Murdered 12-year-old's paternal grandfather suspects mother and inheritance money were behind the crime

THE paternal grandfather of a 12-year-old girl found dead in a forest after being drugged and suffocated says he believes the mother did it.

And police are investigating whether the child knew of some family secret relating to the multi-million inheritance from her grandparents on her mother's side, who died within seven months of each other.

Asunta Basterra's blog has also been perused by the police and is said to contain 'disturbing' information including a piece of fiction written by her which relates to family members killing each other for money.

Art history lecturer at Santiago de Compostela University, in the north-western region of Galicia, María del Socorro Ortega Romero, and later her husband Francisco Porto, 88, a retired lawyer, both died of what were presumed to be natural causes, were found in bed and were cremated.

Their last will and testament had been drawn up in 1975, leaving numerous properties including a luxury villa with a tennis court and swimming pool to their daughter Rosario Porto Ortega.

But police are attempting to ascertain whether the elderly couple had attempted to make changes leaving some or all of their property to Asunta.

Paternal grandfather Ramón Basterra, interviewed on Spain's Channel 5 – TeleCinco - says his son Antonio, Asunta's father and Rosario's ex-husband, had called him to break the news that his granddaughter had been found dead.

He was said to be very distressed and kept insisting her mother had nothing to do with it: “Charo is not at fault for any of this.”

“I still suspect she was behind it, and Antonio covered it up,” Sr Basterra Senior said.

“I believe my son is innocent – there must have been some coincidence that led him to be charged.

“But I do believe Rosario's parents' inheritance was behind their own deaths. There was a lot of money there.”

Ramón Basterra says if the parents had anything to do with Asunta's murder, it 'must have been a moment of madness, of depression'.

Police have already revealed that the girl's mother, a solicitor by profession, was taking tranquilisers – Diazepam – for panic attacks and these were found in Asunta's system during the post-mortem.

A piece of rope found near the body matched a reel of orange cord found in Rosario's house, and a cigarette butt of the same brand her father smokes was seen nearby.

Sr Basterra Senior says he believes a third person was involved in the killing, but does not know who.

“I just have a hunch about it,” he revealed during the interview.

He says Asunta was his son Antonio Basterra's pride and joy.

“I'm not surprised he's absolutely distraught,” lamented the grieving grandfather.

Speaking of Asunta, he told the audience that she was highly intelligent and streets ahead of her age, academically.

Although she was only 12, she already spoke English 'perfectly' and had been learning Chinese.

“Her father told me he had to help her a lot, because she was always getting such good grades,” Ramón concluded.