Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of abuse and murder. Reader discretion is advised.
Alfonso Basterra and Rosario Porto adopted Asunta Basterra in June 2001, as Forbes reported. The couple was from Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. Porto was a lawyer from the city, while Basterra was a freelance journalist from Basque. The upper-middle-class couple reportedly resorted to adoption because of a lowering birth rate and increasingly strict adoption laws in the country. After that, those who knew them described them as ideal parents, The Guardian reported. Asunta Fong Yang then became Asunta Basterra after the adoption.
12 years later, the parents reported Asunta Basterra missing. By this time, the couple had divorced and Asunta was allegedly last seen in her mother’s house while her mother was away at her family’s country house. When Porto got back home, Asunta was reportedly nowhere to be found. When they went to file a complaint, Rosario Porto told the police that one night in July that year, a man dressed in black whose face she didn’t identify broke into their home. She allegedly ran into Asunta’s room upon hearing a scream and saw the man in the room. He then rushed out and ran past her, bruising her cheek slightly, she told them.
Porto claimed that she did approach the police at that time but did not think it was important to raise a report as break-ins are barely solved. On September 22, 2013, two men who were driving around the area found Asunta Basterra dead. After an elaborate investigation began, Rosario Porto was arrested at Asunta’s funeral. There was no genetic or physical evidence that pointed to Rosario Porto’s involvement. However, the police found surveillance footage that was proof enough for her arrest.
Why did Asunta Basterra’s adoptive parents kill her?
The surveillance footage is from a petrol station near Porto’s home. As Porto drove her car towards the country home she was allegedly at, a long-haired girl sat beside her in the car. Although she previously told the police that she left Asunta at home that day, she admitted that the girl in the car was Asunta Basterra and that the pressure of losing her daughter and the pills she was using had meddled with her memory.
Moreover, snippets of orange baler twine that were found at the crime scene where Asunta Basterra’s body was found, were also discovered at the country house. However, authorities deduced that Rosario Porto definitely had help. According to The Guardian, they thought it would be impossible for Porto to lift Asunta’s body all by herself and lay it by the road where it was found. There were no drag marks. Subsequently, Alfonso Basterra was also arrested.
Forensic evidence revealed abnormally high levels of lorazepam in Asunta Basterra’s blood and urine. Lorazepam is the active ingredient in Orfidal, a type of medication that Rosario Porto had been taking for years to help with her anxiety attacks. Investigators deduced that the couple had grown tired of their adopted child. They did not want to keep up with the demands of Asunta who was now entering pre-adolescence.
TODAY.com reported that during the trial, a friend of Asunta Basterra reportedly saw her with her father. Police suspected that he was hiding in the backseat while Porto drove to the country house. The couple were sentenced to 18 years in prison each. Rosario Porto died by suicide inside her prison cell in 2020.
The Asunta Case is an investigative thriller mini-series that explores the life and murder of Asunta Basterra. It is currently streaming on Netflix.
