, Alfonso and Rosário went to the police to report her missing.

It was on the night of Saturday, September 21, 2013.

Hours later, in the early hours of the morning, the girl was found dead on a rural road in a wooded area, several kilometers south of the city.

She was tied up with orange ropes, showed no signs of sexual abuse and appeared to have died from asphyxiation, something the autopsy would later confirm.

The girl’s parents collaborated in the investigation, which turned against them when agents found evidence and detected inconsistencies in their statements.

The main one of these clues was the discovery, in a rural family house in the municipality of Teo and close to the crime scene, of orange ropes similar to those used to tie Asunta’s body.

Furthermore, the autopsy revealed that the minor had high doses of lorazepam in her body, a powerful tranquilizer and anxiolytic that is only sold in Spain with a medical prescription.

And both Rosário and Alfonso offered different versions of their movements on the Saturday afternoon the disappearance occurred.

With all this, Rosário was arrested and investigated for murder on September 24th and Alfonso on the 25th.

The process of clarifying the facts was long and the popular jury’s verdict came more than two years after Asunta’s death.

However, the investigations revealed important details about the marriage and the relationship with the girl that influenced the investigation of the case and the subsequent trial.

The year 2013 was especially turbulent for the lawyer and the journalist.

In January of that year, he discovered her infidelity, which led to their almost imminent divorce, although they reached an agreement in the following months to share custody of their adopted daughter.

As part of the agreement, Alfonso moved into an apartment close to Rosário and Asunta’s house.

In July a strange event occurred in which a masked man allegedly entered Asunta’s room at night and tried to strangle her.

The alleged attacker fled after being surprised by Rosário, who, however, did not file a complaint with the police.

That same month, the girl showed signs of drowsiness during music classes, and confessed to the teacher that her mother gave her a powder that made her sleep.

The police investigation revealed that Alfonso bought several boxes of the painkiller lorazepam both in July (when the episodes of lethargy occurred in class) and in September (days before the girl’s death).

Asunta’s adoptive father always maintained that the medicines were for his wife, who went through very delicate moments and was hospitalized.

In the series, this phase is related to a supposed breakup between Rosário and her lover, Vicente.

The oral phase of the trial began in June 2014, during which the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested 18 years for each of the parents, while the popular accusation requested 20.

However, it was only on September 29, 2015 that, after the selection of the jury and with 84 witnesses and 60 experts, the process really began, amid enormous media attention in the Provincial Court of La Coruña.

At the trial, all types of evidence were collected to try to reconstruct the facts.

Forensic experts were unable to determine the exact time of the minor’s death, so they estimated it, without absolute certainty, to be between 7pm and 8pm on September 21st.

This meant that the investigation had to be based on the testimonies of those who saw those involved that day and on videos from security cameras from the places they passed.

According to the researchers’ reconstruction, this is how the fateful September 21, 2013 unfolded:

• Asunta left her home in Santiago de Compostela at 1:55 pm, when she was filmed by a security camera on her way to her father’s apartment. There she had lunch with Alfonso and Rosário. She then returned alone to her mother’s house, captured on the same camera at 5:21 p.m.
• At 6:12 pm, Rosário was seen entering her garage, from where she left to head to the family’s secondary house in Teo, where the ropes later appeared. When he went to the police station to report Asunta’s disappearance, Rosário Porto stated that he had left the girl alone in her house in Santiago at 7pm and that when he returned, a few hours later, the young woman was no longer there. However, a camera at the gas station recorded the car with Rosário and Assunta passing together on the way to Teo.
• At 6:35 pm the alarm at Teo’s house was deactivated.
• At 8:53 pm, the alarm at Teo’s house was triggered again. Around that time, a neighbor greeted Rosário, who was in her car, but did not see the girl.
• In turn, Alfonso – who testified that he spent the entire afternoon at home reading – was captured by security cameras near his home at 9 pm and Asunta’s cell phone registered a connection at 9:05 pm. Subsequently, around 20 calls were made from the father’s cell phone to various phones.
• The night progressed and at 10:31 pm the parents reported the disappearance of their adopted daughter at the Santiago de Compostela central police station.
• The tragedy was confirmed in the early hours of the morning, when a young couple found the girl’s lifeless body and alerted the Civil Guard at 1:39 am.
• The removal of the body took place at 07:00 on Sunday, September 22nd.

Rosario Porto and Alfonso Basterra defended their innocence at all times.

On October 30, 2015, the jury found them guilty, determining that Rosário suffocated the girl with the connivance of her ex-husband.

The sentence was announced just two weeks later, on November 12: 18 years in prison for each, for aggravated homicide by family and abuse of authority.

The sentence did not allude to the possible motivation for the crime, which to this day remains the biggest mystery in the case.

There are several theories, none conclusive, about what could have led her adoptive parents to murder Asunta.

One of them suggests that Asunta could have been seen as an obstacle in her parents’ relationship, who were going through emotional turmoil after their divorce.

Rosário’s mental health was also cited as a possible trigger, given his emotional instability and several episodes of severe depression, anxiety and the desire to die, evidenced during the trial.

A possible economic reason related to the inheritance of Asunta’s maternal grandparents was also explored, but was discarded since Rosário was the only heir.

Another line of investigation addressed a possible sexual motive following the discovery of semen on Asunta’s clothing, although this evidence was discarded as it came from laboratory contamination.

No incriminating conclusions were drawn from the pornographic material found on Asunta’s father’s laptop.

Thus, the case was left with multiple unanswered questions.

After two failed attempts, Rosario Porto committed suicide in prison on November 18, 2020, and Alfonso Basterra is serving a sentence until 2031.

In 2017, Basterra wrote a letter from prison to Ramón Campos, creator of the new Netflix production and also of the previous documentary “O Caso Asunta: Operação Nenúfar” that year.

In it, he once again defended his innocence, regretted not being able to protect his daughter from the real “murderer” and expressed his intention to “disappear” when he was released from prison.

“I only have one reason to stay alive, and that is none other than to be a free man again and to be reunited with my girl,” wrote Alfonso Basterra.

“My real sentence is not prison, Mr. Campos, but not being able to help her when she needed it most.”

“So when you hear of my death, I beg you to open a bottle of cava and toast your loved ones. Only then will you understand that I have regained my happiness. My daughter needs me and I need her.”