Asuna Fong Yang’s murder at the hands of her adoptive parents is the focus of Netflix Housing casebut many are unclear about their motives.
( Asunta Case Netflix actors, characters and Actors (photos))
What happened to Asunta Fong Yang?
Asunta Fong Yang was adopted from China when she was only nine months old in June 2001 into an upper-middle-class Spanish family, whose new parents were lawyer Rosario Porto and freelance journalist Alfonso Basterra.
Early in her life, Asunta proved to be intellectually gifted, taking lessons in several additional languages, getting excellent grades, skipping a year of school, and showing a talent for playing music through the piano and violin.
Amid Porto’s mental health issues and the death of his parents, the couple split in early 2013, but somewhat rebounded that summer.
On the night of September 21, 2013, Asunta’s parents reported her missing, only to find her body on the side of the road the next day.
In the following days, Porto and Basterra were arrested for Asunta’s murder, as their account of the events to the police did not match the CCTV footage.
The coroner’s report stated that Asunta died of suffocation and had taken 27 Loratzepam pills that day, and received regular doses in the days and weeks leading up to her tragic death. Porto was taking the exact same medicine at the time, and these 27 pills were more than nine times the “large dose” for an adult.
Years later, in October 2015, a jury found that her adoptive parents drugged and suffocated Asunta to death, and each was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
(Alfonso Basterra today: Where is he now? The criminal breakdown of the Asunta case)
Why did Asunta’s parents kill her?
The motive behind Asunta’s parents killing her has not been confirmed, as the couple maintained their innocence throughout the trial and never confessed to their crimes.
One theory surrounding Asunta’s murder was that she was placed to inherit money from her rich original Chinese family, namely her grandfather, and as such was killed by her adoptive parents for financial gain. However, there is no evidence to support this and no evidence that his birth grandfather left any money.
There was also speculation of family dysfunction as the Spanish couple maintained extreme expectations for their daughter regarding this education. So maybe Porto and Basterra killed Asunta out of frustration or even tired of having her in their lives, as some have previously suggested.
As Porto and Basterra dosed Asunta with Lorazepam (an anxiety medication) for a long period of time, some have wondered if they may have killed their daughter to prevent her from revealing such details.
Housing case now streaming on Netflix.