Death of Paulette Gebara Farah

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In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Gebara and the second or maternal family name is Farah.
Death of Paulette Gebara Farah
Paulette Gebara.jpg
Gebara, c. 2010
Born(2005-07-20)20 July 2005
Huixquilucan, State of Mexico, Mexico
Diedc. 22 March 2010(2010-03-22) (aged 4)
Cause of deathAsphyxia by obstruction of the nasal cavities and thorax-abdominal compression
Resting place
Mexico City, remains exhumed and cremated in 2017[1]
NationalityMexican
OccupationStudent
Parent(s)
  • Lizette Farah (mother)
  • Mauricio Gebara (father)[2]
RelativesLizette Farah (sister)[3]

The death of Paulette Gebara Farah was a media event about the disappearance and suspicious death of a four-year-old Mexican girl missing from her bedroom on 22 March 2010 in the municipality of Huixquilucan, State of Mexico.[4]

Her family began a search campaign through television, advertisements and social media.[5] Paulette's body was found in her own room wrapped in sheets between the mattress and the foot of the bed,[6][7] the same room where her mother had given interviews, which had been searched by experts from various agencies, including the use of search and rescue dogs. Her body was discovered on 31 March due to the smell of putrefaction.[5] Her death was ruled accidental by Alberto Bazbaz, General Attorney for the State of Mexico, who said his investigation concluded that Paulette died during the night after she turned herself around in bed and ended up at the foot,[6] dying of asphyxia,[8] “by obstruction of the nasal cavities and thorax-abdominal compression".[5] She was buried at the (French Saint Joaquín Cemetery) located at Mexico City in 2010,[9] before her remains were exhumed and cremated on 3 May 2017.[10]

Chronology[]

Paulette's disappearance[]

On the night of Sunday 21 March 2010, Paulette Gebara arrived from Valle de Bravo to her home, located in Huixquilucan, accompanied by her sister and father, Mauricio Gebara. The mother of the girls, Lizette Farah, awaited their arrival to put them in bed.[10][3][11] On the morning of 22 March, one of Paulette's nannies, Erika, entered the room to wake Gebara, but could not find her. She notified Lizette and began searching the building. Mauricio Gebara informed his sister of the disappearance of his daughter, who informed the Huixquilucan authorities. Later, the mayor, Alfredo del Mazo Maza, notified the Attorney General of State of Mexico, Alberto Bazbaz.[10][3]

After the initial search of the apartment building, Paulette's family claimed they could not find her. There were no signs of theft or kidnapping; the locks were intact, as were the windows and doors. The housing complex had surveillance, but no evidence of Paulette leaving or being taken was found. Paulette could not go out alone due to a motor and language disability.[10][3]

Search and false statements in the case[]

Missing person canvas with photos of Paulette hung on a pedestrian bridge

In the afternoon, the Attorney General of the State of Mexico released a poster with a photo of Paulette and information about her age, appearance and physical disabilities. Gebara's aunt, Arlette Farah, sent e-mails and uploaded a photo to social networks, where the news quickly spread, prompting a large response.[10][3] In the evening, Lizette Farah released a message on television to the alleged abductor asking that her daughter be returned to her, saying that she could be left in a shopping centre or a crowded place and there would be no consequences. After the announcement, she distributed flyers with Paulette's face, put up billboards, and placed advertisements on television and public transport.[10][3]

Mauricio also appeared in the media, asking that his daughter be returned to him. He recalled that he had gone out to work on the morning of Monday, the 22nd of March, when Paulette had apparently disappeared. On March 29th, The Attorney General of the State of Mexico announced that Mauricio Gebara and Lizette Farah, Paulette's parents, as well as the sisters Erika and Martha Casimiro, Paulette's nannies, would be placed under a restriction order due to falsehoods and inconsistencies in their statements.[10][3]

"Each one of them at a certain moment have falsified their statements, which has made it difficult to know the truth of the facts and clarify a firm line of investigation," said then Attorney Alberto Bazbaz.[10][3]

On March 30th, Paulette's parents spent several hours at the Mexican police station before being transferred to a hotel to fulfill their restriction order. The same day, police experts placed blankets at the home for a reconstruction of events.[10][3]

Discovery of the body and autopsy[]

On 31 March at around 2:00 am, Paulette's dead body was found in her bedroom.[10][3] In the video prepared by the investigators and leaked to the public, one voice is heard saying "she was severely beaten" while examining the stained sheets. However, this statement was almost immediately refuted by General Attorney Alberto Bazbaz. Paulette had died accidentally due to "mechanical asphyxia due to obstruction of the nasal cavities and thorax-abdominal compression", he said.[10][12]

An autopsy revealed that Paulette slept with an "orthopaedic cloth" over her mouth, which was placed every night to prevent her from sleeping with her mouth open; that her body was not manipulated after her death;[13] and that she had eaten food at least five hours before her death. The body had two segments of rectangular adhesive cloth in vertical position on both cheeks, in addition to signs of a blow to the left elbow and knee. The official findings, however, indicated no signs of physical or sexual violence.[14][15] The autopsy also established that her death occurred between five and nine days before the analysis was made, establishing that she could have died from the first day. This was reported on 31 March,[14] although they failed to reveal the exact date and hour of her death.[13]

The official report also included mention that no traces of drugs or toxic substances in the body that could have affected the girl's consciousness. The conclusion was that Paulette "by her own means" moved on the bed and accidentally fell headlong into a space at the foot of her bed, where she died of asphyxiation, and subsequently remained unnoticed for nine days.[13]

Aftermath[]

On 3 April, Paulette's mother, Lizette Farah, initiated an amparo proceeding against the restriction order, claiming that she had not been involved in the events that caused her daughter's death.[10][3] Specialists indicated that the woman suffered from personality disorders. During the procedure, Mrs. Farah became subject to indictment. On 4 April a judge granted freedom to Paulette's parents and nannies.[10][3] Mauricio Gebara left the hotel where he was staying at 10:20; Lizette Farah, main suspect, at 11:00; and the nannies, Erika and Martha Casimiro, at noon. None could leave the country because the inquiries continued.[10][3] On 5 April, in separate interviews, Mauricio Gebara and Lizette Farah accused each other, Lizette claiming that her husband blamed her for Paulette's death, Mauricio that the death could not have been just an accident and that he could not completely trust his wife.[10][3]

Paulette's grave/cenotaph located at the in Mexico City

On 6 April, Paulette's body was buried at the in Mexico City.[9] The funeral procession was headed by her mother without any member of the Gebara family at assitance due to an "agreement".[10][16]

On 7 April, The Gebara family denied Lizette Farah's request to see her other daughter, Lizette, seven years old, who had stayed with her father's family since Sunday, 4 April.[10][3] On 10 May, The Attorney General of the Federal District, who also collaborated in the case at the request of her counterpart in the State of Mexico, granted the custody of Paulette's sister to her mother, Lizette Farah, who brought a complaint against her husband demanding custody of the girl.[2][10][3] On 26 May, although Alberto Bazbaz defended the investigation and conclusions of the case, he resigned his position as head of the Attorney General of the State of Mexico, saying that an attorney general needs confidence to act effectively and that he had lost this confidence due to the questioning of his actions in the investigation of the death of Paulette Gebara Farah.[10][3]

More than seven years later on 3 May 2017, Paulette's body was exhumed and cremated since authorities considered that her remains were no longer objects of evidence for the investigation of the case.[10][3][17]


Controversies[]

Statements by Paulette's nannies[]

Paulette's nannies, Ericka and Martha Casimiro, insisted that the girl's body was not under her mattress, with Martha stating:

"I looked in the bathroom, under the bed and in the closet. I saw that she was not there, and I also went into the bedroom of the parents to look for her, to the bedroom of the other girl [this refers to the room of Paulette's older sister, 7-year-old Lizette], and from there we started looking for her again. And I went back to look for her in the bedroom,"[18]

and Ericka stating:

"In fact, if it had been like that, I think we would have noticed, since thousands of people came to look for her, the bed was made, I never saw the mattress pulled back, I did not see a bundle or anything, it does not make sense to me that the body could have been there since Monday."[18]


Statements by Amanda de la Rosa[]

A close friend of Lizette Farah, Amanda de la Rosa, was allowed to live in the Gebara's house for several days immediately following the girl's disappearance. De la Rosa slept in Paulette's room which was not secured by the authorities. In the time she spent in the house, the bed was made on a daily basis, and nobody noticed the girl's body or the bloody stains on the sheets as they appear on the forensic video. As a result, Amanda was also investigated as a possible suspect, but no charges were filed. At the end of the investigation, she wrote a book titled Where's Paulette? narrating the events from her personal perspective questioning the discrepancies between the facts and the authorities' statements.[19]

Forensics video[]

Nine days after her disappearance, a team of 3 forensic experts entered Paulette's room at 2:00 A.M. and walked to the bed and began taking measurements, loudly stating its characteristics and recording their activities on video. At one point, one of them declares twice that Paulette was "severely beaten" to death, and a few moments after, the forensic expert to his right removes the bed's blanket to reveal two large blood stains, one of them as big as an adult's head. The same man walks to the front of the bed and with the help of another forensic expert and removes all the sheets to reveal Paulette's corpse, partially hidden on one side of the mattress.

Although the local authorities gave the video to the press as a document to prove how the body was found, there are several doubts about its authenticity. Most experts agree that it is a reenactment, and not a real-time event, which may explain how one of the forensic experts could know that Paulette was beaten before any evidence was found. It would also explain the placement of the camera and the position of the forensic experts in the exact place to be able to show all the elements to the public without any obstruction. It has also been noted that none of those present seems to show any surprise when discovering the body, and they even continue narrating the events with a monotonous and mechanical voice, as if they were repeating a badly rehearsed script. The time the video was recorded was very unusual as well. Such legal procedures are usually performed in the daytime.

The biggest controversy regarding this video is that as soon as it was released, General Attorney Bazbaz publicly stated that the images proved that Paulette had accidentally died from suffocation, avoiding any mention of violence. In later interviews or statements to the press, the latter was not mentioned again and the official cause of death was ruled as an unfortunate accident.

Recording between Paulette's mother and older sister[]

Gebara, c. 2009

During the investigation of the case, a recording between Paulette's mother, Lizette, and her then 7-year-old sister, also named Lizette, was released, in which she tells her daughter not to say anything of Paulette's disappearance, so that they would not be blamed,[20] with the following words:

"Little Lizette asks, 'why mom?' and she replies, 'because otherwise they will blame us for stealing her or that you took her away to be stolen.'"[21]

At first Lizette denied this, saying that the recording was edited so it sounded like she was telling her daughter to hide any information. Later, however, she accepted that these were the words she said, stating, "I had the conversation with my daughter, but not in the context they showed it."[20]

Paulette's pajamas[]

In 2010 via YouTube, a video titled The strange case of Paulette's pajamas was taken by experts and disseminated in some media; the video makes a comparison between photographs of Paulette's body dressed in blue and red pajamas with reindeer figures, with an interview with her mother previously recorded several days before the girl's corpse found in which the same pajamas appear in the girl's room. After this discovery was made public, the television network aired all the footage without cuts, including all preparation prior to the interview. As Lizette and the reporter in charge of the interview examine various items owned by Paulette, the aforementioned pajamas appear. When asked directly, Lizette states that the pajamas belong to Paulette's sister, and are discarded by the news reporter as interview material, being placed aside on the bed, where the audience identified it. However, the presentation of the video without cuts cast more doubts. The audience immediately questioned why the sister's clothes were among Paulette's belongings, and as it could be seen in subsequent days in continuous interviews, those pajamas were placed in Paulette's closet. It was also questioned why the authorities were never informed that the family had a second set of pajamas identical to the one the girl was wearing at the time of her disappearance, and later after finding the girl's body, it was not known what happened to those pajamas. The public was very surprised that during all the previous preparation of the interview, and especially when reviewing the personal objects of her daughter, Lizette did not show any pain, grief, or concern.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Creman los restos de Paulette siete años después". Milenio (in Spanish). May 5, 2017. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Se acaba la historia de amor entre Lizette y Mauricio, 9 años después". Expansión (in Spanish). April 7, 2010. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "Cronología del caso Paulette". El Universal (in Spanish). May 4, 2017. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  4. ^ "Compañeros del Jardín de Niños dicen adiós a Paulette en una ceremonia". Expansión (in Spanish). April 12, 2010. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
  5. ^ a b c "Paulette la pequeña que conmociono a México". El Universal (in Spanish). December 16, 2010. Archived from the original on May 12, 2017. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  6. ^ a b Ken, Ellingwood (May 22, 2010). "Mexican girl died by accident in bed, prosecutors say". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 11, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  7. ^ "El caso Paulette figura en redes sociales y diarios internacionales". El Universal (in Spanish). Zócalo. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  8. ^ "Mexico Shocked by Discovery of Girl's Body". CBS News. April 5, 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  9. ^ a b "Sepultan a Paulette Gebara Farah". El Siglo de Durango (in Spanish). April 7, 2010. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "Cronología: Desaparición y localización de Paulette Gebara". debate (in Spanish). May 4, 2017. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  11. ^ Ken, Ellingwood (April 11, 2010). "In Mexico, 'Paulette' case more gripping than drug war". New York Times. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  12. ^ "Mexican girl, 4, died of asphyxiation, officials say". CNN. April 1, 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  13. ^ a b c Dr. Alejandra Mira (June 23, 2017). "El Caso de Paulette Gebara". FMCC (in Spanish). Retrieved March 31, 2017.
  14. ^ a b "Los detalles de la necropsia practicada a Paulette". Publimetro (in Spanish). April 8, 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  15. ^ "Autopsia revela que niña mexicana Paulette murió sin violencia". RPP Noticias (in Spanish). April 10, 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  16. ^ "El último adiós a Paulette Gebara Farah". Univision Noticias (in Spanish). April 6, 2010. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  17. ^ "Creman restos de Paulette tras siete años de su muerte". Publimetro (in Spanish). May 4, 2017. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  18. ^ a b "'Paulette no estaba debajo de la cama'. Las nanas de la niña contaron su versión". Univision Noticias (in Spanish). April 7, 2010. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  19. ^ "¿Dónde está Paulette? El libro que terminó con la amistad de Amanda de la Rosa y Lizette Farah" [Where's Paulette? The book that ended the friendship of Amanda de la Rosa and Lizette Farah]. El Mañana (in Spanish). June 14, 2020. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020.
  20. ^ a b "Contradicciones de la madre de Paulette". El Universal (in Spanish). April 7, 2010. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  21. ^ "Nos van a culpar de que nos la robamos: madre de Paulette". El Universal (in Spanish). Zócalo. Retrieved December 30, 2017.

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