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shakeology.com. Soyana?

3:18

Oh, it's a sort of

3:20

routine. Biamonino, our red-handed espaniola

3:22

edition. It is young. Don't

3:24

think you've plugged into the

3:26

wrong RSS. It's still us.

3:29

We get so many people,

3:31

quite often, we'll get translators

3:33

getting in touch with us.

3:35

Not odd you want to

3:37

translate, red-handed into other languages,

3:39

which on the face of

3:42

it seems like a good

3:44

idea. But I just don't

3:46

think it all true. It

3:48

won't work. It works. With

3:50

such a British show. No.

3:53

And it's just like, well,

3:55

somebody else would deliver the

3:57

lines. But it's like, so

3:59

what do you do about

4:01

the? Tangents? And like, the

4:04

personal experience, that's just weird.

4:06

The jokes won't work. No.

4:08

So no, that's why we

4:10

haven't done it. And we're

4:12

not actually doing it today.

4:15

So don't panic. Imagine if

4:17

we did, you should be

4:19

like, you can't even read

4:21

the fucking captions and just

4:23

watch along. You're fucked. So

4:25

don't worry, we're not doing

4:28

that. Because I cannot speak

4:30

Spanish. But we are going

4:32

to Spain for a little

4:34

bit. At least. I don't

4:36

really speak Spanish either, but

4:39

the Spanish I do speak

4:41

is heavily accented in a

4:43

Central American way, which I

4:45

know is not how the

4:47

Spain Spanish do it, but

4:50

I ain't gonna change. So

4:52

if you don't like my

4:54

pronunciation, I don't know, write

4:56

a letter to the embassy

4:58

or something. Sure. Let's see

5:00

what they do. In the

5:03

early hours of the 22nd

5:05

of September 2013. Two men

5:07

drove along a quiet dirt

5:09

track in the rural area

5:11

of Accoronia in north-western Spain.

5:14

Naled up. Thank you. Probably

5:16

didn't, but never mind. You

5:18

got there? N'er. N'er. Yeah.

5:20

Yeah. There was a full

5:22

moon that night, but the

5:25

forested road was shrouded in

5:27

darkness. The men thought that

5:29

they were utterly alone. Until...

5:31

The car's headlights caught what

5:33

looked like a scarecrow lying

5:36

at the side of the

5:38

road. Upon stepping out for

5:40

a closer look, the men

5:42

realised it wasn't a scarecrow,

5:44

not at all. I wonder

5:46

what Spanish word was a

5:49

scarecrow with? Another very lazy

5:51

English word. It

5:54

was actually a young girl.

5:56

Not quite a teenager. lying

5:58

on her back as if

6:01

she was sleeping. Her white

6:03

t-shirt glowed in the headlights,

6:06

looking to the two men

6:08

like a waterlily floating on

6:10

the tranquil surface of a

6:13

pond. But this was not

6:15

a peaceful scene. The girl

6:18

was Asunto Yongfang Baresta Poto,

6:20

the adopted daughter of a

6:22

prominent couple from the nearby

6:25

city of Santiago de Compostela.

6:28

Plucked from a Chinese orphanage

6:31

at just nine months old,

6:33

Asanta had been raised in

6:36

a world of prestige and

6:38

privilege. But now, just a

6:40

week shy of her thirteenth

6:43

birthday, Asanta was dead. Within

6:45

a week, her adopted parents

6:48

would both be behind bars,

6:50

accused of her murder. In

6:53

Chinese folklore, the waterlily is

6:55

a symbol of purity and

6:57

resilience. rising from the mud

7:00

to bloom. Before that night,

7:02

Asanta seemed flourished in the

7:05

same way. On the surface,

7:07

she had everything. Brains, talent,

7:10

wealth, parents who adored her.

7:12

But the investigation into her

7:15

murder, dubbed Operation Water Lily,

7:17

would shock an entire nation

7:19

and kick up a frenzied

7:22

storm of media speculation. Because...

7:24

in the murky depths below.

7:27

Things were not, as they

7:29

seemed. The roots of Asanta's

7:32

life were tangled, hiding seriously

7:34

fucked up dynamics, and dark

7:37

secrets under the surface of

7:39

a seemingly perfect family. Secret

7:41

druggings, a toroid affair, sinister

7:44

family photos, and a toxic

7:46

divorce. People are still obsessed

7:49

with this case even today.

7:51

And trust us, guys. The

7:54

deeper we go, the crazier

7:56

things are going to get

7:58

today. The questions at

8:01

the heart of this story are,

8:03

had this elite couple got tired

8:05

of the child that they had

8:07

and some people's eyes bought and

8:10

then cruelly discarded her? Or was

8:12

this a Spanish making a murder

8:14

a situation where the parents had

8:17

a target on their backs even

8:19

though it's making a murder or

8:21

like? Come on, come on now.

8:23

I have so many issues with

8:26

that documentary. And that's why whenever

8:28

people are like, you're going to

8:30

cover that case, I'm like, maybe,

8:33

but it will just be a

8:35

long list of all the things

8:37

that Netflix left out of their

8:39

But anyway, today, this is the

8:42

story of what's known as the

8:44

Asunta Case, one of Spain's most

8:46

twisted modern mysteries. Asunta Beresto Porto

8:48

entered the world on the 30th

8:51

of September 2000, in the city

8:53

of Yongju, in the Hunan province

8:55

of China. Back then, she was

8:58

known as Yongfang. And while little

9:00

is known about her biological family,

9:02

It's believed that she was initially

9:04

cared for by her grandparents, but

9:07

when they both died before her

9:09

first birthday, she was put in

9:11

an orphanage called the Guiang Welfare

9:13

Institute. But she didn't have to

9:16

wait too long for her new

9:18

family to arrive. A Spanish power

9:20

couple called Rosario Porto Ortega and

9:23

Alfonso Beresta Camporo. A

9:25

pair who would, for better

9:27

or worse, go on to

9:29

shape the rest of little

9:32

Youngfang's life. Maria del Rosario

9:34

Porto Otago, simply known as

9:36

Rosario or Charo, to her

9:38

friends and family, was kind

9:41

of a big deal where

9:43

she came from. She was

9:45

born into a prominent Galethian

9:47

family, with wealth and prestige

9:50

and bucket loads. Her father,

9:52

lawyer, Francisco Porto Mela. was

9:54

the former honorary consul to

9:56

France. And her mother, Maria

9:59

del Socono Ortega Romero, was

10:01

an esteemed university lecturer in

10:03

art history at the University

10:05

of Santiago of Sialgo de

10:08

Compostela. Rosario had, as you

10:10

can imagine, a first-rate education

10:12

and spent since studying in

10:14

the UK and France, mastering

10:16

several languages. But she never

10:19

liked it abroad. As she

10:21

later put it, no one

10:23

knew who her father was

10:25

there. So

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honeylove.com/red-handed. And

30:25

Rosaria and Alfonso certainly did think

30:27

that Asanta was gifted. And they

30:29

felt it was their responsibility to

30:32

ensure that she unlocked her full

30:34

potential. Asanta attended the same prestigious

30:36

schools that her mum had and

30:38

was allowed to skip her final

30:40

year of primary school. She did

30:43

an exhausting number of extracurricular activities,

30:45

including ballet, violin, piano, Chinese, French

30:47

and English lessons. Her ballet teacher

30:49

once asked Asanta about her Saturday

30:51

routine. And Asanta casually reeled off

30:54

that she got off at 7am

30:56

she did Chinese from 8 to

30:58

10 and then she went to

31:00

ballet from 1015 to 1230 and

31:02

then she studied French until lunchtime

31:04

then had violin and then piano

31:07

in the afternoon. Yikes. That's a

31:09

lot. I would argue that it's

31:11

it's not just because she's I

31:13

think it's like the media portraying

31:15

her as a genius is that

31:18

element of like she's Chinese. but

31:20

I think with Rosaria doing it

31:22

is kind of like it's what

31:24

she experienced and I think even

31:26

if Rosaria and Alfonso had had

31:29

a baby biologically they would be

31:31

doing the same thing to that

31:33

child because there is that expectation

31:35

like we said with Rosario's future

31:37

plans it was very she was

31:40

very privileged but her future like

31:42

was going to be very narrow

31:44

she was going to be successful

31:46

and you're absolutely seeing that in

31:48

four fours here you don't need

31:51

to be Asian to be a

31:53

tiger mom. And Rosario did indeed,

31:55

like her mother before her and

31:57

no doubt her mother before that,

31:59

have big plans for her daughter.

32:02

But... As As Asanta approached her

32:04

teenage years, cracks were perhaps starting

32:06

to appear. On the wall at

32:08

the family's apartment, there hung a

32:10

framed poem that a very little

32:13

Asanta had written with a childish

32:15

stick figure drawing of her mother.

32:17

And it translated from Spanish to

32:19

English, this is what it read.

32:21

My mum is Corcharo, and her

32:23

hair is short. She is thin

32:26

and her hair is black. And

32:28

she is beautiful. She does my

32:30

ribbons for me. And she is

32:32

a good person. She loves me

32:34

a lot. But a few years

32:37

later, when Asanta was old enough

32:39

to smash her Galitian rhyming game,

32:41

don't judge her by the translated

32:43

version that doesn't make a whole

32:45

lot of sense. She'd composed a

32:48

somewhat less flattering verse about her

32:50

dear mother. And this is what

32:52

I read. My mother is greedy,

32:54

but not beautiful. She is short,

32:56

but not nice. She sings horribly,

32:59

and cooks with salt. She runs

33:01

worse, but drinks better. Not at

33:03

all flexible, but very old. She

33:05

doesn't know how to talk, but

33:07

she does know how to tell

33:10

me off. She knows how to

33:12

shout, but not how to talk

33:14

nonsense. And like, look, in hindsight?

33:16

Yes. But also, like, give any

33:18

teenage girl the opportunity to write

33:21

something about their mother, and I'm

33:23

going to guess it's not too

33:25

far off. In

33:28

reality, the poem that Suri just

33:30

read for you was probably just

33:32

a silly little rhyme for a

33:34

school project. It could highlight strains

33:37

in the mother-daughter bond, but as

33:39

Suri said, show me one person

33:41

who hasn't had that experience. Oh

33:43

my god, like, yeah, I just

33:45

think, if you've got teenagers, they're

33:47

just going to hate you for

33:49

a few years, and then if

33:51

you're lucky, you'll be best friends

33:53

with them again, they're in their

33:55

20s, but don't expect it when

33:57

they're teenagers. Once!

33:59

when Rosario was boasting to acquaintances

34:01

about her many after-school activities. Asanta

34:03

snapped at her mum and said,

34:05

I'm only doing that one because

34:07

you like it again. Classic. Apparently,

34:10

sources close to the family said

34:12

that Rosario appeared overwhelmed by managing

34:14

a center's schooling and extracurricular schedules,

34:16

which I don't know. I think

34:18

if she's that wealthy... she's got

34:20

a fucking assistant like I don't

34:22

believe that she's like I just

34:25

can't cope with ballet and piano

34:27

on the same day like come

34:29

on no I think what's actually

34:31

stressing Rosario out is looking for

34:33

all these different activities that she

34:35

thinks her child should excel at

34:38

and in and of itself that

34:40

is not inherently abusive I'm not

34:42

gonna say that you as a

34:44

parent of course you have this

34:46

child you've longed for for ages

34:48

like this is it and you

34:50

also come from a particular family

34:53

where there are expectations and you

34:55

want your child to excel at

34:57

something. You want that idea of

34:59

this child being a genius or

35:01

a prodigy or gifted to be

35:03

true. Because look, she like is

35:05

obsessed with this idea of Asanta

35:08

being something special and everybody feels

35:10

that way about their kids. But

35:12

I think maybe what's actually frustrating

35:14

her is that Asanta is a

35:16

not particularly vibing with any of

35:18

these extra curricular activities that she

35:21

her mother thinks are worthy of

35:23

putting your time into. And maybe

35:25

she just wasn't the top of

35:27

the class. Yeah, I think that's

35:29

true. And I also think, you

35:31

know, as an adult, quite often,

35:33

you can look back and be

35:36

like, oh, I just wish. I

35:38

wish I'd started that earlier. I

35:40

wish I'd listened in Spanish at

35:42

school. I wish. And you know

35:44

that. Your kid doesn't fucking know

35:46

that. There's such a quandary, isn't

35:48

it? I mean, this is just

35:51

quickly turning into a parenting podcast

35:53

on people who don't have any

35:55

children, um, shocker, but... I have

35:57

friends who are absolutely like, I

35:59

wish my parents had pushed me

36:01

more, I wish they had encouraged

36:04

me more, I wish they had

36:06

had higher expectations of me, you

36:08

know, I wish they had forced

36:10

a, I don't know, a fucking

36:12

Obo. into my hand or something

36:14

as a child. And they didn't

36:16

because they were just like, you

36:19

know, have a good time, do

36:21

what you want kid. Whereas I

36:23

had the opposite experience. It was

36:25

like, what are you doing? Why

36:27

are you just sitting there? Why

36:29

aren't you awake by a certain

36:32

time? On a Saturday, why aren't

36:34

you doing something productive? To be

36:36

productive was to be popular in

36:38

our house, for sure. And I

36:40

think it's a fine line, isn't

36:42

it, because you want to find

36:44

a fine line, But if they're

36:47

not very good and they're not

36:49

succeeding at that, it can also

36:51

be quite a negative feedback loop.

36:53

And I think here, that's maybe

36:55

what you're seeing a bit of.

36:57

Yeah, I think, although most parents

36:59

are operating with the brains of

37:02

adults who, you know, wish that

37:04

they could play the fucking harp,

37:06

I don't think that's quite what's

37:08

going on here. Rosaria had done

37:10

quite a lot of research on

37:12

gifted children, and she told her

37:15

friends that when gifted children, when

37:17

gifted children are well-handled, they are

37:19

a good thing, but they can

37:21

be a problem. So what we

37:23

have there is Rosario, at least

37:25

in private, starting to see her

37:27

daughter and describing her to others

37:30

as a problem. And I really

37:32

take that to me, like, if

37:34

this child that I have decided

37:36

as gifted... succeeds in a narrow

37:38

set of things that I have

37:40

deemed to be worthy of success,

37:42

or like, you know, good enough

37:45

for her to pursue, then she

37:47

will be well handled and it's

37:49

great. And I think the problem

37:51

means if she's not succeeding in

37:53

those or gives me fucking sass

37:55

about doing it, then she's the

37:58

problem. And I think the problem

38:00

is that Asanta's kind of doing

38:02

both. And yeah, it's just an

38:04

unbelievable amount of pressure. And honestly...

38:06

Given my childhood was like, I,

38:08

you know, I don't want to

38:10

sound like, oh my God, it

38:13

was awful. It's just like, there

38:15

was a lot of expectations. That's

38:17

typical of a lot of people

38:19

who grow up in. like a

38:21

first generation immigrant household for sure

38:23

and in other cases like this

38:26

but I think I am going

38:28

to have to work every fiber

38:30

of my body every cell in

38:32

my tongue if I ever have

38:34

a child to not do the

38:36

same thing I think and I'm

38:38

being perfectly honest I think deep

38:41

down I will feel resentful if

38:43

that child was like I'm just

38:45

gonna lay about and I don't

38:47

want to do shit And that's

38:49

going to be really hard for

38:51

me. Yeah, it's hard-wired. I will

38:53

just be like, are you fucking

38:56

serious? Do you know how hard

38:58

your granddad worked? You know how

39:00

hard fucking I worked? Get the

39:02

fuck up. And I'm going to

39:04

have to really work on that

39:06

every single day, I think. And

39:09

I already know that. I already

39:11

know that. I already know that.

39:13

I will feel resentment. my mother's

39:15

words would come out of my

39:17

mouth and I was like, oh

39:19

my god, where did that come

39:21

from? Because you can't, like it's

39:24

hardwired and it's really hard to

39:26

unpick it. So true and I

39:28

was actually having this conversation this

39:30

weekend and I was like I

39:32

do it with the dogs, I

39:34

say the things my parents used

39:36

to say to me to the

39:39

dogs and this is again it's

39:41

going to make me sound awful

39:43

but like again you've got to

39:45

take into account it's like an

39:47

Indian culture household. and for sure

39:49

like the challenges my parents went

39:52

through to get us to where

39:54

we are now etc etc etc

39:56

but they'd be like I'll fucking

39:58

kill you I will kill you

40:00

if you don't do this thing

40:02

I will beat you with this

40:04

shoe that's another that's a favorite

40:07

one something's lost in translation but

40:09

I'll fucking beat you I'll beat

40:11

you to death I'll beat you

40:13

I'll beat you with this shoe

40:15

and I say that to the

40:17

dogs all the fucking time and

40:20

I'm like oh my god I

40:22

can't say that I don't grows

40:24

up fully in the UK Oh

40:26

my god, yeah, it's gonna be,

40:28

it's gonna take a lot, it's

40:30

gonna take a lot of work.

40:32

Anyway, anyway, anyway, anyway, let's stick

40:35

with this. story. So, to the

40:37

world, the Bastera Pottos presented the

40:39

image of a loving, happy family.

40:41

But we all know that often

40:43

when a family seems perfect, they

40:45

sure as hell are not. And

40:47

under the shiny facade of this

40:50

clan, there were deeper issues to

40:52

address. Like Rosario's lifelong battle with

40:54

mental health issues. As a student

40:56

in France in the late 80s,

40:58

Rosario had had her first major

41:00

breakdown. She was diagnosed with severe

41:03

depression and anxiety, for which she

41:05

took medication. She was hospitalized several

41:07

times, including in 2009, when she

41:09

told doctors at a private psychiatric

41:11

facility that she was suicidal and

41:13

had racing thoughts. Her psychiatrist noted

41:15

that she was, quote, very irritable

41:18

about her daughter, nine-year-old a son,

41:20

who she described as a, quote,

41:22

bother. But Rosario discharged herself after

41:24

only two days. and returned for

41:26

just one of her scheduled follow-up

41:28

appointments. The last year of Asanta's

41:30

life was one filled with upheaval

41:33

and stress for the whole family.

41:35

Both of Rosario's parents, who Asanta

41:37

was close to, died just a

41:39

few months apart. They'd been huge

41:41

influences on Rosario's life, and her

41:43

mother in particular was considered to

41:46

be the family's driving force. Rosario

41:48

described her mum as charmingly awful

41:50

awful. That's amazing. Yeah, and one

41:52

acquaintance said that she had a

41:54

personality like a lawnmower. Interesting. Her

41:56

parents' deaths triggered a personal rebellion

41:58

for Azario because it meant that

42:01

she could finally make choices for

42:03

herself. And she did. She quit

42:05

her inherited role as consul of

42:07

France. It was a lot of

42:09

work for no pay and just

42:11

social prestige, which she already had.

42:13

and she closed her dad's law

42:16

firm. Reserve. Rosario started to freelance

42:18

legal consulting and offering translation services.

42:20

And that's how she met a

42:22

client named Manuel Garcia Rendo, a

42:24

charming businessman with a pregnant wife

42:26

at home, and a roving eye.

42:29

Rosario travelled with Manuel to Morocco

42:31

several times to provide legal advice

42:33

and linguistic assistance for an investment

42:35

deal. And I think you can...

42:37

predict where that ended up they

42:39

started shagging each other. Rosario confided

42:41

in her friends that she'd been

42:44

growing bored of Alfonso for quite

42:46

some time. He was unambitious. He

42:48

was just doing a bit of

42:50

freelance work and travelling and writing

42:52

and blah blah blah but it

42:54

wasn't enough. He was mainly taking

42:57

care of a sinter like a

42:59

house husband which Rosario didn't like.

43:01

Manuel, though, he was driven, and

43:03

if Rosario is to be believed,

43:05

which maybe we shouldn't always, Alfonso

43:07

was absolutely great in the sack.

43:09

And Rosario told the police later

43:12

on that she was crushing like

43:14

a teenager when it came to

43:16

Manuel. Her oath? Not great. So

43:19

while Manuel made it clear that

43:21

he had absolutely no intention of

43:24

leaving his family, Rosario was head-over-heels

43:26

for her sexy married lover. But

43:28

the affair was busted in January

43:31

2013, when Alfonso read Rosario's emails.

43:33

Blindsided, Alfonso became physically aggressive and

43:35

even kicked a hole in a

43:38

door before Rosario forced him to

43:40

leave. Three weeks later, after attempting

43:43

to scound from various family members

43:45

in Bilbao, Alfonso returned and got

43:47

an apartment around the corner. Despite

43:50

the acrimonious breakup, both parties agreed

43:52

that their main priority was their

43:54

daughter Asanta. seemed to be handling

43:57

things pretty well. Her only question

43:59

when they explained that they were

44:01

divorcing was, so who's going to

44:04

cook? Rosario later said she believed

44:06

Asanta took the news so well

44:09

because she felt secure in the

44:11

knowledge that her parents both loved

44:13

her. Alfonso on the other hand

44:16

was not quite so mature when

44:18

it came to dealing with the

44:20

breakup. He bombarded Rosario with emails

44:23

in which he went from clingy

44:25

and desperate to claiming he didn't

44:27

care about her and just wanted

44:30

to move on. In these rambling

44:32

diatribes he insisted that he had

44:35

tons of dignity while despairing that

44:37

he'd been thrown out of his

44:39

house, as if he had the

44:42

plague. And Rosario summarised this whole

44:44

situation for a friend of hers,

44:46

saying that Alfonso oscillated between playing

44:49

the victim and being really aggressive,

44:51

which was exhausting. Once he wrote...

44:53

Even though it might sound pathetic

44:56

and humiliating for me, my only

44:58

purpose in life was to look

45:01

after you and grow old at

45:03

your side. Sorry, but it isn't

45:05

easy for me to stop loving

45:08

you. That didn't work. In what

45:10

Rosario called the quickest divorce ever.

45:12

They were officially divorced on the

45:15

14th of February 2013. I have

45:17

chills, so cold, so cold. And

45:19

look, I get it, she was

45:22

like bored with him, she's done

45:24

with him already by the time

45:27

this all goes down, but like,

45:29

she's kind of just like, oh,

45:31

he's so exhausting. I'm like, you

45:34

fucking cheated on him and then

45:36

throw him out of his house.

45:38

Like, okay, you know? Yeah, and

45:41

finalise it on Valentine's Day. But

45:43

look, Rosario. isn't coming up smelling

45:45

of roses from this situation anyway

45:48

because she had yet another nervous

45:50

breakdown in June. Alfonso of all

45:53

people rushed to her side, picking

45:55

up on his house husband duties

45:57

as if nothing had ever happened.

46:00

Rosario didn't want to get back

46:02

together with Alfonso romantically. It's clear

46:04

that she definitely had some form

46:07

of psychological dependency on him. Since

46:09

the breakup, Alfonso sent frequent emails

46:11

reminding Rosario how to do basic

46:14

household tasks all with detailed instructions.

46:16

Rosario, apparently was notoriously scatty and

46:19

heavily relied on her husband or

46:21

ex-husband by this point, even after

46:23

they long split. It was this

46:26

weird, hyperdependent scenario. that Alfonso issued

46:28

Rosario an ultimatum. He'd continue helping

46:30

her out, but she had to

46:33

leave her lover. I learned an

46:35

interesting thing this weekend, that we

46:37

use the word codependent, often in

46:40

the pop culture vernacular incorrectly. So

46:42

a lot of people will describe

46:45

this as codependent, like he wants

46:47

something from her, she wants something

46:49

from him, they're codependent on each

46:52

other, and actually that's not the

46:54

right usage. the right usage is

46:56

actually a person that needs to

46:59

do everything for another person in

47:01

order to feel valid. That's actually

47:03

what the term co-dependent means. Which

47:06

I think is very interesting. So

47:08

when we're like, oh they're never

47:11

going to break up because they're

47:13

so co-dependent, that's not actually what

47:15

it means. It's the person who's

47:18

like gives and gives and gives

47:20

because they're dependent on the validation

47:22

from that other person is what

47:25

it actually means. Anyway. This is

47:27

the agreement they come up with.

47:29

Rosaria would later say, telling a

47:32

judge in fact later, it was

47:34

Alfonso or death. And so she

47:37

ended her affair with Manuel. I

47:39

think that just that really shows

47:41

that like she really didn't think

47:44

she could live if he wasn't

47:46

there. No, and I think there's

47:48

probably an element there of like

47:51

why she got bored of him

47:53

because... He was probably just in

47:55

this caregiver role and I think

47:58

it seemed... much more exciting on

48:00

this outside obviously blah blah blah

48:03

she carries on with Manuel who's

48:05

like I'm not fucking leaving

48:07

my family though this is just a bit

48:09

of fun and I think she realizes

48:11

like she says it's our fun so or death

48:13

and I think she's probably not

48:15

totally wrong given how much she

48:17

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50:00

to finding balance, the more choices,

50:02

the better. And

51:22

she even sent a selfie that

51:24

showed red marks on her neck.

51:27

Rosaria's efforts to keep the incident

51:29

under wraps were foiled the very

51:31

next day. In the car, on

51:33

the way to a beach trip

51:36

with another schoolmate, this friend's mom

51:38

asked the girls to tell stories

51:40

to pass the time. And here

51:43

is what Asunder said. Once upon

51:45

a time, there was a little

51:47

girl. A man came into her

51:49

room and tried to kill her,

51:52

that girl was me. What I've

51:54

just told you is true. Oh,

51:56

fucking off. Naturally, the mum rang

51:59

Rosario and was absolutely... shocked when

52:01

she confirmed that the story was

52:03

true. Rosario explained her silence by

52:06

saying that she didn't want to

52:08

traumatise us on to further by

52:10

going to the police because she

52:12

was a fearful girl and she

52:15

didn't want her to be afraid

52:17

in her own home. The other

52:19

mum was like, your fucking nuts

52:22

make too late, report it. And

52:24

so, Rosario did go to the

52:26

police a few days later. She

52:28

stopped short of making a formal

52:31

report. claiming she'd take her son

52:33

to the hospital first before she

52:35

did so. She never did. And

52:38

so that summer, Asanta had her

52:40

final taste of happiness. She spent

52:42

several weeks at a beach resort

52:44

with her godmother, a woman named

52:47

Maria Isabelle Veliz, who said she

52:49

had a wonderful time swimming and

52:51

playing in the sun. Asanta also

52:54

stayed with her nanny, a woman

52:56

named Carmen in her home village

52:58

for over a week. In total,

53:01

Asanta only spent one week out

53:03

of the six-week summer holiday with

53:05

her parents. In September, she returned

53:07

to school, but only stayed for

53:10

two days before calling in sick.

53:12

Rosario wrote a note explaining that

53:14

Asanta had been dizzy and unwell

53:17

during the night. And then, on

53:19

Friday the 20th of September, Asanta's

53:21

final night alive, she stayed at

53:23

her dad's flat. And

53:26

Rosaria had called Alfonso to

53:28

say that she'd be home

53:30

late, as she was at

53:32

an exhibition out of town.

53:34

But in reality, despite saying

53:36

that the affair was off,

53:38

she was actually shagging Manuel

53:40

on his boat, because she

53:42

had been quite obviously unable

53:45

to resist starting things back

53:47

up with him, and that

53:49

had been going on for

53:51

about a month. Saturday the

53:53

21st of September appeared to

53:55

begin as an ordinary day

53:57

for a center. The family

53:59

had lunch together at Alfonso's

54:01

apartment, played cards, and watched

54:03

an episode of The Simpsons.

54:05

Sounds great. Yeah. Asanta texted

54:07

a mate about half three,

54:09

saying that she was off

54:11

to do her homework, and

54:14

was spotted on CCTV walking

54:16

alone, around the corner, back

54:18

to her mum's flat at

54:20

521 p.m. Rosario followed just

54:22

seven minutes later. Within a

54:24

few hours, Asanta would be

54:26

dead. and Alfonso Bastara arrived

54:28

at Santiago's main police station

54:30

to report their daughter missing.

54:32

Rosario told police inspector Javier

54:34

Villa Coba that she'd left

54:36

a center at home at

54:38

around 7 p.m. while she

54:40

drove to the family's country

54:43

house at Montoto in the

54:45

parish of Tio, roughly about

54:47

a 20-minute drive from the

54:49

city. She said that when

54:51

she returned at 930 p.

54:53

Asanto was missing. Her books

54:55

and toys were still spread

54:57

out in a fan shape

54:59

on the floor, where she

55:01

liked to do her homework.

55:03

Her mobile phone was also

55:05

still in the flap. There

55:07

was absolutely no sign of

55:10

her. Rosaria said her first

55:12

thought was that maybe a

55:14

son had walked over to

55:16

her dad's place. But after

55:18

calling Alfonso and some of

55:20

her son's friends, it was

55:22

clear that she was missing.

55:24

Knowing their shy and well-behaved

55:26

daughter would never leave the

55:28

house alone. Rosario and Alfonso

55:30

reported her disappearance within the

55:32

hour. The investigation began with

55:34

red flags right from the

55:36

start. Whilst having a cigarette

55:39

break with police inspector Villa

55:41

Coba Alfonso remarked several times

55:43

that he believed Asunta was

55:45

dead and he hoped that

55:47

she hadn't been raped, which

55:49

is a very old thing

55:51

to say. It's a weird

55:53

thing. It's a weird thing

55:55

to come. After a couple

55:57

of hours of being missing.

55:59

Yeah. don't like it. And

56:01

when Rosario relayed the story

56:03

of what happened back in

56:05

July with the man in

56:08

black, the police were even

56:10

more concerned. Why would a

56:12

woman who reported her daughter

56:14

missing within a matter of

56:16

hours not report a home

56:18

invasion like that? Yeah, the

56:20

suspicion bricks are a building,

56:22

a big suspicion wall. Still,

56:24

at this stage, early stages,

56:26

early doors. Police were hoping

56:28

that they would find a

56:30

centre alive and well. But

56:32

we already know that didn't

56:34

happen. At around 1.30am, a

56:37

centre's body was discovered by

56:39

locals Alfredo Balsar and Jose

56:41

Alvarez on the dirt track

56:43

outside a tiny village. A

56:45

centre was barefoot and laying

56:47

on her back on a

56:49

small embankment by the roadside.

56:51

Her eyes were rolled back

56:53

and there was blood tinged

56:55

snot on her nose. She

56:58

wore mud-stained grey sweatpants, though wet

57:00

at the crotch, like she'd wet

57:02

herself. And her white t-shirt, with

57:04

rainbow writing on it, was slightly

57:06

pulled up. Investigators at the scene

57:08

noticed a wet substance on her

57:10

t-shirt that they thought could potentially

57:13

be seaman. It appeared that Asanta's

57:15

body had been carefully placed at

57:17

the scene, as there were no

57:19

drag marks at all nearby. Freied

57:21

orange twine. was also found near

57:23

her body, indicating that perhaps she

57:25

may have been bound at some

57:27

point. The two men who found

57:30

a sonter's body were well known

57:32

in the rural area for drinking

57:34

gambling and using drugs, so the

57:36

officers were quite wary of them

57:38

at first. They were particularly suspicious

57:40

of their story about how they'd

57:42

come across a sonter's body whilst

57:44

out walking, despite the full moon

57:47

and the densely forested path being

57:49

dark. The cops felt that the

57:51

chances... of seeing us under without

57:53

headlights were quite small. And after

57:55

some prodding, the two men did

57:57

admit that they were driving to

57:59

a strip club, even though Balsar's

58:01

license had been revoked, and they

58:04

were both well over the legal

58:06

limit. So I can understand why

58:08

they lied about that. Yeah. And

58:10

given that we know that they

58:12

weren't actually involved in this, good

58:14

for them for coming forward. Yeah,

58:16

I know. And also like I

58:18

can understand why the police would

58:21

be like, but that doesn't make

58:23

sense. Yes. But then obviously I

58:25

can understand, I'm not condoning condoning

58:27

it. But I can understand why

58:29

they would be like, well, we

58:31

were just walking. And of course,

58:33

absolutely, any time anybody discovers a

58:35

body, it's only right that they

58:38

should be a suspect numero uno,

58:40

for sure, especially if they're two

58:42

drunk men who have just happened

58:44

upon this teenage girl. And interestingly,

58:46

the visibility conditions that night would

58:48

go on to become a major

58:50

sticking point in this investigation, but

58:52

we've got some other stuff to

58:55

deal with before we can tell

58:57

you about that. After

58:59

the two men admitted how they

59:01

really found her body, tests were

59:03

conducted on the exterior of Balsa's

59:06

white Volkswagen golf to determine if

59:08

this was actually a hit and

59:10

run. But Asunter's body showed no

59:12

signs of external trauma and the

59:15

car was intact. So they were

59:17

both ruled out as suspects. Strangely,

59:19

Balsa apparently claimed that Asunter's left

59:21

arm had moved between their two

59:24

visits to the two visits to

59:26

the body. Originally, it had been

59:28

curled across her chest, but later

59:30

when they returned, it was lying

59:33

by her side. Odd, you can't

59:35

help you, never explained, never clarified.

59:37

Also, probably not true, I don't

59:39

care that much about that. Now

59:42

we should quickly explain how the

59:44

Spanish judicial system works, as it

59:46

is pretty different from here in

59:48

the UK or in the US

59:51

where we obviously spend a lot

59:53

of our time with this show.

59:55

In Spain, an investigating judge leads

59:57

the investigation for serious crimes like

1:00:00

homicide. They instruct the police to

1:00:02

gather evidence, question suspects and make

1:00:04

arrests. This judge takes command of

1:00:06

the whole case up until the

1:00:09

trial, unlike in Britain where the

1:00:11

police and the CPS, which is

1:00:13

obviously the Crown Prosecution Service, play

1:00:15

a key role. And for operation,

1:00:18

Waterloo, the investigative work was conducted

1:00:20

by the Gardia Civil, a militarised

1:00:22

police force with jurisdiction over crimes

1:00:24

committed in rural areas. And the

1:00:27

judge was a guy named Jose

1:00:29

Antonio Vasquez Tajin, a maverick with

1:00:31

his own unique aggressive style. Tajin

1:00:33

was nicknamed Robin Hood for his

1:00:36

work catching drug traffickers in the

1:00:38

countryside. And Tajin smelled a rat

1:00:40

straight away, because the Santa's body

1:00:42

had been found just four kilometers

1:00:45

away from her family's sprawling holiday

1:00:47

home in the village of Monteo.

1:00:49

And so, all eyes were very

1:00:51

family. on Rosario and Alfonso. At

1:00:54

445 on the 22nd of September

1:00:56

Alfonso and Rosario were informed that

1:00:58

their daughter had been found dead.

1:01:00

Officers noted Rosario had a strange

1:01:03

attitude when they told her that

1:01:05

she needed to come with them

1:01:07

to identify the body. She insisted

1:01:09

that the police must be wrong

1:01:12

and refused to leave her flat

1:01:14

in case a son to came

1:01:16

back. Which you could argue... It's

1:01:18

not that strange to be in

1:01:21

denial. No. As a parent. Also

1:01:23

the idea of like not wanting

1:01:25

to leave, I do get that.

1:01:27

I do too. Although some people

1:01:30

have classed this as specifically odd

1:01:32

because in reality in that part

1:01:34

of Spain how many tween age

1:01:36

Asian girls are going to be

1:01:39

found dead on the side of

1:01:41

the road. I can understand it,

1:01:43

but if you're a grieving parent

1:01:45

you're not having logical thoughts. Anyway.

1:01:48

Officers testified later on that it

1:01:50

was at that moment that they

1:01:52

saw a glimpse of coldness and

1:01:54

distance in Rosario. We talk about

1:01:57

reactions to bad news all the

1:01:59

time. I actually cannot think of

1:02:01

a single time, a single case

1:02:03

we have covered, where it's been

1:02:06

important enough to be a turning

1:02:08

point in the case, you know

1:02:10

what I mean? Like you can

1:02:12

comment on it, like it's, but

1:02:15

it's in the end, because there

1:02:17

are so many mitigating factors surrounding

1:02:19

how people, react to things. I

1:02:21

don't think it really makes difference.

1:02:24

No, I don't. I think that

1:02:26

the thing that the police are

1:02:28

doing absolutely correctly here is that

1:02:30

they look firstly at the men

1:02:33

who find the body, okay, rule

1:02:35

them out, then you've got to

1:02:37

look at the parents. And if

1:02:39

anything, there's one thing we have

1:02:42

seen is that the police either

1:02:44

come down way too hard on

1:02:46

the parents sometimes and, you know,

1:02:49

blink of themselves from other suspects,

1:02:51

or they don't look at them

1:02:53

at all. And I think here,

1:02:55

for them to be like, we

1:02:58

saw a glimmer of something and

1:03:00

it was enough for us to

1:03:02

look more into them, absolutely correct.

1:03:04

What happened next, though, is more

1:03:07

worth our time, I would argue?

1:03:09

Police took Rosario to the Montuito

1:03:11

house, the holiday house, not too

1:03:13

far away from where a centre's

1:03:16

body was found. When they got

1:03:18

there, Rosario immediately asked to be

1:03:20

excused because she needed the loo

1:03:22

and she bolted upstairs. Even though

1:03:25

there was a... a loo on

1:03:27

the ground floor, which she would

1:03:29

know, having spent many, many a

1:03:31

summer. An officer followed Rosario and

1:03:34

found her upstairs, not weighing, not

1:03:36

even washing her hands. She was

1:03:38

rooting through a waste paper basket.

1:03:40

Okay. Which contained? Orange twine, identical

1:03:43

to that found at the crime

1:03:45

scene. There was also some still

1:03:47

damp tissues that Rosario nervously explained

1:03:49

were from a cold a son

1:03:52

had had earlier that summer and

1:03:54

there was also a Face mask,

1:03:56

Rosario said had been used for

1:03:58

avoiding fumes while spring cleaning the

1:04:01

old house. No one actually asked,

1:04:03

Rosario, for any of that information.

1:04:05

She gave it all away for

1:04:07

free. As if she was trying

1:04:10

to prove that she wasn't hiding

1:04:12

anything. Yeah. Nothing's going to make

1:04:14

you look more suspicious than that,

1:04:16

especially after your teenager has been

1:04:19

found dead four kilometers from the

1:04:21

place you said you were in.

1:04:23

Yeah. And also saying you need

1:04:25

the loo and then not going

1:04:28

to the loo? Yes. There's a

1:04:30

lot of stacking up. A lot

1:04:32

of stacking up and it's not

1:04:34

just down to. She looked a

1:04:37

bit weird when we asked her

1:04:39

some questions. So the discovery of

1:04:41

the orange twine set off serious

1:04:43

alarm bells for the police. And

1:04:46

it matched a ball kept in

1:04:48

a storeroom at the house, which

1:04:50

Rosario claimed the garden is used

1:04:52

for re-landscaping the grounds. Its chemical

1:04:55

properties also match the twine found

1:04:57

by a son's body. Although it

1:04:59

was scientifically impossible to say for

1:05:01

definite that it came from the

1:05:04

same batch. Since once cut the

1:05:06

frayed ends can't be matched with

1:05:08

100% certainty and that is something

1:05:10

important even when the police find

1:05:13

fibres, string, blah blah blah, all

1:05:15

they can say is it's consistent

1:05:17

with another item recovered from a

1:05:19

suspect. Now investigators made

1:05:22

inquiries at all the local

1:05:24

hardware stores in the region,

1:05:26

but none of them sold

1:05:28

that exact type and colour.

1:05:30

Something which seemed to point

1:05:32

towards the theory of it

1:05:34

coming from the storeroom in

1:05:36

the old country house, rather

1:05:38

than it just being a

1:05:40

weird coincidence. Orange twine. Again,

1:05:42

if you're gonna do a

1:05:44

murder, pick something ubiquitous. Pick

1:05:46

something that could have come

1:05:48

from anywhere. and paying cash.

1:05:50

Don't take it from your

1:05:52

own fucking utility cupboard. Bulls

1:05:54

are obviously don't murder people,

1:05:56

especially not your own child.

1:05:58

But yeah, it's really hamstrung

1:06:00

them here. And Rosario wasn't

1:06:02

the only one, acting shadily,

1:06:04

after the discovery of Asanta's

1:06:06

body. Within days, Alfonso called

1:06:08

up his old boss at

1:06:10

the newspaper and demanded that

1:06:12

they take their online articles

1:06:14

about Asanta Down. And they

1:06:17

did. And they only mentioned

1:06:19

his name in future articles.

1:06:21

They kept Rosario out of

1:06:23

it completely. because Alfonso had

1:06:25

told them that she just

1:06:27

couldn't handle the media scrutiny.

1:06:29

And it did strike ex-colleague

1:06:31

Jose Antonio Perez as odd

1:06:33

that Alfonso was doing digital

1:06:35

damage control when his daughter's

1:06:37

body had only just been

1:06:39

found. And despite all of

1:06:41

this article hunting police, couldn't

1:06:43

find Alfonso's laptop during their

1:06:45

initial search of his apartment.

1:06:47

But when Alfonso's lawyer suggested

1:06:49

a second search be conducted

1:06:51

three months later, the laptop

1:06:53

was miraculously found in a

1:06:55

location that had been previously

1:06:57

checked. A thousands of files

1:06:59

had been wiped off it.

1:07:01

Yeah, that'll do it. They

1:07:03

always know. They always know

1:07:05

when you have done that.

1:07:07

At least hide it somewhere

1:07:09

you know that they didn't

1:07:11

already check. Or just destroy

1:07:13

it? All that. All that.

1:07:15

All that. Throw it off

1:07:17

a boat in the North

1:07:19

Sea like in Wagatha Christie.

1:07:21

Please, for the love of

1:07:23

God. right into fucking Davy

1:07:26

Jones's locker. So Asanta's autopsy

1:07:28

confirmed that she had died

1:07:30

from asphyxiation, likely by being

1:07:32

smothered with a soft object

1:07:34

like a pillow or a

1:07:36

cushion. She had blood at

1:07:38

her mouth from biting her

1:07:40

lip, suggesting slight resistance, but

1:07:42

otherwise there was no major

1:07:44

trauma to her body. And

1:07:46

it wasn't possible to determine

1:07:48

her exact time of death.

1:07:50

since samples were not initially

1:07:52

taken due to fears of

1:07:54

contaminating potential evidence of sexual

1:07:56

assault. Although, ultimately it was

1:07:58

concluded that she had not

1:08:00

been sexually violated. And based

1:08:02

on the timeline of events,

1:08:04

the medical examiner estimated that

1:08:06

a son to's most likely

1:08:08

time of death was somewhere

1:08:10

between 7 p.m. and 8

1:08:12

p.m. There was no physical

1:08:14

evidence tying Rosario or off

1:08:16

onzo to the body, and

1:08:18

that's always really difficult when

1:08:20

you live there, when you

1:08:22

live in the same house,

1:08:24

because your DNA is all

1:08:26

over it anyway. But Rosario's

1:08:28

story about the events that

1:08:30

night soon started to unravel.

1:08:32

To recap, she'd said that

1:08:34

she left a center at

1:08:37

home at 7 p.m. and

1:08:39

then drove to the family's

1:08:41

country house. And yes, investigators

1:08:43

found CCTV footage corroborating this.

1:08:45

Rosario driving towards the house

1:08:47

at 6.20 p.m. But the

1:08:49

grainy footage showed a long-haired

1:08:51

slim figure sitting beside Rosario.

1:08:53

The footage showed a center.

1:08:56

It was incontrovertible proof that

1:08:58

Rosario had lied about leaving

1:09:00

her daughter alone in the

1:09:03

house. So what else was

1:09:05

she lying about? On the

1:09:07

24th of September Asanta was

1:09:09

cremated at the Boisaka Compostela

1:09:11

Cemetery. And a local TV

1:09:13

journalist acted as a sort

1:09:15

of family spokesperson, addressing the

1:09:17

swarming media outside and rejecting

1:09:19

speculation that Asanta's parents had

1:09:21

anything to do with her

1:09:24

tragic death. During

1:09:26

the service, Rosario and Alfonso

1:09:28

took photos of a sonter's

1:09:30

flower-covered coffin through the glass.

1:09:33

Then after the ceremony, a

1:09:35

police officer quietly took Rosario

1:09:37

aside and led her through

1:09:39

a side exit to a

1:09:42

waiting police car. She was

1:09:44

under arrest for the murder

1:09:46

of her daughter. In custody,

1:09:49

Rosario broke down and admitted

1:09:51

that her story was inaccurate.

1:09:54

In her new version of events,

1:09:56

she admitted she had taken us

1:09:58

onto to the summer house with

1:10:01

her. but said that she took

1:10:03

her home again soon after their

1:10:05

arrival. Since her cranky assanta had

1:10:07

changed her mind and was nagging

1:10:09

to go home to do her

1:10:12

homework. So, according to Rosario, after

1:10:14

dropping a santa back at the

1:10:16

flat in Santiago, Rosario says she

1:10:18

drove to a sporting good shop

1:10:21

to pick up an item for

1:10:23

her daughter's ballet classes, although she

1:10:25

said she didn't end up going

1:10:27

in because she'd left her purse

1:10:29

at the country house. Rosario says

1:10:32

she then drove back there to

1:10:34

pick it back there to pick

1:10:36

it up. before going to a

1:10:38

petrol station for fuel, but didn't

1:10:40

fill up her tank because she

1:10:43

realized that she had forgotten her

1:10:45

discount card. She then drove back

1:10:47

to Santiago and discovered that Asanta

1:10:49

was missing from the flat. Needless

1:10:52

to say, this story smelled like

1:10:54

total bullshit to Taiine and his

1:10:56

team. Yeah, you can see why

1:10:58

this scatty, which is how Rosaria

1:11:00

has been described multiple times, including

1:11:03

by her husband. And then there's

1:11:05

this. But Rosario swore that she

1:11:07

hadn't lied maliciously. At first she

1:11:09

said that she had just gotten

1:11:12

confused and mixed up her timings.

1:11:14

But then she started saying that

1:11:16

she'd fudged the truth because she

1:11:18

was ashamed that her daughter was

1:11:20

being precocious and bossing her around,

1:11:23

which again like, okay. Now while

1:11:25

psychiatrists say that it's possible Rosario

1:11:27

struggled with memory lapses due to

1:11:29

the anxiety medication she was taking.

1:11:31

The facts of her new story

1:11:34

still just didn't check out. Police

1:11:36

checked 33 CCTV cameras around Santiago

1:11:38

and found no corroborating evidence that

1:11:40

any of the roots she claimed

1:11:43

to have taken. It was clear,

1:11:45

Rosario was lying through her teeth.

1:11:47

Following her arrest, the case exploded

1:11:49

in a frenzy of media interest.

1:11:51

Rumours swirled about the two wealthy

1:11:54

parents' about the two wealthy parents'

1:11:56

about the two wealthy parents' who

1:11:58

killed their adoptive daughter. An

1:12:01

ideas of how they did it

1:12:03

went from run-of-the-mill to pretty mental.

1:12:05

There was one conspiracy theory pushed

1:12:08

by Rosario's own cousin that the

1:12:10

reason the couple had killed a

1:12:12

sonter was because she was in

1:12:15

line to receive her grandparents' inheritance.

1:12:17

That turned out to be untrue.

1:12:19

Rosario was the sole beneficiary of

1:12:21

her parents' estate, but that didn't

1:12:24

matter. The story caught fire. And

1:12:26

people started to wonder whether Rosario.

1:12:28

had murdered her parents as well

1:12:30

because they did die terribly close

1:12:33

together, didn't they? I can see

1:12:35

why people... I can see it.

1:12:37

It's such a nice, I mean

1:12:39

nice in the worst possible way,

1:12:42

tight motive for why all of

1:12:44

these people suddenly die. And sense

1:12:46

of information was leaked to the

1:12:48

press as well, pretty constantly, which

1:12:51

obviously just made everything more on

1:12:53

fire. News programs aired secret footage

1:12:55

taken during the search of the

1:12:58

country house showing Rosario smoking smiling

1:13:00

and laughing with investigators. The public

1:13:02

were outraged. How could a bereaved

1:13:04

mother behave so callously just days

1:13:07

after her daughter's death? Alfonso's lawyer

1:13:09

insisted that this footage aired all

1:13:11

over the country had been edited

1:13:13

out of context and 98% of

1:13:16

the time Rosario was sad and

1:13:18

crying. Very specific. And again, look,

1:13:20

I get it, that is going

1:13:22

to make anybody feel pretty aggrieved

1:13:25

when you see that. But like

1:13:27

we said, many times on this

1:13:29

show, doesn't mean she killed her.

1:13:32

But the damage was done. And

1:13:34

the people were baying for blood.

1:13:36

Strangers lying in the streets yelling

1:13:38

murderers at the couple during police

1:13:41

escorts. And you can see it.

1:13:43

Like the narrative here of this

1:13:45

wealthy privileged couple adopting this child.

1:13:47

from a developing country bringing her

1:13:50

to Spain and then killing her

1:13:52

when she became a problem as

1:13:54

the narrative is being told. It

1:13:56

just, it's everything that would spark

1:13:59

outrage. Absolutely. So

1:14:01

while Alfonso was still a

1:14:03

free man at this point,

1:14:05

he was under a heavy

1:14:08

cloud of suspicion, as much

1:14:10

as his ex-wife. Investigators felt

1:14:12

Rosario must have had an

1:14:14

accomplice. At just four foot

1:14:16

eight, it seemed impossible for

1:14:19

her to have placed the

1:14:21

body of her daughter, who

1:14:23

was already five inches taller

1:14:25

than her, on a raw

1:14:27

track without any drag marks.

1:14:29

And that does make sense.

1:14:32

The investigators were convinced that

1:14:34

this accomplice had been of

1:14:36

course her ex-husband husband Alfonso.

1:14:38

But there was a problem.

1:14:40

They just couldn't place Alfonso

1:14:42

in the vicinity of where

1:14:45

Asanta's body was found. He

1:14:47

claimed to have been at

1:14:49

his apartment in Santiago all

1:14:51

evening. And his phone had

1:14:53

been switched off, so the

1:14:55

police couldn't track where he

1:14:58

had actually been using cell

1:15:00

towers. Which of course, they

1:15:02

concluded, was a deliberate attempt

1:15:04

made by Alfonso to avoid

1:15:06

detection. and does Kana really

1:15:08

scream that? The only time

1:15:11

though Alfonso was caught on

1:15:13

CCDV was at 9.40 p.m.

1:15:15

after Rosario had returned to

1:15:17

Santiago and raised the alarm

1:15:19

about Asanta's disappearance. But the

1:15:22

police had a gut feeling

1:15:24

that Alfonso was involved. They

1:15:26

just couldn't prove it. Until...

1:15:28

The toxicology report came back

1:15:30

on the 25th of September.

1:15:32

and brought with it bad

1:15:35

boy information, bombshell revelation. A

1:15:37

centre had the equivalent of

1:15:39

27 lorazepam tablets in her

1:15:41

system, which is fucking loads,

1:15:43

that is nine times the

1:15:45

maximum dose for a grown-up.

1:15:48

And there's more. Tess conducted

1:15:50

on a son's hair indicated

1:15:52

that she had been ingesting

1:15:54

the drug for at least

1:15:56

three months before her death.

1:15:58

Oh, we've seen you before.

1:16:01

We've seen you before. Yikes.

1:16:03

Yikes. yikes yikes oh my

1:16:05

god yeah okay yeah it's

1:16:07

very clear picture emerging and

1:16:09

lorazepam i'm sure you don't

1:16:11

need this explaining to you

1:16:14

is the active ingredient in

1:16:16

the drug orthodile which of

1:16:18

course was the medication that

1:16:20

Rosario had been prescribed to

1:16:22

treat her anxiety Alfonso was

1:16:25

the one who was responsible

1:16:27

for ordering these pills and

1:16:29

he had been ordering it

1:16:31

Inquiries with local chemists confirmed

1:16:33

that Alfonso had purchased more

1:16:35

than 175 packs of alphodol,

1:16:38

far more than Rosario needed,

1:16:40

over just 10 weeks. I'm

1:16:42

sorry. If I go to

1:16:44

the supermarket and buy multiple

1:16:46

packets of Paris Cetamol, there's

1:16:48

going to be questions asked.

1:16:51

Buy just the cashier, who's

1:16:53

going to be like, what's

1:16:55

all this for? Much like

1:16:57

the Jazelle Pelicot case. How?

1:16:59

In the fuck, was Alfonso

1:17:01

ordering that amount of a

1:17:04

controlled substance without questions being

1:17:06

screamed? I mean, he just

1:17:08

must have been going to

1:17:10

different pharmacies. Still shouldn't have

1:17:12

worked. And as investigators dug

1:17:14

deeper, they found that these

1:17:17

medication purchases lined up with

1:17:19

times when Asanta had been

1:17:21

seen acting quite strangely in

1:17:23

public. Her music teachers

1:17:25

reported that on several occasions in

1:17:27

July 2013, so a couple of

1:17:29

months before she died, a son

1:17:31

seemed dopey and couldn't read sheet

1:17:33

music or even walk string. When

1:17:36

she was asked what was wrong,

1:17:38

her son told her teachers that

1:17:40

she, quote, took some white powders.

1:17:42

I don't know what they are

1:17:44

giving me, nobody tells me the

1:17:46

truth. Yeah, this is when you

1:17:48

start to see a more sinister

1:17:50

turn on what teenage girls are

1:17:52

saying about their parents. Mmm. Yeah.

1:17:54

Even told her violin teacher, my

1:17:56

mother wants to kill me. She's

1:17:58

a psychopath. Anyone

1:18:00

who went to her parents

1:18:02

with these concerns were told

1:18:04

that Asanta was just being

1:18:06

given allergy medication made her a

1:18:08

bit drowsy and she was being

1:18:11

too dramatic about it. She

1:18:13

didn't have allergies. Her parents

1:18:15

were deliberately drugging her and

1:18:17

they were doing it for

1:18:19

months. And that was enough to

1:18:21

get Alfonso arrested on the 25th

1:18:24

of September. Fucking good. The Spanish

1:18:26

court system involves a lengthy pretrial

1:18:28

investigation phase. in which suspects

1:18:30

are interrogated in a courtroom,

1:18:32

along with multiple witnesses, and

1:18:34

is all presided over by

1:18:36

the investigating judge. By November 2013,

1:18:39

as this process began, Judge Tyne

1:18:41

announced that he had ruled out

1:18:44

any third-party involvement in Asanta's murder,

1:18:46

and the prosecution argued that

1:18:48

Rosario and Alfonso had plotted

1:18:50

the murder of their daughter

1:18:52

for months. Tyne alleged that

1:18:54

Bastara had administered the drug to

1:18:57

Asanta to Asanta to... facilitate asphyxiation

1:18:59

in a plan hatched with his

1:19:01

ex-wife Rosario. They pointed to the

1:19:04

corresponding times when Asanta appeared

1:19:06

drugged and Alfonso had purchased

1:19:08

Ophodel in large quantities. Powder

1:19:10

residue from the loraza pan

1:19:12

was also found on Rosario's clothes,

1:19:14

suggesting that the pair had been

1:19:17

crushing it to place in Asanta's

1:19:19

food or drink. Rosario,

1:19:22

however, maintained throughout the trial

1:19:24

that there must have been

1:19:26

a lab error. She said

1:19:28

she never gave her daughter

1:19:30

any lorazepam and doesn't believe

1:19:32

that her ex-husband Alfonso would

1:19:34

have done either. But this

1:19:36

is one of the only

1:19:38

elements of this baffling case

1:19:40

that can be 100% proven.

1:19:42

Prosecutors contested that the 4th

1:19:44

of July break-in, the Man

1:19:46

in Black situation, was actually

1:19:48

just Alfonso in disguise. A

1:19:50

genuine hem invasion was rejected

1:19:52

outright based on various factors.

1:19:54

Firstly, Rosario's explanation that she

1:19:56

left her keys in the

1:19:58

unlocked door, was a rel-

1:20:00

because an intruder would have

1:20:02

also needed keys to get

1:20:04

into the building downstairs. Secondly,

1:20:07

the downstairs neighbour had a

1:20:09

very yappy little dog, who

1:20:11

usually barked at any slight

1:20:13

movement in the building. But

1:20:15

that dog didn't make a

1:20:17

peep that night. Authority on

1:20:19

this case, who wrote the

1:20:21

book quite literally, Mark Guskin

1:20:23

believes that the man in

1:20:25

black, Fiasco, may have been

1:20:27

the prompt for the parents

1:20:29

to start drugging their daughter.

1:20:31

because it proved to them

1:20:33

that it was harder than

1:20:35

they thought to kill her

1:20:37

while she was fully awake.

1:20:39

Either way, investigators were adamant

1:20:41

that Sunter's death and the

1:20:43

man in black were inside

1:20:45

jobs. And the prosecuting magistrate

1:20:47

went as far to call

1:20:49

the man in black a

1:20:51

rehearsal for the main event.

1:20:53

Belen Hospido for Alfonso and

1:20:56

Jose Luis Gutierrez Arangarin for

1:20:58

Rosario came out swinging though.

1:21:00

Their strategy relied heavily on

1:21:02

unexplained evidence that Tain had

1:21:04

ignored in his dogged vendetta

1:21:06

against the couple according to

1:21:08

them. Arangarin pointed to how

1:21:10

Rosario had briefly chatted with

1:21:12

a neighbour outside the country

1:21:14

house as she was leaving

1:21:16

that evening. Apparently this neighbour

1:21:18

had leaned through Rosario's passenger

1:21:20

window to talk to her.

1:21:22

And while he didn't specifically

1:21:24

look at the back seat,

1:21:26

he said he noticed nothing

1:21:28

odd, except that Rosario seemed

1:21:30

a bit stressed. Following the

1:21:32

prosecution's logic that Rosario had

1:21:34

been moving a son to

1:21:36

his body at that point,

1:21:38

Arangarin insisted that she didn't

1:21:40

have the time or ability

1:21:42

to place her daughter neatly

1:21:45

on the grass and return

1:21:47

to Santiago in the time

1:21:49

frame they suggested, based on

1:21:51

when the neighbour had seen

1:21:53

her. They also said she

1:21:55

wasn't possibly physically physically strong

1:21:57

enough to move a son's

1:21:59

body alone. And the prosecution

1:22:01

could present no conclusive proof

1:22:03

that Alfonso ever... left Santiago

1:22:05

that day. Tain vaguely suggested

1:22:07

that Alfonso could have been

1:22:09

hiding in the back seat

1:22:11

when the cameras caught Rosario

1:22:13

and Asanta in the car,

1:22:15

but that's not exactly concrete

1:22:17

evidence. And as we alluded

1:22:19

to earlier on, the visibility

1:22:21

conditions that night were critical.

1:22:23

According to Arangrin, the time

1:22:25

Asanta's body was discovered didn't

1:22:27

match up with the idea

1:22:29

that Rosario put her there.

1:22:31

He backed this up with

1:22:34

a neighbour called Manuel Crespo

1:22:36

who walked by the place

1:22:38

that Asanta was found twice

1:22:40

at around 11.30 p.m. and

1:22:42

12.30 a.m. and he insisted

1:22:44

that there was no one

1:22:46

there. Therefore, Orangarin argued, Asanta

1:22:48

simply must have been placed

1:22:50

after those times but before

1:22:52

1.30 a. And by that

1:22:54

time, Rosaria was already with

1:22:56

the police. The defence

1:22:58

also questioned the accuracy of visibility

1:23:00

tests that the police conducted. They

1:23:03

had gone to the place that

1:23:05

a centre was found and they'd

1:23:07

gone on a night that was

1:23:10

similar condition-wise and they took a

1:23:12

camera with them. And it appeared

1:23:14

in their footage to prove that

1:23:17

a centre's body wouldn't have been

1:23:19

visible to pass us by. However,

1:23:21

three years later a documentary team

1:23:24

did the same thing and found

1:23:26

that that just wasn't true. A

1:23:28

person easily would have been able

1:23:31

to see a son's body lying

1:23:33

on the grass, providing of course

1:23:35

they were looking in the right

1:23:38

place. Obviously the defence don't have

1:23:40

loads to work with, but just

1:23:42

because a bloat walked by twice

1:23:45

and didn't see anything does not

1:23:47

conclusively prove dogship. Anyway, the main

1:23:49

thing that we need to know

1:23:52

is that the defence's main point,

1:23:54

their overarching point. was that Taeed

1:23:56

the judge and the police were

1:23:58

trying to frame the bust air

1:24:01

reporters and they were ignoring facts.

1:24:03

where they couldn't be made to

1:24:05

fit in solely focusing on the

1:24:08

ones that fitted with their original

1:24:10

assumptions. However, the argument for Rosario

1:24:12

and Alfonso's guilt was unfortunately constructed

1:24:15

almost exclusively around circumstantial evidence, rather

1:24:17

than absolutely provable facts, which Arungeren

1:24:19

later claimed was just because... They

1:24:22

only dealt with the information that

1:24:24

already pointed to the culprits that

1:24:26

they wanted from the start. Still,

1:24:29

the prosecution had another ace up

1:24:31

its sleeve that would send shockwaves

1:24:33

far beyond the courtroom. They showed

1:24:36

photos taken from Asanta's own mobile

1:24:38

phone, in which she wore heavy

1:24:40

makeup, fishnet tights, and a corset-style

1:24:43

leotard. The costume was the same

1:24:45

one worn by the other girls

1:24:47

from the ballet school as part

1:24:50

of a cabaret-inspired performance. So, not

1:24:52

that unusual. I think upon hearing

1:24:54

that initially you think, oh God,

1:24:56

what's this about? But, you know,

1:24:59

she had the costume for ballet.

1:25:01

Yeah, man, like that is not,

1:25:03

that's more risky at all in

1:25:06

the dance world. No. But what

1:25:08

is? Is that these photos on

1:25:10

a son to his phone? The

1:25:13

poses that she was in, were

1:25:15

anything but normal. In

1:25:18

one striking photo, the girl can

1:25:20

be seen draped over a chair

1:25:22

with her legs apart and she

1:25:24

looks so young and tiny in

1:25:27

that picture. Her expression appears glazed

1:25:29

and her pupils look completely blown

1:25:31

out like she may have been

1:25:34

drugged. Rosario insisted in court that

1:25:36

the photos were innocent, explaining that

1:25:38

Asanta wanted photos of her outfit

1:25:40

but was bored and tired after

1:25:43

a day of dancing when they

1:25:45

sat down to take them. But

1:25:47

the only problem is, those weren't

1:25:50

the only snaps. Other photos showed

1:25:52

us on to swaddle tightly in

1:25:54

bedsheets with her eyes wide open,

1:25:57

staring blankly up at the ceiling.

1:26:00

and one of the photos showed

1:26:02

Alfonso's hand on his daughter's thigh.

1:26:04

Rosario said as Santa liked pretending

1:26:06

to be a mummy. I think

1:26:08

what's weird, right? As if the

1:26:10

parents has been like, I have

1:26:12

no idea about these photos, I've

1:26:14

obviously no idea what's going on,

1:26:16

and there wasn't the picture of

1:26:19

Alfonso's hand on her thigh. And

1:26:21

look, we've said it before we

1:26:23

said it with the Menendez's brother's

1:26:25

case, like a snapshot of a

1:26:27

photo does not tell you everything.

1:26:29

But the fact that they know

1:26:31

about these pictures, and we're like

1:26:33

complicit in the taking of them,

1:26:36

is what's even weird, because kids

1:26:38

take weird bitches. You give kids

1:26:40

cameras, they're going to take fucking

1:26:42

weird pictures. Especially a teenage girl,

1:26:44

her wearing her ballet costume and

1:26:46

like taking some pictures of herself

1:26:48

like that. I'm not massively surprised.

1:26:50

But the fact that they were

1:26:53

involved in it is weird. There's

1:26:55

no way as a mother Rosario

1:26:57

could have looked at that picture

1:26:59

of her daughter sat like that

1:27:01

with her legs apart and not

1:27:03

think that is inappropriate. And I

1:27:05

don't know what the fucks going

1:27:07

on, but the swaddled one. Alfonso

1:27:10

angrily accused Tain of using these

1:27:12

photos to Smira's name as a

1:27:14

pedophile, but Tain insisted that actually

1:27:16

the photos were just to illustrate

1:27:18

the prosecution's belief that a son

1:27:20

to had been drugged on previous

1:27:22

occasions due to the dilated appearance

1:27:24

of her pupils in the pictures.

1:27:27

However, although that is what he

1:27:29

said and that is true, I

1:27:31

don't think it's beyond the realms

1:27:33

of possibility. that he knew it

1:27:35

would sway the jury in a

1:27:37

certain direction. The media too had

1:27:39

a field day reporting on how

1:27:41

several of Alfonso's Facebook friends appeared

1:27:44

to be very young East Asian

1:27:46

girls with provocative photos. And evidence

1:27:48

from his laptop that he tried

1:27:50

to wipe also revealed that Alfonso's

1:27:52

porn browsing history tended to feature

1:27:54

young-looking women with Asian features. Oh.

1:27:56

And further reports. seemed to show

1:27:58

that sperm traces were found innocent

1:28:01

as bedroom at Alfonso's flat, which

1:28:03

didn't look good either. I mean...

1:28:05

That's the fucking nail in the

1:28:07

coffee. If they're just finding your

1:28:09

fucking spunk around your flat. Okay,

1:28:11

fine. But in your teenage daughter's

1:28:13

bedroom? Yeah. Yeah, no thanks. And

1:28:15

the media speculated on TV that,

1:28:18

quote, the murder could have been

1:28:20

the culmination of a series of

1:28:22

sadistic and erotic rituals after a

1:28:24

centre threatened to disclose what they

1:28:26

were doing to her. And

1:28:29

then there were the cryptic

1:28:32

chats that the couple had

1:28:34

had in their neighbouring jail

1:28:36

cells, while inadmissible in court.

1:28:38

The recordings were, however, leaked

1:28:41

the press, and they cemented

1:28:43

many people's belief that these

1:28:45

two were serious Romans. Alfonso

1:28:47

was powerful and commanding with

1:28:50

Rosario in prison, yelling silence!

1:28:52

Salencio! Whenever she started to

1:28:54

ramble. And telling her what

1:28:56

she should say in court.

1:28:59

Again, I don't know, like, it

1:29:01

doesn't mean they kill, like, I

1:29:04

do think that they did, but,

1:29:06

you know, of course, this just

1:29:08

doubles down on that, but I

1:29:10

do think Rosario looked off onzo

1:29:12

a lot for guidance and he

1:29:15

probably is like, don't say fucking

1:29:17

bad shit crazy things that are

1:29:19

going to get us sent to

1:29:21

prison forever. But yeah, this interpersonal

1:29:24

dynamic came as a surprise for

1:29:26

Tyane. It seemed like they, quote,

1:29:28

quote, took it in turns to

1:29:30

be the dominant in the relationship,

1:29:33

which also does fit quite... Neat

1:29:35

with what we've seen. Now the

1:29:37

pair never made any official admissions

1:29:39

of guilt, but some of their

1:29:41

talk certainly raised eyebrows. Rosaria once

1:29:44

said, during these, uh, jail cell

1:29:46

chats, despairingly to Alfonso, your overheated

1:29:48

imagination is going to get us

1:29:50

in a lot of trouble. And

1:29:53

the Spanish word she used here,

1:29:55

Calentirienta, could just mean wild. like

1:29:57

you have a wild imagination. But...

1:29:59

But this is the interesting

1:30:02

point. Is it also slang for

1:30:04

horny or perverted? Interestingly

1:30:06

Rosario used this exact

1:30:08

phrase in court when she was

1:30:10

trying to defend the photos that

1:30:13

Alfonso had taken of Asanta in

1:30:15

her ballet costume. She clearly meant

1:30:17

it in the creepy context,

1:30:19

i.e. only a second twisted

1:30:21

mind could interpret the pictures

1:30:23

that way. It's unclear what

1:30:26

exactly Rosaria meant by

1:30:29

Alfonso's overheated imagination,

1:30:31

but filling in the blanks,

1:30:33

many have come to a pretty

1:30:35

gross conclusion, me included.

1:30:38

The pretrial investigation

1:30:40

ended in June 2014,

1:30:42

with jury selection in

1:30:44

May 2015. The second phase of

1:30:46

the trial began that October.

1:30:48

Calling 84 witnesses and

1:30:51

64 expert witnesses to

1:30:53

testify. Both Alfonso

1:30:55

and Rosario looked rough.

1:30:57

As accused childkillers, they

1:31:00

hadn't had the nicest time

1:31:02

in jail. According to the

1:31:04

Guardian, Rosario spent

1:31:06

most of her time behind

1:31:09

bars in a weepy pharmaceutical

1:31:11

days and she was confused

1:31:13

and tearful on the

1:31:15

stand. Alfonso now bald

1:31:17

and white bearded was confrontational

1:31:20

in court and mouth curse

1:31:23

words. and sneering disdain

1:31:25

for Tain and the

1:31:27

investigators too. And then came

1:31:29

an unexpected late twist.

1:31:32

Shocking testimony from a

1:31:34

friend of a sonters named

1:31:36

Clara Balta Lorenzo. Despite

1:31:39

Alfonso's claims that he

1:31:41

never left his flat the night

1:31:43

his daughter died. Clara insisted

1:31:45

that she saw a Santa

1:31:48

walking with Alfonso on the

1:31:50

street in Santiago sometime between

1:31:52

530 and 7 p.m. and

1:31:55

a receipt that Clara had from

1:31:57

a shoe shop placed the

1:31:59

sighting at roughly 6.23 p.m. But

1:32:01

this was impossible, because at this

1:32:03

same time, Asanta was caught on

1:32:05

CCTV cameras in the car with

1:32:08

her mum. Asanta couldn't have been

1:32:10

in two places at once, so

1:32:12

what the fuck was going on?

1:32:14

The prosecution, keen to believe Clara's

1:32:16

testimony, as it would prove Alfonso

1:32:18

was lying and suggest that he

1:32:20

was with Asanta in the hours

1:32:23

before she died, ran with this

1:32:25

girl's story, despite this statistical impossibility

1:32:27

impossibility. And Tain simply said that

1:32:29

the time on the receipt must

1:32:31

have been incorrect because it was

1:32:33

from an old cash register and

1:32:35

it wasn't linked to Wi-Fi. And

1:32:37

therefore, it couldn't be totally trusted.

1:32:40

The important thing was that Clara

1:32:42

had seen a center with Alfonso

1:32:44

that evening. It didn't matter when

1:32:46

exactly that was. And I get

1:32:48

it. I get why the prosecution

1:32:50

wouldn't want to back down on

1:32:52

this. And I couldn't believe that

1:32:55

the time on the receipt is

1:32:57

wrong. But I get it, a

1:32:59

lot of people are going to

1:33:01

be like, it. It doesn't make

1:33:03

a whole lot of sense though.

1:33:05

No, and it's feeding into the

1:33:07

defensive narrative of cherry picking evidence,

1:33:10

isn't it? I understand that. Totally.

1:33:12

But it didn't really matter in

1:33:14

the end. Clara's testimony was enough

1:33:16

to cement Alfonso in the jury's

1:33:18

minds as an equal participant in

1:33:20

the murder of Asunter along with

1:33:22

his ex-wife Rosario. I can see

1:33:25

anyone who is like particularly worried

1:33:27

about eyewitness testimony being the final

1:33:29

nail in the coffin for sending

1:33:31

someone away for murder. I can

1:33:33

see that because... Clara could have

1:33:35

been any day Shizora. And on

1:33:37

all Hallows Eve, 2015, both Rosario

1:33:40

and Alfonso were unanimously found guilty

1:33:42

of Asanta's murder and they were

1:33:44

sentenced 18 years in prison. Rosario

1:33:46

maintained her innocence from the inside,

1:33:48

insisting that she never lied and

1:33:50

saying that her only wish was

1:33:52

to speak to Asanta one last

1:33:54

time. Were she granted this wish?

1:33:57

Were she granted this wish? She

1:33:59

claimed that she would tell her

1:34:01

daughter she had. had no regrets

1:34:03

and that the years they spent

1:34:05

together were worth all of the

1:34:07

hell she was going through right

1:34:09

now and that she'd do it

1:34:12

all over again. That's what you'd

1:34:14

say. Yeah it's not great is

1:34:16

it? Fuckin'o. From prison Rosario arranged

1:34:18

for obituaries of Asanta to appear

1:34:20

in the local newspaper every year

1:34:22

on the anniversary of Asanta's death.

1:34:24

And each year their message was

1:34:27

the same. I will

1:34:29

always love you. Mama.

1:34:31

That was until November

1:34:33

2020, when the obituaries

1:34:35

stopped. And it wasn't

1:34:37

COVID. Rosario had taken

1:34:39

her own life in

1:34:42

prison. She'd attempted suicide

1:34:44

three times previously. And

1:34:46

that time she managed

1:34:48

it, even though she

1:34:50

was on suicide watch.

1:34:53

Alfonso remains incarcerated and continues to

1:34:56

protest his innocence to this day.

1:34:58

He'll be eligible to apply for

1:35:00

an open regime this year, which

1:35:03

would basically give him extra freedoms

1:35:05

like day release. For a long

1:35:07

time, Alfonso railed against his conviction

1:35:10

and harboured intense rage against Tyene

1:35:12

and the investigators who had put

1:35:14

him behind bars. He even wrote

1:35:17

to documentary producer, Ramon Campos, in

1:35:19

2017, that in his case, the

1:35:21

presumption of innocence immediately turned into

1:35:24

the presumption of guilt and blasted

1:35:26

Tyene for an unfair investigation that

1:35:29

catered to his immense ego. But

1:35:31

later that year he wrote again

1:35:33

that after hours of meditation, yes,

1:35:36

seriously, he had made the mature

1:35:38

decision to forgive those who had

1:35:40

found him guilty. I mean, show

1:35:43

me the meditation app that lets

1:35:45

you come to that conclusion after

1:35:47

a few hours. So

1:35:50

rather than murdering those who had

1:35:52

been involved, as he had pictured

1:35:54

doing many times in prison, Alfonso

1:35:56

said that he would now like

1:35:58

to sit down with them in

1:36:00

a cafe. and ask them why

1:36:02

they did it instead. He says

1:36:04

he'd also extend this forgiveness to

1:36:06

his daughter's true killer who he

1:36:08

now sees must have been suffering

1:36:10

from the fruit of the same

1:36:12

madness and that's probably what had

1:36:14

driven them to kill. It's hard

1:36:16

because yes you could say if

1:36:18

you are sentenced to prison and

1:36:21

you have to do a long

1:36:23

stretch then you know probably coming

1:36:25

to terms with that and reaching

1:36:27

some sort of forgiveness in the

1:36:29

minds of the people you believe

1:36:31

put you there as the healthy

1:36:33

thing to do. How much I

1:36:35

believe him is questionable. And I

1:36:37

think a lot of people are

1:36:39

also going to listen to that

1:36:41

and feel like maybe it just

1:36:43

sounds kind of like a long-winded

1:36:45

way of saying that he forgives

1:36:47

himself for killing his child. That's

1:36:50

what it feels like. I mean

1:36:52

the man's connection to the reality

1:36:54

of actual things is tangential at

1:36:56

best. Yeah. And ultimately Alfonso has

1:36:58

just one plan for when he

1:37:00

officially gets out in 2031. Apparently

1:37:02

it's to take his own life

1:37:04

and rejoin a Santa. He says

1:37:06

he knows how and where he'll

1:37:08

do it. He just isn't sure

1:37:10

when. And in another letter to

1:37:12

the documentary maker Ramon Campos, he

1:37:14

wrote, When you hear the news

1:37:16

of my death, pop their champagne

1:37:18

and toast with your loved ones.

1:37:21

Only then will you know that

1:37:23

I am happy once again? My

1:37:25

little girl needs me, and I

1:37:27

need her. Absolutely fucking vile. Anyway,

1:37:29

it doesn't matter what they say

1:37:31

or do or do or think.

1:37:33

They were found guilty in a

1:37:35

court of law of murdering their

1:37:37

daughter. The only thing we can

1:37:39

do is ask why. Yeah, I

1:37:41

am like, they did it. Oh,

1:37:43

I think they did it. I

1:37:45

think they did it. But why

1:37:47

is the interesting part of this

1:37:49

case for sure? Some think that

1:37:52

Rosario infatuated with her married lover

1:37:54

Manuel was ready to do anything.

1:37:56

Literally anything. If it meant she

1:37:58

could be with him. And a

1:38:00

centre was the last thing that

1:38:02

kept her tied to Orfonzo the

1:38:04

X. she had to get rid

1:38:06

of her. I don't think that

1:38:08

flies because she's dependent on Alfonso.

1:38:10

She doesn't want to get rid

1:38:12

of him clearly. Other people suspect

1:38:14

that it was Alfonso who was

1:38:16

doing the drugging in order to

1:38:18

molest Asanta. Maybe he was enabled

1:38:21

by Rosario and then perhaps a

1:38:23

center threatened she was going to

1:38:25

tell somebody and then the pair

1:38:27

of them plotted to kill her.

1:38:29

And maybe the worst theory. Had

1:38:31

this callous couple just got sick

1:38:33

of being parents and decided to

1:38:35

return their daughter? Yeah, I don't

1:38:37

know. It's tricky. We don't have

1:38:39

enough information to know for sure

1:38:41

because we don't know for sure

1:38:43

that the abuse was happening. Though,

1:38:45

if they did really, 100% match

1:38:47

his semen to semen found in

1:38:49

their daughter's bedroom, that's a pretty,

1:38:52

like, big indicator for me. Obviously

1:38:54

we know that the grandparents weren't

1:38:56

planning on leaving everything to us

1:38:58

on her, but could I see

1:39:00

a universe in which Rosario believed

1:39:02

that they were going to in

1:39:04

her sort of foggy brain at

1:39:06

the time? Because, you know, we

1:39:08

do know that her son had

1:39:10

a close relationship with her grandparents.

1:39:12

Was Rosario just jealous and she

1:39:14

thought that was going to happen

1:39:16

and that was enough for her

1:39:18

to do it? Don't know. I

1:39:21

don't think you, I agree, I

1:39:23

agree that it's possible she could

1:39:25

have thought that, but I don't

1:39:27

think you even need to like...

1:39:29

weave the inheritance money into it

1:39:31

for it to make sense. Like,

1:39:33

they're clearly both, Rosari especially, but

1:39:35

both of them are very, very

1:39:37

unwell people. And like, they, I

1:39:39

think maybe they could have just

1:39:41

decided that they'd had enough. I

1:39:43

don't think they would have needed

1:39:45

the money to come to that

1:39:47

conclusion. No, you're completely right. I

1:39:49

think it could have just been

1:39:52

as minor and awful and banal

1:39:54

reasons as this daughter they had

1:39:56

adopted. was too difficult. And I

1:39:58

don't mean on the spectrum of

1:40:00

children being difficult, actually that difficult,

1:40:02

but more difficult than they were

1:40:04

willing to deal with, and not

1:40:06

gifted enough, quote unquote, for them

1:40:08

to put up with it, and

1:40:10

they just wanted it to. be

1:40:12

gone. And yeah, once you're a

1:40:14

doctor child you can't just be

1:40:16

like, well we don't want her

1:40:18

any more kick her out because

1:40:20

that's going to make you look

1:40:23

way worse. Oh yeah. Then if

1:40:25

you just kick out your biological

1:40:27

child for not being good enough.

1:40:29

So I think they're like, see

1:40:31

only way. I could believe the

1:40:33

abuse. Me too. But I don't

1:40:35

I don't necessarily think there needs

1:40:37

to be a big reason for

1:40:39

why they did it. You're right.

1:40:41

But regardless of if Rosario and

1:40:43

Alfonsozo did it. I guess the

1:40:45

question some people will definitely be

1:40:47

left asking after this episode is,

1:40:49

were they given a fair trial?

1:40:52

It was definitely an investigation littered

1:40:54

with Lucent, leaks and bungled evidence.

1:40:56

Remember the stain on Asanta's top

1:40:58

that they had originally thought to

1:41:00

be semen? Well, when it was

1:41:02

sent for testing at the National

1:41:04

Laboratory, the results indicated that it

1:41:06

belonged to a Colombian national whose

1:41:08

DNA was kept on file for

1:41:10

a suspected rape in Madrid. The

1:41:12

only problem was... This guy had

1:41:14

a cast-iron alibi. He was photographed

1:41:16

out for dinner with his family

1:41:18

in Madrid 600 kilometers, roughly a

1:41:20

six-hour drive away. And basically it

1:41:23

emerged that the same scissors had

1:41:25

been used to cut Asanta's t-shirt

1:41:27

and the condom in the Madrid

1:41:29

case, suggesting contamination in the lab.

1:41:31

In any case, the substances on

1:41:33

Asanta's t-shirt had to be discounted

1:41:35

from evidence. And nobody has ever

1:41:37

taken responsibility for this error. or

1:41:39

the wild goose chase that followed.

1:41:41

It is quite hard to imagine

1:41:43

anyone but Rosario and Alfonso having

1:41:45

any reason to murder a centre

1:41:47

at all. It's difficult not to

1:41:49

ask if not them then who.

1:41:51

And as much as Rosario and

1:41:54

Alfonso do seem guilty as sin,

1:41:56

was it really fair to convict

1:41:58

them on the basis of the

1:42:00

circumstantial evidence that was presented. Do

1:42:02

you know what? Honestly, I think

1:42:04

there was enough of it. Same.

1:42:06

Will you say it all? the

1:42:08

fucking time circumstantial evidence is evidence

1:42:10

like yeah I think there was

1:42:12

more than enough I really don't

1:42:14

think I have many hang-ups about

1:42:16

this particular case no and if

1:42:18

you know you are a person

1:42:20

who gets you'll be in a

1:42:23

bonnet about being a bonnet yeah

1:42:25

yeah be in your bonnet about

1:42:27

circumstantial evidence we can't deny that

1:42:29

Santa's parents were absolutely drugging her

1:42:31

very heavily for months before she

1:42:33

died so I just don't think

1:42:35

the circumstantial argument flies with me.

1:42:37

But who cares what I think?

1:42:39

The story continues to divide Spain

1:42:41

and beyond, especially since Netflix released

1:42:43

their series El Paso Asanta in

1:42:45

2024. Judge Taien has said that

1:42:47

he only watched one episode and

1:42:49

refused to watch any more because

1:42:51

the show missed their opportunity to

1:42:54

honour the victim. Taien has called

1:42:56

Asanta a very special and marvellous

1:42:58

girl who was lost in her

1:43:00

own story. while her parents, the

1:43:02

villains, stole all of the limelight.

1:43:04

Asante Youngfang would have been turning

1:43:06

25 this year. But she wasn't

1:43:08

allowed to do that. She wasn't

1:43:10

allowed to live the life she

1:43:12

could have. Instead, her life was

1:43:14

cut short by the same people

1:43:16

who promised to give her the

1:43:18

world. Yeah, the adoption angle does

1:43:20

bring an extra. I can't put

1:43:22

my finger on it exactly. But

1:43:25

I suppose it's more of a

1:43:27

like, maybe this isn't even fair,

1:43:29

like, oh you really went out

1:43:31

of your way to get one,

1:43:33

you know. I think the reason

1:43:35

it feels weird for me and

1:43:37

in some ways worse, not that

1:43:39

it's ever okay obviously for a

1:43:41

child to be murdered, but there's

1:43:43

this feeling right of like if

1:43:45

you're a biological child, there was

1:43:47

no choice. That was who your

1:43:49

parents were going to be. And

1:43:51

yes, of course there's obviously other

1:43:54

people that could have intervened and

1:43:56

saved and saved and saved for

1:43:58

a new situation. With the adoption

1:44:00

it's like, that choose your own

1:44:02

adventure endless possibilities, that... child for

1:44:04

worse or for better that that

1:44:06

child could have endured in who

1:44:08

had picked that child out of

1:44:10

that orphanage. And it's that feeling

1:44:12

of right she was promised the

1:44:14

world. What better adoption could you

1:44:16

hope for this rich prominent couple

1:44:18

who are going to take you

1:44:20

to Spain and you're going to

1:44:22

live this incredible life in Europe

1:44:25

and then for it to end

1:44:27

the way that it did. It's

1:44:29

the cruelty of that choice that

1:44:31

was made. So yeah, that is...

1:44:33

the story that's a son to

1:44:35

story and yeah it's a really

1:44:37

it's a sad one but they

1:44:39

often are because this is a

1:44:41

true show so on that note

1:44:43

go forth and be well and

1:44:45

yeah yeah do no harm take

1:44:47

no shit yeah murder no children

1:44:49

exactly exactly and we'll see you

1:44:51

next time we will goodbye bye

1:45:06

You know those creepy stories that give

1:45:08

you goosebumps? The ones that make you

1:45:11

really question what's real? Well, what if

1:45:13

I told you that some of the

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strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are

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not found in haunted houses or abandoned

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1:45:22

doctors' offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the

1:45:25

host of Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries. And

1:45:27

each week on my podcast, you can

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expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses

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if you crave totally true and thoroughly

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weekly show. Listen to Mr. Ballin's medical

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mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever

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you get your podcasts. You can listen

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early and ad-free right now by joining

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Wondry Plus in the Wondery app or

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on Spotify or Apple podcasts. In

1:46:02

the the early hours of 4th, 2024,

1:46:04

CEO Brian Thompson stepped CEO the streets of stepped

1:46:06

out onto the streets of pulls

1:46:09

out a weapon and starts pulls out a

1:46:11

weapon and starts firing at

1:46:13

him. We're talking about the CEO

1:46:15

of the biggest private health

1:46:17

insurance corporation in the world. And

1:46:19

the suspect. He has been

1:46:21

identified as Luigi Mangioni. Became one of one

1:46:24

of the most divisive figures

1:46:26

in modern criminal history. I was

1:46:28

targeted, and meant to sow terror.

1:46:30

I'm Jesse Weber, host of Luigi, produced

1:46:32

by by Crime Crime and This is

1:46:34

more than a true crime investigation.

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We explore a uniquely American moment

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that could change the country could

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1:46:45

Finally, maybe this would maybe this would

1:46:48

lead rich and powerful people to

1:46:50

acknowledge the barbaric nature of

1:46:52

our healthcare system. Listen to

1:46:54

Law and Crimes Luigi on Wondery

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Plus. You can join Wondery Plus

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