In Netflix’s true crime drama series, The Asunta Case, Spanish Civil Guard Cristina found out that the accused, Rosario Porto, had tried to commit suicide twice before her daughter’s murder. As per the reports, Rosario has suffered from acute anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem since she was 22 years old. It all started in France, where Rosario attended the Erasmus program as an exchange student. However, she didn’t finish her term and returned to Galicia to complete her law degree, where her father worked as a faculty teacher, because of which Rosario received special treatment at the university. In the Netflix series, Judge Luis Malvar subtly hints at how nepotism favored her without making it obvious. However, the point is that Rosario always felt the need to be validated. Above all, she was diagnosed with Lupus erythematosus, because of which the doctors advised her to avoid pregnancy. Therefore, in order to complete their family and raise a child as their own, the parents adopted one from China. Maybe Rosario felt that being a mother would make her happy, but even an adopted child couldn’t save her marriage.
In 2009, Rosario once again tried to commit suicide and was admitted to a private psychiatric hospital. However, she left the hospital two days later. The reason for her suicidal thoughts is still unknown, but it became evident that Rosario wasn’t happy in her marriage with Alfonso Basterra. According to the series, Rosario started an extramarital affair with her lover, Vicente Dozon Garcia, in early 2012. The character of Vicente is based on real-life businessman Manuel Garcia. But even though Vicente’s character in the series is based on a real person, not much is known about Manuel Garcia, as he maintained his distance from the case to protect his own family.
Rosario’s reasons for starting an extramarital affair were quite obvious. Her stay-at-home husband was a failed journalist who tried his luck in travel, tourism, and radio but couldn’t leave a mark in any substantial way. Vicente (and his real-life counterpart), on the other hand, was confident and successful, unlike Alfonso. Rosario also described Vicente as sexually satisfying, which implies that she wasn’t physically satisfied in her marriage or maybe Alfonso wasn’t attracted to her anymore. It is true that Alfonso found out about his wife’s illicit affair while going through the emails on her laptop. He later confronted Rosario about the same, which soon turned into a heated argument, after which Alfonso left home and started living with his relatives in Basque country. In the meantime, he borrowed money from an aunt and returned to the city three weeks later, where he rented a small apartment around the corner to stay close to Rosario and Asunta. However, in February, the couple got officially divorced, and Rosario continued her relationship with Vicente with hopes that he would break off his marriage too and tie the knot with her. Unfortunately, Vicente made it quite clear that he wanted to keep their relationship physical and didn’t have any intention of leaving his pregnant wife.
A mentally unstable Rosario who had sought emotional validation all her life and never had her heartbroken couldn’t face the rejection and suffered from yet another anxiety attack, for which she was quickly hospitalized in late June 2013. Rosario’s mental breakdown, once again, brought her close to her husband, who made himself available to Rosario’s needs. He stuck around like a dedicated husband and father and used the opportunity to convince Rosario to never see Vicente again. But like a moth to a flame, Rosario couldn’t keep away. She had her needs, which Alfonso couldn’t fulfill, and therefore she started seeing Vicente again behind Alfonso’s back. On September 20, 2013, Rosario and Vicente traveled to Vigo, where they spent the rest of their day on Vicente’s boat. As per the media reports, it is an entirely true incident. Rosario had slept with her lover a day before her daughter’s murder. As per the media reports, Alfonso knew that his wife had lied to her about the exhibition and had started seeing her lover again, which was when he realized that his family would never be normal again.
Rosario’s extramarital affair and Alfonso’s jealousy towards her lover had messed up their marriage. As per Rosario, her ex-husband started sending her threatening emails and messages, and she felt helpless about it. In Alfonso’s defense, he wanted to be close to his daughter and take care of the troubled Rosario. The real reason, however, was that Alfonso didn’t have any family money or an occupation to survive. Rosario looked after all his expenses, and he couldn’t lose his golden goose. It could be one of the reasons why he defended his wife until the very end, believing she would leave all her money to him. As soon as the investigation started, inspectors Cristina and Rios went to Negreira to interrogate Vicente, but he wanted to stay out of the mess. He confirmed that he spent the day with Rosario on September 20 but had nothing to do with Asunta’s murder. The police didn’t bother to investigate further, and Vicente or his real-life counterpart, Manuel Garcia, wasn’t called to court.
