Nearly fifteen years ago, the disappearance of 4-year-old Paulette Gebara Farah gripped Mexico and captured international attention.
What began as a desperate nine-day search for a missing child soon became one of the country’s most controversial and haunting criminal cases.
Paulette was a four-year-old girl from Huixquilucan de Degollado, Mexico.
She had developmental disabilities that made walking and speaking difficult, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Paulette lived with her parents (businessman Mauricio Gebara and lawyer Lisette Farah) her older sister Lisette, and two nannies, Erika and Martha Casimiro.
The Night Paulette Went Missing
On March 22, 2010, Paulette was reported missing after her parents discovered she had vanished from her bedroom overnight.
The family told authorities that Paulette had been put to bed following a short family vacation.
Her disappearance triggered a massive search across Mexico.
News outlets covered the case nonstop, and social media fueled public concern, with viewers sharing theories and anxiously following every development.
In a tragic twist, Paulette’s mother, Lisette Farah, even appeared in a televised news interview pleading for her daughter’s safe return, unaware that Paulette was already trapped in her own bed.
The Grim Discovery
Nine days after Paulette went missing, investigators made a shocking discovery. Her body was found in her bedroom, wedged between the mattress and bed frame, wrapped in sheets.
According to CBS News, a coroner concluded that Paulette had died of suffocation and that her body had not been moved since her death.
Officials determined she likely slipped into the gap while asleep, accidentally suffocating in the confined space.
Despite the official ruling, the case sparked disbelief and outrage.
Many found it difficult to accept that Paulette’s body had gone unnoticed in the same room for more than a week.
Public Outrage and Controversy
The case quickly became a national scandal.
Authorities were accused of mishandling the investigation, and the public’s suspicion of Paulette’s parents grew.
Mexico’s attorney general at the time, Alberto Bazbaz, initially declared the girl had been murdered but later reversed his statement, endorsing the coroner’s findings that her death was accidental.
He admitted investigators had failed to search her bed properly.
Many still doubted the official explanation.
Rumors circulated that Paulette’s mother may have struggled with the responsibilities of caring for a disabled child, a claim Lisette Farah strongly denied, emphasizing her deep love for Paulette, according to the Boston Globe.
Both parents were placed under house arrest during the investigation but were never charged.
Family Fallout
Paulette’s death fractured the Gebara family. Her parents became estranged and later engaged in a bitter custody battle over their surviving daughter, Lisette. Lisette Farah ultimately gained custody.
Mauricio Gebara continued to assert that Paulette’s death was not accidental.
“The only thing I can say is that for me, it wasn’t an accident,” he told Televisa in April 2010.
A decade later, Paulette’s story resurfaced when Netflix featured the case in its Crime Diaries series in 2020.
The show reignited public debate and scrutiny over the events surrounding the little girl’s death, keeping the mystery alive and haunting Mexico to this day.