The couple Mauricio and Lizette Gebara lived in a luxurious tower in the suburbs of Mexico City. Mauricio was a real estate agent, Lizette was a lawyer and both flourished in their respective professions. The Gebara house lacked nothing. Except love and care
They had two daughters, 7-year-old Lizette Jr. and 4-year-old baby Paulette.
Paulette was born prematurely and suffered from various illnesses. She was paralyzed in her left hand, could barely move without help, could not walk and was mute.
severely disabled
Paulette was born prematurely and had several disabilities. She could not move her left hand or walk unaided and was mute. She also had to sleep with an oxygen mask. As Mauricio and Lizette both worked long hours, they hired two nannies, particularly to take care of Paulette, sisters Ericka and Martha Casimiro.
On the morning of March 22, 2010, the Casimiro sisters came to work at home that morning, like every other day, to prepare them for school, while little Paulette was in a special kindergarten for severely handicapped children. But when Ericka entered Paulette’s room to wake her up, she was horrified to find that the bed was empty and Paulette was nowhere to be found.
Ericka and Martha searched the whole house before waking Lizette and telling her that her little sister was missing. They also called Mauricio who came immediately but like the sisters he couldn’t find his daughter anywhere. He then called his sister, who in turn called the police.
Police made another round of the house looking for the child, but it had long since become clear that she was nowhere to be found.
Well connected
The Gebaras were well connected in Mexico City’s upper classes and were among others close friends of Mexico’s attorney general at the time, Alberto Bazbaz, and politician Eririque Peña Nieto, who would later become the country’s president.
Bazbaz took an active part in the search, for all the considerable criticism Since thousands of children go missing each year in Mexico, the authorities, as well as the media, had long been criticized for showing little interest in the case. But it doesn’t matter who it is.
From the start, it was assumed that it was a theft, as there was no indication that the apartment had been burglarized and no ransom demand was received. And since Paulette was practically paralyzed in her legs, there was no question of her leaving the apartment herself. Security footage of the building also showed beyond doubt that no one was seen entering or leaving the building overnight. It was as if Paulette had simply evaporated.
Bazbaz arranged for a team to be immediately assembled to find the little girl, and he led her himself. And within two hours of the disappearance, everything made headlines and thousands of posters with photos of Paulette were printed and distributed throughout Mexico City.
Evidence destroyed
Lizette invited a number of journalists and reporters to Paulette’s bedroom on the day of her disappearance, where she gave interviews and allowed the media to take photos at will. She asked her best friend, Amanda De La Rosa, to stay with her for support, and Amanda slept in Paulette’s bed the following nights.
Needless to say, this whole crowd destroyed any evidence that might have been found in the little girl’s room.
Lizette and Mauricio appeared in a number of media interviews over the next few days, and in one Lizette joked that she might have Harry Potter. As many found renunciation distasteful. In another interview, he said that even though Paulette was gone, it wasn’t so bad because she had another daughter.
The reporter later said Lizette was frosty and showed no sadness or other emotion at her daughter’s disappearance. We never saw her shed a tear.
Much later, Lizette was diagnosed with a high functioning personality disorder.
Nannies
But it wasn’t just the media and the public who were taken aback by Lizette’s behavior and Mauricio told friends he didn’t trust his wife. He said he thought she had hurt Paulette somehow. Mauricio’s suspicions reached Lizette who went straight to the media and told them that her husband had killed Paulette.
The nannies agreed with Mauricio and said they were sure Lizette knew more about Paulette’s disappearance than she let on. They said they saw her sitting in the living room the day she disappeared, smoking, drinking coffee and chatting on the phone as if nothing had happened.
The sisters also said that the couple were living well, that they were actually on the verge of bankruptcy and that Lizette had always been ashamed of having a disabled child, it did not fit her image and sometimes she lost her mind at how frustrating that was. it was that she wouldn’t have had a miscarriage or that Paulette was stillborn.
don’t tell the police
Police have been granted permission to install electronic listening devices in the couple’s home, and Lizette can be heard telling her eldest daughter not to discuss Paulett’s disappearance with anyone. When the seven-year-old asked why, her mother replied that her mother might be in trouble.
Lizette would later claim that the conversation was taken out of context.
Lizette told police she put Paulette to bed that fateful night, brushed her teeth, put her in her nightgown and then put her to sleep. She said she did it almost every night, but the sisters protested vehemently, saying that Paulette had never shown any interest in putting her daughter to bed, and that night was no exception. The sisters said they put little Paulette to bed, as they did every night, and tonight was no exception.
The hardness increases
The tension between Mauricio and Lizette grew stronger day by day. Mauricio told police he went out with his daughters on a nice family day and asked Lizette if she wanted to come. Lizette refused, which annoyed Mauricio who replied that she could join him for a little outing with the girls. But Lizette ignored it, said she didn’t mind.
Police later learned that Lizette had gone to the beach in the well-known tourist destination of Los Cabos to sunbathe and have cocktails with her friend instead. And besides, her lover was waiting for her there. It is unclear whether Mauricio was unaware of his wife’s affair or chose to ignore it.
But Mauricio also wasn’t completely honest with police, who later said it had been difficult to dig deeper into their accounts. They slandered each other so much, in addition to lying about their travels, that it was impossible to know what was true and what was a lie, one of the detectives later recalled.
body in bed
After Paulette had been missing for 14 days, Alberto Bazbaz, realizing now that he should have chosen better friends, decided that the Gebaras and the Casimiro sisters would be seriously questioned – and not at the police station. The Bazbas thought they were more likely to be more relaxed in a different environment and took them each to their respective hotels. They were told that they would stay there throughout the interrogation and that they were strictly prohibited from leaving the hotels. But little or nothing came of it, even if the idea was crazy.
The next day, March 31, nine days after Paulette’s disappearance, the police decide to try to recreate the robbery in Paulette’s room. But the first thing the officers noticed when they entered the room was a strange smell. Specifically, the rotting smell and its source seemed to come from the bed. The police took away a bedspread, a teddy bear, blankets, blankets and a few pillows – surprisingly for a crib.
And there, a terrible sight awaited them.
Between the footboard and the mattress there was a gap of about 40 centimeters, and above this lay Paulette’s body.
According to the results of the autopsy, Paulette had been suffocated and unconscious for 5 to 9 days.
No wounds were found on the body and there were no signs of abuse. Wouldn’t it be inconceivable that Paulette herself fell into the breach and got stuck in it. His death was therefore recorded as an accident.
No way to climb
The Casmiro sisters said that result didn’t work out. They had removed everything from the bed looking for Paulette, and she was adamant that the child would not have been in the space between the mattress and the headboard.
Their theory was that Lizette had killed her daughter and later hid the body in the bed. Mauricio agreed and said it was strange that the friend whom Lizette invited to stay and slept many nights in the child’s bed, did not notice the body, nor did he see it, hit it or felt it. It would be downright incomprehensible.
Lizette had to hide the body somewhere else in the meantime.
The public was very angry with Alberto Bazbaz and said that he had ruined everything. How could a large group of law enforcement officers under his command not find the body of a child who had apparently been in the apartment the entire time? Because there was nowhere on the security cameras anyone with mystery bags or something leaving the house. Then Bazbaz was forced to resign, but in his farewell speech he said he was sure that Lizette had killed his daughter.
No one has ever been charged with the murder of little Paulette and many blame Bazbaz, who bungled the investigation from the start.
Surprisingly, neither Lizette nor Mauricio attended their daughter’s funeral. It was a small and sad event.
Mauricio immediately filed for divorce from Lizette and left Mexico City. Lizette sought a restraining order against her husband instead, as well as filing a custody case, which she won, and she still lives in the city with her eldest daughter, Lizette Jr.
In 2017, Paulette’s file was finally closed by the authorities. If she had lived, Paulette would be 19 today.
Read News about Celebrity, and Gossip on The Eastern Herald.
