Instituto Vasco de Medicina Legal

Instituto Vasco de Medicina Legal is identified in the account as the institution where the bodies of Alice Espanet’s twins were taken after their deaths. Its place in the case is specific but consequential: the autopsy findings established how both children died, while questions about Alice’s awareness and legal responsibility remained unresolved.

Role in the Case

After the deaths, the twins’ bodies were at Instituto Vasco de Medicina Legal, on avenida Gasteiz, awaiting autopsy. The narrative locates the forensic examination within the immediate aftermath of the deaths, as the investigation moved from Alice’s hospitalization toward judicial proceedings.

Autopsy Findings

The autopsy disclosed no unexpected finding. Both children had died in the same way: drowning by immersion. The reported signs included foam in the lungs, water in the stomach, and bloodlessness in the left heart chamber. The account presents these findings as leaving no room for another explanation of the deaths.

Forensic Findings and Legal Uncertainty

The autopsy supplied a definite account of the physical cause of death, but it did not resolve the separate question of Alice’s mental state. At the time she was taken to prison, it was still unclear whether she understood what had happened; later, the defense would argue that mental illness had prevented her from understanding or controlling her actions. The institute’s role in the narrative is therefore a bounded one: its forensic findings clarify the deaths, while the question of criminal responsibility remains contested elsewhere in the case.