All posts tagged: true crime

The Asunta Case explained: Asunta Basterra’s tragic death, parents’ prison sentence and mother’s shock passing

The Asunta Case explained: Asunta Basterra’s tragic death, parents’ prison sentence and mother’s shock passing

Published by Sam

Asunta Basterra’s murder shocked and devastated the Spanish community back in 2013, and her horrific death – and the subsequent investigation into finding the culprits – is now the subject of a new Netflix drama, The Asunta Case. Here’s everything to know about Asunta, and where her parents are now.   Who was Asunta Basterra?  Asunta was a young girl who was adopted from China when she was nine months old by a Spanish couple, Rosario Porto Ortega and Alfonso Basterra Camporro. She grew up in Spain and was said to be a very gifted youngster who skipped a year in school and had a talent for playing the piano and violin. She was also a talented ballet dancer.  © Lavandeira Jr/EPA/ShutterstockDefendants Alfonso Basterra and Rosario Porto waiting for the Jury to announce their verdict in 2015 Asunta went missing shortly before her 13th birthday in 2013. In the weeks leading up to her death, her parents, who had divorced earlier that year but remained close to co-parent Asunta, claimed that they had seen a …

Jill Dando’s former fiancé Alan Farthing and his royal connection

Jill Dando’s former fiancé Alan Farthing and his royal connection

Published by Sam

The BBC documentary The Murder of Jill Dando tells the full story of the famous broadcaster’s shocking death, which rocked the nation 25 years ago. Jill was shot dead on her doorstep in 1999, sparking one of Britain’s most high-profile murder investigations. One of the nation’s most celebrated presenters, Jill was best known for presenting programmes on the BBC, including Crimewatch, Breakfast Time and the Six O’Clock News, and received the BBC Personality of the Year award in 1997.  © NetflixJill Dando was shot dead in April 1999 At the time of her death, Jill was engaged to gynaecologist Alan Farthing, whom she met through a mutual friend. Keep reading to find out more about Alan and his connection to the royal family.  WATCH: Jill Dando’s life and death was explored in Netflix’s Who Killed Jill Dando? Who is Jill Dando’s former fiancé Alan Farthing? Alan Farthing is an obstetrician and gynaecologist from Winchester, Hampshire.  According to his profile on the King Edward VII Hospital website, Alan specialises in complex surgery and is one of the UK’s …

Baby Reindeer: police investigating after online speculation leads to ‘threatening’ accusations

Baby Reindeer: police investigating after online speculation leads to ‘threatening’ accusations

Published by skeptic

A man accused of being the real-life counterpart of the character ‘Darrian’ in the hit Netflix show Baby Reindeer has confirmed that he reported the accusation to the police.  Sean Foley, a Tony-nominated actor, writer and director, has been accused by internet sleuths of perhaps being the inspiration for the character in the show, which is based on the show creator Richard Gadd’s personal experiences of being sexually abused and stalked. WATCH: Netflix’s Baby Reindeer is based on a true story Richard released a statement on Instagram asking fans to stop speculation and name-checked Sean, writing: “Hi everyone, people I love, have worked with, and admire (including Sean Foley) are unfairly getting caught up in speculation. Please don’t speculate on who any of the real-life people could be. That’s not the point of our show. Lots of love, Richard.”  Sean shared a screenshot of the post on his own X/Twitter account, before adding: “Police have been informed and are investigating all defamatory abusive and threatening posts against me.”  © @mrrichardgadd/InstagramRichard Gadd’s Instagram statement People were quick …

Aussie courtroom drama is guilty of cliché

Aussie courtroom drama is guilty of cliché

Published by skeptic

There are talked-about TV dramas and then there are TV dramas that want to be talked about. The Twelve (ITVX), a 10-part Australian courtroom drama, fits very much in the latter category. It’s been machine-tooled to drum up earnest watercooler chitchat over whether or not Kate Lawson (Marta Dusseldorp) murdered her teenage niece. It wants – desperately, sometimes histrionically – to be another “Who Killed Danny Latimer?” (Broadchurch) or “Where is Oliver Hughes?” (The Missing) and it features high-calibre actors such as Sam Neill, who plays a barrister, doing their darnedest to bring some heft.  But it fails to earn the right to be talked-about – a right which only comes on the back of creating compelling characters about whom the viewer gives a flying fig. Instead, the 12 jurors we are asked to follow through a contrived moral maze are just stereotypical TV drama cut-outs. One young, one old, one rich, one poor, they’ve all got secrets, no one is quite what they seem and oh look, my bus is here, must go. The …

The Puzzle of Docudramas — Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast #167

The Puzzle of Docudramas — Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast #167

Published by José

  When we’ve already heard about someone’s per­son­al scan­dal in the news, do we need to also see it dra­ma­tized with A‑list actors? Your hosts Mark Lin­sen­may­er, Lawrence Ware, Sarahlyn Bruck, and Al Bak­er dis­cuss Todd Haynes’ 2023 film May Decem­ber fic­tion­al­iz­ing the long-after­math of the much pub­li­cized Mary Kay Letourneau sto­ry. The main events of May Decem­ber are fic­tion­al (based on a sto­ry by screen­writer Samy Burch along with Alex Mechanik): An actress (Natal­ie Port­man) research­ing her future role vis­its the renamed Letourneau (Julianne Moore) and her now-adult hus­band (Charles Melton), whom she seduced (molest­ed) start­ing at age 12. So is this art film fun­da­men­tal­ly unlike the oth­er recent drama­ti­za­tions that we touch on, includ­ing Joe vs. Car­ole, Invent­ing Anna, Dirty John, The Act, The Shrink Next Door, and The Thing About Pam? We also talk about Real­i­ty. as an exam­ple of films depict­ing how hor­ri­ble it is to be arrest­ed. Note that while Aman­da Knox’s sto­ry was made into a TV movie, the pres­tige TV dra­ma ver­sion is still in process. Her pod­cast is called Labyrinths. One of the arti­cles we reviewed about May Decem­ber …

The Tragedy of Jane King: How a Murder Spree Collided With Hollywood’s Punk Revolution

The Tragedy of Jane King: How a Murder Spree Collided With Hollywood’s Punk Revolution

Published by skeptic

One month later, a few days before a 20-band “Save the Masque” benefit at the Elks Lodge No. 99 near MacArthur Park, a 10th name was added to the death toll. Police found 20-year-old Silverlake resident Cindy Hudspeth on February 17 in the trunk of her orange Datsun, which had tumbled 50 feet down an embankment off the Angeles Crest Highway. “We can see she is a Strangler victim,” an investigator told the press. After that, something unexpected happened. March came and went without another body. Then April. Then May. As the year drew to a close, police had yet to encounter another murder that fit the profile. Had something spooked the killers? Were they simply biding their time before striking again? The Hillside Strangler Task Force still didn’t have any suspects. It was beginning to look as though they might never figure out who was behind the slayings. Then they got a phone call. In January 1979, the police chief of Bellingham, Washington, a waterfront city 21 miles south of the Canadian border, contacted …

How to Watch ‘Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them’ Docuseries —Now Streaming

How to Watch ‘Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them’ Docuseries —Now Streaming

Published by Sam

Selena Quintanilla was a celebrated and award-winning Mexican-American singer who topped the music charts in the 1990s. However, Selena’s rise was cut short when the former president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldívar, shot and killed her in 1995. Saldívar was convicted of murder in Selena’s case and has since been in prison. In 2025, she will be eligible for parole, and now she is speaking out in a new docuseries, Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them. First airing on Oxygen, the two-episode docuseries is now available to stream on Peacock. Prior to Selena’s murder, Saldívar was fired from her position as fan club president and manager of Selena’s clothing boutique because the family believed she had been embezzling money. Selena met with Saldívar on March 31 — the day she was shot — because she believed the former manager was finally releasing the financial records the family needed. However, in Saldívar’s first English interview in decades, she claims things weren’t as they seemed. “I was convicted by public opinion even before my trial started,” Saldívar begins in …

Selena Quintanilla’s Killer Yolanda Saldívar Speaks Out in New Docuseries, Claims She ‘Never’ Meant ‘Any Harm’

Selena Quintanilla’s Killer Yolanda Saldívar Speaks Out in New Docuseries, Claims She ‘Never’ Meant ‘Any Harm’

Published by Sam

Yolanda Saldívar, the woman convicted of killing Selena Quintanilla in March 1995, is speaking out in a new documentary nearly 30 years after the Queen of Tejano Music’s death.  In a two-part Oxygen True Crime docuseries, Selena & Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them, 63-year-old Saldívar details from prison the series of events that led to Selena’s killing and maintains that the shooting was an accident.  “I was convicted by public opinion even before my trial started,” Saldívar begins in the doc. “They have been fed a narrative that is not correct, that I was an embezzler, that I was an assistant. My right as a citizen of the United States to be innocent until proven guilty was reversed on me. I was guilty and needed to prove my innocence.” Saldívar fatally shot Selena at a Days Inn hotel in Corpus Christi, Texas, on March 31, 1995, just two weeks before she would have celebrated her 24th birthday on April 16, 1995. Saldívar killed the Grammy-winning singer after the Quintanilla family learned that she had allegedly been embezzling money from Selena’s fan club and …