Investigation into phone records and communications

Prosecutors in Velletri are analyzing the mobile phone and email account of Denise Cosco following her death on 10 September 2026 in Ariccia, near Rome. The 31- or 35-year-old, depending on the source report, died after falling from the third-floor balcony of her apartment, leaving no suicide note or message. Chief prosecutor Carlo Villani and prosecutor Domenico Vicario opened a file investigating potential incitement to suicide against unknown persons. Carabinieri from the Frascati investigative unit are examining whether Cosco re-established contact in her final months with her father, Carlo Cosco. The elder Cosco is detained under an ordinary prison regime in Asti, where he is serving a life sentence for the 2009 murder of her mother, Lea Garofalo. Her partner told investigators during questioning that she had resumed communication with her father, leading authorities to inspect whether the convicted 'ndrangheta figure exerted psychological pressure on her. Results of the digital analysis are scheduled for submission in the coming weeks.

Background and personal circumstances

Denise Cosco was a central figure in the legal proceedings following the murder of Lea Garofalo, an anti-mafia witness who was lured to Milan under deception, killed, and burned near Monza on 24 November 2009. Denise broke away from the criminal network, testified against her father and his accomplices in court, and secured life sentences against them. In 2013, she attended her mother's public funeral organized by Palazzo Marino in Milan, observing from behind a window while speaking over a loudspeaker. She remained under a police witness protection programme until 2018, later receiving a new identity and employment within the Ministry of Justice. In recent years, Cosco experienced personal difficulties and substance dependencies. The Juvenile Court subsequently transferred parental custody of her four-year-old child to the paternal grandparents. Following an autopsy confirming suicide, prosecutors authorized her burial on 12 September 2026, though her body remained in the mortuary for eleven days awaiting funeral arrangements by her aunt, Marisa Garofalo, in Calabria.

Memorial ceremony in Crotone

On 21 September 2026, the Diocese of Crotone held a religious commemoration in Calabria in memory of Denise Cosco. Don Luigi Ciotti, founder of the anti-mafia association Libera, addressed attendees during the ceremony and described the death as an outcome of prolonged trauma.

“There could be other Denises today who cannot make it anymore because there is a deferred mafia violence that acts beneath the surface for years, creeping in like poison into the soul.”

Ciotti stated that while state institutions provided protection, isolation remained a persistent difficulty for surviving witnesses.

“We cannot ask witnesses of justice to sacrifice their lives for the common good, and then leave them alone with their ghosts, which often make them sick.”

Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission president Chiara Colosimo and Interior Undersecretary Wanda Ferro attended the service. Colosimo addressed the congregation regarding state responsibility.

“The state was there in Denise's story, but some wounds, inflicted by her 'ndranghetist father, were not healed. This story however must leave a mark on this land.”