She had been courageous. In her early twenties, she had decided to be, like her mother, "a proud witness for justice." A "choice of inner freedom to start over with life," and she had filed a civil suit against the father who had taken away her greatest love.
He had cooperated with the investigation, he had testified behind a screen, without fear, asking that man, from whom he never sought an apology and who was later sentenced to life imprisonment, to tell the truth.
Denise, the daughter of Lea Garofalo, the woman who wrote a page in Italian history by challenging the 'Ndrangheta , took her own life : she had decided to collaborate with the judiciary, rebelling against the clan culture, but paying a very high price.
In 2009 she was killed by her ex-partner and Denise's father, Carlo Cosco , who, with other accomplices of the Calabrian gang, had organised a plan to convince her to leave the protection programme she was undergoing together with her then teenage daughter.
She had been lured into a trap in Milan and killed, burned, and dismembered near Monza. A few remains were found in a manhole only in 2012, after revelations from one of the accomplices in what had been a premeditated, mafia-style ambush.
Denise was deeply affected by this experience, but, with the help of Don Luigi Ciotti and the new "family" represented by Libera, she managed to overcome it. She was present at her mother's funeral, organized by Palazzo Marino in Piazza Beccaria in 2013. She followed them from behind a window, without exposing herself, but through a loudspeaker, she once again celebrated the "strength" of her mother Lea, which she had embraced and made her own. "If all this happened," she said, "it's only for my own good, and I will never stop thanking you."
Denise remained under protection until 2018. Then, she changed her name and identity, got a job, and lived in an undisclosed location with a child who is now almost four years old, still under the care of the Central Police Protection Service. Perhaps, however, she could no longer bear the loneliness, the pain, and the burden of her past. On Sunday, she threw herself from a window, and today, after another fight, she is gone.
"Today, a courageous and suffering young woman died," said Don Ciotti. "Courage and suffering represented the two extremes between which Denise's entire life revolved, the two levels of the scale that she tried so hard to keep in balance. Today, however, something in that fragile equilibrium has been shattered forever."
The president of Libera and Gruppo Abele, who knew her well, spoke of a "restless and sensitive" young woman and added: "In remaining faithful to the path of redemption begun by Lea, her beloved mother, Denise had to live in hiding for years, but without ever truly giving up, because her dream was to finally feel free and independent."
And again: "Just like Lea, Denise had a great thirst for life, freedom, and love. We now want to imagine her reunited in a big embrace with her mother. We would like to say, 'Sorry! Forgive us for not being able to keep you here with us,' but also 'Thank you for the time we spent together.' We don't judge her story, we don't exalt it, and we don't pity her."
Denise died at 35, the same age her mother was when she was brutally murdered for choosing to become a witness. A choice made to free her daughter from the mafia's shackles and give her a different future, a choice she, in turn, fearlessly followed.
(Unioneonline)