Funeral Giulia Cecchettin, the father of Chiara Gualzetti killed at 15: “Gino I will come to you, we are united by pain”

A father speaking to another father. Two men who lost a daughter. Two girls killed very young by men who were close to them. Vincenzo Gualzetti, the father of Chiara, the 15-year-old from Monteveglio murdered in 2021, attends the funeral of Giulia Cecchettin, the 22-year-old from Vigonovo killed by her ex-boyfriend.

He wrote a letter to Gino Cecchettin published in Corriere della Sera. «Dear Gino, today I will be next to you, at your Giulia’s funeral. I want to be there and I would really like to hug you, because I felt firsthand the warmth of every single hug when it was my turn to be “the father of a murdered girl”. We are brothers of a similar destiny, you and I. Since Giulia’s name and face entered my life I too felt a bit like her father. I hoped for her, I prayed for her, I anguished for her, as if those hours of abyss experienced in my house, in June three years ago, had suddenly returned.”

Vincenzo Gualzetti remembers his daughter: «My Chiara was 15 years old when they found her in a field, killed by stabbings, kicks and punches. I had looked for her for a day, just one. I had climbed every path, I had looked behind every bush, but – imagine what a bitter consolation – my dismay had lasted just a day. I can’t even imagine what you must have experienced for all those dark days waiting to find out… I too, like you, no longer have my wife, and I am sure that the pain that took her away has grown together with the pain of losing Chiara. I too, like you, am trying to reason and make sense of what happened, even if all this violence doesn’t make sense. I do things in Chiara’s name, I try to keep her smile alive, as I’m sure you will do with Giulia. I don’t want to waste a single word on the murderers, Chiara and Giulia seem much more important to me».

He remembers the day Giulia’s body was found. «Dear Gino, the day they found your daughter I found out about it from one of those news apps I installed on my phone. I read the first two lines: they talked about a stab wound to the back of the head… I turned off the phone and collapsed. I took a day off, I ran home to lie down to try to sleep, the only way I had to not think about Giulia and Chiara, who had also been stabbed in the back of the head. I’ll come to you today. Pfor that hug from father to father, if possible, but also for a small tribute to the Julians and the Chiares who never had a voice».

Vincenzo Gualzetti has created an anti-feminicide web platform and is calling together the relatives of the victims. On Facebook he writes: «I created this group in memory of Chiara and to prevent the tragedy from being overshadowed by other news in a few weeks, because unfortunately, as often happens, society moves on, with Chiara this must not happen, the speech but he is a minor, mental interdiction must not exist! A life broken in this way deserves solidarity, humanity but above all JUSTICE.”