Credit: Netflix

Netflix has quite a few disturbing true-crime documentaries lined up for November, including Unprotected: Murder in Galicia, which arrives a week before the Spanish fictionalised drama Murder in Galicia.

Premiering on November 6th, the upcoming Netflix Original documentary revisits one of Spain’s most shocking true crimes.

Directed by Jorge Laplace, Unprotected: Murder in Galicia chronicles the real-life, terrifying true story of Isabel Fuentes, a 65-year-old woman who was found on the brink of death at her home in Pazos, Galicia. Although the attack was initially suspected to be a violent robbery gone wrong amid a series of burglaries in the area, she suffered severe injuries from the ruthless attack, prompting her admission to the intensive care unit.

Fuentes reportedly spent weeks recovering in intensive care before being moved to a regular room following the April 2015 attack. Despite the conviction surrounding a burglary attack, a Guardia Civil sergeant suspected foul play, refusing to believe that was the entire story. After investigators found a hammer as evidence, suspicion grew that an insider may have been involved in the crime instead of an outsider.

In fact, the sergeant allegedly tried to issue a warning to safeguard Isabel from a foreseeable attack, asking for her protection even inside the hospital room. However, the orders were not followed (via AOL).

Fuentes’ husband, Aniceto Rodriguez, reportedly became the main suspect in the investigation that followed and spent most of his days sitting beside her during her recovery. But 37 days after the initial attack, Isabel was found murdered in that very hospital room. According to reports, her husband allegedly inflicted self-injury with a knife, but survived. Rodriguez was soon taken into custody as law enforcement built a case around him, trying to connect the dots in his possible involvement.

As the investigation deepened, the suspicions were confirmed, and it turned out that Isabel’s husband framed the robbery during the initial attack he made on her. And the hospital killing was also reportedly his doing.

In July 2017, Aniceto Rodriguez was sentenced to 31 years of imprisonment. He died 14 months later in September 2018.

In a conversation with Tudum, writer and director Laplace said that the details of the 2015 case were particularly unsettling to him. “An uncomfortable question I could not explain: how was it possible for her to be murdered in a hospital when it was known that she was in danger?” he asked.

Unprotected: Murder in Galicia tries to reconstruct the disturbing true-crime case, featuring law enforcement personnel, Isabel’s family members, neighbours and journalists as they open up about the tragedy in what’s known to be the biggest deep-dive.