The death of Paulette Gebara Farah in 2010 continues to puzzle observers

Almost a decade and a half ago, the nine-day search for a four-year-old girl with disabilities attracted great attention in Mexico and around the world.

The desperate search for Paulette Gebara Farah expanded and sparked a nationwide viral campaign, with the public following the news and social media to learn more about the reasons behind the child's disappearance.

This is what happened:

Who was Paulette Gebara Farah?

Paulette was a 4-year-old girl from Huixquilucan de Degollado, Mexico, who was found dead on March 31, 2010, after a nine-day search because she was suspected of being kidnapped. Paulette could not speak and needed assistance walking due to developmental disabilities, so The Los Angeles Times.

At the time of her disappearance, Paulette was living with her parents, businessman Mauricio Gebara and lawyer Lisette Farah, her 7-year-old sister Lisette, and two nannies, Erika and Martha Casimiro, according to CNN.

Paulette's disappearance

Paulette went missing on the morning of March 22, 2010. Her parents told police they had put her to bed the night before after she, her father and her older sister, Lisette, returned home from a three-day vacation, CNN reported at the time. The next morning, however, the family said they noticed Paulette's disappearance, sparking a manhunt and public pleas for anyone who might have taken her to bring her home.

However, after the search for Paulette went viral over the next nine days, investigators began retracing her steps and eventually discovered Paulette's body wedged between her bed's mattress and the bed frame, according to CBS News, which reported that her body was wrapped in sheets.

According to CBS, a medical examiner concluded that the four-year-old girl died from suffocation and that her body was not moved after her death. As a result, officials believed the girl died after she moved in bed and accidentally fell into the space between the mattress and bed frame and suffocated.

According to CBS, the coroner's report's finding that Paulette's body had not been moved between her death and its discovery contradicted theories that were becoming increasingly popular among the public that her body might have been dumped there by a killer. Many people began to suspect the girl's parents.

Reactions and suspicions about her death

Paulette’s death and the botched investigation sparked outrage across Mexico and led many to criticize the government’s criminal justice system, The LA TimesAfter initially saying “without a doubt” that Paulette had been murdered, Mexico's Attorney General Alberto Bazbaz eventually changed his mind and defended the coroner's finding that Paulette died accidentally, citing forensic evidence.

However, the Attorney General acknowledged that investigators had made mistakes because they had not “thoroughly searched the child's bed and bedroom” and that Paulette's body remained undiscovered in her bed for over a week before it was discovered.

After Paulette's body was found, tensions within the family rose as speculation of foul play became public. Gebara and Farah were both placed under house arrest during the investigation into their daughter's death and later began to blame each other for the death. During the investigation, the couple became estranged, LA Times reported.

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CNN reported that prosecutor Bazbaz had initially named Paulette's mother Farah as “the only suspect” in the case, which he initially believed to be Paulette's murder, leading to speculation among those following the case in Mexico. A popular theory among those following the case in Mexico was that Farah found caring for Paulette a burden due to her daughter's disabilities, although the mother later said she would never consider her later daughter a burden, according to the Boston Globe.

However, Paulette's parents were never charged. Investigators dismissed their suspicions that Farah was involved in their daughter's death after the medical examiner determined that Paulette died of accidental suffocation.

aftermath

Paulette's parents fought bitterly for custody of her older sister, who was seven years old at the time and was called Lisette, like her mother. The LA Times reported that Farah was eventually granted custody of her older daughter.

Gebara, Paulette's father, continued to express his belief that Farah was responsible for her daughter's death. “The only thing I can say is that for me it was not an accident,” he told local television station Televisa in April 2010, according to the Boston Globe“I can only speak for myself.”

Public attention to the case was reignited a decade later when Paulette's death became the focus of a Netflix investigation during a 2020 episode of the series “The 4000.” Crime diaries Series.