Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta?

When I was told they found five bullets in María Marta's head...

I couldn't believe it.

THEY SAID IT WAS AN ACCIDENT, BUT SHE WAS SHOT

I now had to add horror to the pain.

From that day on...

we didn't do anything,

from dusk till dawn,

but collaborate with Justice,

contributing with information,

investigating,

talking to experts,

with people who could help, with friends.

We shared everything, absolutely everything,

minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour ,

with both the prosecutor and the police.

On Sunday, October 27th, María Marta García Belsunce

was found dead in the bathroom at her house.

It was assumed to be an accidental death

attributed to slipping in her bathtub.

I lay her on the bed, I was right next to her head and didn't notice.

The doctors who examined her didn't notice either!

Because when they decided

for her to be buried in La Recoleta,

the thought of an autopsy didn't even cross their minds.

They were positive it was an accident.

Could it be that pain makes you so stupid you don't notice?

OCT 27, 2002 - MARÍA MARTA'S MURDER DEC 2 - AUTOPSY

The autopsy performed on María Marta

determined there were five lead bullets lodged in her skull

and that a sixth bullet had bounced against her skull.

But they also found signs of struggle.

In the autopsy, María Marta's body

revealed marks consistent with a fight.

On her face, on her legs, on one of her arms.

Upon touching her head,

they describe it as if it was empty,

because there were four bullet holes...

so close one to the other...

that a whole piece of skull was lost.

According to the investigators, María Marta had been...

taken by surprise by a very violent and swift attack,

which was also fueled by rage.

It was shocking, no doubt about it.

I was frozen.

I thought, "Damn, what a mess...

No one can bring María back to me, I have nothing to do with it."

You know? Then your mind starts running wild.

Horacio called me and said, "There's something I need to tell you."

He said she was murdered and how. That she had five bullets in her head...

And I couldn't believe it, to be honest.

I could never really mourn María Marta's death.

Back then, we didn't imagine what would come next.

I think the first one I called was Molina Pico.

"Can you see, Horacio? We bought the accident thing.

María Marta was killed. What do we do now?"

"What do you mean, what do we do?

We investigate! What happened? Who did it?

That's what we have to do!"

A NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY SERIES

2001 - ONE YEAR BEFORE THE MURDER

Thieves, thieves, thieves, give back the savings!

You can still see people's discontent with bank withdrawal restrictions

and delayed payments.

COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY COMES TO A HALT

2,000 PEOPLE LED INTO POVERTY EACH DAY

I have declared a state of siege across the nation.

We're starving!

The great crisis in trust

and socio-economic variables bleeding people dry.

Twenty-five deaths and hundreds of arrests.

Overwhelmed by the situation,

President De la Rúa tenders his resignation.

The former president left the Executive Office by helicopter

in view of a decimated people.

After the 2001 crisis,

the Argentinian people

JOURNALIST

became absolutely fed up with news about politics and the economy.

We'd all been overwrought by the crisis.

And some months after that crisis,

JOURNALIST

Argentina learns about this figure, Carlos Carrascosa,

a man who'd been a successful stockbroker for years.

He stopped working when he turned 50.

He'd done so well in the market,

he didn't need to work.

This alone already set him apart from the rest of society.

I always wanted to work until I was 50.

MARÍA MARTA'S WIDOWER

I thought any extra years were too much.

In stock exchange, there are many things.

You can put money in, get money out,

you can buy stock, you can buy bonds.

If you want to do any of that, you need an authorized broker.

Do stockbrokers make money?

I did well.

I was the top broker in sales volume...

in '92 and '93, if I'm not mistaken.

And I moved 11 vulture funds.

I didn't know they were vultures.

To me, they were canaries.

When I turned 50, in 1994,

the stock I bought for 100,000 dollars

was worth 2 million.

So, one night I get together with María Marta

and say, "I'm not making enough commission

to keep the money invested, it's not profitable anymore."

The next day, I went and sold it.

Two minutes.

Banco Provincia bought it from me, two million.

And I started to invest here in Carmel.

I bought the first plot, I think.

This is where the media have come multiple times.

but, for the first time ever, we're going in, not only to the community,

but to the house

where María Marta García Belsunce was murdered.

This is the main entrance to the house.

It's important to know that since the day María Marta died,

no one else ever lived here. It's almost a ghost house.

Right away, the publishers notice

that this case had a gruesome appeal.

It happened behind closed doors. It was a true Agatha Christie story.

This is a gated community, a club,

an isolated community.

Millionaire homeowners.

That's when all the prejudices

and the class hatred came into play.

The case made Clarín's headlines an entire month,

JOURNALIST

almost two months in a row.

And not for the lack of something worth publishing.

"This story is hot, get something on it."

ONE STEP FROM IMPUNITY

I can't recall a criminal case

SHE DIDN'T FIGHT BACK

A NEW ENIGMA

getting so much attention, or being in the public eye,

STRANGE LOSS OF EVIDENCE

at least in modern times.

It precipitated the public's morbid fascination.

It was a case that kept me up many nights.

I spent my time wondering

which witness was telling the truth, which one lied,

what had really happened

that evening at María Marta's house.

ATTACKED AT HER DOORSTEP

You always think twice about what you write, think, hear...

I am a lawyer. So, it's easy for me

to read a case file and analyze it.

And when I start reading it,

I'm dumbfounded.

And I'm shocked.

The case file

presented a completely different reality

to the one presented by the mass media.

PROSECUTION UNIT N°2 - PILAR, ARGENTINA

We went from an inquiry into the cause of death,

PROSECUTOR

meaning, finding out why someone died,

to investigating a murder.

The story line changes and so does what you're looking for.

When did it change? When the testimonies

didn't match the documentation.

HOMICIDE

OSDE Health Central.

It's about a patient's death in the Pilar area.

-Yes. -García Belsunce, María Marta.

-Yes. -The...

The thing is, she had a fractured skull and brain tissue loss.

Afterwards, just in case, when you have to do the paperwork for the mortuary ,

if there's any problem...

-Was she beaten to death? -Look, I don't know.

I don't know. They're saying nothing happened intentionally.

But, truth is, I don't...

Around María Marta's body, according to Gauvry Gordon,

there was a big blood clot on the floor.

He says there were huge blood clots in the bathtub as well.

He says the water in the tub was completely red.

And he says, "This is a horrible scene.

I wouldn't like a family member of mine to be seen like this. Let's clean up."

There are different versions of what happened in the scene.

Gauvry Gordon says he had no doubt

that María Marta had suffered an accident.

SHE HAD FALLEN IN THE BATHTUB DOMESTIC ACCIDENT

And Santiago Biasi tells a whole different version.

Initially, he says

that she couldn't have had an accident in the tub.

I SAID IT WAS A VIOLENT AND DUBIOUS DEATH

And that's why he says he's surprised that Gauvry Gordon

and the masseuse cleaned the blood.

Because, to him, that was a crime scene

and shouldn't be altered before the investigators got there.

SHE STARTED CLEANING WITH BLEACH

The cleaning of the crime scene is no minor detail.

Because they were...

tampering with it to make it look like nothing happened.

Biasi says that he told Gauvry Gordon,

"Look, this death looks shady,

there should be a police investigation.

I won't sign the death certificate