The Asunta Case is Netflix’s latest gripping true crime drama, telling the tragic story of a 12-year-old girl who was murdered by her adoptive parents in Spain.
Starring Candela Peña and Tristán Ulloa as Alfonso Basterra and Rosario Porto, the murderers, the six-part series is the raw and hard-hitting drama that will dominate the UK’s most watched list.
But behind the brilliant production hide heartbreaking real-life events that went down in history as one of the most disturbing crimes in the country and that shocked the entire world.
To this day, the motives behind the parents’ heartbreaking actions remain a chilling mystery.
The young victim, Asunta Fong Yang, was born in China and adopted by a wealthy Spanish couple in 2001, when she was just nine months old.
Candela Peña and Tristán Ulloa play Alfonso Basterra and Rosario Porto in Netflix’s The Asunta Case
Basterra worked as a journalist and Porto as a lawyer. The couple were well respected and connected in their hometown of Santiago de Compostela, in northwestern Spain.
On the surface, Asunta had a bright future to look forward to with the love and support of both of her parents. But behind closed doors, there was a much darker story, and it became clear in the events leading up to her death that something was deeply wrong.
The town welcomed Asunta and originally it seemed that Basterra and Porto were loving parents to their adopted daughter, encouraging her to pursue her talents in music and dance.
The young woman was talented, excelled in school and in her hobbies, and was ahead of her classmates when she was in high school.
On September 13, 2013, a few days before she turned 13, her parents reported Asunta’s disappearance to the Santiago police. A few hours later, his lifeless body was found on the side of the road.
Her parents were arrested shortly after Asunta’s body was discovered, and Spanish police found inconsistencies in Porto’s story and suspected Basterra was also involved.
Porto had told police that he left Asunta at the family apartment doing her schoolwork at 7 p.m. on the day of her disappearance and headed to her residence in the countryside, about 20 minutes away by car. When he returned a few hours later, at 9:30 p.m., he claimed that his daughter was gone.
However, CCTV footage showed Porto driving away from the apartment with a girl who had the same length of hair as Asunta in the passenger seat during the time she had claimed the young woman was home.
Pictured: The real Rosario Porto arrested at her adopted daughter’s funeral after inconsistencies came to light in her account of the night Asunta disappeared.
Netflix’s dramatization of Asunta’s tragic case follows her childhood, where she apparently enjoyed a happy family dynamic with her parents.
Alfonso Basterra and Rosario Porto (pictured played by the show’s actors) were highly respected in their hometown of Santiago de Compostela.
Porto was arrested at her daughter’s funeral. Suspicion that the lawyer could not have acted alone, Basterra was arrested a day later.
A harrowing picture of what was potentially happening behind closed doors began to emerge when forensic scientists discovered highly toxic levels of lorazepam (the main ingredient in the Orfidal pills Porto was taking to relieve his anxiety) in Asunta’s system.
After Asunta’s murder, more disturbing details began to emerge about her final months. Teachers at her music academy recalled how she came to class looking distracted and often stumbled, sometimes looking as if she couldn’t stand upright.
He also reportedly admitted to having “taken some white powder” when speaking to Isabel Bello, who ran one of the academies, according to the guardian.
Asunta allegedly added: ‘I don’t know what they’re giving me. Nobody tells me the truth.
Journalist Alfonso Basterra (pictured) was arrested on suspicion of murder on September 26, 2013 in Santiago de Compostela.
Rosario Porto was sentenced to 18 years in Brieva prison in Spain (in a file photo), where she committed suicide on November 18, 2020.
This added to the case against Porto and Basterra, where scientists concluded, after analyzing a lock of Asunta’s hair, that lorazepam had likely been present in her system for at least the past three months.
After Basterra and Porto’s arrest, two years passed before the couple stood trial for the murder of their daughter, a charge of which they were both found guilty during a jury trial.
In the years leading up to the trial there was a media furor, with massive speculation about what happened to Asunta, but it was difficult for anyone to conclude exactly why her parents would commit such a heinous crime for no apparent reason.
In October 2015, Basterra and Porto appeared before a jury of the Superior Court of Justice of Galicia. Porto could not provide answers as to why he lied about the events of December 13, 2013, the night his daughter was reported missing.
The father was also unable to explain his deeply suspicious actions in the lead-up to his daughter’s death, which involved obtaining at least 175 Orfidal pills over 10 weeks.
Despite protesting their innocence, Asunta’s parents were sentenced to 18 years in prison for the murder of their daughter.
New Netflix drama explores how investigators pieced together the Asunta case, a seemingly motiveless crime
Rosario Porto maintained her innocence about her daughter’s murder until her death on November 18, 2020. In the photo, a frame from the Netflix series.
Rosario Porto committed suicide on November 18, 2020 while she was detained in the Brieva penitentiary center, in Ávila, Spain.
Alfonso Basterra is still serving his sentence in Teixeiro prison in A Coruña, Spain. His release is scheduled for 2033, but he will be eligible for an “open regime” within the Spanish prison system in 2025.
An open regime allows prisoners to have more contact with the public and leave prison several hours a day to work and attend personal appointments.
In 2017, Basterra sent a cryptic letter from prison to the producers of the documentary What the Truth Hides: the Asunta Case, a Spanish media outlet. The mail reports.
He wrote: ‘When I regain my freedom, I have the firm intention of disappearing, no one will hear from me again, not even Rosario Porto.
‘I only have one reason to stay alive, which is none other than to be a free man again and reunite with my girl, never before.
There was a media stir around the Asunta Case, with various theories about the reasons for the incomprehensible act of Basterra and Porto. In the photo, a frame from the series.
While the dramatization of The Asunta Case reveals details surrounding the case, there are still many unanswered questions. In the photo, a frame from the series.
‘In fact, I have already thought about how and where, but I don’t know when, but everything comes (eventually).’
While Netflix’s dramatization of the Asunta case has been fictionalized in some parts, the plot largely stays true to the tragic real-life story at its center.
But while the new program may provide more information about the case, it seems likely that some questions will always remain unanswered.
To this day, the couple’s motives remain unclear, although those involved in the investigation have their theories.
“I think they wanted to project the stereotype of a happy family,” said an investigator working on the case, according to the guardian. ‘If you want something, you think you can buy it.
‘And if she doesn’t want it, she gets rid of it. He helps her satisfy her whims. But when she is dependent, he becomes violent.
But without a confession from Basterra and the impossibility of a confession from Porto, any insight into his motivations will largely be speculation.
Since Asunta’s death, the guardian reports that the adoption process in Galicia has become much stricter, with an exhaustive selection process for potential parents.
All six episodes of The Asunta Case are now streaming on Netflix.
