Tessa, who never got to meet Gildo, said her father’s death had been a constant presence in her life.

​​Growing up, her mother gradually told her more and more about him until she was old enough to learn the brutal details of how he died.​​

​​But the lack of an official acknowledgement, and the fact that the family never got to bury him, had a deep impact on her.

​​”His absence, the absence of his body, brought a series of questions,” Tessa told BBC News.​​

​​”As a child, I thought that maybe he hadn’t died. I had this fantasy that he had managed to escape, that I’m not sure my mother even knew about.”​​

​​Now, as an adult, she said she still feels that there is something “broken” inside of her.​​

​​For years, she experienced nightmares, couldn’t sleep in the dark, and when she became a mother, struggled with panicked thoughts that something would happen to her children.​​

​​”It’s like I have a corporal memory of this fear,” she said.​​

​​”People may find it strange, like something supernatural, but it’s not.

“It’s trauma. I was born with it.”