Fang Yong’s name, thrown into the air like two unconnected Chinese syllables, sounds like nothing. It could be the onomatopoeia of a tennis match, right goes, left comes; perhaps the babbling of a child learning to speak, or even the punches of a comic book fight wrapped in speech bubbles.
Everything changes, however, if the two syllables could be translated, renamed or assigned to an adoption: Asunta Basterra Porto. Then things make sense, at least the sense of knowing what we are talking about even if it is impossible to find it in a case that shocked Spanish public opinion and that this weekend celebrates, if this verb can be used in this story, its eleventh anniversary.
More than enough time to speculate, to try to understand how reality can surpass fiction, which has not been alien to an outcome that, far from the doubts raised by the story of the series, offers more certainties than anything elseThe truth is that everything comes down to, after the investigation and the trial, that Asunta was murdered by her parents when she was twelve years old..
The facts
He September 21, 2013 Asunta disappeared in Santiago de Compostela. The search begins for a girl who had been adopted in China by the Lawyer Rosario Porto and journalist Alfonso BasterraRosario, her mother, was the one who alerted her about her disappearance at around 10:30 p.m., going to the police to report that she had not been able to find her.
The next day Asunta’s body appears on a forest track in Teo, a town near Santiago de CompostelaThe body was found in a ditch and showed no obvious signs of external violence. In addition, it had been left on the ground in a position that indicated that whoever had left her there knew her.
Already the September 23 Rosario Porto and Alfonso Basterra are arrested on suspicion of homicide. Authorities find contradictions in their statements and evidence that place them in key locations during the hours prior to the discovery of the body.
In this regard, in Rosario Porto’s first version, she states that on the day of the crime, both she and Alfonso ate together with Asunta at his house. Afterwards, he left her alone in her apartment and, when he returned, the little girl was not there.
Also, during the course of the investigation, the agents in charge of the case ask both of them to accompany them to Teo’s house, close to the place where Asunta’s body had been found. They are reluctant, but in the end they agree. Upon arrival, Rosario, visibly nervous, asks to go to the bathroom and goes upstairs..
One of the agents follows her and finds in the trash a piece of orange rope identical to the one that appeared at the crime scene and with which the girl’s hands and feet were tied, in addition to some Kleenex on which the DNA of the mother and Asunta will later appear, indicating that this is how she was suffocated.
The day September 25 Rosario and Alfonso are formally charged with the murder of Asunta. Evidence indicates that the girl had been sedated and suffocated. Investigators discover that, in the In previous months, Asunta had received doses of lorazepam, an anxiolyticwhich reinforces the hypothesis that she had been drugged before she died.
In October, new tests were carried out that confirmed the presence of traces of lorazepam in Asunta’s body. In addition, the Security cameras show Rosario Porto and Asunta leaving by car towards the country house in Teo the same day of the crime, and Rosario is later seen returning alone to Santiago.
During the investigation of the case, Details of family life and tensions between parents are revealed. There is talk of possible motives related to control, obsession with Asunta’s future and the tension between Rosario and Alfonso after their separation. In addition, the police find evidence that Rosario had planned the murder in advance.
The trial
In October 2015, the trial begins in the Provincial Court of A Coruña. Rosario Porto and Alfonso Basterra are accused of murder with treachery. Prosecutors maintain that both parents jointly planned the murder of their daughter.
Among the evidence is Lorazepam, which is presented as key to the toxicological test that reveals that Asunta had been sedated repeatedly before her death, and death by asphyxiation, with a Forensic report determining that she was mechanically asphyxiated, which implies that someone blocked her breathing with a clotha pillow or similar.
Likewise, neighbors and relatives testify about the strange attitudes of the parents, particularly Rosario Porto, who had shown signs of emotional instability in the past, while Security cameras reinforce the theory that Rosario took Asunta to the country house on the afternoon of the murder.
Despite the evidence, Both defendants plead not guilty and deny having committed the crime.Rosario Porto maintains that she left Asunta at home before she disappeared, and Alfonso Basterra claims that he was not present at the time of the crime. The defense tries to suggest the possibility that a third person may have been involved.
Finally, the On October 30, 2015, after more than a month of trial and seven days of deliberations, the jury unanimously found Rosario Porto and Alfonso Basterra guilty.The verdict concludes that both men planned the murder in a premeditated manner, sedating the girl and suffocating her in Teo’s country house.
Subsequently, In December, the Provincial Court sentenced both parents to 18 years in prison for murder with treacheryThe court considers it proven that the crime was committed by both of them with knowledge and premeditation.
Suicide
Most tragedies usually lead to more tragedies. Asunta’s was no exception.
Thus, and in a macabre sequence of events, On November 18, 2020, Rosario Porto was found dead in her cell in the Brieva prison (Ávila), in what was classified as a suicide.She had already attempted suicide twice before. This incident brought the case to a tragic close for one of the main defendants.
The other, Alfonso Basterra, remains silent with the promise to write a book when he regains his freedom.There, perhaps, new nuances or a little more light will be offered on a case that, in view of the facts and the sentence, seems so clear that it will never be able to answer a big question: How can parents kill their twelve-year-old daughter?