Spanish grave opened on order of Argentine judge unearths painful past

A member of the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory (ARHM) holds a human skull during the exhumation of the grave in Guadalajara's cemetery, Spain, January 28, 2016. REUTERS/Juan Medina

GUADALAJARA, Spain (Reuters) - A 90-year-old Spanish woman wrapped in a fur coat and woollen scarf stood over a deep open grave and murmured "my father" to the unearthed skeleton lying at the bottom.

Ascension Mendieta's trade unionist father Timoteo was shot in 1939 in the months after the Spanish Civil War and buried in a mass grave in the corner of Guadalajara's town cemetery.