Denise Cosco, the daughter who testified against her father after her mother was murdered by the Italian mafia, has died in a Rome hospital. The 35-year-old woman was found in critical condition on Sunday and is suspected of having taken her own life.
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Lea Garofalo was murdered in 2009 after deciding to cooperate with the authorities and testify against the ‘Ndrangheta mafia clan, which operates in southern Italy. Her story turned her into a symbol of resistance to the mafia.
Cosco, who died at the same age as her mother had been when she was killed, was remembered by relatives and friends for the courage she showed during the trial, as well as for the severe personal struggles she experienced afterward.
Enza Rando, a senator and anti-mafia lawyer who had represented Cosco in the trial over her mother’s murder, described her death as “a deep wound for the entire country”.
Rando said the incident demonstrates that the mafia causes not only murders, but also leaves behind “real monsters in the lives and souls” of those who manage to survive.
Francesca Rispoli, co-president of the anti-mafia organization Libera, said Denise Cosco’s case shows how difficult it is to break away from organized crime.
“The mafia is not only something physical. You can leave, you can change your name. But there is still a bond, a family bond, that remains there, deep inside, and is impossible to overcome,” Rispoli said.
Like her mother, Cosco had lived for years under state protection while using a new name and identity.
According to Rispoli, however, the 35-year-old remained very fragile. In recent years, she had reconnected with her father, Carlo Cosco, who is in prison. Despite their history, Denise had felt a “void in her life”. Her friends said she suffered from mental health problems and addiction.
Rispoli stressed that people trying to leave a life connected to organized crime need continuous, long-term support, not just temporary assistance. According to her, this need is particularly great in the case of Italian mafia organizations such as the ‘Ndrangheta, where family relationships carry special weight.
Denise Cosco’s story is connected to a crime in which both her mother’s family and her father had ties to the mafia world.
For a long time, Denise did not accept her father’s version that Lea Garofalo had abandoned the family to start a new life in Australia.
Investigations revealed that Carlo Cosco had lured Garofalo to a meeting, where she was killed. Her body was then dismembered and burned.
Several years later, the testimony of one of the perpetrators helped investigators find several bone fragments and a necklace. Cosco identified these items.
During the public funeral ceremony held in 2013, Denise spoke about her mother’s courage in choosing to face the danger “for everyone’s justice”. Carlo Cosco and three other accomplices were sentenced to life in prison.
In the courtroom, Denise had called herself “a proud witness for justice”. She explained that she had made the difficult decision to speak, from behind a protective screen, because she sought “the inner freedom to start her life over”.
Following her death, Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation to determine whether anyone drove her to suicide. To this end, Cosco’s phone has been seized and will undergo analysis.
Her friends and supporters are expected to gather in Milan, near the place where her mother was abducted, to commemorate her.
Luigi Ciotti, president of the Libera organization, described Denise Cosco’s life as an unceasing struggle between courage and suffering.
“Today, something in that fragile balance was broken forever,” he said.
