Inspired by real events that shook Spain, theAsunta case on Netflix follows a murder case.
Documentary series inspired by sordid true stories are all the rage on Netflix this year. We remember The Kidnapped Truthfor example, which inaugurated 2024. At the end of April, a new case was added to the catalog: The Asunta Affair. This docu-fiction, in which real people are played by actors and actresses, spans six episodes of approximately one hour.
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Has the Asunta Case been solved?
The Asunta affair is that of a disappearance, which will ultimately be that of a murder: that of a 12-year-old child, Asunta Basterra (played by Iris Whu in the series), who died of asphyxiation. The sordid story shook Spain in 2013. Even though the parents — Alfonso Basterra and Rosario Porto — initially reported their daughter missing, they were accused of being behind the crime.
The story is all the stranger because the family, after Asunta's adoption, seemed to live an idyll. What first directed the investigation towards the parents was a discovery during the autopsy: Asunta had ingested lorazepam for 3 months, before her death. Asunta herself declared, according to witnesses: “ my mother is trying to kill me. » Other evidence has accumulated.
The series is certainly fictionalized, but it takes up the course of the affair. Thus, it presents the two main hypotheses of the investigators: the mother as the sole culprit; or the father in addition to the mother. The last episode is devoted to the parents' trial. As in real life, they are both found guilty and sentenced to 18 years in prison by the jury.
But the series does not really give an answer: and for good reason, in this case, the truth never completely came to light, since the parents never confessed and even appealed (rejected). Thus, the reality of the facts remains unclear, no one knows what really happened; just as the mobile could never be fully qualified despite rumors in the press. Rosario Porto ended his life in prison in 2020.
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