Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta? Episode 1 recap: ‘A Rainy Sunday’

Netflix releases a new Spanish docuseries regarding the infamous Maria Marta case. Check out our recap of Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta? Episode 1 below.

Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta? is Netflix’s latest true-crime docuseries, and if the twists at the end of the first episode are anything to go by, it’s going to be a baffling murder case. While the case was notorious in South America, it’s not as well-known in the states. The first episode sets the stage.

Maria Marta Garcia Belsunce was a 50-year-old sociologist who came from a distinguished family and lived in the Carmel Country Club’s gated community, a place so secure even ambulances had to get security clearance from the guards at the gate to gain entry. On a rainy Sunday in October 2002, Maria’s husband Carlos Carrascosa discovered her body in their house’s bathtub.

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On Sundays, Maria typically plays a tennis game with her girlfriends and then would return home to get cleaned up before getting a massage. On October 27, 2002, Maria went to her brother-in-law’s house after tennis to catch up on the soccer game.

She left before it ended and rode her bike home in the rain, reaching her sprawling estate before 7:00 that night. Her husband left the house a little later, estimated to have left by 6:50, at least.

When Carlos found her, she was still fully-clothed, including wearing her sneakers, and bent over the side of the tub, bleeding severely from the head.

Two different emergency doctors were called to assist. The first doctor discovered that Maria was still alive and did everything he could to save her. By the time the second doctor arrived, Maria had died.

Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta recap: The “thingy” and the autopsy results revealed.

Initially, the theories were that Maria might have tried to commit suicide and her family might have felt inclined to cover it up. The first turn in the case came when Maria’s half-brother, John, noted that she was wearing sneakers at the time of her death. If the leading theory, aside from the suicide one, was that she just slipped while preparing for a bath, something didn’t add up. How could she have slipped while wearing shoes?

Things get even weirder as the case starts to unfold, introducing elements like the mysterious “thingy,” a wild autopsy result, and a fake death certificate.

The prosecutor of the case, Diego Molina Pico, gets involved after Maria’s brother, a journalist and radio host named Horacio García Belsunce phones in a favor to a powerful, high-ranking juridical figure named Juan Martin Romero Victoria — just as a friend. He is the one who gets Diego involved in the case.

According to Diego, the first police report did not reveal anything relevant to the case. It wasn’t until he started to subpoena witnesses, like the second emergency doctor, that he started to hear a different story than was told to him by the family. The second physician who arrived at the scene claimed Maria had died a “violent and dubious death” after he asserted he found three deep holes in her head.

Later, Diego also learned that Maria’s brothers, John and Horacio, found a strange piece of lead beneath her body after they moved her. The brothers both claim they didn’t think the lead — or “thingy” as it has become known — would be relevant to the case. That excuse doesn’t entirely hold up as John purposefully picked up the lead with a tissue. Why would he do that if he didn’t think it would be important? They flushed it down the toilet.

But the biggest shock in the case, the thing that starts to push the police and Diego into momentum, is the autopsy results. Diego says he received a call from the examiner claiming he found two holes in Maria’s head. “Caused by what? We don’t know. A hammer, maybe. Something.”

He called Diego again a little later, and once more after that, ultimately informing him that they found additional holes in her skull and five bullets.

The first episode is dense, and there is a lot of information given to the viewer. It’s difficult to keep track of every key player the docuseries introduces. As Decider points out, the show definitely has an Unsolved Mysteries vibe.

Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta Episode 1 Grade: B+

All four episodes of Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta? are now streaming on Netflix.