Gabriel Fernandez: Netflix filmmaker says season 2 possible, wants 8-year-old's mother to have her say
Filmmaker Brian Knappenberger, who is behind the heartbreaking Netflix documentary 'The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez', has said that there was a lot to be told, hinting at the second season of the show. Knappenberger who made the six-part series claimed that the tragic life and death story of the minor may not have finished yet as there are still “so many unanswered questions”.
'The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez' that premiered on Netflix on February 25 gave people chills as it showed the abuse and the brutality the eight-year-old child had to go through before his death.
Gabriel was brutally tortured and beaten to death by his mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre in 2013. In the bone-chilling documentary, journalist Melissa Chadburn has claimed that the boy might have been tortured and abused for the culprits’ sexual gratification and as a foreplay fetish.
Gabriel’s tormentors were punished in 2018 as Aguirre was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, while Pearl pleaded guilty to the same charge and was given life imprisonment.
But Knappenberger believes that the case is not as simple as it seemed because the two major pieces of the puzzle he felt were missing in the case were the voices of Pearl Fernandez and Aguirre.
The filmmaker said, “Yes, I still want to hear from them. It's not like we created this television series and now we're on to the next thing, moving on with our lives. This is something that is lodged in the heart of everybody that worked on it. Part of it is a mystery. Like, who are these people? How did this happen? Why did this boy's life get taken like this? There are still so many unanswered questions. So if they wanted to talk to me, I would absolutely talk to them on the record.
Knappenberger had earlier tried to contact the duo through a private number but failed. However, with the documentary out now, he believes that one or both will reach out to him. The documentary has not only shed light on the miserable life and death of Gabriel, but it has also shown the lapses by social workers from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, who failed to protect him. Many people along with the celebrities are speaking out and letting others know their grief.
One of them is Cardi B. The rapper has come out to express how heartbroken she was after watching the documentary. She took to Twitter to share her views by writing: “The system failed that lil boy sooo bad. Im disgusted [sic]. Each and every1 of them …If I was his teacher I would had taken him to the prison or home till they take him out that house. F**K RISKING MY JOB! That boy will not go back home! The more I watch this doc the more and more I love Gabriel. He was just soooo cute and innocent. I really wish somebody would have saved him. I hope God is letting him see how much we love and care for him. Sweet sweet angel [sic].”