‘The Asunta case’: Rosario Porto’s lover reveals more about their romance and last words

‘The Asunta Case,’ the hugely popular Netflix series starring Candela Peña and Tristán Ulloa, has brought back into the spotlight the murder of Asunta Yong Fang, which occurred in 2013 in Santiago de Compostela, northern Spain. The young girl was suffocated to death by her adoptive parents, Rosario Porto and Alfonso Basterra, who were each sentenced to eighteen years in prison by a jury.

In the case of Rosario Porto, the Galician lawyer chose to end her life in 2020 in the cell of Brieva prison (Ávila) where she spent her days behind bars. Meanwhile, Alfonso Basterra remains in Teixeiro prison (A Coruña), serving his sentence, with no release scheduled until 2031. The journalist of Basque origin spends his days in confinement with considerable tranquility and minimal contact with other inmates.

When did Rosario Porto first meet lover Manuel?

Nine years after Asunta’s murder, the figure of the young girl’s adoptive parents continues to generate significant interest among the general public. Hence, various television programs have once again revisited the case to shed light on revealing testimonies that had previously remained in the shadows. This includes the account provided by Manuel, Rosario Porto’s lover, to the Civil Guard shortly after the Galician woman’s arrest.

Spanish TV show “Y Ahora Sonsoles,” hosted by Sonsoles Ónega, has obtained access to Manuel’s full testimony, in which he discloses how his romantic relationship with Rosario Porto began, as well as the content of their final conversation shortly after Asunta’s death.

Manuel explains that his initial contact with Rosario Porto was purely professional when he was searching for someone fluent in French for a business trip to Morocco. Rosario Porto was the chosen candidate. Their first meeting? In a café near her home where they formalized their working partnership, and two weeks later, they departed for the African country; a journey they repeated up to four times.

Rosario Porto affair: sexual encounter secrets revealed

Subsequently, they continued to meet in Santiago de Compostela. According to Manuel’s account to the Civil Guard, their professional gatherings gradually evolved into romantic encounters.

“We headed to Vilagarcía de Arousa to have lunch at a restaurant near the port of Cambados (...) and, after finishing our meal, we took a boat ride along the estuary. Due to the family problem it could cause me, I did not previously admit that on the day we took the boat ride, we had a sexual encounter.”

“In the apartment on General Pardiñas and Doutor Teixeiro, we had other sexual encounters,” Manuel adds in his testimony. Encounters that were also confirmed by Rosario Porto herself at the time.

What were Rosario Porto’s last words to lover Manual?

The aforementioned program reports that Rosario and Manuel saw each other for the last time on 4 July 2013, the day when, according to Porto’s account, a thief entered her house to attempt to murder Asunta. However, the Galician woman tried to resume contact with her lover on 23 September, forty-eight hours after the death of the child.

“That early morning, we had a phone conversation about how bad she was feeling (...) She expressed her discomfort because someone had killed her daughter,” he explained. As we now know, that was a lie aimed at covering her murderous tracks.