A Spanish couple murdered their 12-year-old adopted daughter and discarded her body in the woodlands near the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela.

The adoptive couple, already divorced, lived in the small town of Teo. The mother, Rosario Porto, 44, was an Oxford-educated lawyer and ran a law office. She was also a French honorary consul in the northwestern region of Galicia. The father, Alfonso Basterra, was a journalist. They adopted the Chinese-born girl and named her Asunta Yong Fang Basterra Porto.

According to detectives, this was a premeditated crime. On the night of September 21, Rosario reported to the police that her daughter had gone missing. An autopsy and forensic tests were conducted before the girl's body was cremated on the morning of September 24. On that day, she seemed to be driven by grief and told neighbors and friends, "Don't be scared. The city is still safe, but bad things have happened to my family." However, to everyone's astonishment, it turned out after several days of investigation that Rosario herself had killed her beloved daughter.

Detectives found that Asunta was the only one who was entitled to inherit the money of Rosario Porto's parents who had recently died. Rosario's law business had collapsed a while ago and she found herself embroiled in huge debts. Under the burden of economic failure, she orchestrated the murder of her daughter.

Rosario's aunt told police," The day before Rosario's father died, I took Asunta to visit him. He was in good shape then. But the next day, he passed away. That was abnormal." If this holds any truth to it, Rosario may also have been the killer of her own father.

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