Naman Shrestha
Netflix’s ‘Angi: Fake Life, True Crime’ is a two-part Spanish documentary series that focuses on the brutal killing of Ana Maria Páez Capitan in a rented apartment in Barcelona, Spain, in February 2008. Since the 35-year-old fashion designer died under suspicious and mysterious circumstances, it took the detectives a few years to crack the case and apprehend the deceptive perpetrator. The docuseries also features insightful interviews with officials who got to the bottom of the truth related to the “near-perfect crime.”
Ana Maria Paez Capitan’s Remains Were Discovered Two Days After the Murder
Ana Maria Paez Capitan was a successful fashion designer employed at a company called Mataro, where she had found a friend and mentor in her employer, Maria Angeles Molina “Angi” Fernandez. Besides her, Ana’s life was also blessed by the presence of her beloved brother, Toni Paez, and her partner of seven years, Carlos Carbajo. With so much to live for and look forward to, it all came to an abrupt end in the month of February 2008. Her brother, Toni, claimed that he had last spoken to Ana, who was heading to downtown Barcelona on a train on February 19, 2008, the day she vanished.
She allegedly told him that she was going to have dinner with a friend that evening. Ana reportedly told the same to her partner, Carlos. Although she didn’t return home that evening, Carlos wasn’t much concerned as he thought that she had decided to stay at her friend’s house. However, when he couldn’t get in touch with her the following morning, he informed his in-laws about the situation and reported her missing to the police.
Their worst nightmare came true when the 35-year-old fashion designer was found unresponsive by the cleaning lady of a rented apartment at 36 Camprodón Street in the Gracia neighborhood of Barcelona, Spain, on the morning of February 21, 2008. When the authorities arrived at the scene of the crime, they found her lying unclothed with a plastic bag wrapped around her head sealed with duct tape. Initially, they believed that it was a sexual crime as they found traces of semen on her remains. However, the autopsy reports revealed no evidence of sexual abuse or signs of violence. It was reported that Ana Maria Paez Capitan had died of suffocation on February 19, 2008.
Ana Maria Paez Capitan Was Lured to a Barcelona Property to Kill Her
During the investigation, the detectives contacted Ana Maria Paez Capitan’s family and friends and interviewed them in order to find out more about the days leading to her demise. Soon, they learned that the friend she was going to meet on the fateful evening was none other than Angi, who was also spotted on the bank’s surveillance footage, where she withdrew €600 from Ana’s account while wearing a black wig, on the morning of February 19. That evening, she reportedly invited Ana to a dinner at the property, where her remains were discovered. Angi had rented it using Ana’s name just for three days.
In order to create a solid alibi for the evening, she even traveled all the way to Zaragoza to collect the ashes of her deceased parent, who had passed away about a year earlier. As per reports, she returned by the evening and met Ana at the apartment, where she drugged her with an unidentified chemical and suffocated her to death using a plastic bag. On top of that, she had also collected semen from two male sex workers and planted it at the scene to stage the crime as sexual in nature. However, the detectives managed to look past the staged crime scene and interrogated Angi, who claimed that she was out buying a watch at El Corte Inglés and then yogurt at a convenience store at the time of the murder.
Despite Maintaining Her Innocence, the Killer Was Brought to Justice
As the investigators dug deeper, they learned that Angi had forged Ana’s documents to apply for loans and life insurance policies, which totaled more than a million euros. She had also assumed the identity of Susana B., a woman who had left her identity card in a photocopy shop. Using her personal data and information, Angi opened bank accounts in Susana’s name and made fraudulent transactions. Moreover, the detectives were provided with Ana’s documents, including her passport and ID card, by the suspect’s boyfriend, who had found them hidden behind the bathroom cistern. At her property, they also found a sealed bottle of chloroform.
With enough evidence against Angi, the police arrested her and charged her with the murder of Ana, but she denied all the charges against her. During her trial, which was known as the “perfect crime case,” Angi took the stand and maintained her innocence, claiming that she was busy shopping at the time of the murder. On March 19, 2012, Maria Angeles Molina “Angi” Fernandez was sentenced to a total of 22 years in prison — 18 years for Ana’s killing and an additional four years for the falsification of documents for committing fraud.
Read More: Where is María Ángeles Molina “Angi” Fernández Now?
