A missing four-year-old girl was found trapped in her own bed after a nine-day search.
A tragic case that captivated Mexico in 2010 ended with the heartbreaking discovery of a missing four-year-old girl’s body in the last place anyone expected to find it: her own bed.
Paulette Gebara Farah, who had difficulty walking and talking due to developmental disabilities, was reported missing from her family’s flat in Huixquilucan, an upmarket suburb of Mexico City, on March 22, 2010.
Her disappearance sparked a massive search effort that would grip the nation for nine days.
The young girl’s disappearance generated extensive publicity across Mexico and around the world, per People.
Missing posters appeared throughout the capital, and a viral campaign spread across social networking sites, including Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter), as the public followed news reports for any information about her whereabouts.
Her parents, businessman Mauricio Gebara and lawyer Lisette Farah, told police they had put Paulette to bed the night before after she, her father, and her seven-year-old sister Lisette had returned home from a three-day vacation.
By the next morning, the family discovered Paulette was missing, prompting public pleas for anyone who might have taken her to bring her home.
Around 100 police officers searched the family’s home, and sniffer dogs combed through the 10-meter room. Yet somehow, they all missed what was hidden in plain sight.
After nine days of intensive searching, police finally found Paulette’s body as they recreated events on the night she disappeared.
The four-year-old was discovered wedged between the mattress and the bed frame at the foot of her own bed, wrapped in sheets.
A coroner ruled that Paulette had died by suffocation and determined that her body had not been moved after the time she died.
Officials concluded she had died after accidentally falling into the space between her mattress and the bed frame, suffocating on the same day she went missing.
When asked how police could have overlooked the body during their initial search, Mexico state Attorney General Alberto Bazbaz said they had been concentrating their search efforts outside the home.
The case initially began as what Bazbaz called a ‘homicide investigation,’ and both parents and their two nannies, Erika and Martha Casimiro, were questioned.
Bazbaz even declared Paulette’s mother, Farah, ‘the only suspect’ in what he initially believed to be a murder case.
Both Gebara and Farah were placed under house arrest during the investigation.
As speculation about foul play circulated publicly, tensions rose within the family. The couple became estranged and began to blame each other for their daughter’s death.
One theory that gained traction among those following the case was that Farah had begun to see caring for Paulette as a burden because of her daughter’s disabilities.
However, the mother later said she would never think of her daughter as a burden.
When the coroner’s report concluded that Paulette had died by accidental asphyxiation, investigators abandoned their suspicions.
On Friday, following the discovery, officials declared the girl’s death had been accidental, and no charges were ever filed against Paulette’s parents.
The fumbled investigation prompted widespread outrage across Mexico, with many criticizing the government’s criminal justice system, BBC reports.
Bazbaz admitted to investigators’ shortcomings by ‘not having searched the child’s bed and bedroom fully,’ leaving Paulette’s body to go undetected in her bed for more than a week.
Speaking at a news conference, Bazbaz said that the investigation had been conducted ‘in strict compliance with the law.’
Only a week earlier, he had acknowledged that errors had been made, such as not searching the girl’s room thoroughly.
Bazbaz stated that his office needed the trust and support of the people it served to carry out its duties properly.
“Once that’s lost, it’s impossible to carry on,” he said, before announcing his resignation.
However, his resignation did not satisfy opposition politicians. Leader of the opposition PRD party, Jesus Ortega, said the governor of Mexico state, Enrique Pena Nieto, should take responsibility for the failures in the investigation.
“Around 100 police went through this room of 10 meters… sniffer dogs searched it and they never found the body… who do they want to protect?” Ortega demanded, calling for an investigation into what had ‘really happened.’
Following their daughter’s death, Paulette’s parents engaged in a bitter custody battle for their older daughter, the then-seven-year-old Lisette. Farah was ultimately granted custody.
Gebara continued to speak out about his belief that Farah was to blame for their daughter’s death. “The only thing I can say is that for me, it wasn’t an accident,” he told the local Televisa network in April 2010. “I can only speak for myself.”
The public’s attention on the case was reignited a decade later when Paulette’s death became the focus of a Netflix examination during a 2020 episode of its Crime Diaries series.
