4-part documentary series explaining the twists and turns of Argentina’s most famous recent criminal case – the death of a well-to-do middle-aged woman in a gated community and the cover-up attempts on the crime by her very own family.
The case of Maria Marta Garcia Belsunce has perplexed Argentina for twenty years now. As one of the commentators says it should have been easy as the murder was committed in a type of closed room – a space in which only a certain number of people could be present given the strict security in the neighbourhood of Carmel Country Club.
What seemed to be a household accident in the bathroom soon became a homicide with 6 bullet holes in her head, fired at close range. Eventually, the prosecutor Diego Molina Pico charged the widower, who had a reasonable alibi at the time (being with family and in the Carmel clubhouse) and members of the family for a cover-up – they cleaned up the body and the room, disposed of evidence, avoided reporting the matter to the police and initially rejected an autopsy.
Carlos Carrascosa eventually served time for this, the rest of the family were found to be free of any case against them and a third trial implicating a neighbour has recently begun 20 years after the event. What a mess!
The family certainly acted very suspiciously in the cover-up but then maintained relatively coherent stories. That they were present soon after the death is confirmed by tracing background voices on a phone call. But did one of them actually commit the crime? There was blood at the scene whose DNA does not match anyone known to be present. There are also suggestions that the window of time for the crime was shifted but this may not mean much as plenty of witnesses corroborated the general timeframe and whereabouts of people – aided by it being a Sunday when the most important local football Derby was being held.
The neighbour, Nicolas Pachelo, who had some minor record had an alibi but this is now being questioned.
The big sticking point is the motive. The prosecutor claimed the family wanted Maria Marta out of the way because she had discovered money laundering activities with drug traffickers going on among family members. This has not consolidated as a likely motive and in any case, the family had other income. Pachelo could have had a motive knowing that Maria Marta had a lot of money in the house from a charity she ran. Possibly she surprised him when returning home and he panicked and killed her. This would work but there is still no clear evidence that this combination of motive and accused is able to be proven.
Quite a bit of the series focuses on the performance of the prosecutor, who it is said did not investigate all leads. Molina Pico comes across as being a reasonable serious man in a very tricky situation but there is a nagging feeling that he was missing something. And of course, the Argentine tradition of muddying the waters at any crime scene plays a huge part here.
This Netflix series is a reasonable production which clarifies much of the confusing evidence and theories. But it leaves things very much in the air so that is less than satisfying. At least most of the protagonists get their chance to speak and as a writer says, it would make a cracker whodunnit. Somehow, I doubt we will ever find out the identity of that person.
3 stars
passionfilm 