Paulette Gebara Farah, a young girl who faced challenges with both walking and speaking because of developmental disabilities, was reported missing from her family’s apartment in Huixquilucan, a wealthy suburb on the outskirts of Mexico City, on March 22, 2010.
Her disappearance quickly turned into a major national story, sparking one of the largest search efforts Mexico had seen in years and capturing the emotions of millions for more than a week.
Posters showing Paulette’s face appeared throughout Mexico City, while online campaigns flooded platforms like Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter). People everywhere watched for updates, hoping for any sign that the little girl would be found safe.
Her parents, businessman Mauricio Gebara and attorney Lisette Farah, told investigators that they had tucked Paulette into bed the night before, after returning from a three-day family vacation with her older sister, seven-year-old Lisette. That moment would mark the last time they saw her alive.
Roughly 100 police officers arrived to search the family’s apartment. Trained sniffer dogs were brought in, and every corner of the 10-meter-long bedroom was examined. Yet somehow, amid all that effort, no one found what was right in front of them.
After nine exhausting days of searching, investigators revisited the scene to reconstruct the events of that night — and that’s when they made the heartbreaking discovery that had been missed all along.
Medical examiners determined that the four-year-old had died from suffocation and concluded that her body had remained in the same spot since the time of her death, never moved after the incident occurred.
Authorities eventually ruled that she had accidentally fallen into the narrow space between her mattress and the frame, where she tragically suffocated — on the very same day she was reported missing.
The case was first treated as what Bazbaz described as a “homicide investigation.” Both of Paulette’s parents and the two family nannies, Erika and Martha Casimiro, were taken in for questioning as investigators worked through possible suspects.
At one point, Bazbaz went as far as naming Paulette’s mother, Farah, as “the only suspect” in what was initially believed to be a murder case, intensifying media attention and public outrage.
The parents’ relationship soon fell apart. They began blaming each other publicly, and accusations about who was truly responsible for their daughter’s death became part of the national conversation.
One theory that circulated widely suggested that Farah had grown overwhelmed by the challenges of raising a child with disabilities, leading some to believe she saw Paulette’s care as an emotional and physical burden — though there was never evidence to support this claim.
Once the coroner’s report confirmed that Paulette’s death was the result of accidental asphyxiation, investigators dropped all murder suspicions and ended the criminal inquiry into the parents.
On the Friday following the discovery, officials formally ruled the death as accidental. No charges were brought against either of Paulette’s parents, closing the legal chapter of the case but leaving behind lasting questions and heartbreak.
Attorney General Bazbaz later admitted that investigators had failed in their duties by “not having searched the child’s bed and bedroom fully,” an oversight that allowed the girl’s body to remain hidden in her room for more than a week despite multiple searches.
At a press conference, Bazbaz defended his office, claiming the investigation had been handled “in strict compliance with the law,” even as criticism continued to mount from all sides.
He emphasized that his office could only function effectively with the trust and cooperation of the public it served, though that trust had already been shaken by the high-profile failures of the investigation.
“Once that’s lost, it’s impossible to carry on,” he said during a press briefing before announcing his resignation from the position.
“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, insisting that the truth about what had “really happened” needed to come to light through a transparent investigation.
Following Paulette’s death, her parents became embroiled in a bitter custody dispute over their older daughter, then seven-year-old Lisette. After a tense legal process, Farah was eventually awarded full custody.
The case continued to haunt the public for years and drew renewed attention in 2020, when Netflix revisited the story in an episode of its Crime Diaries series — reigniting debate and sadness over one of Mexico’s most tragic and mysterious child deaths.
