In 2001, Asunta Basterra was a one-year-old child in China when she was adopted by Rosario Porto and Alfonso Basterra, a married couple from Spain. About 12 years later, in 2013, Basterra was found dead on the side of the road near where she lived.
What happened to Asunta captured true-crime headlines worldwide and is now covered in The Asunta Case, a Spanish-language dramatized version of the story, available to stream now on Netflix. Asunta’s adoptive parents were successful and had stable careers, and early on, Asunta showed promise in school with what seemed like a bright future ahead of her, according to The Guardian — so, what went wrong?
Asunta was reported missing
In 2013, Rosario Porto and Alfonso Basterra were divorced over an infidelity on Rosario’s part. Though divorced, Basterra lived nearby and maintained a relationship with his adopted daughter.
On Sept. 21, 2013, Porto said she last saw Asunta Basterra at home doing homework, but when Porto returned later that night, she was gone. Asunta’s body was found only a few hours later along a country road, and a coroner ruled she died from asphyxiation and had about nine times the highest adult dose of Lorazepam in her system, a substance commonly used in anti-anxiety medication.
Asunta behaved strangely in school before she died, telling teachers her parents were making her take something that tasted terrible, and that she had trouble staying awake in class.
The man in black
A few months before Asunta Basterra died, Rosario Porto said she encountered a man attempting to strangle her adopted daughter at around 3 in the morning, but he fled the scene. But she never filed a formal complaint with the police, and didn’t inform any of her neighbors about the purported break-in.
Meanwhile, Porto’s mental health had declined as early as 2009, and she spent time in psychiatric care over suicidal ideation and other symptoms. Over time, Porto’s well-being improved, but in 2013, both her mother and father died in quick succession, and not long after, Basterra and Porto suddenly divorced.
The CCTV footage
After Asunta Basterra’s body was found, CCTV footage revealed that Rosario Porto was in a car with a long-haired girl at the same time she said Asunta was home studying. Porto was arrested at her daughter’s funeral, and a short time later, Alfonso Basterra was arrested in connection to his adopted daughter’s death.
Although little physical evidence linked Porto and Basterra to Asunta’s murder, her adoptive parents were sentenced to 18 years in prison for the crime. In 2020, Porto died by suicide while serving her sentence, and Basterra remains behind bars as of this report. Both appealed their convictions, but neither could explain how or why Asunta had such high levels of Lorazepam in her body.
