The Asunta Case follows the investigation and trial of a 12-year-old girl’s murder case. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
On September 21, 2013, Rosario and Alfonso, who are now separated, report their 12-year-old daughter, Asunta Basterra Porto, missing.
Rosario claims that she went to her country house to run errands, leaving Asunta home alone. By the time she returned, Asunta was nowhere to be found.
Soon after, the police find Asunta’s body on the side of the road, not far from Rosario’s country house. Detectives Ríos and Cristina are assigned to the case.
When Ríos accompanies Rosario to the country house, he finds the same twine that was used to tie Asunta’s limbs in the bin of the bathroom that Rosario insists on using.
The investigating judge, Judge Malvar, starts suspecting Rosario of having a hand in her daughter’s murder.
His suspicions are strengthened when the detectives find CCTV footage that proves Rosario lied about leaving Asunta home; her daughter was with her in the car.
Rosario, who has mental health issues, tells the police that she forgot to mention that Asunta went with her to pick up her swimsuits before Rosario dropped her home and went to the country house herself.
However, the fact that she did not mention this detail until the police found the CCTV footage makes Rosario a suspect and leads to her arrest.
In January, eight and a half months before Asunta’s death, Alfonso discovered that Rosario was cheating on him.
This led to Rosario and Alfonso’s divorce, and as a homemaker, Rosario was facing financial difficulties due to the divorce.
The man Rosario was having an affair with was married, and he refused to leave his wife for Rosario, which led to a mental breakdown for Rosario.
She has a history of depressive episodes and was once again sent to the hospital. Despite their divorce, Alfonso was there for both Rosario and Asunta.
In the present, Asunta’s toxicology report reveals that she was drugged. She was given an overdose of Lorazepam before being suffocated to death.
When the news becomes public, a teacher of Asunta comes forward to inform the police that Asunta could barely stand during one of her lessons.
Asunta had told her teacher that her parents were giving her some white powder for her allergies, which made her dizzy.
The police find out that Asunta did not have any allergies, yet she was given the pills for months before her death.
Lorazepam is one of the medications that Rosario has been prescribed, but it is Alfonso who buys the medicines for her and administers them to her.
Convinced that Alfonso and Rosario killed Asunta, Judge Malvar has Alfonso also arrested. Alfonso and Rosario are placed in nearby cells that are bugged.
Alfonso knows that the police are listening to their conversation, so he warns Rosario to be careful with her words and not to reveal anything.
Due to the material of the twine used to tie Asunta, it cannot be confirmed whether the twine found at the country house is the same as the one used in the crime.
The police then search Alfonso and Rosario’s apartments, but they find nothing. Alfonso’s laptop is also missing, and he refuses to tell the police where it is.
The police also find pictures on Asunta’s phone, taken by her parents, that could be seen as evidence of inappropriate sexual behavior towards Asunta.
After questioning Alfonso and Rosario, Judge Malvar orders pre-trial detention for both of them. Meanwhile, the case attracts a lot of public attention.
It is then that Dolores, Asunta’s godmother, hires a competent criminal lawyer named Juan José Domínguez, who persuades another lawyer named Elena Garrido to join him.
While Domínguez represents Rosario, Garrido represents Alfonso, and they plan to mount a joint defense.
The police are informed that there were semen stains on Asunta’s shirt, which match the DNA of a sex offender named Carlos Murillo.
Domínguez learns from a friend of Rosario that in July, someone had broken into her apartment and attempted to kill Asunta.
Due to this, the suspicion falls on Murillo, but he has an alibi, which leads to the police concluding that the DNA evidence was tampered with.
Additionally, Asunta did not see the face of the person who attacked her and believed her mother’s account that it was a man who had come to rob them.
Rosario never reported this attempted robbery to the police, and there is no evidence that anyone broke into her house that night.
Garrido makes Alfonso turn over his laptop to the police. Alfonso confesses that he had hidden the laptop because, after his separation from Rosario, he had written unsavory emails to her.
Judge Malvar still remains convinced that Asunta’s parents killed her. In fact, he is of the opinion that Asunta was sexually abused.
To sway public opinion, Domínguez speaks to the press to portray Murillo as the main suspect, but Judge Malvar remains undeterred by this move.
Ending explained:
Ríos’ theory
When Ríos realizes that Rosario alone could have dragged Asunta’s body, he develops a theory to fill in the gaps in the case.
Ríos surmises that while Rosario was in the hospital and Asunta was living with Alfonso, Alfonso gave Asunta Lorazepam to make her sleep when he needed time alone.
After being released from the hospital, Rosario visited her lover the day before Asunta’s death, as she had told Cristina.
Ríos assumes that Alfonso learned of Rosario’s continued affair and argued with her. Rosario, who had previously argued with Alfonso about drugging Asunta, ended up making the same mistake.
Feeling shaken after her argument with Alfonso about her affair, Rosario attempted to overdose on her pills but accidentally gave them to Asunta instead.
Rosario then took her daughter to the country house, suffocated her, and disposed of the body on her way home. She later informed Alfonso about what she had done.
Alfonso assisted in covering up the crime rather than reporting it because he feared that his past actions of drugging Asunta would be exposed.
Judge Malvar’s theory
On the other hand, Judge Malvar assumes that Asunta was about to tell someone that both Rosario and Alfonso were drugging her and engaging in inappropriate behavior towards her.
To prevent this from being exposed, Alfonso planned her murder, and Rosario followed his instructions.
Alfonso hid in the backseat of the car while Rosario took Asunta to the country house, where they killed her.
Alfonso then walked back home, and Rosario dumped the body. Judge Malvar gets a new witness who supports his theory.
A classmate of Asunta comes to the police and claims that on the day of Asunta’s death, she saw her walking with Alfonso.
However, there are still inconsistencies in Judge Malvar’s theory, as the time Rosario was seen driving Asunta clashes with the time Asunta’s classmate claims to have seen her.
The trial
Judge Malvar is determined to prove that Alfonso is guilty, even though there is no evidence placing Alfonso at the country house that night.
Before the case goes to trial, Judge Malvar speaks to a reporter and provides specific information that frames Alfonso for assaulting Asunta.
As a result, public opinion in Spain is swayed, and the trial begins under these conditions. Additionally, the prosecution presents enough evidence to prove Rosario and Alfonso guilty.
Both Domínguez and Garrido are convinced that their clients have not been completely honest with them.
However, they fail to persuade Rosario and Alfonso to disclose the truth. Garrido believes that Alfonso is covering for Rosario and hiding a truth worse than Asunta’s death.
Despite Garrido’s efforts to uncover the truth, Alfonso remains tight-lipped, and the full details of what truly happened that day are never revealed.
Alfonso and Rosario are both found guilty and sentenced to 18 years in prison, a sentence ratified by the High Court of Justice in Galicia and the Supreme Court.
Rosario requests Domínguez to publish an obituary in the newspaper every year on Asunta’s death anniversary. Rosario then takes her own life in prison in 2020.
Alfonso will complete his sentence in 2031. He plans to serve his entire sentence as proof of his innocence until the last day.