The Murder of Asunta Basterra

Twelve-year-old Asunta Basterra was found dead near Santiago de Compostela in 2013. Her adoptive parents were convicted of murder in 2015.

The discovery

In September 2013, 12-year-old Asunta Basterra was reported missing in Santiago de Compostela. Her body was found the following day beside a rural road in the municipality of Teo, Galicia.

Evidence of sedation

Toxicology testing showed that Asunta had been given a very large amount of lorazepam. Investigators also reconstructed the movements of her adoptive parents, lawyer Rosario Porto and journalist Alfonso Basterra, and examined earlier episodes in which the child appeared unusually sedated.

Trial and convictions

A jury found Porto and Basterra guilty of murder in 2015. Both received 18-year prison sentences. They denied responsibility, but the verdict concluded that the killing had been jointly planned.

A case that remains culturally prominent

The case became one of Spain’s most discussed family-homicide prosecutions, generating books, documentaries and dramatizations. Porto died by suicide in prison in 2020. Basterra remains convicted, and Spanish courts have continued to address routine prison matters connected to his sentence.